Thanks to faithful reader Anji, who is apparently good with paying attention to details, pointed out in a comment that this is the year the Dump turns 10. Good God! TEN!
Actually, I don’t have the official first date, because the early pages of the site have been lost to history. I did try to find them in the web archive, but they don’t exist. The earliest versions were part of Tripod, actually, back when they were one of the few sites to give away free web space (but prior to them getting all ad-happy). I cannot remember what my site’s old URL was, so I don’t think I’ll ever find it. I’m sure it was a work of art.
The earliest file available in my archives is July 9th, 1996, but I know I had stuff before then. I actually assume the blog’s birthday is in 1995. I just don’t have any way to determine when the actual birthdate is. So….July 9th it is! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more funtastic birthday excitement!
(And if anyone can find any proof/content from prior to that date, I have a big old prize waiting for you.)
I remember looking at the archives years ago, long before Junior was around. Perhaps a cyberarcheologist will find the remains one day.
I fear it is all lost forever. The problem being that nobody was really archiving things prior to 1996, and I may have deleted my tripod account when I moved to my own site on my ISP. I don’t know that I have backups of anything from the computer(s) I was using back then, and some of it may have been on a computer that was stolen from work, because that’s where I was teaching myself HTML in the first place. I *know* my stuff dates to at least 1995, but I just can’t put my hands on any of it. Sad, really.
You can try hypnotising me if you like to see what’s in my subconcious! (not much left nowadays, I’m afraid)