In the Fall of 1997, I put up my first real webpage on GeoCities (this was before Yahoo bought it in '99). GeoCities was a free webhosting service in which users arranged themselves into Neighborhoods. I was in the Heartland-Ranch neighborhood promoting family values, etc.

My site was called Curtis' Realm:

Pages included Computer Stuff, Guitar, a page about my youth group and worship band, the obligatory Guestbook, and even a blog-like section called "What I Think…".

One of my gems at the time was my GeoGreetings Holiday Card contest entry. Folks submitted holiday images to GeoCities staff, and a select few were chosen that would be used to allow users to send holiday emails to others. The image requirements were stringent: GIF, 240px by 240px, under 8Kb. I submitted the following, and to my surprise, it was chosen! One of my secrets was that I hid my initials (CRS) in the picture. Can you find them?

Looking back, GeoCities was extremely corny and amateurish, but I suppose it played a part in getting me where I am today. To that effect, I sometimes wonder if my abhorrence towards MySpace is excessive. Is MySpace just the new GeoCities? Is it providing that initial, necessary playground for web newbies? My defense of GeoCities in 1997 would have to be that every website (including major companies) looked amateurish. Your thoughts?

Did you have a GeoCities site?