Curses - Ninja’d by two years. My first citation is a microbiology paper from 1977. After that it is Macintosh programs I uploaded between 1987 and 1997 but I can’t find anything older than 1994 (older would have been on CompuServe).
I looked and the oldest I can find is Nov 02, 2003 on another forum.
In the late 90s, I posted on a usenet which was never migrated into the Internet. After that, it was that particular forum, then here and a few other forums.
Your link doesn’t quite work, but Googling “UIUC PLATO archive” give you a link.
But the notes they mention don’t seem to be a dump of PLATO notes.
But I did find a book on it: The Friendly Orange Glow which I’m going to have to buy. You can search in it.
I started on PLATO in 1974, just as the social media stuff started to explode. I started what I think is the first online Star Trek column in 1975 or so on Red Sweater News. (Bruce Parello, the Red Sweater, is in the book.) If that is archived that would be my first. If not, many usenet posts from the early '90s or late '80s, back when there was one alt.sex group which didn’t get much traffic.
I made posts on this thing called the WELL in the late 1980s, but I have no idea if those threads are still visible. It’s still around, but I’ve never bothered to rejoin. I waste too much time here as it is.
Via Google Groups I can see a Usenet post made in 1987. (Solution to a race problem, posted in comp.unix.wizards.) I also posted to rec.puzzles about that time but can’t find any such — is it possible Google purged old rec.puzzles posts but not comp.unix? I made earlier Usenet posts from a different host but can’t find them.
Seeing these 32-year old posts is bitter-sweet nostalgia! Once I was a computer wizard! :eek: Now I need a teenager to help me do very simple things. :o