# General > The Literature Network >  When was Lit Net born?

## Maximilianus

Hello people in charge. Sorry to bother, but I'm curious to know if anyone of you remembers the exact date.

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## Chilly

It was long, long ago on a misty morning in a damp, cold building surrounded by sprawling neighborhoods growing at frightening speeds; three people sat near a table on which lay a silly-looking contraption that more or less resembled today's computer; with them was an idea.

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## Haunted

Wasn't it right after mankind discovered fire?

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## Maximilianus

> Wasn't it right after mankind discovered fire?


Gee, I can't tell... I wasn't even my parents' project by then  :FRlol:

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## neilgee

I don't know because I wasn't here but if you look on the list of Book of the Month nominations it only goes back to 2004.

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## hoope

hey max ! I really have no idea .. but wanted to step by and say hi 
however i guess its old... Maybe Scheherazade or JBI can help  :Smile:

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## Scheherazade

I think the start of the Forum is what triggered the Big Bang... 

 :Tongue: 

This might be what you are looking for.

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## Eryk

A 2003 screenshot from a wayback machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/200304071...re.com/forums/

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## billl

neilgee inspired me to look at the "last" page for a few of the main sections of the forum, and I kept finding that the oldest posts occurred at the same time and date:

January 17, 2002 at 4:16PM
http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=223
http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=176
http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=216

Indeed, these urls seem to indicate that:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...thread.php?t=1

might be the first post... Annnd after checking, well, there it is. The first post.

But I don't trust the time and date, obviously a bunch of posts (apparently the first couple hundred or more) were reposted and assigned a new time and date at some point. At 4:16PM on Jan. 17, 2002, I guess... Oddly, the posts don't get going again for a couple months (judging from the General Lit section), so something must have happened with reconstruction, or some threads might have been removed or whatever.

In short, question still not answered. But it was probably before 2002.

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## Virgil

> A 2003 screenshot from a wayback machine:
> 
> http://web.archive.org/web/200304071...re.com/forums/


How did you get that Eryk? Is there an archive we can access?

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## Eryk

> How did you get that Eryk? Is there an archive we can access?


I googled "wayback machine" and clicked the first result. Then you just enter the URL in the search box. It's really neat.

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## billl

googling brought me to this page:

http://whois.domaintools.com/online-literature.com

It looks like the domain name has been owned by its current owners (?) since November 2, 2000. That isn't the same thing as the day that the website was born, necessarily, however. It could easily have taken time to set things up after acquiring the domain name--or it might have been ready to go right away. And there might be info about prior ownership somewhere else.

I might be misunderstanding things, but that is what it looks like to me. Turning the clock back some more, but still no real answer to the question.

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## neilgee

Well done billl, you had an inspired idea there. I would never have thought of taking it that far. Just out of interest I wonder who the current owner is and couldn't we just ask them?

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## Haunted

> Just out of interest I wonder who the current owner is and couldn't we just ask them?


nay, that would be too easy  :Wink:

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## DanielBenoit

Lit-Net has a secret, so dangerous that not even Admin could reveal it! It turns out, that he has been working on the forums since 1969, and in fact invented the internet well before anyone could figure out!  :Eek: 

Go to the bottom of the page and see the conspirasy uveil right before your very eyes!

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## IceM

You guys are ALL wrong!

God played Rock Paper Scissors with Zeus and lost. Thus, this forum was made before Earth was.

Telemachos told me.

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## DanielBenoit

> You guys are ALL wrong!
> 
> God played Rock Paper Scissors with Zeus and lost. Thus, this forum was made before Earth was.
> 
> Telemachos told me.


Thou hast speaken the Truth.

But it was Jupiter not Zeus mind you. Zeus is an illusion created by the anti-literature agents. We must get these things right.

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## Maximilianus

> I don't know because I wasn't here but if you look on the list of Book of the Month nominations it only goes back to 2004.


Thanks for that info  :Thumbs Up: 




> hey max ! I really have no idea .. but wanted to step by and say hi 
> however i guess its old... Maybe Scheherazade or JBI can help


Hi, dear friend hoope  :Wave:  Glad to see you back!




> I think the start of the Forum is what triggered the Big Bang... 
> 
> 
> 
> This might be what you are looking for.


Thank you Sher. You are always so there when you're needed  :Nod:   :Biggrin: 




> A 2003 screenshot from a wayback machine:
> 
> http://web.archive.org/web/200304071...re.com/forums/


Very interesting piece of invaluable history  :Smile: 




> neilgee inspired me to look at the "last" page for a few of the main sections of the forum, and I kept finding that the oldest posts occurred at the same time and date:
> 
> January 17, 2002 at 4:16PM
> http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=223
> http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=176
> http://www.online-literature.com/for...read.php?t=216
> 
> Indeed, these urls seem to indicate that:
> 
> ...


Such thoroughness, _billl_! Given the threads found by Dan, dated 1969, we could fairly say there have been a few date issues here, to say the least. However, it must be normal for sites that tend to grow fast and constantly to experience all sorts of technical issues, such as date inconsistencies. I think date issues may occur, for example, when sites change the server where they are hosted. However, the dates set on Jan 17 2002 seem to make much more sense than those of 1969  :Tongue: 




> How did you get that Eryk? Is there an archive we can access?





> I googled "wayback machine" and clicked the first result. Then you just enter the URL in the search box. It's really neat.


It's actually a part of the Internet Archive. If you go to the index of the Wayback Machine, there's a left frame where it says what it is about beginning with "Browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago..."




