frameacloud: A white dragon with its tail in a knot. (Heraldry transparent)
Orion Scribner ([personal profile] frameacloud) wrote in [community profile] otherkinnews2009-07-18 03:01 am
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Geocities closing in October; how to download sites [internet]

Trigger warnings for this article: information loss. Work-safe.

Last April, Geocities announced that it would shut down its website hosting service, but it gave no date.1  The deadline has now been given: Geocites will shut down on October 26, 2009.2  You don’t have long to archive your favorite sites on Geocities.  How can this be done most efficiently?  What sites might you want to save?

If Firefox3 is the web browser that you use, you can quickly find Geocities sites in your bookmarks (favorites) with an add-on such as Enhanced Bookmark Search4.  If you usually browse the web with Internet Exporer instead, you could import Explorer’s bookmarks into Firefox, in this way: in Firefox’s menu, go to Bookmarks, Organize Bookmarks, File, Import.

This isn’t the quickest way, but you could download the sites manually, by hitting the “Save” button on each page within a site.  (In most browsers, “Save” will be in the menu on the upper left, under “File.”  The drawbacks to this method: it’s tedious, and it doesn’t capture web page elements made with Cascading Style Sheets.  CSS is included in downloads made by a Firefox add-on called Save Complete.5)

It would be faster to download sites automatically using a program to do the work for you, such as an offline browser.  I tried HTTrack Website Copier6, and I was sufficiently satisfied with its results that I didn’t try out some of the other free offline browsers I’d noticed in a Google search.  (The others were Webreaper, Wget, and PageNest.7)  HTTrack is a GPL offline browser for the operating systems Windows and Linux. HTTrack is easy to use: you give it an url (website address), or even a whole list of urls in a text file.  (I’ll provide such a list at the end of this article.  This method is the fastest because it requires less of your involvement, but it can cause problems with sites that don’t have an index page.)  Then, all by itself, the program downloads the entire site, including the sub-pages, pictures, and anything else it finds in there.

After you download a back-up of a site, make sure you skim through it to make sure it’s all there.  Sometimes Geocities says “Service temporarily unavailable,” and so those pages will fail to download.  There are a couple of reasons why this problem is happening: maybe Geocities is getting overloaded with traffic because everyone is rushing for their last chance to download their favorite sites… or maybe Geocities’ service has always been unstable. 

If your own website was hosted by Geocities, I hope you’re planning to move to another web host.  Free web hosts are more common these days, so you can choose among them for the traits that suit you the best.  The daily-updated website http://www.free-webhosts.com8 is a good way to compare free web hosts.

You can use Google to comb Geocities for web sites on specific topics.  Type in your search terms, and then include the words “site:geocities.com” in that search (without the quotes).

 I spent more time trying out keywords that could bring up sites on therianthropes and otherkin,9 animal-people and persons who consider themselves to be other than human, often in spirit.  I discovered many more sites in addition to those that I described in my previous article.   I have archived all the following Geocities sites, so if you miss out on this, you can ask me for a copy of the ones that you need.

There are sites on therianthropes and otherkin in general, such as Therianthropology 101,10 which includes an essay on spiritual therianthropy, and a timeline of werewolf stories as they emerged in history.  Zone Fey11 has French translations of several articles from Otherkin.net… apparently there was once a French-language version of that site.  There’s the site for WildSong, “a minor gathering of Therians, Otherkin, Weres, Spiritually-minded Furries, and Animal People.  Commonly called a Howl”.12  Court Amen-Khepera13 is mainly about vampires, but it has some lengthy articles on therianthropes and otherkin as well.  House Lion’s Den14 is a House of Court Amen-Khepera, and also has articles on otherkin.  I haven’t had time to browse through it, but The Bard’s Guild Archive says it “is an affiliation of poets, writers and story tellers with a nature other than human.  Fae, otherkin, changelings and were-creatures, through the email system we meet and create our own brand of magic.”15  Arethinn Siltheri ([livejournal.com profile] starlightforest) told me about The Elven Tradition.16  A couple of sites have handsome design, but little content: Circle of Othala17 was left under construction, and Werewolf Colony18 now contains little more than a few dead links to forums that don’t exist anymore.  The Thai Lycanthropy Information Site19 is in fact in Thai, a language that doesn’t seem to be included in the first few auto-translation sites that I checked, but an English-speaker can still discern that it talks about werewolves in legend, and it has a little to say about spiritual therianthropy.

