My first website host, Geocities, announced last month that they are closing down.
I made my first Geocites website in 1998, back when the internet was still new and it was unusual (and slightly unsavory) for middle schoolers to have webpages. My first website was characterized by cluttered galleries of stolen Sanrio images and an inordinate number of exclamation marks and emoticons. Geocites had a reputation for amateurism, and I was certainly no exception. But as my personal website grew (at one time I held ten different Geocities addresses), I started to teach myself HTML and web design. When I learned to use graphic design software in high school, I decided it was finally time to graduate from Geocites and onto bigger, better things.

Geocites was occasionally excruciating to work with. Their PageBuilder software was full of glitches (see below), there was very little bandwidth available, and the support staff bordered on misanthropic. Back then there were no blogs and no easy ways for average people to post their content to the web. If you wanted a basic website, you had to be willing to put in some blood, sweat, and tears.

I’m sad to see Geocities disappear because I still have a soft spot for them. I owe them a lot. But I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re going under. There are better, easier to use alternatives now. I guess the last question remaining is where will all the amateurs go? Someone has to host Sanrio image galleries dripping with exclamation marks and slathered with emoticons.

I guess we still have MySpace.

Yours,
Sarah