If you're familiar with the webpage provider GeoCities, you may know that Yahoo bought them last year, opening up a wide variety of new software and opportunities for "homesteaders" in what we call the "neighborhoods." The partnership has brought much change to GeoCities, some perceived as good and some as bad. Who is right and who is wrong may also remain a matter of perception and discussion for some time to come.

One major source of discussion has been about and among the GeoCities community leaders, a group of officially sponsored volunteer helpers, of which the editors of Vienna Online are proud to be a part. Yahoo! has discontinued that sponsorship, and some don't like it. Leaders now have a choice whether they want to continue on their own, or take their talents elsewhere.

Here at Vienna Online we have chosen to continue on our own, viewing the dissolution as a chance to spread our wings, to change the program to what we want it to be, without having to look over our shoulder to see if we're keeping with Yahoo's or GeoCities' rules. And now that the community of Vienna is truly ours -- translate that as yours -- success or failure rests solely in our own hands.

As a part of Yahoo, we have some interesting new tools: clubs, chats, message boards, calendars, contact lists, address books, instant messenger, Yahoo shopping and auctions, and much, much more. Our emphasis is toward the clubs and the related chat areas, places where our citizens can meet and gather to exchange ideas and notions with each other and with people all over the world. We've had our main Vienna Residents Club in place for some time now, and it's time for it to begin growing. All our readers should take a moment to get a Yahoo ID, join the Vienna Club, and begin taking part in the community. Look for information on activities we are sponsoring, as well as related musical activities from other musical neighborhoods. All these clubs are looking for good, responsible, active, positive people to join, and I believe our readers fit the bill perfectly.

We've got Millenium Resolutions, and please, don't start in about the Millenium really starting in 2001. I've done the math, I know the logic (there was no year zero, so a thousand years didn't end till Dec. 31, 1000, making 1001 the start of the second millenium), but as Fox Mulder told Dana Scully in The X-Files recently, "Nobody likes a math geek, Scully." So read our leaders' resolutions and be entertained and inspired.

Florian has brought us wonderful, mouth-watering, culture-clashing recipes from the Austrian homeland to start the New Year, authentic and time-tested all, from beer soup to chestnut dumplings. Bring your appetite.

In our quest to involve our readers more, Keith has created an online poll for you to choose your favorite stories and features from 1999. Let us know what you think, okay?

We have new background music, as well as a new "Austrian Surfing Music" tune. And the editor of ASM is looking at broadening the scope of the column, now renamed "Classical Surfing Music." All classical musicians/singers and Austrian folk bands/musicians/singers are invited to submit their RealAudio files to use as surfing music for the zine, complete with a brief article on the piece.

The fiaker travels to the pages of several of our leaders this month, since they are so much in the GeoCities news these days. The new GeoCities interface features these pages heavily, so I took a visit to each to see which ones I liked best. Though they're all decent, some had to be better. Herein, read my opinions.

If you've ever wanted to get on the RealAudio wagon, but weren't sure how to do, I attempt to dispel some of the confusion in a new RealAudio article.

Oh, and don't let me forget our new guestbook! Please take a minute to sign in. All that, along with the Konzerthaus Cafe, the links to the other musical boards, the "What's That Tune" contest -- you might need two cups of coffee to get through it all this time. It's all in the effort to entertain you, and keep you coming back for more.

As always, let us know what you think. Whether it's good or bad, your comments and criticisms are what keep us striving to improve these pages.