Another free service bites the dust.  
Geocities wants about $158.40 per year ($11.95 x 12 + $15)
to continue to host a website which has been hosted free and  which I 
provide as a service to the Excel community.   So I will have no choice but 
to find an alternate site to absorb some of the traffic.  Geocities is now available
for limited traffic only.      David McRitchie  Sept 15, 2001.

And as of April 1, 2002 Geocities requires premium
service in order to update your site with FTP.   April 1, 2002.

Because I belong to a group of Microsoft MVP's my alternative
site is    http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm

Many ISPs do provide free webspace but such services are 
disappearing at a rapid rate.  If you belong to a university 
or a computer club you may have other alternatives as well.   
                             David McRitchie  April 1, 2002.

=======================================================
mcritchie@hotmail.com     
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From :    
civics@geocities.com  
    
To :    
dmcritchie@hotmail.com  
   
Subject :    
Your Data Transfer Status  
   
Date :    
Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:07:17 -0700 (PDT)  
   
   
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From webmastr@yahoo-inc.com Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:08:30 -0700 
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Content-Type: text/plain

 
Dear GeoCities Member:

Congratulations, http://www.geocities.com/davemcritchie is
very popular and has been receiving a large amount of traffic. Your
site has become so popular, in fact, that our records indicate that
you're using more than the allotted amount of data transfer we provide
for a free web site, which is 3GB/month (measured on an hourly basis).
That means at some time during the past few days we had to turn your
site off until the usage fell within the prescribed limit.

If you'd like to prevent this from happening to your site, you
may join one of our new premium services, GeoCities Pro or GeoCities
Webmaster.  These packages allow for 10 GB and 20 GB of data transfer
respectively, and also give you the option of purchasing unlimited
data transfer so your site will never be disabled. These packages also
enable you to run an ad-free site at your own domain name (for example,
www.your-dot-com.com) AND get matching email accounts at
that domain (like you@your-dot-com.com).

For more information about our new packages, please visit
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info?.refer=bwn. Upgrading your current
GeoCities site to one of our new premium packages is easy - just a few
clicks away - and you don't have to move any of your files.

If you'd prefer not to receive notification when your site is shut
down for going over the transfer limit, you may visit
http://geocities.yahoo.com/opt/bwemail?.refer=bwn to take your name
off of our list.  Of course, we will continue to monitor your site's
data usage and turn it off if it exceeds the limits.

Thank you,

Yahoo! GeoCities
http://geocities.yahoo.com/

=========
More blackmail:   As of April 1, 2002
  http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/geo/gftp/gftp-14.html

After many years of using and being encouraged to use WS_FTP LE
by Geocities, it is now necessary to pay in order to use FTP
access to update your site on Geocities.  You can use Yahoo's
interface to update a page at a time but that effectively wipes
out your ability ot manage a Geocities website.  I tried replying
to the yahoo reference above but obviously the site now compromises
your privacy because I end up with a blank web page for the 
feedback form.

GeoCities Plus  
Product Summary
  http://billing.mail.yahoo.com/yo/VOrderingAbout?.p=G0&.refer=geohelp&x=v5&.src=geo

Product:  GeoCities Plus
Price:  $4.95 per month
Setup Fee:  $10 one-time setup 

Also see -- don't know what level you need for FTP updates, but without FTP 
updating you are severely impaired in your ability to maintain a site.
    http://billing.mail.yahoo.com/yo/VOrderingAbout?.p=G2&.refer=&x=v9&.src=