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Anyone know why GeoCities has these "categories" and subcategories under them and not something like geocities.com/{NUMBER} ? Was it randomly assigned or chosen

by alpb 7y ago

Anyone know why GeoCities has these "categories" and subcategories under them and not something like geocities.com/{NUMBER} ? Was it randomly assigned or chosen by users I used GeoCities extensively to host my sites, but I was only 9 or 10 years old, so it never occurred to me what these are for. Now I'm thinking if they were sharding hosting servers by URL routes.

th0ma5 7y ago
You could choose. I think it was experimental and a kind of vanity URL more than anything. I put mine in "College Park" because I thought I might talk about college some, which I had just started.
kalleboo 7y ago
When it originally launched, the "Cities" part was quite literal. To find a free "plot", you browsed a map of a town and found an empty space, and then you had 2 "neighbors" next to you. This was back when webrings[0] were still a thing and the web still had a bit more of a community feel to it. I remember when I tried to sign up they had a beta "empty plot search" so you didn't have to spend ages looking for a plot. IIRC it didn't work for me and I went to Angelfire or something. It quickly became really popular as a free web host (which was rare at the time) and they toned down the cities/communities aspect in favor of pure hosting. edit: I tried to find the neighborhood map on the internet archive but it seems hidden behind imagemaps and CGI scripts that didn't make it into the archive. This is as far as I got: https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013607/http://www15.geocities.com/Broadway/residence.html https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013607/http://www15.geoc... You can also see some of the community aspect here https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013533/http://www15.geocities.com/Broadway/leader.html https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013533/http://www15.geoc... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring
FooHentai 7y ago
>Now I'm thinking if they were sharding hosting servers by URL routes. That was my initial thought as well, but it doesn't look like it from how a few remembrance sites describe matters: https://www.bladesplace.id.au/geocities-neighborhoods-suburbs.html https://www.bladesplace.id.au/geocities-neighborhoods-suburb...

by alpb 7y ago

th0ma5 7y ago

You could choose. I think it was experimental and a kind of vanity URL more than anything. I put mine in "College Park" because I thought I might talk about college some, which I had just started.

kalleboo 7y ago

When it originally launched, the "Cities" part was quite literal. To find a free "plot", you browsed a map of a town and found an empty space, and then you had 2 "neighbors" next to you. This was back when webrings[0] were still a thing and the web still had a bit more of a community feel to it. I remember when I tried to sign up they had a beta "empty plot search" so you didn't have to spend ages looking for a plot. IIRC it didn't work for me and I went to Angelfire or something. It quickly became really popular as a free web host (which was rare at the time) and they toned down the cities/communities aspect in favor of pure hosting. edit: I tried to find the neighborhood map on the internet archive but it seems hidden behind imagemaps and CGI scripts that didn't make it into the archive. This is as far as I got: https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013607/http://www15.geocities.com/Broadway/residence.html https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013607/http://www15.geoc... You can also see some of the community aspect here https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013533/http://www15.geocities.com/Broadway/leader.html https://web.archive.org/web/19970703013533/http://www15.geoc... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring

FooHentai 7y ago

>Now I'm thinking if they were sharding hosting servers by URL routes. That was my initial thought as well, but it doesn't look like it from how a few remembrance sites describe matters: https://www.bladesplace.id.au/geocities-neighborhoods-suburbs.html https://www.bladesplace.id.au/geocities-neighborhoods-suburb...