So Long GeoCities......
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From: SW Arizona
So Long GeoCities......
"So Long, GeoCities: We Forgot You Still Existed"
As this PC World article by JR Raphael starts off, rather sarcastically as an "Obituary" to GeoCities history and contributions.
But in the meantime, if you have a GeoCities account,
More details will be released to website holders later this summer. Until then If you have a GeoCities account, the service will remain in place...no need to take anything down right now. But they wanted to let website holders know ahead of time rather than "spring it" on you suddenly later.
Now to the "Obituary":
The article includes some early "bad" webpages screenshots and has links to punctuate his "tongue in cheek" remarks about "teenagers" and first generation internet dorks as "SysOps".
The "virtual community/cyber city" concept was all the rage back then. Some were better than others if you wanted to set up a personal page. To join, you had to put up with built in ads on the pages. But that's what paid for your "free" page. GeoCities was not as bad as some and certainly better than others. Like Tripod with those dang, annoying ad popups.
I remember the big deal it was when Yahoo decided to buy the service for a "cool 4.7 Billion". Also the ruckus over what it did to GeoCities afterwards.
But what is worse, will be missing all the really good info pages that people have created using GeoCities in the past 15 years.
So, better check your account and go to your "Help Center" to learn more.
Just in case, for now this is all you will see:
I will be sorry to see a bunch of good "oldies" go.
As this PC World article by JR Raphael starts off, rather sarcastically as an "Obituary" to GeoCities history and contributions.
But in the meantime, if you have a GeoCities account,
More details will be released to website holders later this summer. Until then If you have a GeoCities account, the service will remain in place...no need to take anything down right now. But they wanted to let website holders know ahead of time rather than "spring it" on you suddenly later.
Now to the "Obituary":
GeoCities, a free Web hosting service that achieved fame in the mid-90s, died Thursday at the Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley. GeoCities was 15 years old.
GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined.
GeoCities: 1995 - 2009
GeoCities was born as "Beverly Hills Internet" in the winter of 1995. Its parents, David Bohnett and John Rezner, wanted to create a virtual community that mimicked the real world, with pages hosted in "cyber cities" and other similarly nauseating concepts.
Both teenagers and first-generation Internet dorks (known then as "former SysOps") flocked to the service, setting up personal pages in the "cyber cities" of their choice. Despite GeoCities' built-in watermarks and on-page advertisements, the site's popularity continued to climb, and the shame its users should have felt for creating abhorrent content within its servers continued to remain repressed (see: "A1PYRO'S WORLD").
The 'Portal Page' Era
As GeoCities matured, it decided to spread its wings and leap into the then-blossoming business of "portal pages," joining such companies as Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, and HotBot (all of which are now listed as being on life support at a San Francisco-area assisted living facility). Standing proud, GeoCities reorganized itself with even more "cyber neighborhoods" that featured news, chat rooms, and polls in which users could express their opinions via multiple-choice forms.
Perhaps most notably, shortly before its third birthday, GeoCities expanded its storage offering from 6MB to an almost-doubled 11MB -- nearly eight entire floppy disks worth of data.
GeoCities' Later Years
One year later, in 1999, GeoCities underwent its largest transformation when the yet-to-become-a-punchline company Yahoo purchased it for $4.7 billion. Yahoo removed many of GeoCities' trademark assets, including the "cyber city" foundation of the service, and attempted to transform GeoCities into a profit-producing venture.
It was around this time that GeoCities began showing the first symptoms of the medical issues that would plague it for the remainder of its life. GeoCities grew weaker by the month. The proliferation of low-cost hosting options, combined with the increasing popularity of social network-style services in place of personal home pages, only contributed to its demise.
GeoCities is survived by two cousins, Angelfire and Tripod, along with an uncle, Jeeves. All three are believed to be terminally ill.
Of the 12 remaining GeoCities users, only one was available for comment. "Holy crap!" said the user, a red-faced fellow named Strong Bad. "The scroll buttons and animated GIFs on that site were unbeatable."
The GeoCities site is expected to remain functional through midyear as a tribute to its life. Funeral arrangements are now pending.
GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined.
GeoCities: 1995 - 2009
GeoCities was born as "Beverly Hills Internet" in the winter of 1995. Its parents, David Bohnett and John Rezner, wanted to create a virtual community that mimicked the real world, with pages hosted in "cyber cities" and other similarly nauseating concepts.
Both teenagers and first-generation Internet dorks (known then as "former SysOps") flocked to the service, setting up personal pages in the "cyber cities" of their choice. Despite GeoCities' built-in watermarks and on-page advertisements, the site's popularity continued to climb, and the shame its users should have felt for creating abhorrent content within its servers continued to remain repressed (see: "A1PYRO'S WORLD").
The 'Portal Page' Era
As GeoCities matured, it decided to spread its wings and leap into the then-blossoming business of "portal pages," joining such companies as Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, and HotBot (all of which are now listed as being on life support at a San Francisco-area assisted living facility). Standing proud, GeoCities reorganized itself with even more "cyber neighborhoods" that featured news, chat rooms, and polls in which users could express their opinions via multiple-choice forms.
