Answers to Common Questions and Problems

I Completed the Application Form for a Home Page, But Did Not Get My Password. What Do I Do?

You should get an E-Mail with your password within 2 or 3 hours of the time you complete your application for a Personal Home Page. If you did not get this E-Mail, then it is most likely that you mis-typed your E-Mail address when you were filling out the application. If you did not put in the correct E-Mail address you will not get the confirmation E-Mail with your GeoCities password.

The first thing to do is to check the address that you signed up for and see if your member name is still assigned to it. (Go to the Neighborhood Directory and find your community and numbered address from the address listings.) If your member name is still next to your address, then use our Password Utility to request your password. If your member name is not listed, then you need to reapply for residency. If no one has taken your original address, then you may apply for it again. Be sure and enter your correct E-Mail address this time!

OK, I Got My Password, Now What Do I Do?

You are now ready to create your Personal Home Page. You can do this two ways:

1) Use our Home Page Editor. This is a user friendly utility that lets you create a great looking page in minutes. All you have to do is fill in the blanks. You can access the Home Page Editor from the main Homestead menu.

2) You can create your own pages, custom GIFs, JPGs and other files and send them to our server. To learn how to do this, read carefully the FTP procedures that are linked from the main Homestead menu.

Do I Have To Create My Page Right Away, Or Can I Wait Awhile Before I Move In?

In order to keep the neighborhoods a lively and enjoyable place, we would like you to move in within a week after you have received your password and confirmation E-Mail. Your neighbors would prefer to live next door to someone who has moved in rather than a vacant lot! You are encouraged to change and update your page as often as you like, but we ask that you at least create a "I'm Coming Soon" type page within the first week. If there is no activity within a week after we send you your password and confirmation E-Mail, then we may open up the space to let someone else move in.

How Come I Can't See My Page When I Hit the 'Create / View' Button?

If you are creating your page with the handy Home Page Editor and you keep seeing the screen that says 'member has not moved in yet - please check back later' it is because your browser (i.e. Netscape Mosaic, etc.) is storing the old page in its memory. Your new page is actually there, it's just that your browser keeps displaying the old page. Try adjusting the Options / Preferences settings so that your browser will reload the new page from the host. You may have to start and stop your browser for any changes to take affect. Hitting the 'Reload' or the 'Reload From Host' key usually works as well.

How Big Can My Page Be, and How Many Images Can I Have?

We would prefer if the total file size of your page and all your images was 2 megabyte or less.

How Do I Reference Links Within GeoCities?

To add a link to your page to another document within your directory, you only need to use the filename itself. For example, if your index.html file has a link to a second page within your directory, you would link it as follows:

<a href="secondpage.html">

You don't need the begining (http://www.geocities.com/) part at all.

Also, if you'd like to link your page to another homesteader's page, the same rule applies. For example, if you want to link to Colosseum1000, you would write it as follows:

<a href="/Colosseum/1000/">

Please be sure to follow this rule when you design your homepage.

Can I Have More Than One Page? Do You Support JPEG, Sound and Video Files?

Support for multiple pages as well as additional file types is now available. See the FTP procedures for additional information.

How Do I Put a Form on My Page?

GeoCities now has a script that allows you to use forms on your page, and get the results sent to you via e-mail. This method will give you formatted messages that are easy to read, unlike the general "mailto:" command you may have used in the past.

There are several ways you can use this script, with an infinite number of forms that you can use. (For help with setting up forms, please visit the NCSA Site .) For example, you may want to include a survey on your page that your visitors can fill out and send to you. We have developed a sample survey that you can use to get started.

You may wish to ask visitors for their input on your page design or content. We have also developed a sample feedback form that may help you.

To use this script, simply define your form with the following text:

<form actio method=postn="/cgi-bin/homestead/mail.php?member_name" method=post>

where "member_name" is your GeoCities member name. You can then develop any form that you'd like to use, and get the results sent to your mailbox.

Do You Have Any Other Scripts That We Can Use?

We have two other scripts for use on your Personal Home Page - image map support and a counter,

Imagemap Instructions
To use the image map, you have to FTP two files - the image itself, and the map file. See the FTP Procedures page for information about how to send in your files Within your HTML, you refer to your image map file as follows:

<A HREF="image.map"> <IMG SRC="image.gif" ISMAP></A>.

