News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

The original road enthusiasts

Started by bugo, September 11, 2014, 11:02:46 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

bugo

Who were some of the original internet road enthusiasts? What date would you consider the end of the original road enthusiasts? The name that stands out to me is HB Elkins, because he has been around as long or longer than I've been in the community. I joined MTR in late 1997.


bandit957

I found eMpTyR around 1996. I guess it was about 2008 when the dominance of the fusty road enthusiasts of old lifted.

Back in 1987, there was a local BBS where we had a message base where we talked road stuff.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

empirestate

To me, it would be anyone who already had a website by around 1997, when I first started looking into it.

Roadrunner75

How old is MTR?  If I recall, some Usenet groups were distributed through some BBS's I used in the very early 90s (maybe very late 80s).  I don't remember if I saw it at that time, or later in college (mid 90s) via their Unix based system.  Never read it much and didn't post or have an interest in Usenet in general, and really started reading up on road items via websites much later like the Steve Anderson sites, etc.


kurumi

The first roadgeek site I encountered was Zzyzx's Interstates list, which still exists in its original form. Firefox's "Page Info" says August 7 1998 for the most recent update.

I think Dan Faigin was circulating a list of California highways before the Web was really a thing.
My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

Scott5114

I was a road enthusiast back in 1995, but I was 5 years old and we didn't have internet anyway :P
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

US71

I've been an enthusiast forever, it seems. I didn't really get "active" until after the Internet.
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Pete from Boston

Were there any Gopher roads lists? 

(I hesitate to call them "sites" because they were mostly like hallways with doors that led to other hallways full of doors, on and on.  Eventually some of those doors led to the cyber version of a messy, dimly-lit room full of file cabinets.  You kids have no idea how good you have it.)

hbelkins

I first got true Internet access (not AOL) in 1995.

The first road site I really recall stumbling across was James P.G. Sterbenz's US route listing.

As for individual MTR participants, I'd be hard-pressed to identify one or two that stand out. It'd be more like a dozen or so if I tried to start naming names.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Pete from Boston

Quote from: Roadrunner75 on September 12, 2014, 11:41:59 AM
How old is MTR?  If I recall, some Usenet groups were distributed through some BBS's I used in the very early 90s (maybe very late 80s).  I don't remember if I saw it at that time, or later in college (mid 90s) via their Unix based system.  Never read it much and didn't post or have an interest in Usenet in general, and really started reading up on road items via websites much later like the Steve Anderson sites, etc.

As far as I can tell, the charter was first posted on December 15, 1995:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/misc.transport.misc/misc.transport.road|sort:date/misc.transport.misc/mdNIdEuMx1M/b0Ze7gi_NHkJ

There were established traditions and policies for creating these things that it would take a hypnotist for me to remember, so who knows exactly where its true inception was, but that's pretty darn close.


sdmichael

Sounds like MTR might be as old as my website... which has been around since December 1995. I don't know when I found usenet groups, though my first Internet account, through a local ISP, was a shell account. Things like usenet were easier to find. Aside from the Internet, I had been following the Ridge Route and Sierra Highway since I was a kid.

Roadrunner75

Quote from: Pete from Boston on September 12, 2014, 09:20:02 PM
Quote from: Roadrunner75 on September 12, 2014, 11:41:59 AM
How old is MTR?  If I recall, some Usenet groups were distributed through some BBS's I used in the very early 90s (maybe very late 80s).  I don't remember if I saw it at that time, or later in college (mid 90s) via their Unix based system.  Never read it much and didn't post or have an interest in Usenet in general, and really started reading up on road items via websites much later like the Steve Anderson sites, etc.
As far as I can tell, the charter was first posted on December 15, 1995:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/misc.transport.misc/misc.transport.road|sort:date/misc.transport.misc/mdNIdEuMx1M/b0Ze7gi_NHkJ
There were established traditions and policies for creating these things that it would take a hypnotist for me to remember, so who knows exactly where its true inception was, but that's pretty darn close.
It was in college that I stumbled on it then.  At the time, I had gotten tired of forums on local BBS's so I didn't bother with it or any other groups.  Being able to just search the web a few years later for info on roads was a lot more convenient.  Eventually a lot of the searches led to some site called AARoads....
Quote from: Pete from Boston on September 12, 2014, 08:57:57 PM
Were there any Gopher roads lists? 
(I hesitate to call them "sites" because they were mostly like hallways with doors that led to other hallways full of doors, on and on.  Eventually some of those doors led to the cyber version of a messy, dimly-lit room full of file cabinets.  You kids have no idea how good you have it.)
Wow...Gopher.  There's another one I forgot about.  And that's a pretty good description of it, if I recall it right...

J N Winkler

Old-school roadgeek meet:


Photo credit:  Le Strade, September 1938

Roadgeek meet photo:


Photo credit:  Le Strade, September 1938

Both photos show members of the Italian delegation to the World Road Congress, held in The Hague in 1938, on an inspection tour of the then newly completed motorway to Amsterdam.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

vdeane

Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

bandit957

They also forgot the "Send Poo" sign.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

andy3175

Quote from: kurumi on September 12, 2014, 12:15:24 PM
The first roadgeek site I encountered was Zzyzx's Interstates list, which still exists in its original form. Firefox's "Page Info" says August 7 1998 for the most recent update.

I think Dan Faigin was circulating a list of California highways before the Web was really a thing.

Yes, the big three were Zzyzx, Faigin, and Kurumi (and Sterbenz to a lesser extent). I found these sites in the time period 1996-7 when I was in graduate school and had access to what passed as high speed Internet in those days at the library computer lab. There was this amazing experience when I explored government publications and found a hard copy of the Interstate Route Log and Finder List. The first road enthusiast I talked on email to was Casey Cooper, after I'd driven old US 80 in Southern California for the first time and compared my experience with his then-new US 80 webpage. I then met Michael and others after that, with Alex, Jeremy, and I meeting online in 1997 and creating AARoads a few years later.
Regards,
Andy

www.aaroads.com



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.