Geocities is no more

A few weeks back a reader kindly emailed me to say that it seemed like some of the links in the Patch Collectors’ Directory were broken. I immediately looked into it and it turns out the links she was referring to were all Geocities websites. It wasn’t that the links weren’t working so much as that the websites in question no longer existed.

(A once popular and well known personal website hosting provider, Geocities recently closed its doors as a free service.)


In 2009, Yahoo, the company that ran Geocities, shut down the free personal website hosting service after offering it to users for numerous years, citing that they wanted to focus their attention on other sectors of the Yahoo web sphere.
Though it is my understanding that Yahoo gave their Geocities users fair warning in advance of their shutting this service down, its cessation still caught many users – and a substantial number of web viewers the world over off guard (I heard about the matter throw my husband who works in the IT industry). This closure, which you can read more details about in the official Yahoo page on the topic, also means that nearly everywhere a Geocities page was linked to from an external website, said links are now defunct.

Thusly it was time for me to once again prune my way through the Patch Directory, removing all of the “dead” links (be they Geocities or otherwise) and bringing it up-to-date just in time for the New Year. I like to weed out any defunct links on that page at least once a year, and hadn’t done so for several months, so it was actually not a hassle in the least to update the page today.

To those who lost their Geocities websites (be they Guiding, Scouting or otherwise related) as a result of this closure, I’m sincerely sorry. While I realize Geocities was no longer as popular as it once was in the nineties, many people will still utilized its services, and I feel Yahoo should have at least offered to keep hosting any and all existing Geocities pages for free (and simply closed new sign-ups, if they wanted to cap user numbers).

With Geocities gone, there are now far fewer personal Guiding and patch trading related sites on the web, but I hope that at least a portion of those who lost their pages will rebuild them or start new sites elsewhere (if you’re looking for a free personal website hosting service, I’ve heard positive things about Jimdo.com, but have not tried this site myself).

If you’ve launched a new Guiding/patch collecting related site (or simply have one that isn’t in the Patch Trading Directory already) please let me know and I will post it in the directory at once.

I sincerely appreciate the reader’s email that reminded me about Geocities shutting its doors, and always welcome correspondence regarding any element of this blog or the Guiding/Scouting realm.

Updated the Girl Guide Patch Collecting Directory

It’s been a few months since the last time that I checked on the validity of all of the links on the Girl Guide and Girl Scout Patch Collecting Directory page, so while waiting for my building’s maintenance worker to come check out a problem with our plumbing this afternoon, I decided to update that page.

It’s always a little sad in a sense to do this task, because inevitably I find links that are no longer active (in other words, pages that have been taken down or hosting sites that have folded). This time around, I weeded several “dead” links, but am happy to report, that overall most pages still appear to be in good shape. Granted though, it is worth mentioning that just because a site is currently online, it doesn't guarantee that the person (or people) behind it are still actively updating it or trading patches.

It seems that as time goes on fewer and fewer people are actively trading GG and GS patches (and there is likely a multitude of reasons – not the least of which is the current economic situation – as to why this is), yet this should not deter new and veteran collectors alike from swapping with one another. In fact, if we are to keep this wonderful hobby alive in the long run, it’s crucial that we connect with one another online, and in the real world. I highly encourage you to contact fellow patch traders (myself included, I’m always looking for new swap partners!) via their websites and on Yahoo groups.

If you have a patch related site, blog or online group or know of one that is not listed in the directory, please contact me and I’ll be delighted to add it right away. Thank you, and happy patch collecting to all!

Example of a GGC crest from Ontario – just one of hundreds
upon hundreds of fantastic patches from Canada,
each of which is a reason to keep on collecting :)