It’s the end of an era as Yahoo! has decided to completely shut down Geocities, the free site-hosting service that was one of the go-to places during the late 90s if you didn’t know a whole lot about html or web design but really, really wanted a website. I never used it myself, being an Angelfire user, but so many of my friends both online and in real life utilized Geocities that it’s tied to my youth and my time as a fan of anime and video games.
Geocities is very significant to a number of fandoms out there, and it’s particularly a big deal when it comes to anime. It’s not because any incredible resources existed on Geocities sites (though some may have, I just can’t be bothered to check), but the sheer amount of anime sites that were on Geocities over the years. Don’t believe me? Go to the Anime Web Turnpike right now and look through the sites and see how many are Geocities pages.
Geocities has sort of become obsolete at this point, as those who want free pages can go to Myspace or Livejournal (or WordPress!) and do whatever they will with their space, while those who want their own web space can obtain it easily as getting web space and your own domain name is significantly easier now than it was 10 years ago all while being less expensive. Still, I feel we should pay our respects to Geocities, with its initial ridiculous URLs and its pop-up ads and remember how much it has done for anime fandom and online communities in general.
OGIUE MANIAX 
I have a site on geocities. Or two. God. One is still working just like it was in 1998!
LikeLike
Haha, I definitely remember going back to my old Geocities site in horror earlier this year, and erasing all traces that I was ever connected to it.
Those were the days though, I especially remember a 50+ chapter Cardcaptor Sakura fanfiction on Geocities that I enjoyed in my youthful days.
Man, now I’m going to spend the rest of my evening looking for that; but yeah, definitely a significant event. I’ll be sad to see all those budding fansites go…
LikeLike
Let me know if you find it and send it to me somehow. :P
LikeLike
Good lord…I have 4 sites still working at Geocites before I opened my website…RIP Geocities… :(
LikeLike
Hey I did a Cardcaptor Sakura fansite of my own there! Armed with crappy Frontpage knowhow, then adding guestbooks and hitcounters. Oh those were really the days!
I still haven’t finished that CCS fansite. I want it on my blog as a revival.
LikeLike
Hey, I also did a CCS website…It is Card Captor Sakura and Company… :)
Anyone curious about my websites at Geocities, visit them…
http://www.cartoonleap.com/2009/04/23/sayonara-geocities/
LikeLike
Pingback: Sayonara, Geocities! | Cartoon Leap Anime Blog
I’ve had like 5, don’t remember any of the names. One was a fansite to that really fast kid from Rurouni Kenshin!!! Those were the days….
LikeLike
I too have a Geocities website, though I set it up after Yahoo acquired Geocities (so by then Geocities began using simplified URLs instead of those notoriously complicated ones for their homepages), and it simply came with the Yahoo account I created (which also includes my “public” email address). Still, I haven’t updated the site in ages, and will probably close it down as well.
LikeLike
I have a geocities site myself, but I never used it that much. However, I did go through many an anime fan’s website that used it, and while it was a little annoying to navigate, as well as how it sorta became more obsolete as time went on, it’s going to be a little sad to see it go.
LikeLike
I am not of your generation! [never really dealt with any geocities sites, not that I remember…]
LikeLike
Oh Geocities… those where the days when I relied on Anime Web Turnpike to check out on UC Gundam.
LikeLike
Pingback: Ding dong the blogs are dead? « Rough Review
Pingback: Saying Farewell to the 90s « OGIUE MANIAX
Pingback: Shine on, Geocities. Shine on… Forever « OGIUE MANIAX