Ancient History

April 7, 2006 8:00 PM

Text files from the early days of the web. Front page. From Erma Bombeck to Black Boxes, quick fixes for the home to back issues of Phrack, and much more. "Our focus is on the years 1980-1995, but files from before and after sometime sneak in."
posted by Zack_Replica (18 comments total)

Yes the colour's terrible - there's a link at the bottom of the page that'll switch it to black-and-white.
posted by Zack_Replica at 8:02 PM on April 7, 2006

23039 dubba.
posted by dontoine at 8:07 PM on April 7, 2006

"early days of the web?" Many -- if not most -- of these gfiles predate the web by as much as a decade.
posted by majick at 8:09 PM on April 7, 2006

Did a search with both engines and nothing came up - there was no flag from the posting search engine-thingy either. Curses!
posted by Zack_Replica at 8:15 PM on April 7, 2006

These are from way before "The web" became popular. "The web" refers to the "World Wide Web" which is comprised of interlinked HTML documents accessed primarily over HTTP. An HTTP document accessed over a non HTTP protocol, but still linkable might be considered part of the web, as would anything downloaded over HTTP (like a PDF) but at least one of those two is needed to be "On the web" IMO.
posted by delmoi at 8:23 PM on April 7, 2006

Yes the colour's terrible - there's a link at the bottom of the page that'll switch it to black-and-white.

Pff, proof you don't know what you're talking about!
posted by delmoi at 8:24 PM on April 7, 2006

Also, the earliest web pages came about in 1989, and these files go back to the 1980s.
posted by delmoi at 8:25 PM on April 7, 2006

What a great link. Thanks!
posted by digaman at 8:28 PM on April 7, 2006

Awesome.

I remember coming across some of these files as a preteen and thinking I had really stumbled into a goldmine. Several years of teeny Anarchism and phone phreaking ensued.
posted by Ridx at 8:45 PM on April 7, 2006

Ok, ok, so I should've said "pre-web, BBS-era". Also sometimes people have a little freak-out if pages are in non-standard colours - I was trying to point out that there was an alternative option. For what it's worth, I started on BBS's with green-on-black lettering - I just find black-on-white easier to read.
digaman - you're welcome!
posted by Zack_Replica at 8:51 PM on April 7, 2006

Oh man that takes me back. Looking through the anarchist stuff, I'm amazed I made it through my teen years. It wasn't for lack of trying amateur explosive recipes downloaded at 300 baud....
posted by tkolar at 9:09 PM on April 7, 2006

Many of these textfiles come from the days of the BBS, as fondly remembered here recently in meta.

Also know, that the creator of the website has also made a documentary about the BBS phenom, which frankly kicks ass.
posted by zabuni at 9:12 PM on April 7, 2006

I believe that the creator is none other than our own MeFi'er jscott
posted by blahblahblah at 9:20 PM on April 7, 2006

For whatever reason, that site has some 1 page guide I wrote about optimizing conventional memory usage about 10 years ago. Apparently I am the winner!
posted by JZig at 9:23 PM on April 7, 2006

Glad I saw this dupe.
posted by knave at 9:28 PM on April 7, 2006

Ahhh... MiXeD CaSe goodness! I was a sysop back in the mid-90s.... good times.
posted by wfrgms at 9:49 PM on April 7, 2006

blahblahblah: you are correct, sir. Now that the bait has been placed, let us see if the dreaded jscott will emerge from his lair.
posted by Plinko at 11:33 PM on April 7, 2006

Glad I saw this dupe.

Likewise. Three year statute of limitations anyone?
posted by tweak at 3:01 AM on April 8, 2006