Geocities forgot that in real cities people have to pay taxes.

I'm pretty sure you're joking, but just in case: lots of people offered to pay for the cost of hosting, or even to buy the data to host themselves. But Yahoo decided to kill it anyway. http://www.reocities.com/ People actually invested a ridiculous amount of effort and a lot of money to save a copy. http://www.reocities.com/newhome/makingof.html