For more information on imagemaps, see NCSA's imagemap tutorial.

There is a new type of imagemap supported by most browsers, called a Client-Side Image Map. These imagemaps do not require CGI scripts and are easy to set up. Check out Spyglass's tutorial for some more information on client-side image maps.

Counter Instructions
To use the counter, you need to add a reference to the counter in your page, like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/cgi-bin/counter/?page=membername"></script>.

Be sure to use your own member name in the script src reference. That's it, your counter should work. If it doesn't work, check your code and please try again.

How Can I Add a Guestbook to My Page?

GeoCities offers a simple and intuitive guestbook script that allows your visitors to leave messages on your page. This is a great way to engage with your audience, gather feedback, or just let your visitors say hello.

To integrate the guestbook into your page, you only need to insert a small piece of code. This code will display the guestbook form and the messages left by your visitors.

Here's the code you need to add:

<a href="/cgi-bin/guestbook/?user=YOUR_MEMBER_NAME">Sign My Guestbook</a>

Replace "YOUR_MEMBER_NAME" with your GeoCities member name.

Customizing Your Guestbook with CSS

Want your guestbook to match the look and feel of your website? GeoCities allows you to use custom CSS to style your guestbook. This means you can change the colors, fonts, and layout to better align with your site's aesthetics.

To use a custom CSS, you'll need to create a `.css` file and upload it to your GeoCities directory. Once uploaded, you can link to this CSS when embedding your guestbook.

Here's how you can do it:

<a href="/cgi-bin/guestbook/?user=YOUR_MEMBER_NAME&theme=YOUR_CSS_FILENAME">Sign My Guestbook</a>

Replace "YOUR_MEMBER_NAME" with your GeoCities member name and "YOUR_CSS_FILENAME" with the name of your uploaded CSS file (without the `.css` extension).

For instance, if you've uploaded a file named "darktheme.css", the code would look like:

<a href="/cgi-bin/guestbook/?user=YOUR_MEMBER_NAME&theme=darktheme">Sign My Guestbook</a>

With this flexibility, you can ensure that your guestbook not only functions well but also looks fantastic on your page!

OK, Who Are You Guys? Is This Really Free? Why Are You Doing This? Can I Put Anything I Want On My Page?

What a lot of questions! Well you asked for it, so here we go:

Our philosphy has always been that locations on the Internet become easier to relate to when they are rich with content and closely identified with an actual idea or location. In support of this belief and in keeping with the culture of the Internet, we've developed a free Personal Home Page program.

We believe that everybody has a right to their own Personal Home Page in cyberspace. We've developed two unique Personal Home Page Editors for use in creating your own Personal Home Page. We've created residential neighborhoods behind each of our Geographic Home Pages to accommodate thousands of Personal Home Pages. We've committed sufficient disk space and bandwidth to support hundreds of neighborhoods, and we are looking for individuals who are ready to sign-up and create their own Personal Home Page.

Our homesteading initiative is just the first step in building World Wide Web based communities that are destined to become a vital part of the Net. Please send us an E-Mail if you're interested in learning more about helping build the societies of the New Frontier.

The free Personal Home Page program is designed to provide individuals a way to create their own home on the World Wide Web. This program is supported in part by advertising and sponsorship revenue received from our customers who have established commercial web sites. If you are interested in advertising within one of our GeoCities, or if you would like to set up a web site to promote your business or sell products, please let us know. We'll be happy to talk to you about it.

GeoCities is not responsible for the content of any Personal Home Page, and reserves the right to remove any page from the system. In particular, we prohibit pages that promote harm or injury against any group or individual. We also strongly discourage and reserve the right to prohibit the use of a page that is solely intended for commercial purposes.

The purpose of the free Personal Home Page program is to give people the ability to create a home on the World Wide Web that reflects their interests, hobbies and background. If you want to promote your consulting service as well, that's generally fine if your page is also about other things.

The terms of this offer are subject to change at any time without notice. This free offer does not apply to connect time or other charges incurred by the user from their service provider while accessing GeoCities or creating a Personal Home Page.

So, Bottom Line, Are You Doing This As A Marketing Thing Or Are You Building Societies of the New Frontier?

We really are building Societies of the New Frontier.