# Oldest Thing You Wrote That You Can Find on Google? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 30, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287 "2010-05-30T14:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/1 "2010-05-30T14:37:41Z")
When you Google your name, what is the oldest thing you wrote that turns up on Google? The oldest thing I found is something I wrote on comp.risks in 1985. [http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/1.16.html#subj5](http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/1.16.html#subj5) Things I wrote on older forums, like GEnie, is either not accessible to Google or gone to the great bit bucket in the sky. It occurs to me that there must be tens of thousands of people with things they wrote that are older than that, that are visible on Google. I would exclude Google book searches from that. Are things posted on the Arpanet or Bixnet still visible on Google? It was easier to Google my name 5 or 6 years ago. Up until then, references to “Joel Upchurch” were almost always me. Now I add -lagrange and -remax to my search to exclude the guy that that bought the [joelupchurch.com](http://joelupchurch.com) domain name. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/2 "2010-05-30T15:18:18Z")
I can go back to 1986 or 1987. It’s a piece of writing that’s too embarrassing to link to 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/3 "2010-05-30T15:22:15Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Things I wrote on older forums, like GEnie, is either not accessible to Google or gone to the great bit bucket in the sky. You were on GEnie? Which Round Tables? ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/4 "2010-05-30T15:29:23Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > When you Google your name, what is the oldest thing you wrote that turns up on Google? The oldest thing I found is something I wrote on comp.risks in 1985. Last thread about finding Google hits from your name, I remember finding some alt.math posts of mine that must have been from around 1995 or 1996. I don’t intend to dig through all of the pages of results from the other ten thousand people with my name to find them again, though. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/5 "2010-05-30T15:31:35Z")
My husbands [thesis](http://members.chello.nl/~a.vanarum8/EliotProject/) on T.S. Eliots poem “The Waste Land” dates from 2002, and an older version from 1999. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/6 "2010-05-30T16:14:42Z")
1985 is going to be hard to beat. Unless you cheat. I have something that I _wrote_ in 1980 which I scanned and uploaded in the mid-1990s. And since I uploaded it and know where it is, I can probably contrive a Google Advanced search that will return it as a hit. But that shouldn’t count, right? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/7 "2010-05-30T16:57:23Z")
My oldest trace is also from 1985 - collaborative fiction from _The Crunchy Frog_, a local BBS. [Trench Coats & Cutthroats pt I](http://www.penmachine.com/oldschool/t_and_c-1.html) [2](http://www.penmachine.com/oldschool/t_and_c-2.html) [3](http://www.penmachine.com/oldschool/t_and_c-3.html) (I went by “Thomas Covenant.”) ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/8 "2010-05-30T17:41:31Z")
I’m in here under my real name. Actual posting was dated about a week earlier. > [@](#): > > Text File > > Aucbvax.1470 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-ML Mon Jun 1 07:07:18 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #136 > > SF-LOVERS PM Digest Sunday, 31 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 136 😃 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/9 "2010-05-30T20:57:08Z")
In 1967, I was in college, and among other things I wrote a lot of poetry. I sent some of it to a major publisher in NYC, and of course it was never published. Quite to my surprise a record of that submission exists on-line. No, the poetry itself doesn’t appear on-line. If it did I’d have to change my name. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/10 "2010-05-30T21:15:40Z")
[Earlier post got lost and now **Scruff** ’s beaten me.] There’s a Usenet post of mine from Nov. 1982 I found. (Back in the “!” path days. Anyone else remember seismo?) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/11 "2010-05-30T21:28:54Z")
Okay, I wouldn’t have called this at all. The oldest thing I can find is a comment I made on a Spanish website in 2006, in response to a blog about the issue of Spanish immigration. It’s a single paragraph, written in Spanish, in which I say that the ‘‘immigration problem’’ as defined in Spanish public discourse seemed very similar to the way the problem is defined in the United States, and it was interesting to me how sociological trends hold across cultures. I was a senior undergraduate at the time taking two courses on the history of Spain, and my professor was from Spain, so I had Spain on the brain. It’s funny how I don’t even remember writing this. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/12 "2010-05-30T21:30:01Z")
My wife and I got on Usenet via one of, if not the very first, public ISPs - the World ([world.std.com](http://world.std.com)) in 1988. We had some written stuff before that, but it had been posted by other people for us. It is both interesting and depressing to read stuff that I wrote that long ago. I used to be an expert in a piece of 3D animation software - expert enough to help write a Computer Graphics World article on one of it’s features. And I’ve so completely forgotten it that I’m amazed at my own posts. Apparently they have modified Google Groups so that one can no longer search for any e-mail address! ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/13 "2010-05-30T21:37:55Z")
I found a usenet posting from 1992 (in my maiden name, of course). ---
**Author:** ![what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a5b964/32.png) [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/what_do_I_type_here)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/14 "2010-05-30T21:56:07Z")
Feh, I googled an old username and I found someone badmouthing me and now I’m angry and embarassed. THANKS OP. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/15 "2010-05-31T01:25:22Z")
The first thing that pops up when I google my full name is my bachelor’s thesis, from 1977. I’ve also found some pieces I wrote for the college newspaper (which is now archived online) from 1975 and 1976. I don’t think anything I wrote earlier than that is online, but it seems older than anything yet submitted on this thread (as **panache** ’s actual 1967 writings don’t seem to be online). ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/16 "2010-05-31T02:52:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > You were on GEnie? Which Round Tables? I can barely remember having a GEnie account, much less which round tables I was on. As I recall, I got the GEnie account so buying a DC Hayes Micromodem for my Apple II wouldn’t seem so futile. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/17 "2010-05-31T03:05:48Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > [Earlier post got lost and now **Scruff** ’s beaten me.] > > There’s a Usenet post of mine from Nov. 1982 I found. (Back in the “!” path days. Anyone else remember seismo?) I do remember it. It was a major UUCP hub back in the day as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/18 "2010-05-31T03:15:22Z")
I can find Usenet posts from 95, 96. So not the longest here by far, but still respectable enough. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/19 "2010-05-31T03:36:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The first thing that pops up when I google my full name is my bachelor’s thesis, from 1977. I’ve also found some pieces I wrote for the college newspaper (which is now archived online) from 1975 and 1976. I don’t think anything I wrote earlier than that is online, but it seems older than anything yet submitted on this thread (as **panache** ’s actual 1967 writings don’t seem to be online). I would tend to allow the 1975 claim, but I’m a little iffy about counting it if a link isn’t provided. I’m also a little iffy about claims that weren’t actually associated with someones actual name, since that makes it hard to verify. I’m also a little unclear about how college newspaper article from 75 would end up on the internet. Was it prepared on a computer or did someone OCR it? ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287/20 "2010-05-31T03:40:29Z")
I used to run an e-mailing list related to Major League Baseball in the early '90s and would post on rec.arts.baseball. I also ran a weekly trivia quiz on rec.games.trivia around that time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-thing-you-wrote-that-you-can-find-on-google/541287.md?page=2)