When GeoCities first started offering free web pages to the public, they
decided to create themed neighborhoods. Each neighborhood was then divided into
blocks (each block was numbered between 1000 up to 9999). A user would then
adopt a block and thus create their own pages within that block. Thus, a user
would then have their own web pages located at a URL in this format:
http://www.geocities.com/neighborhood/XXXX ("XXXX" would be a four digit
number). The whole management of each Neighborhood was run by volunteers - known
as 'Community Leaders' (CL's), which is what made the GeoCities experience so
special.
However, this meant that there could only ever be a maximum of 9000 users in
each neighborhood. So, Suburbs (often known as 'burbs) were created in each
neighborhood (decided by the Community Leaders), and would be named to fit in
with the theme of the neighborhood. Each suburb also had its own blocks, and
when they filled up, more suburbs in the neighborhood could easily be created.
Thus, a user would then have their own web pages located at a URL in this format:
http://www.geocities.com/neighborhood/suburb/xxxx ("XXXX" would be a four digit
number).
This whole process was known as 'homesteading', and each user had their own
'homestead'. Community Leaders helped out each 'homesteader', and created an
friendly atmosphere which contributed to the rapid explosion of personal web
pages on the internet.
Unfortunately, when Yahoo! took over GeoCities in July 1999, Yahoo decided to
make the whole Neighborhoods and Homesteads theme defunct and dismantle
the Community Leaders program due to possible legal concerns. Yahoo
decided instead decided to go with "vanity" URLs
to tie in with users' Yahoo IDs (each Geocities user got a Yahoo ID); so their URL would be in this format
http://www.geocities.com/YahooID. If the Geocities user found their ID was already taken by another user on Yahoo,
they could choose a new one, or keep their Geocities login ID but with a .geo appended to the end of it, like this: GeoCitiesID.geo
.
Thankfully, existing Geocities users got to keep their Homestead Neighborhood
URL too, and their pages could be viewed with either URL; is why you might stumble across one today.
This page is a dedication to the memory of the GeoCities Spirit. I have listed
every Neighborhood and every Suburb that was in every Neighborhood.
The 'Community Centre' (CC) links refer to the (defunct) community centers
(run by the volunteer Community Leaders) that I have managed
to find. These CC's contained web resources, HTML tutorials and other useful
tools for homesteaders. Alas, I couldn't find all the CC's, because most have
long been deleted. Some deleted CC's, as well as other
pages, may be viewed via WebArchive.
'Added' refers to when the neighborhood was first created (Hollywood was the
very first).
Keep in mind that American English spelling and grammar was used in GeoCities,
and as such, is generally used on this page too. Please Contact
me if you see that I have missed a Suburb or for any corrections - I know I'm
missing a Heartland suburb, I accidentally deleted the email I got from someone
advising this.
Edit 2006-07-21: Added Blossom to Tokyo. Thanks, Nelson!
Edit 2007-01-02: Added Pond to Heartland. Thanks, Noah!
Table of Contents
Click on a 'hood to be taken to the list of 'burbs
My website is still online for only one reason: the high costs of maintaining
this website are partially funded by Advertising, while the rest comes out of my
own pocket (alas, moths aren't worth very much). If you have the time, clicking on
any of the advertisements that appear on any of my pages would be highly
appreciated. There are other ways you can support me too, without having to hand over a cent,
some of which will actually make your life on the internet easier. I am also soliciting donations - but then again, who
isn't? I haven't received any yet, but am still hopeful. Thank You!
