# What's the oldest & most primtive website or webpage still operational? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956 "2006-08-23T22:44:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/21 "2006-08-26T21:41:12Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] In all fairness, Lynx is not an ancient browser. It’s as standards-compliant as you can get and still be a text-based browser. Witness the fact that you were able to bring up a Straight Dope in Lynx. (Can you log in via Lynx?) [/QUOTE] It’s been a couple of years, but I have logged in via Lynx, mainly to see if I could log in via Lynx. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/22 "2006-08-26T23:38:23Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] Witness the fact that you were able to bring up a Straight Dope in Lynx. (Can you log in via Lynx?) [/QUOTE] Look at the image I linked to, and you’ll see ‘Logged in as GorillaMan’. And I really did post that reply through Lynx. I didn’t bother with any elaborate evidence, because I didn’t think any was necessary. ---
**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:** [August 27, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/23 "2006-08-27T02:10:27Z")
That’s my point. Lynx is actually a modern browser that just happens to be text-only. It interprets all the modern tags (to the extent that a web site’s content can be rendered in text at all). It does forms and allows for text input and probably handles secure connections, even. Samba isn’t a text-based browser in the same sense, it just predates the existence of anything that wasn’t text in HTML :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/24 "2006-08-27T19:23:58Z")
[QUOTE=astro] [Beat this one I ran across. Last edited in 1998 & still online!](http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/7575/) [/QUOTE] [Gaffaweb](http://gaffa.org/), a huge Kate Bush fan site, went online in **July 1996** , and is still going. It’s barely been updated since then (some content has, but not the look, style and feel), but if you’re a Kate Bush fan, this is still THE place to go for information. The place looks deceptively simple at first glance, but there are tens of thousands of pages there. It’s a relic, but one that’s still useful to fans. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/25 "2006-08-27T19:29:52Z")
I forgot to add this regarding Gaffaweb as a full disclosure… I did all the html, and all of the graphics, except for the discography (“This Woman’s Work”), the Dictionary (“Them Heavy People”) and the recently added (by someone else) “Cloudbusting,” which hasn’t been styled at all. I was a design whore back then and while not all that great at it, I just had to stick design everywhere. Each section looks completely different, with its own personality, all inspired by Kate lyri. Some I’m very proud of, some make me cringe a bit. The point though is that the content always wins out. There’s nothing that’s not accessible ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/26 "2006-08-27T19:47:21Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] [Gaffaweb](http://gaffa.org/), a huge Kate Bush fan site, went online in **July 1996** , and is still going. It’s barely been updated since then (some content has, but not the look, style and feel), but if you’re a Kate Bush fan, this is still THE place to go for information. The place looks deceptively simple at first glance, but there are tens of thousands of pages there. It’s a relic, but one that’s still useful to fans. [/QUOTE] I bow down before you. Kate Bush… one of the Great Women of Music. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/27 "2006-08-27T20:39:29Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I bow down before you. [/QUOTE] _blush_ You may rise. 🙂 [QUOTE=Sunspace] Kate Bush… one of the Great Women of Music. [/QUOTE] Yep. Still and always. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/28 "2006-08-27T20:48:31Z")
You know, I just now realized that I didn’t pay enough attention to the Subject Line. Specifically, “oldest & most primitive.” I may cringe at parts of Gaffaweb, but it’s hardly primitive and so probably shouldn’t have been mentioned. It would be better-mentioned in an “oldest & fully designed” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/29 "2006-08-27T23:50:36Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] You know, I just now realized that I didn’t pay enough attention to the Subject Line. Specifically, “oldest & most primitive.” I may cringe at parts of Gaffaweb, but it’s hardly primitive and so probably shouldn’t have been mentioned. It would be better-mentioned in an “oldest & fully designed” thread. [/QUOTE] Well, if we are going to talk about “oldest self-designed page”, I should probably haul out the original public version of my home page, circa 1995… :: digs into archive :: :: fires up FTP program :: :: connects to hosting provider :: :: transfers files :: [Voilà!](http://www.sunspace.org/old/SCOTHMPG.HTM) This dates from mid-1995, but was updated into early 1996. Note the upper-case file names, the deprecated .HTM extension for HTML fies (because DOS and Windows were unable to use four-character file extensions), and the tie-dyed separator bars. None of the links or anything work, and the oldest email address on the page was three hosting providers ago… the late, lamented Canada Remote Systems, which I joined in 1994, when it was just transitioning from the BBS world to the Internet. We had to go online through our whiz-bang 4800-baud modems and connect to their sustem, and it offered character-based menus through which we could get our email and post messages to Usenet. True internet access to the home at afforable prices did not happen until a year or so later, when I joined the original Interlog, and then I had to monkey with a protocol stack under Windows 95 to connect. I feel old. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956/30 "2006-08-28T20:26:17Z")
Did some googling and found this question [put elsewhere](http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/01/04/01/0045244.shtml). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-oldest-most-primtive-website-or-webpage-still-operational/369956.md?page=1)