You can find some personal sites of otherkin, such as Kyrin’s Lair of the Toxic Elf,20 with no-nonsense essays on the elf’s otherkin spirituality.  Arethinn Siltheri (Starlightforest) also told me about The Satyr’s Glen,21 with essays by a satyr otherkin.   Joel “Geist” Le Blanc’s site, The Book of Geist,22 has many articles about otherkin, especially angel-kin such as himself.  He talks a little about Doreen Virtue’s book Earth Angels, and relationship between religion and otherkin philosophy.  Unusual for a Geocities site, The Book of Geist has a truly elegant site design: it is both aesthetically appealing and navigable. 

            My searches turned up plenty more personal sites of therianthropes (people who have an animal side).  I previously talked about SnowWolf’s page on therianthropy, but until now I had accidentally overlooked the rest of that site, Spirit of the Wolf, which isn’t to be missed.23   Danielle, a melanistic (black) leopard therian, has a site called Melanistic Love,24 which is split into two halves: one about leopards in nature, and one about leopards in her spirituality.   LYkAnThrOPiK’Z HomePage25 has the site creator’s Werecard on display. [Edit 2013-06-08: I removed a sentence that was here, at the request of the person who it concerned.]   Stone Knife Clan27 talks about cat people, and Asazi’s Aerie28 tells a little about an eagle (formerly Utahraptor) therian and fossil-collecting enthusiast.   SongBreeze’s Hidden Den29 has a wolf’s personal and general articles on spiritual therianthropy, shifting, and packs.  Shadow Wulfs Den30 has information about fictional werewolves and spiritual therianthropy, but it doesn’t make clear which one is which.  (Then again, the site author may genuinely believe that there are immortal vampires and physical shape-shifters, as expressed… or it may be meant as a fiction altogether, and just happens to use some terminology from therian spirituality.)  That site has some articles by a Silver Flame, who doesn’t appear to be the elf of the same name from the Silver Elves.

I found a bunch of personal sites on draconity (a spirituality in which people identify with dragons).  Earth Dragon: The Den of Bronze Mistral31, with artwork and essays.  Luircin’s A Multiversal Juncture32, with many essays on various aspects of draconity, such as how it can fit together with other religious beliefs.  Some essays and poetry by Kenta33, and Baphijmm’s Oriental Dragon Headquarters34.  Windthane’s Lair35 has this beautiful definition of draconity: “Mostly, this is the attempt to learn more about myself -- about the known and the hidden aspects of me.  I seek to better myself by knowing all that I can know about me.  My draconity is an integral part of this.  It is self-development that drives me.  As I learn more about the dragon part of my spirit, I find out more about my humanity.  Maybe you think I'm crazy.  Sanity is only the ability to swim in known waters.”  There are essays on draconity at Paccula Dragon’s Lair36, Drazaek’s Lair37, and The Dragon’s Roost38.  In her site, Visions, Cynthia Clark talks about how she integrates her draconic spirituality with her practice of the Wiccan religion39.

When Geocities disappears this October, many sites will disappear along with that host, but some sites will evacuate.  I noticed a couple sites announcing that they will be moving, so I didn’t archive them.  J’Karrah EbonDragon’s draconic site, Clan of the Dragon: Where Magic Soars on Dragon Wings, was formerly at http://www.geocities.com/jkarrah/index.html and now has its own domain: http://www.ebon-dragon.com/cotd.html .  Ketrino Ghoe’s therian site, The Werelair, was at  http://www.geocities.com/queenwolf2007/ since 2005, with many articles about shifting, past lives, symbolism, and relationship to humanity. The Werelair will be moving to http://ketrino.angelfire.com/ .  I’ve heard back from Lady Shadows Myst since I mentioned her site (The Werebeast Support Page) in my last post about the Geocities closure.  She said that the site’s  “information is rather juvenile and poorly presented compared to what I know now”, so “The Werebeast Support Page will probably die a quiet death, but the information will hopefully live on in a new, more updated and enlightened form at www.shadowsden.org.”

Some sites are already gone after I archived them a few weeks ago, including Yaiolani’s The Werewolf and Shapeshifter Codex, although the Codex’s mirror on another host is still available ( http://yaiolani.tripod.com/ ).  Were these sites taken down by their owners, in anticipation of Geocities’ shutdown?  Or has Geocities itself made an early start on clearing out the sites?  Yahoo considers Geocities to be long obsolete, but does that hold true for the content as well?  Does information go obsolete along with the software that hosts it?  That assumption seems to relegate all writings—regardless of their genre—to the status of mere fads.  Ideas being disposed of could be alright if the curators could keep up with the turnover, but scarcely any of these pages were preserved on archive.org, so don’t expect that to save you.  Maybe I’m alone in feeling this way, but Internet culture is important to me, and so I’m a little uneasy about the cultural impact this shutdown is going to have.

