SDS Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Back in 1996, when I needed to find a way to recruit members for the newly formed Bills Backers of Central Maryland, I had just started to get into this "world wide web" thingy. With no money to take ads out in the Baltimore Sun and with potential members from Dan Valentine's BBML exhausted - I turned to this "world wide web" to try and get the word out. I downloaded a trial version of Claris Home Page and found free web hosting on GeoCities. I published my 1st website trumpeting the new BBCM. In Feb. 1997, it would be renamed Two Bills Drive and the files moved to a paid hosting service... If it wasn't for GeoCities and your free 5 MB websites, I doubt this would have ever occurred. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 No thank you. But it's amazing how far these intertubes have come in a very short period of time. I used to have to get drunk and act like an idiot. Now I can do it here and be sober as a judge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cereal Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Why RIP Oct26 09? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 SDS thanks for your efforts. I just wish the Bills would help you by fielding a team the made life on the wall a bit happier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDS Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 Why RIP Oct26 09? Yahoo, which purchased them for $2.9B back in 1999 - is pulling the plug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDS Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 SDS thanks for your efforts. I just wish the Bills would help you by fielding a team the made life on the wall a bit happier. I often wondered what things would be like if we were a perennial powerhouse or if we made it to the Super Bowl... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I often wondered what things would be like if we were a perennial powerhouse or if we made it to the Super Bowl... This place would be full of a bunch of arrogant idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Yahoo, which purchased them for $2.9B back in 1999 - is pulling the plug. The dot com heydays ...investing and jobs .. like shooting fish ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glass To The Arson Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I used to loveeeeeeee Geocities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 This place would be full of a bunch of arrogant idiots. There's a punchline there somewhere ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 The dot com heydays ...investing and jobs .. like shooting fish ... Those were the days, no? CLECs and ISPs launched by the gross, VC-money flowing like oil, biz-plans on a bev-nap... (Then came the dot-bomb ) Anyway - look what you have created, SDS!!!! Thank you. Now, I have to go turn my Internet on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubes Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Are you all familiar with Jason Scott and his Archive Team, trying to archive all of Geocities before it goes poof? Just in case you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrudginglyOptimistic Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Those were the days, no? CLECs and ISPs launched by the gross, VC-money flowing like oil, biz-plans on a bev-nap... (Then came the dot-bomb ) Anyway - look what you have created, SDS!!!! Thank you. Now, I have to go turn my Internet on.... Hey SDS- If someone has a bunch of loose cash laying around, one interesting (but probably fiscally worthless) investment would be to pay you (or some Aglish literate person who understands computos) to pay SDS for his time if he is willing to give it or to pay a writer to work with SDS (and potentially others) to write a history of development of the modern www using the story of the development of a site like TBD (or other communal sites) to tell the story. The twists and turns of the steps taken to build SDS would certainly be interesting to the computo geeks out there (my guess is not nearly enough readers to make such a publication pay and a group of readers used to the web and its free (except for an upfront investment prohibitive or scary for many). However, such a piece might be interesting to a broader group of readers if this good writer could turn the trick of chronicling the geek story within the context of an interesting personal tale (SDS building a family which might parallel him building the TSW community (neither having your first kid or building a site like TSW in the new world of the www came with an instruction manual and maybe there are parallels that allows for interesting storytelling (perhaps the aging and death of geocities can parllell the loses of a family member if life had been awful enough to co-operate. who knows maybe SDS's life was not dramatic enough). Such a story might also have some general interest and drama if TSW (and the demise of the D&C bulletin board due to the newspaper's commitment to free speech and some early D&C users not being committed to being responsible enough not to attack the D&C board while they took advantage of free speech) could also lend some of the personal stories of users who made the transition from D&C to TSW or found TSW. I know for me I personally am pretty boring, but the role that D&C and then TSW played for me was that in later 97 we left Buffalo to migrate to another town for several months where my wife got a lung transplant. The Buffalo News was committed as a business strategy to be the second person into the pool on the Internet and they decided to not be the paper of record for Buffalo until someone figured out how to make money off the Internet or at least until the first slug of bugs were worked out. TSW provided a way to get Bills news quickly and in greater depth than the normal media offered. Most important when my wife and I were away from Buffalo and family for traumatic surgery, TSW provided us with the immediacy of hometown news and a virtual community when were missing family badly. My guess is that there are likely similar life/death stories where TSW played a role. Perhaps the geek story made of even greater human interest to "normal" human beings might allow for chronicling of a time in our history that was amazing. Even without the broader story telling hats off and many thanks to SDS and the crew that made up the TBD community during the birth of this site. You played an even more useful role than you likely even know about and the stuff you know about is interesting in and of itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler#81 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 The 'Geocities' will come and go. But SDS is here for the long haul. Thank you! , you pioneer you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjeff215 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Yup, they were pretty cool back in 'the day.' I think I had built a couple sites using them as well. It's really run it's course, though, as there are better alternatives these days. Lots of the big boom names are gone. Netscape, GeoCities, Netcom, Digex... Ha, I was at a startup that went public and made the owner millions upon millions when all of that went down, sixth employee. Out of this I got one thing. The knowledge that I should never trust the owner of a startup when he's making millions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Back in 1996, when I needed to find a way to recruit members for the newly formed Bills Backers of Central Maryland, I had just started to get into this "world wide web" thingy. With no money to take ads out in the Baltimore Sun and with potential members from Dan Valentine's BBML exhausted - I turned to this "world wide web" to try and get the word out. I downloaded a trial version of Claris Home Page and found free web hosting on GeoCities. I published my 1st website trumpeting the new BBCM. In Feb. 1997, it would be renamed Two Bills Drive and the files moved to a paid hosting service... If it wasn't for GeoCities and your free 5 MB websites, I doubt this would have ever occurred. Thank you! As Chef said, Thank You SDS. Or maybe I should say you as I spend way to much time here I must say i am not familiar with Geocities, but I am sure Yahoo is glad they paid in stock!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach55 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Here's to you SDS for creating the best website out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebandit27 Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Back in 1996, when I needed to find a way to recruit members for the newly formed Bills Backers of Central Maryland, I had just started to get into this "world wide web" thingy. With no money to take ads out in the Baltimore Sun and with potential members from Dan Valentine's BBML exhausted - I turned to this "world wide web" to try and get the word out. I downloaded a trial version of Claris Home Page and found free web hosting on GeoCities. I published my 1st website trumpeting the new BBCM. In Feb. 1997, it would be renamed Two Bills Drive and the files moved to a paid hosting service... If it wasn't for GeoCities and your free 5 MB websites, I doubt this would have ever occurred. Thank you! Not much to add, except...THANK YOU! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Hey SDS- If someone has a bunch of loose cash laying around, one interesting (but probably fiscally worthless) investment would be to pay you (or some Aglish literate person who understands computos) to pay SDS for his time if he is willing to give it or to pay a writer to work with SDS (and potentially others) to write a history of development of the modern www using the story of the development of a site like TBD (or other communal sites) to tell the story. In the beginning, there was ENIAC... link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrudginglyOptimistic Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 In the beginning, there was ENIAC... link Open the pod bay doors Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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