Perhaps most notably, shortly before its third birthday, GeoCities expanded its storage offering from 6MB to an almost-doubled 11MB -- nearly eight entire floppy disks worth of data.
GeoCities' Later Years
One year later, in 1999, GeoCities underwent its largest transformation when the yet-to-become-a-punchline company Yahoo purchased it for $4.7 billion. Yahoo removed many of GeoCities' trademark assets, including the "cyber city" foundation of the service, and attempted to transform GeoCities into a profit-producing venture.
It was around this time that GeoCities began showing the first symptoms of the medical issues that would plague it for the remainder of its life. GeoCities grew weaker by the month. The proliferation of low-cost hosting options, combined with the increasing popularity of social network-style services in place of personal home pages, only contributed to its demise.
GeoCities is survived by two cousins, Angelfire and Tripod, along with an uncle, Jeeves. All three are believed to be terminally ill.
Of the 12 remaining GeoCities users, only one was available for comment. "Holy crap!" said the user, a red-faced fellow named Strong Bad. "The scroll buttons and animated GIFs on that site were unbeatable."
The GeoCities site is expected to remain functional through midyear as a tribute to its life. Funeral arrangements are now pending.
The "virtual community/cyber city" concept was all the rage back then. Some were better than others if you wanted to set up a personal page. To join, you had to put up with built in ads on the pages. But that's what paid for your "free" page. GeoCities was not as bad as some and certainly better than others. Like Tripod with those dang, annoying ad popups.
I remember the big deal it was when Yahoo decided to buy the service for a "cool 4.7 Billion". Also the ruckus over what it did to GeoCities afterwards.
But what is worse, will be missing all the really good info pages that people have created using GeoCities in the past 15 years.
So, better check your account and go to your "Help Center" to learn more.
Just in case, for now this is all you will see:
GeoCities will close later this year.
Q Why is GeoCities not accepting new customers?
A: We have decided to discontinue the process of allowing new customers to sign up for GeoCities accounts as we focus on helping our customers explore and build new relationships online in other ways. We will be closing GeoCities later this year.
Q I'm a GeoCities customer. What's happening to my site?
A: Existing GeoCities accounts have not changed. You can continue to enjoy your web site and GeoCities services until later this year. You don't need to change a thing right now — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.
Q Will something happen to my GeoCities Free or Plus account?
A: Later this year we will be closing all GeoCities accounts and web sites. We'll send you more details this summer.
QCan I prepare for GeoCities closing now?
A: All of our GeoCities customers can continue to enjoy their sites and GeoCities services until later this year. You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured web hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service.
Yahoo! Web Hosting includes a personalized domain name (such as widgetdesigns.com) and matching email, new site building tools, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, premium customer support, and more. See details.
Q When will I get more information?
A: We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.
Q Does Yahoo! offer another free hosting service?
A: No, Yahoo! does not offer another free hosting service. Instead we recommend our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service, which includes a personalized domain name (such as widgetdesigns.com) and matching email, new site building tools, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, premium customer support, and more. Learn more or sign up.
Q Why is GeoCities not accepting new customers?
A: We have decided to discontinue the process of allowing new customers to sign up for GeoCities accounts as we focus on helping our customers explore and build new relationships online in other ways. We will be closing GeoCities later this year.
Q I'm a GeoCities customer. What's happening to my site?
A: Existing GeoCities accounts have not changed. You can continue to enjoy your web site and GeoCities services until later this year. You don't need to change a thing right now — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.
Q Will something happen to my GeoCities Free or Plus account?
A: Later this year we will be closing all GeoCities accounts and web sites. We'll send you more details this summer.
QCan I prepare for GeoCities closing now?
A: All of our GeoCities customers can continue to enjoy their sites and GeoCities services until later this year. You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured web hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service.
Yahoo! Web Hosting includes a personalized domain name (such as widgetdesigns.com) and matching email, new site building tools, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, premium customer support, and more. See details.
Q When will I get more information?
A: We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.
Q Does Yahoo! offer another free hosting service?
A: No, Yahoo! does not offer another free hosting service. Instead we recommend our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service, which includes a personalized domain name (such as widgetdesigns.com) and matching email, new site building tools, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, premium customer support, and more. Learn more or sign up.
Postmaster
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,724
Likes: 0
From: Clarksburg WV
Yeah, Yahoo totally Fubared it like they have with everything else...
I used to have a Geocities site. At one point (AFTER yahoo took over) I had a small sound file on my page that I posted on Stangnet for people to hear (it was an exhaust sound recording).
Geocities completely locked my account, saying that I had attempted to use my account for "external filehosting" or some stupid BS like that. I had to beg and plead with them just to get access back into my account.
As soon as I got back in, I removed everything I had on there and made a website through stangnet.
Nowadays I just have my cardomain.
I used to have a Geocities site. At one point (AFTER yahoo took over) I had a small sound file on my page that I posted on Stangnet for people to hear (it was an exhaust sound recording).
Geocities completely locked my account, saying that I had attempted to use my account for "external filehosting" or some stupid BS like that. I had to beg and plead with them just to get access back into my account.
