Yet Another Victim Of Our Sobering Economic Crisis:
Geocities Is Closing Sometime Later This Summer
This is yet another business going belly up. Most of us saw this coming, so it's not a surprise. Still, we are all forced to back up all of our files and graphics in our word processors until Geocities will let us know before the summer, just what the fate of our websites will ultimately mean for myself and all the others who have been using this free service since 1997. Yes, it's a hassle cutting and pasting every bit of hyper text markup language into Word Perfect, but it's imperative that we not lose thousands and thousands of work, creativity and submitting sites to Google and other search engines.
So what does it mean for this site: We have the option to pay for an account which would include perks like being able to have our own domain, unlimited space and a file manager even better than we have now. Personally, I will likely go that route and therefore, have a smooth transition from one account to another.
Some people aren't willing or able to back up all their files, but it's the only way to protect ourselves against hackers breaking into our accounts and ruining our sites. I actually had this happen several years ago, so I've been backing up files since then. I find it hard to believe that anyone using Geocities feels secure enough to sidestep this important action.
So, whether or not I upgrade my Yahoo account and pay a monthly fee, or start over using some other host. I've discovered that there are very few free sites left on the Internet. It was bound to happen when MySpace, Facebook, Xanga and Livejournal took the forefront over the past few years. Now it's very easy to create pages, as one doesn't have to know anything about HTML. One just has to start typing normally and post pictures with ease. I like to call these personal blogs "Web Designing For Dummies" for the reasons I just stated.
The Internet is all about business now. Whether we view this as a sense of foreboding with gloom and doom hovering over our heads like hungry vultures.
This long-winded announcement can be summed up in one sentence: The times, they are a-changing.
Welcome to the world of media-drenched, celebrity obsessed blogs. Everyone has at least one of those aforementioned blogs. I have several myself, but I'm not ready to surrender website building the old-fashioned way for a litany of instant gratification, the foundation on what the Cyberworld is now built. It's hard not to feel some sadness about things. The economy is in a terrible state. What bothers me most about Geocities biting the proverbial is that many, many people will now be out of work. It's a sobering world and there doesn't seem to be any bright light at the end of this dark corridor.
Bottom line: I will rebuild this site, because all the information is stored and can be brought to life once more. To those who might think it's a heady feeling, involving sentiments like "I can't believe it's true: This Tim site is finally going to be blasted out of the water!" you will be disappointed. Sorry to rain on your parade, guys. Nothing can keep this gal down for long.
