Goodbye, GeoCities

Posted October 26, 2009, 8:51 p.m.

It’s a big year for technology farewells. In March I said goodbye to Microsoft Encarta, then in July I said goodbye to CompuServe. Today, I say goodbye to GeoCities.

GeoCities was among the first batch of free web site hosting sites, and lots of people got their web start there before they all moved on to LiveJournal, Blogger, MySpace, and FaceBook. I started on a site called Trailerpark, then moved to a couple other sites, then to Angelfire, then HyperMart before moving on to a paid HyperMart hosting plan. Angelfire is the only one of all those that is both 1) still around and 2) still free. HyperMart still exists, but is paid hosting only now.

Though I never used GeoCities personally, I was on the web in that era and lots of people I knew were on GeoCities. It was the most popular of the free hosting providers. It very quickly turned into a terrible wasteland of animated GIFs and horrendously clashing colors and backgrounds. Turns out that letting just anybody make a web site without any controls on what they do doesn’t really work out that well. (MySpace has started to learn this more recently.)

Another piece of web history disappears to the great Bit Bucket in the Sky.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a nation must win greatness.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly.

The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.’

Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

Different kinds of economies are essentially different ways of making decisions about the allocation of scarce resources—and those decisions have repercussions on the life of the whole society.

Middle-class values, of course, are represented by the Constitutional concepts of limited government, states rights, rights of property, a competitive economy, the solving of problems on the local level if possible and, in any event, with a minimal of government meddling.

Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his freedom.

In every culture in history, the saints, who most resemble Christ, give the most offense . . . because all cultures, like all individuals, are fallen and sinful, in many different ways.

The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

We’re all putting on an act and hoping the audience buys it.

Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless ‘saint.’ Love can be trained; pride cannot.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.