As soon as I got back in, I removed everything I had on there and made a website through stangnet.
Nowadays I just have my cardomain.
Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
GEOCITIES was where I learned much of my web skills, it was a huge advance over such as "THEGLOBE", which was rife with hackers.
TRIPOD was a place you needed serious webskills to even write a page, and it sucked badly (always did) so I have no sympathy there.
They did good, yeah, but it was nothing like "USER FRIENDLY".
I think GEO just got unwieldy. It had too many users to support what it was attempting to do - thus the bandwidth got absorbed (since it WAS very popular) and it could no longer be supported.
You'd be lucky to even logon on a friday night...
Hindsight, and lessons to be learned....
"Never have an idea so good it doesn't pay for itself"
~OR EITHER~
-Think about the sponsors.....
That may seem cold-blooded but is very true. Any internet enterprise must be supported by the people who traffic it. FTE is an example of it being done well! That is why I support it (or at least try to when I can)
I just don't ever want to see it go away. It's a dream come true for so many - WE MUST keep it alive!
This is the "STAR WARS" site for ford trucks - the DIAMOND that stands out from all others, and this is the original
I will always be here, whatever I have to do
THIS!!!!
It is FORD TRUCKS.
Here I stay...
TRIPOD was a place you needed serious webskills to even write a page, and it sucked badly (always did) so I have no sympathy there.
They did good, yeah, but it was nothing like "USER FRIENDLY".
I think GEO just got unwieldy. It had too many users to support what it was attempting to do - thus the bandwidth got absorbed (since it WAS very popular) and it could no longer be supported.
You'd be lucky to even logon on a friday night...
Hindsight, and lessons to be learned....
"Never have an idea so good it doesn't pay for itself"
~OR EITHER~
-Think about the sponsors.....
That may seem cold-blooded but is very true. Any internet enterprise must be supported by the people who traffic it. FTE is an example of it being done well! That is why I support it (or at least try to when I can)
I just don't ever want to see it go away. It's a dream come true for so many - WE MUST keep it alive!
This is the "STAR WARS" site for ford trucks - the DIAMOND that stands out from all others, and this is the original
THIS!!!!
It is FORD TRUCKS.
Here I stay...
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From: SW Arizona
From what I read elsewhere, it's demise is probably part of the cost cutting and product slashing Yahoo has been doing lately.
Yeah, Tripod was horrible and Angelfire was not much better.
As an Official video games site admin, I have a GeoCities site to act as additional "resource" page for the players. It started out as just a place to improve my webmastering/html skills with while updating the game site's pages in 2005.
Couldn't afford a paid site then and of all the big, free (and stable) hosting sites, GeoCities had what I needed and it was "user friendly" enough. I understand Google has free hosting, so will look into that to transfer the site too. But have had a couple of offers from gaming contacts who are willing to host my site.
Yes, there are a lot of cheap hosting sites but just how stable they are (not "fly by nighters") is anyone's guess.
Yeah, Tripod was horrible and Angelfire was not much better.
As an Official video games site admin, I have a GeoCities site to act as additional "resource" page for the players. It started out as just a place to improve my webmastering/html skills with while updating the game site's pages in 2005.
Couldn't afford a paid site then and of all the big, free (and stable) hosting sites, GeoCities had what I needed and it was "user friendly" enough. I understand Google has free hosting, so will look into that to transfer the site too. But have had a couple of offers from gaming contacts who are willing to host my site.
Yes, there are a lot of cheap hosting sites but just how stable they are (not "fly by nighters") is anyone's guess.
Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
I didn't know you did that - need any game testers?
Angelfire was bare bones hacker A$$.....
I guess you get what you pay for - but if you go through all of that you learn a lot. just about anything free is worth exactly what you paid for it - you have to wonder what the "CATCH" is.
I guess they didn't catch enough to survive
Angelfire was bare bones hacker A$$.....
I guess you get what you pay for - but if you go through all of that you learn a lot. just about anything free is worth exactly what you paid for it - you have to wonder what the "CATCH" is.
I guess they didn't catch enough to survive
Hotshot
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 13,589
Likes: 2
From: NW burbs of chicago
I had a geocities site about 10 years ago, then I started using my isp's provided space, havent looked back
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FTE Chapter Leader
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 33,903
Likes: 244
From: Johnstown, PA
I had GeoCities too way back in the day. That's where I learned my HTML skills, there and on a site that a friend of mine runs now exclusively (he is in Israel as a missionary with his own dedicated site/servers). I eventually departed from that and moved on to blogspot since most of what I did was writing anyhow - blogspot became the better medium to do that on.
Strangely - I won't miss GeoCities, mostly because of the many issues of space and access (like someone else mentioned not being able to get on at times). If I ever get the itch to go back into a full-blown site, there's a few places out there that I know of that are good reliable hosts and domains are cheap.
Strangely - I won't miss GeoCities, mostly because of the many issues of space and access (like someone else mentioned not being able to get on at times). If I ever get the itch to go back into a full-blown site, there's a few places out there that I know of that are good reliable hosts and domains are cheap.
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