Geocities made me a Webmaster

Nostalgia hits in where dread strikes out. Together with the millions of geeks out there, I too mourn the demise of Geocities. The company revolutionized free web hosting and was once the internet's most visited domains in the 90's. It was blogging and social-networking long before sites like Facebook, Friendster, Multiply and Twitter came along. But last October 26, the demolition crew arrived and it officially became a part of history.

The year was 1997 and the web was not seemingly as world wide as it is today. There were only the privileged few able to access the internet and much through a dial-up connection. Needless to say, I was one of those that did. I stumbled upon this gem of a site offering a great opportunity to get myself published and for free! Through the maze of thematically created neighborhoods, I clicked on to find myself a long-winded URL and a home on the net.

So what did my net home actually have?

Nothing really. It had an animated dog in gif running around the Web Site while an Under Construction sign was glaring you in the face. Back then, it was quite acceptable to have your site always under construction. It was like saying "Things are going to get better, you'll see." But we all knew it never did.

The guestbook was the online version of a slam book and the predecessor of "comments" found in sites today. I had one. And I used to ask all my friends to post anything on it just to show the world people actually cared that I had a web site. Wait. I still do that. Hahaha

Geocities helped to teach people HTML and good web design practices like browser compatibility. Netscape Navigator, anyone? There was even a movement for HTML with Notepad, nonetheless.

Alas, my love affair for Geocities declined soon after Yahoo! bought the company. Don't get me wrong. They actually improved most of it. It was just those annoying pop-up ads which later on evolved into framed ads. Everything truly ended when my whole site was deleted for an innocent addition of a widget. That was it. I simply moved on to better things.

My days tinkering with it was fun and amateurish. Geocities was to me and to the rest of its community a great venue to express oneself and meet people that share common interests. For what it's worth, it made me a Webmaster.

To http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6395, thank you for the memories. May it never be archived. May you rest in peace.