> googling brought me to this page:
> 
> http://whois.domaintools.com/online-literature.com
> 
> It looks like the domain name has been owned by its current owners (?) since November 2, 2000. That isn't the same thing as the day that the website was born, necessarily, however. It could easily have taken time to set things up after acquiring the domain name--or it might have been ready to go right away. And there might be info about prior ownership somewhere else.
> 
> I might be misunderstanding things, but that is what it looks like to me. Turning the clock back some more, but still no real answer to the question.


I think you are right on your guesses billl. Great investigation, thanks for taking the time and sharing. You too are there when needed  :Thumbs Up: 




> Lit-Net has a secret, so dangerous that not even Admin could reveal it! It turns out, that he has been working on the forums since 1969, and in fact invented the internet well before anyone could figure out! 
> 
> Go to the bottom of the page and see the conspirasy uveil right before your very eyes!


Dan, have you ever thought of applying for a job with the FBI or some other 3-lettered special agency?  :FRlol:  You have a talent for investigation. It must be that hat of yours, Sherlock-styled, that gives you inspiration to tie loose ends  :Biggrin: 

*Conclusion 1:* billl and Dan were born to be web detectives  :Biggrin: 

*Conclusion 2:* Let's celebrate Lit Net's birthday on Jan 17! ..... By the way, has it ever been done?

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## Admin

You want the day the site was born, or the forums?

If the site...

29th of November 1999. Original domain was literature-web.net switched it to online-literature.com not too long after.

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## Admin

So... we just had our 10 year... heh, and I missed it.

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## DanielBenoit

> So... we just had our 10 year... heh, and I missed it.


I say, it's quite strange that this issue would be raised on the tenth year annversary!! That, along with the fact that we have substantial proof that Admin was secretly working on this site since 1969! And what year was 1969? It was the 'flower power' year! What happened in the summer of 1969? Two things, deeply related: Woodstock and the Moon Landing. What film was released that year to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards? _Midnight Cowboy_! You see what's going on! Communist conspirasy! The hippies staged the moon-landing to trick us into thinking we had beaten the Soviets, while the Reds infiltrated our studio system and began releasing movies with secret homosexual undertones. *deep melodramatic voice* _Men, women, parents! Hide you're children from the commies! They're back!_

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## Admin

Of course, I also wasn't alive in 1969 and my mother was still in highschool.

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## DanielBenoit

> Of course, I also wasn't alive in 1969 and my mother was still in highschool.


Of course I was only kidding  :Wink: . Besides, the true perpetrator of this conspirasy is Scheherazade, who will probably close this thread in response to my hijacking of this thread and leading it off to realms of the unknown. .. . .

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## stephofthenight

I take it you wish to celbrate the birthday of our beloved sight Max.  :Biggrin:

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## Maximilianus

> You want the day the site was born, or the forums?
> 
> If the site...
> 
> 29th of November 1999. Original domain was literature-web.net switched it to online-literature.com not too long after.


Thank you... and the forums have a specific date that you can recall?  :Smile: 




> So... we just had our 10 year... heh, and I missed it.


Being the boss, it's like forgetting your own day one  :Biggrin: 




> I say, it's quite strange that this issue would be raised on the tenth year annversary!! That, along with the fact that we have substantial proof that Admin was secretly working on this site since 1969! And what year was 1969? It was the 'flower power' year! What happened in the summer of 1969? Two things, deeply related: Woodstock and the Moon Landing. What film was released that year to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards? _Midnight Cowboy_! You see what's going on! Communist conspirasy! The hippies staged the moon-landing to trick us into thinking we had beaten the Soviets, while the Reds infiltrated our studio system and began releasing movies with secret homosexual undertones. *deep melodramatic voice* _Men, women, parents! Hide you're children from the commies! They're back!_


There goes Dan and his vivid imagination  :Tongue: 




> I take it you wish to celbrate the birthday of our beloved sight Max.


_Exactly!_ I want a full party, with a cake, and candles on it  :Biggrin:

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## stephofthenight

> _Exactly!_ I want a full party, with a cake, and candles on it


Your wish is my command, let me get riiiiight on that for ya  :Biggrin:

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## Jozanny

I've been online much longer than 02, but it took me five years to find the site, and quite some time to actually post after that. Paranoid long before I reached this doorstep, yet somehow this doesn't stop me  :FRlol:

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## Maximilianus

Well, I began posting as soon as I joined, though in my case that wouldn't matter very much for the records, as I often have this paranoia, breathing on my very nape, telling me that my posts will hardly ever be half as eloquent as the posts of others  :Tongue:   :Biggrin:

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## the silent x

Enough of all this stuff that makes sense, we're all literature enthusiasts, this is something that should be blown way out of proportion and have nothing to do with how litnet was actually formed.

here is my account of what happened:
Lit-net was never created, it was discovered. The military wanted a way to link all the literature of the world together, so they created lit-net to regulate the literature of the world. The problem was, Lit-net became sentient with the help of of it's programmers, and the military created the internet to imprison lit-net, and provide a distraction for the many users associated with it. Over time the internet drew people away from the actual lit-net by creating these crazy literature forums. So the quest continues to find the real lit-net, and all the members of this forum are just fellow adventurers on our glorious quest.

Top that!!!!

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## Logos

lol silent  :Nod:

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## Maximilianus

Ditto. It's a very vividly amusing account of events  :Biggrin:

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