My name is Susan, aka SuSue. I've been with GeoCities since 1996, starting out in Heartland. I became a Community Leader there about a year later, in 1997. I loved everything about being a CL! I became the Co-Liaison of the old Village burb in Heartland in August 1998, just about a month after I was appointed as the Mentor Liaison/Training Coordinator for GeoCities. Both positions were great honors, that I took very seriously.
I opened a site in Petsburgh within 10 minutes of it's birth. I put in for site #2000 because of the impending millennium and got it. I had planned to build a site about pets in the new millenium, but then I rescued all those poms, and the rest is history!
I started building my site, and a few days later, I joined the Petsburgh CL team. It was a juggling act for a while, as I was working a full time (and then some) job, and still active in Heartland as the Village idiot, and also doing the training thing. It was a plateful, but I loved it.
Not long after Petsburgh opened, I was elected as the first Petsburgh Co-Liaison. I had a full compliment of CLs under me there. In the old suburbs there were 9000 sites, and at that time each CL was assigned a "block" of 500 sites to scan. It was loads of fun!
My friend SassyRose and I wanted to start a contest committee, so we opened up the Blue Ribbon Pets site, and got that going. We mapped out a plan, set up the site, and presented it to Sandi, who was the Petsburgh Committee Liaison. With her approval, the Blue Ribbon Pet contest was born. Sandi had run a committee very similar to this one in Heartland. (and here we thought we had an original plan going! LOL) SassyRose did all of the original graphics for the committee, lots of them can still be seen throughout Petsburgh.
Not long after this, I started The Petsburgh Gazette, and ran "articles" from contributing Community Leader authors. It was a fun site to do.
Then came a time when I finally said enough, and when Petsburgh was about 6 months old I resigned as a Co-Liaison in Heartland so that I could devote all of my time to Petsburgh and the Geo training program. When talks between GeoCities and Yahoo got serious, I resigned as the Mentor Liaison, and worked full time in Petsburgh. I didn't like what Yahoo wanted to do with the training program. They wanted to automate it and I smelled the end of the CL program as we knew it. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.
I did a short stint as the Petsburgh Liaison after Rick and Sandi stepped down, but my health was bad at the time, so I passed the baton back to Sandi for a short while, and then our TNT was elected. They have done great things to keep the fires lit in our community. They have my respect, admiration, and loyalty because of it.
Petsburgh didn't grow as rapidly as we had once thought it would, but it still grew quickly. Very soon the Farm suburb was born, and then Zoo, Park, Haven and many more. The suburbs have gone away, as has the neighborhood of Petsburgh, which was a sad, sad experience.
Fortunately, Yahoo was unable to kill the heart of Petsburgh --it's Community Leaders and their spirit. There is something about our pets that creates a sort of kindred spirit among us. That, a sincere desire to help people, and being actively involved in our community is what has kept Petsburgh alive. There is definitely a spirit of togetherness that abides with us. I wish it a long life.
I am proud to have been a Petsburgh Community Leader pretty much from it's inception. I have made lots of friends, both CLs and homesteaders. I wouldn't trade my experiences here for anything.
Party on Petsburgh!
A short postscript:
I just read Sandi's history page and it reminded me that I had also been named Liaison of the Month by GeoCities, not for Petsburgh but for the Mentor Liaison
position. It was a huge honor! I thought there was something strange going on when Karen (who worked for GeoCities) called me at home to make sure I would be on the Liaison's conference call. What a shocker! I cannot believe that I had forgotten that.