Gephyrophillia #210

Originally Posted on 10/26/2009 by Jeff Harris

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Studio/8307/

My very first internet site's domain name. A little cumbersome and busy, but it was mine. After today, it's history.

As of October 26, 2009, GeoCities, one of the first real free internet hosting sites, is ending its services. It's a bittersweet farewell for me because way back in the summer of 1998, I got my feet wet in the internet with CN2: Toonami Realm, which became CNX: Toonami Revolution a year later (largely because Cartoon Network announced plans for a spinoff network, technically a CN2) and The X Bridge four years after that. Needless to say, it's been a long, strange trip. My GeoCities years gave me the patience and skills on how to be a webmaster. Notice I never said a good webmaster. I was still pretty much a newbie when I launched CNX when it came to the internet, but I did utilize my skill as a writer to its zenith, plus, I didn't have access to graphic tools like PhotoShop at the time.

My stay at GeoCities wasn't a long one because apparently Elieen, Brian, Vince, and the Toon Zone crew at the time saw something in me and my site that they felt would contribute greatly to the Toon Zone community. In September 2000, I left GeoCities for wider, greener pastures at Toon Zone, and I never looked back.

Still, part of me sheds a tear for GeoCities because, in essence, it's an end of an era. I know the phrase "an end of an era" has been used so much by so many people that it's almost a cliche, but hear me out. Like I mentioned before, GeoCities and other similar services provided an outlet for people who want to say something on a medium that was, at least when it was launched, virgin territory. The internet was new. The internet was different. The internet was fun and had everything for everybody. The internet back when GeoCities launched in 1994 is not the same internet that exists in 2009. A lot has happened in 15 years. Instead of making websites, people are making blogs. Instead of going on newsgroups arguing about who could kick who's butt, Superman or Goku, they mostly do it on genre-specific forums. Sometimes, they haz a cheezburger, a video of a rodent turning its head with music from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer playing in the background, or a motivational poster with a scantily-clad woman at the top, a big message in huge fonts, and a tiny message asking why you're reading those words instead of looking at the lovely lady. Instead of using instant messaging services, most people tweet you. Instead of e-mailing people wondering how they are, they're Facebooking their lives for all to see, and they have pretty good FarmVille plantations to boot. Or maybe you'd rather kill time watching old video clips on Vimeo, jackasses on YouTube, or full-length videos on Hulu or CrunchyRoll.

Web pages are a relic of a foregone era (and yes, I realize the irony of me making such a statement on a webpage), especially if they aren't trying to sell a product. Maybe it's a testament to the on-the-go mentality of the modern internet generation People don't have time to make a webpage, which may explain why GeoCities belongs to the history books rather than still operating. It was a reminder that while we were advancing as a society through technological means, at least a few of us actually took time to sit down and make something, whether to inspire others or to get something off your chest.

Farewell GeoCities. It was nice while it lasted. This would be a place where I would turn out the lights in the studio, but I'm not there anymore.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Creator/Webmaster, The X Bridge.