# Guest books for web pages **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2001, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144 "2001-01-28T18:04:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2001, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/1 "2001-01-28T18:04:04Z")
My husband wants to put a guest book on his web page. There seem to be many places that offer this service free. If you have a guest book, what service do you use? What are the pros and cons of that service? Has anyone actually _written_ a guest book? Is it worth the trouble, or should we just go with a feebie? I have modest programming experience. I’m conversant with FORTRAN (stop giggling, please) and it’s possible that I could perl my way out of a well-soaked paper sack. Is this a monumental undertaking? (And _please_ stop giggling about FORTRAN.) Any instructional books or websites you could recommend would be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/2 "2001-01-29T00:54:32Z")
Lycos has a pretty good one: ([http://jupiter.guestworld.tripod.lycos.com](http://jupiter.guestworld.tripod.lycos.com)). I’ve also programmed my own. It’s pretty simple in Perl. Many servers won’t allow you to execute custom scripts so check that before putting too much work into it. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/3 "2001-01-29T13:33:47Z")
Check out the CGI Resource Index for the best guestbook scrips. The url is [http://www.cgi-resources.com/](http://www.cgi-resources.com/) Hope it helps. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2001, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/4 "2001-01-29T18:36:16Z")
Thanks, **Dragwyr** , I found a tutorial that looks helpful at that site. Thanks also, **Baraqiyal** ; if I get frustrated with the Perl, I’ll try Lycos. ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2001, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/5 "2001-01-29T18:53:44Z")
My guestbook is from [http://gbook.nu](http://gbook.nu) . The only thing I’m not extremely fond of is that recently I’ve had to go to the site in order for new entries to appear. But other than that, it’s a fantastic service. For being free and customizable (I think I just made that up), it’s definitly worth checking out. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/6 "2001-01-30T00:09:56Z")
Heck, if you are using a web hosting company they may already have one for you to use. Probably just need to add one or two lines of code. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2001, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guest-books-for-web-pages/52144/7 "2001-01-30T00:15:35Z")
I use matts Guestbook script from [cgi-resources.com](http://cgi-resources.com) (they have other languages there too)… One important thing, make sure it emails you new entries, that way you can delete those nasty ones.