Several people have asked me what wikiHow’s first article was. And the answer was that it was “How to Ride an Elevator” which our first engineer Travis Derouin wrote as a test. Sadly, the article was deleted a few years after it was written, when people started to think it was a joke topic. (I personally thought it was an acceptable topic for wikiHow, but oh well! Ironically this topic was re-created in 2009 by an anon and still exists on wikiHow. ) Anyway, I’m happy to report that Chris Hadley helped me find the oldest surviving wikiHow article! Here was the original version: http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Decide-Whether-to-Lease-or-Buy-a-Car&oldid=17423
and here it is now: http://www.wikihow.com/Decide-Whether-to-Lease-or-Buy-a-Car
It was written on December 8, 2004 most likely by Travis acting like an anonymous test editor. (We didn’t open the site to the wider public till January 15, 2005. ) The current version is clearly not our best work, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the original version was!
Woah…=O Eight years ago? =O Great job to Chris and Jack! June Days
Wow Jack opened the time capsule !
Nice, I like history like that. How’s Travis getting on? He seems to have fallen off of my online radar.
system
8
So cool!
It’s great how much that first non-deleted article has changed to the years.
Jordan
10
Very cool. Thanks for sharing that Jack!
Really Cool! It’s a piece from history! 8 Years :O!
Travis is doing well. I just caught up with him recently actually. He still lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He has started a new company which creates software for gyms. He’s also doing some freelance work at a company that we both used to work at in San Francisco.
^ Haha, a while ago, Lewis Collard found an image and I pictured it like this “He’s frantically searching through wH files as the other wikiHowians and visiting, and then runs in out of breath waving a paper saying “I found it!!”” - Kinda reminds me of this, picturing you two trying to find the article! =D June Days
Please don’t bump old threads Batreeqah. This thread’s last discussion was 108 weeks ago.
