Well, lots of you are, frankly, playing unfairly. Having only been born in 1972 and first use of a computer in 1980 (relatively early adopter, considering the times, you have to admit), there’s no way in hell I can beat the current record of 1981, having only been 9 years old at the time. (The computer we had at the time was a TRS-80, which I’m pretty sure lacks any way to connect to the 'net). My first time on a local BBS was April 22, 1993 (strictly dial-up modem to a local telephone number, so those records are definitely not Google searchable) and my first time on the 'net was sometimes in the next year (Unix and Lynx-based system I remember). I know my first site on national anthems can be found via the Wayback Machine (if you know where to look) from around 1999-2000, but that wasn’t what the OP was asking for.
But, regardless, even if I were to look for something of mine (which would take a while, last time I Googled my name, I appeared on page 3, by virtue of the fact that someone more famous with my name (one of President Clinton’s lawyers, who got a lot of media face time during Monicagate and Whitewatergate) gives me more chaff to sort through) I know that there’s no way I can beat several of these records, merely by virtue of not being online early enough (and I’m quite proud of how early I have been using computers and being a netizen “since just before the web stopped being an exclusive hangout”
Googling my AOL screen name, which would be much more likely to show up than my real name, I come up with a posting to a Steve Winwood/Traffic newsgroup dated August 1, 1995.
I joined AOL in October 1993, but I don’t know that anything from their proprietary discussion areas is archived anywhere. My first online postings would have all come from there.
http://tech.mit.edu/V97/PDF/N9.pdf
There are other pieces, but they’re all from 1977. I thought I had earlier ones in there (especially since Kong came out in 1976), but they seem to have held things up a bit.
I can find a Usenet post from 1987, though in the name of an avatar, not septimus. I had earlier posts from another host but can’t find them. (In fact, clicking “Sort by date” on the Google screen showing the 1987 post causes that post to disappear.)
There’s so much on the 'Net, it’s easy to forget how much is missing. In the 1970’s I worked for a company with several hundred employees; the company was a career highlight for many employees, at least nostalgia-wise. Yet from the 'Net it seems impossible to find any trace whatever of that company beyond a mention on 2 or 3 on-line resumes.
Funnily enough, a week or two ago I did a search of Usenet for my postings from my first year at university, right after I discovered this internet thing that would waste so much of my adult life. The earliest one was from rec.music.rem in December 1994.
I clambered online around for good around 1994 or so, using an old XT to get to a BBS-style gateway at Canada Remote Systems, and then a little later switching to Interlog and connecting directly to the internet. I remember modems in the late 1980s though, so I must have been going to BBSs at that time, but it wasn’t a huge thing for me, and I don’t remember using email at the time.
I’ve found a few Usenet postings from January 1995, and my earliest web pages from November 1995.
Just for clarification – my 1977 stuff (there’s more besides what I’ve listed) wasn’t originally written on or for the internet – neither the thread title nor the OP asked for that, so I’m legitimately within the definitions, which I wasn’t trying to work around. My earliest internet stuff is from the late 1990s, if that salves any complaints.
Also, since I’m certain other Dopers had published things earlier than 1977, and lots of things get archived, that 1977 “record” probably won’t stand.
I didn’t write anything, but found a picture of myself in an archive.
For nepotistic reasons (my great aunt was the proprietor) a photo of me as a one-day-old baby ended up on the front page of a country’s national newspaper in 1967.
My guess is gone for good. I spent some time on the GEnie Apple II roundtables somewhere around '93 to '95. I want to say I remember someone wanting to archive all that stuff, but I have no idea if it ever happened.
Google does have a few Usenet postings of mine going as back as far as 1995.
