There are no names listed in the first five posts. It just says: Guest where the name should be.
Too weird.
Pre-VB board software.
The names didn’t make the trip in the transition.
This happens with very old posts. The name of the poster has become disassociated with the post in the database.
From the comments, it seems that the first post was by CKDexterHaven, and from the signature post #5 was by** tomndebb**.
Post #2 was made by GusNSpot.
I guess the next poster calling him a “freako-biker extremist” gives it away.
Gotta admit, that’s a strong contender for oldest zombie revival. It might not be possible to have an older one.
Not that anyone should try.
That was thread 408. People have searched for threads starting with 1 and have pulled up some in the single digits. I’m not sure if 1 itself was possible, but whatever the limit is, it’s been reached.
Any chance of a link to that thread?
Edit - Never mind. I found it.
The thread that currently comes up as number 1 is not the first thread, but is dated July 12, 2000. The post appears as #571766.
The thread listed as #2 is dated March 12, 1999, and the post appears as #2, so this may in fact be the earliest extant thread on the board. (It’s possible the actual first thread/post was a test and was deleted).
Note that #2 says ‘repost’ in the title. That would be hilarious - and oh so typical - if the first ever thread had a Doper who said, “I didn’t get that quite right. I’m reporting it to be better.”
whitho mentions that he first posted the screed at alt.fan.cecil-adams. He apparently reposted it on this board as soon as it became available.