  1. O. Scribner.  “Geocities disappearing; download your old favorites now.”  Posted May 28, 2009, accessed July 14, 2009.  Otherkin News.  http://community.livejournal.com/otherkin_news/1869.html
  2. Geoff Fox.  “Yahoo sets the date of Geocities’ Death.”  Posted July 10, 2009, accessed July 14, 2009.  PCMag.com: The Independent Guide to Technology.  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350024,00.asp
  3. Firefox.  http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
  4. AnonEmoose.  “Enhanced Bookmark Search.”  Updated Nov. 6, 2006, accessed July 14, 2009.  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/494
  5. Warhammerkid.  “Save Complete.”  Updated April 10, 2009, accessed July 14, 2009.  Add-ons for Firefox.  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4723
  6. Xavier Roche, et al. HTTrack Website Copier. Updated May 20, 2009, accessed July 14, 2009.  http://www.httrack.com/
  7. The other programs, in short:  Webreaper is a freeware program for Windows, and can be found at http://www.webreaper.net/ … PageNest is a limited free version of a commercial program for Windows, at http://pagenest.com/ … Wget is freeware for Windows, and it runs from a command line, so it’s not the most user-friendly program. Wget is at http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/
  8. Free Webhosts.  Created 2002(?), accessed July 18, 2009.  http://www.free-webhosts.com
  9. O. Scribner. “Glossary [maintenance]” Otherkin News. Posted May 18, 2009, accessed July 17, 2009. http://community.livejournal.com/otherkin_news/705.html
  10. Ivan Schablotski.  Therianthropology 101.  Posted 2004 (?), accessed June 4, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/schablotski.geo/Therianthropology.htm
  11. “Otherkin (Zone Fey).”  The Blue Pond.  Accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/thebluepond/otherkin/index.html
  12. Nashoba Hostina.  WildSong: Walk on the Wild Side with us! Posted 2004 (?), accessed June 11, 2009.   http://www.geocities.com/nashoba_hostina/ 
  13. Court Amen-Khepera. Posted 2005(?), accessed June 11, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/courtamenkhepera/
  14.  House Lion’s Den: A Safehaven for All Real Otherkin.  Posted Dec. 2005(?), accessed June 11, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/houselionsden/
  15. The Bard’s Guild Archive.  Posted 2001 (?), accessed June 11, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1290/
  16. The Elven Tradition. Posted 2004(?), accessed June 28, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/elventradition/
  17. Circle of Othala.  Accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/othalacircle/
  18. Werewolf Colony.  Accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/werewolfcolony/index.html 
  19. The Thai Lycanthropy Information Site.  Posted 2007(?), accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/lordotiga_were/index.html  
  20. Kyrin.  Lair of the Toxic Elf.  Posted 2001(?), accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/kyrin7
  21. Borach.  The Satyr’s Glen. Created 1998(?), updated Nov. 16, 2001, accessed July 18, 2009.   http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8651/
  22. Joel “Geist” Le Blanc.  The Book of Geist.  Accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/geist0101
  23. Snowwolf. Spirit of the Wolf. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1927/
  24. Danielle. Melanistic Love. http://www.geocities.com/melanistic_love/
  25. Josh “LYkAnThrOPiK” Richardson.  LYkAnThrOPiK’Z HomePage.  Updated Dec 24, 1997, accessed June 4, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/4626/index.html
  26. [Edit 2013-06-08: I removed this source, at the request of the person who it concerned.]
  27. Khai-Awaru Dhaarkhanh.  Stone Knife Clan Homepage: a site by cat people, for cat people and other werecreatures (Khaibit’s Domain).  Posted 2000 (?), accessed June 4, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/khai_pardus/
  28. Lawrence “Asazi” Atkins.  Asazi’s Aerie (Red Raptor’s Lair). Updated Feb 29, 2008, accessed June 4, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/7561/
  29. Mary “SongBreeze” Morton.  SongBreeze’s Hidden Den.  http://www.geocities.com/miskawolferavenclaw/
  30. Shadow Wulfs Den.  Posted 1998, accessed June 11, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/pilotwolf143/
  31. Janice/Mistral Kelly.  Earth Dragon: The Den of Bronze Mistral. Accessed 30 May 2009. http://www.geocities.com/flowerdragonaeris/
  32. Luircin.  A Multiversal Juncture.  Updated Oct. 20, 2006, accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/luircin/
  33. Kenta.  Accessed 30 May 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/kenta360tr/
  34. Baphijmm.  Baphijmm’s Oriental Dragon Headquarters.  Accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/baphijmm/
  35. Windthane.  Windthane’s Lair.  Accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6314/info2.html
  36. Paccula Dragon.  “What is draconity?  My story.”  Paccula Dragon’s Lair.  Accessed May 30, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/paccula/whatdraconity.html
  37. Drazaek.  “Draconity.”  Drakoja.tk {Drazaek’s Lair}.  Accessed June 10, 2009.    http://www.geocities.com/od3k/O2.html
  38. Kari “Lady Deathwing” Korthals.  The Dragon’s Roost.  Posted 2001 (?), accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/lady_deathwing_00/shell.htm 
  39. Cynthia Clark.  Visions: The Lost Works of C. Clark.  Posted Jan 21, 2000, accessed June 10, 2009.  http://www.geocities.com/sydney_14063/ 
  40. Lady Shadows Myst.  Private correspondence by e-mail. June 9, 2009.
            If you’d like to archive the therian and otherkin sites that were on Geocities, what follows is the list of urls (web addresses).  Paste the lot of them into a text document for HTTracker to use.  The download is enormous, considering what it is: it’s about 5.49 gigabytes.  No, those aren’t just a few megabytes, which is all I had expected. [edit] OK, I just found out that the download was so large because I did something wrong... I toggled something in the options that made it download a lot of extra web sites. Whoops, I'd wondered how it could be so enormous!   I’m including one non-Geocities url, Yaiolani’s Werewolf and Shapeshifter Codex, because its Geocities site has already disappeared, but its Tripod mirror is still extant.

