Ancient Web: The Hirschy Homepage Still Asks for Old Wives' Tales

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

A website asking the public to send in old wives' tales sounds like a period piece. The Hirschy Web Site is still asking.

Visit the Hirschy Web Site

The homepage belongs to a self-described 'Pagemaster' located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Its left-hand navigation is an almost perfect inventory of what people once put on their own personal domains: Didja Know?, The Book of Hirschys, The Game Place, A Fun Clock!, an area-code list, and The More Serious Side. There is an awards-and-credits page, too, because a website used to be something you proudly displayed awards on.

Near the top is a little plea: the webmaster needs more old wives' tales because the Didja Know? supply has run dry. It's a miniature portrait of the old reader–webmaster relationship. Instead of 'engagement' disappearing into a recommendation algorithm, visitors were asked to email in something worth putting on the page.

The Pagemaster has other things to do

The site's message to visitors is refreshingly plain. There aren't enough hours in the day, it says, so the site is pretty static. Visitors are welcome to browse anyway, report broken links, or send suggestions, comments, and complaints.

The visible homepage reports December 12, 2022 as its last update. That is not evidence of when the site began; its early founding date is not reliably stated there. The case for its inclusion is the distinct survival of the older personal-homepage format, not a guessed launch year.

Bits of that format are still attached. A small 'frame free site' graphic signals a concern from the days when websites could trap your browser in frames. A visitor counter appears near the bottom, and a 'To the Top!' link helps readers navigate a page without the luxury of smooth scrolling or an app shell.

The humor section offers brief bits of workplace wisdom, including the idea that a specialist arrives just in time to share the blame. Its punctuation and navigation are more revealing than a slick design makeover could ever be.

Several interior links did not return readable pages during this review, so the intact homepage and its visible index—not an assumed complete archive—are the reliable evidence. It is still enough to show a human-run site organized around the owner's miscellaneous interests.

Explore the Hirschy homepage and its surviving links.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.