SoupServer.Com Runs Dry

SoupServer.com, located at the domain http://www.soupserver.com, was an online extension of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul Franchise" book franchise. Launched in 1998, the site faithfully served up an inspirational story each day.

I'm not a big fan of the "Religion Lite" genre. Frankly, I think the only times you really meet God are in moments of complete terror. But if my job was to sell millions of books, I'd come up with a more soothing message, e.g. when the rain pitter-patters on your roof or your kitten winks at you, that's God talking and all you really have to do is learn how to listen.

I'd write this stuff even though I don't believe a word of it. If the Bible is to believed, the Almighty usually chooses the language of a river full of molten lava or a 50-food tidal wave to get His point across, not a spoonful of warm chicken soup. And anyone who really wants to be "saved" had better get off their knees and run as fast as possible to higher ground. But now I digress.

SoupServer, whose tag line was "Changing the World One Story at a Time," appears to have been decommissioned in late 2006 and its daily servings of inspirational stories and parables has been superseded by a daily e-mail service available at the main "Chicken Soup of the Soul" site, located at the domain chickensoup.com.

Today, SoupServer.com is now just a repository of automatically served ads, the bulk of which are secular in nature. Consequently the site's new motto is "What You Need, When You Need It." Not only does this solicitation sound like one which Mephistopheles might use to attract unwary recruits to his Dark Empire, but the new SoupServer site spews out annoying pop-under ads like so much Devil Spawn.

Don't go there!