http://yaiolani.tripod.com/

http://www.geocities.com/yaiolani/handbook.htm

http://www.geocities.com/lady_shadowmyst/TWSP/

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1927/greenspiral/resource.html

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/1459/

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1015/

http://www.geocities.com/jtwlfdog/welcome.html

http://www.geocities.com/sabersger/shewolf.html

http://www.geocities.com/kenta360tr/

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6314/info2.html

http://www.geocities.com/courtamenkhepera/

http://www.geocities.com/paccula/whatdraconity.html

http://www.geocities.com/thebluepond/otherkin/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/schablotski.geo/Therianthropology.htm

http://www.geocities.com/khai_pardus/

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1290/

http://www.geocities.com/kyrin7

[Edit 2013-06-08: I removed the site that was listed here, at the request of the site's author.]

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/4626/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/pilotwolf143/

http://www.geocities.com/miskawolferavenclaw/

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/7561/

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1927/

http://www.geocities.com/melanistic_love/

http://www.geocities.com/od3k/O2.html

http://www.geocities.com/sydney_14063/

http://www.geocities.com/lady_deathwing_00/shell.htm

http://www.geocities.com/othalacircle/

http://www.geocities.com/werewolfcolony/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/nashoba_hostina/

http://www.geocities.com/lordotiga_were/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8651/



- O. Scribner

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ext_1601924: (Ketrino Avie)

[identity profile] crystal-waters.livejournal.com 2009-07-18 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd like to mention that The WereLair may just move to Yahoo Hosting and get a domain name (werelair.com , something cheesy like that) instead of going to angelfire, but I'll let you know.
frameacloud: A green dragon reading a book. (Draconic signature)

[personal profile] frameacloud 2009-07-19 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
That's great! Thanks for letting us all know. I look forward to hearing about it when The WereLair opens on its new host. :)

[identity profile] goldkin.livejournal.com 2009-07-19 07:35 am (UTC)(link)
Just wanted to pass on a few links, with regards to Geocities mirroring:

* Archive.org is indeed "working on it." See: http://www.archive.org/web/geocities.php

* In addition, third parties such as "The Archive Team" are also busily mirroring everything and anything from Geocities accounts. See: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1961


As an added check, I did go through Archive.org to check some of these pages. At the time of this writing, many are indeed still missing. So, while it may be useful to pull page content from these sources /after they pull the plug/, I agree that mirroring on your own is the safest option.

[identity profile] jolantru.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:06 am (UTC)(link)
I have shifted some of my writings from my website (Shewolf - Sabersinger) to http://blackwolftale.dreamwidth.org/ (A Black Wolf's Tale).
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