Geocities to close

[Aethian]

I used to have a really nice page...I miss my page and then I realize I'm so code dumb that I probably couldn't even recreate it anymore. *cries* And all my knowledge of computers and components mostly ends at my beloved desktop that still runs win 3.1 so I can play my 'really' old games.

[Rapscallion]

Wonder how many EW's this will cause?

Rapscallion

[JLRodgers]

Wonder how many EW's this will cause?

Probably quite a few... as I see many people having a site, forgetting it exists, ignore all e-mails (and don't update it), yet have it for like a business or something.


Although one group I'm with right now is having to get a new webhost because their entire hosting company is apparently shutting down! What's strange is.... that place is still accepting new customers.... that's all-but-asking for EW/SC people.

[Boomer]

Honestly, I think with web hosting and domain names so cheap these days, GeoCities has long passed any usefulness it might have once had. Personally, I can't remember the last time I visited a GeoCities website. (If I see it in the URL on a google search, I automatically skip it.) And don't even get me started on the idea of a business using it. It's like responding to someone who claims to be a "professional" anything who uses a Yahoo! address on his or her business card.

(The same goes for ISP websites -- where people expect the internet phone techs to provide all manner of free technical support, including how to code HTML. I've been on the receiving end of way too many of those calls. I don't get paid to know that kind of stuff, and besides, my knowledge of such things is pretty much limited to installing MovableType for my blog. But I digress.)

There are just too many better alternatives for a few bucks a month.

[Jack T. Chance]

Geocities is closing?

All I can say is...

HALLELUJAH!!! THANK THE MAKER!!!!!

Speaking only for myself, and I am unanimous in this, Geocities has been the BANE of my online existence ever since I first got online a decade ago!

Why, you ask?

Well, it's really quite simple. It all comes down to one thing: too many lazy frakwits using it to host their images, and then hotlinking those images into their posts on messageboards! Oh, but wait a minute... Geocities doesn't ALLOW hotlinking! So, instead of seeing the image, I see a nice little message telling me, in no uncertain terms, that the person who tried to post that image is a complete and total MORON who's too lazy to find a REAL photo hosting site!

So, now that Geocities is about to go the way of the dodo, I have only one thing to say: Buh-bye! And good riddance to bad rubbish!

Okay, so that was really 2 things. Whoopty doo.

Anyway, that's my , for whatever it's worth.

[Aethian]

It's like responding to someone who claims to be a "professional" anything who uses a Yahoo! address on his or her business card.

When there was SBC in this area their way to connecting was through the use of Yahoo, so one's professional e-mail could have been a Yahoo e-mail. Now that SBC/Yahoo is mostly gone from the area it's rarer to see but at one time, popular.

[Caveat Emptor]

For about a year I was paying them $4.95 a month so I could have a website to host my pictures. Then I discovered Facebook.

Honestly, if I was ever to become a teacher, I would FORBID students to use any info from a Geocities page. I remember my brother was a TA for a time while finishing his PhD at UCLA, and a student used a lot of info from a GC page. My brother asked him "Are you aware that this website was made by a highschool junior??" And don't get me started on all the rainbows, pretty ponies, sparklies and 7Up dancing disks that infest 80% of their sites...

[Broomjockey]

Honestly, if I was ever to become a teacher, I would FORBID students to use any info from a Geocities page. I remember my brother was a TA for a time while finishing his PhD at UCLA, and a student used a lot of info from a GC page. My brother asked him "Are you aware that this website was made by a highschool junior??"

Could he prove that? Because as I pointed out, a lot of professionals did have geocities pages, with a lot of information that couldn't be found elsewhere.

Now, if he COULD prove that, the student needs a refresher course in how to evaluate a source.

[protege]

Could he prove that? Because as I pointed out, a lot of professionals did have geocities pages, with a lot of information that couldn't be found elsewhere.

Yep, there's quite a bit of info that's not found anywhere else. Granted, many of those sites aren't as "polished," but what they lack, they made up for in content, IMHO. Like my MG site. Up until now, it was mostly about my own car's restoration. However, I was hoping to develop it a bit. I still have a crapload of content to add--photos, road tests, other links, etc., as well as improve what I already have.

[AdminAssistant]

Not to derail the thread too much, but chances are that info could be found elsewhere, y'know, in BOOKS. Or journal articles. But many of the students I've come across are too lazy to be bothered to actually step into a library and would rather just cite Wikipedia or somesuch.

The fact is, if you can't guarantee the credentials of the author, then don't cite it in a paper.

[Broomjockey]

Not to derail the thread too much, but chances are that info could be found elsewhere, y'know, in BOOKS. Or journal articles.

Yep, because every library subscribes to every academic journal, and has every book in every field, ya know. Just being plain lazy by not going to the library.

[blas]

But at the same time, you can't believe everything you see on Wiki or Wiki How or E-How....

[JLRodgers]

It's like responding to someone who claims to be a "professional" anything who uses a Yahoo! address on his or her business card.

That includes probably 99% of the businesses in my town (shy of my company, a webhosting company, and a couple of others who just in the last 3 months changed).

We're talking the city itself sometimes replies with a yahoo/hotmail account! Same for the chamber of commerce.... And guess what happens when you point it out (nicely) that it might not look that professional for a "extremely" professional group?

[Broomjockey]

But at the same time, you can't believe everything you see on Wiki or Wiki How or E-How....

I never mentioned any Wikimedia sites.

There's a big difference between a site where there's no attributions to who wrote what, and the page of a professional in a field. It's from a single source, and the real professionals put down their names in full, degrees, jobs/positions, etc. So that it's an actual citation. You can go back and point to the site and say "This person with these credentials says this."

Until a wiki has every edit clearly labelled with who added what, and what their credentials are, it's not an attributable source.

[AdminAssistant]

Yep, because every library subscribes to every academic journal, and has every book in every field, ya know. Just being plain lazy by not going to the library.

Most University libraries hold subscriptions to the primary academic databases: WilsonWeb, MLA, LexisNexis, to name a few. These can be searched from home by a person with a university account. The quality of library depends on the institution, of course, but most participate in interlibrary loan programs with other institutions.

What I'm saying is that an anonymous webpage is not a valid source of information for an academic purpose. I mean, if I tried to include a Wikipedia citation in a theatre history text and get it published, I'd get laughed out of academia. Print sources are always preferable to online sources.