# Straight Dope Pre-WWW? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 25, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396 "2019-01-25T15:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yaelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Yaelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaelle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/1 "2019-01-25T15:40:30Z")
I tried to search through here for this answer but my mind is still adjusting to the shock of changing from an iPhone 6 Plus to iPhone 6, and I may be missing things. (It’s like going from using a giant screen TV to a 13” B&W) I noticed that The Straight Dope has been around since 1979 (?). What form did it take before the internet existed? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/2 "2019-01-25T15:41:56Z")
It was a newspaper column in alternate papers, like the Chicago Reader. Also, books of collected columns. And it was 1973, not 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/3 "2019-01-25T16:25:23Z")
The original column may be gone, but it took the entire frickin’ internet to replace it. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/4 "2019-01-25T17:00:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The original column may be gone, but it took the entire frickin’ internet to replace it. The problem with fighting ignorance is ignorance fights back … and wins. The WWW: spewing nonsense since 1991. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/5 "2019-01-27T13:30:10Z")
Before the Web got really rolling, it was hosted on AOL for a while. I’d read one of the books (can’t remember which) and I remember [this](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/371/is-it-true-the-brontosaurus-never-really-existed/) column being the first one I stumbled across on AOL. I particularly remember the sentence, “O.C. was thus asking the world to believe, in essence, that a whole passel of camarasauruses came along, spied Mr. Bronto, noticed how much he looked like themselves, slipped him a mickey, sawed off his noodle, and dragged it along with them until such time as they too departed this vale of tears.” I knew then The Perfect Master was my kind of teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/6 "2019-01-27T16:59:54Z")
Informally, there was also a Usenet group, alt.fan.cecil-adams (which I am surprised to be surprised that it’s still active). I do not know when the control message creating that group was sent. Edit: I know it was well estabished by 1993 when I found it, so there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/7 "2019-01-27T17:07:19Z")
Nope, after the edit window closed, 8 found that it was created in 1994. > [@](#): > > From jym@remarque.berkeley.edu Thu Feb 10 21:42:00 1994 > Path: uunet!convex! [news.oc.com](http://news.oc.com)! [news.kei.com](http://news.kei.com)!sol.ctr.columbia.edu! [howland.reston.ans.net](http://howland.reston.ans.net)!agate!naughty-peahen > From: Jym Dyer \ > Newsgroups: alt.fan.cecil-adams.ctl > Subject: cmsg newgroup alt.fan.cecil-adams > Control: newgroup alt.fan.cecil-adams > Date: 11 Feb 1994 02:21:52 GMT > Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line > Lines: 4 > Approved: Jym Dyer \ > Message-ID: \ > NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu > Xref: uunet control:850072 > > For your newsgroups file: The omniscient columnist. > > =o= This newsgroup was discussed on alt.config. > \<_Jym_\> ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/8 "2019-01-28T02:28:32Z")
The first book of collected columns was published in 1984. It’s no longer in print, but used copies aren’t expensive. 1986 version: [https://smile.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-Cecil-Adams/dp/0345333152/ref=sr\_1\_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548642313&sr=8-2&keywords=straight+dope](https://smile.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-Cecil-Adams/dp/0345333152/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548642313&sr=8-2&keywords=straight+dope) > **[The Straight Dope Series by Cecil Adams](https://www.goodreads.com/series/67759-the-straight-dope)** > > The Straight Dope, More of the Straight Dope, Return of the Straight Dope: Still More from the Popular Newspaper Column, and The Straight Dope Tells All ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/9 "2019-01-28T17:02:15Z")
I read the thread title as “Straight Dope Pre-WWII” and was imagining fierce debates about the New Deal and whether swing music was a tool of the privileged classes. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-pre-www/828396/10 "2019-01-29T20:28:51Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I read the thread title as “Straight Dope Pre-WWII” and was imagining fierce debates about the New Deal and whether swing music was a tool of the privileged classes. :smack: Your reading skills are getting as bad as mine. I tried to parse the title as having something to do with the Wobblies.