~ Early Web Links ~

Robotstxt.org is the definitive reference for understanding web robots, crawlers, and spiders, covering everything from how to write a robots.txt file to blocking unwanted bots from your site. It includes a robots database, a robots.txt syntax checker, an IP lookup tool, and a comprehensive FAQ making it an essential stop for webmasters and developers.

Published by the Software Freedom Law Center, this comprehensive legal primer covers copyright, licensing, trademarks, and organizational issues specifically for free and open source software projects. Written by prominent FOSS legal experts including Eben Moglen and Bradley Kuhn, it walks developers through choosing licenses like the GPL, handling copyright enforcement, and structuring their organizations.

Tyler Akins' Rumkin.com hosts a comprehensive collection of browser-based cipher and code tools, covering everything from classic substitution ciphers like Caesar and Atbash to more obscure ones like Playfair and Übchi. Each tool automates the encoding and decoding process while explaining the underlying logic, making it a valuable reference for cryptography hobbyists and puzzle enthusiasts alike.

VE3ZSH's Links is a sprawling personal bookmarks directory maintained by a Canadian ham radio operator, organizing hundreds of curated URLs across categories like search engines, hardware datasheets, InfoSec tools, language resources, forums, and small-web communities. The sheer breadth and curation depth make it a genuinely useful launchpad for anyone interested in technical, indie-web, and utility resources.

Andy McFadden's comprehensive CD-Recordable FAQ is the definitive reference guide covering everything about CD-R and CD-RW technology, from basic concepts to advanced topics like packet writing, disc formats, and hardware troubleshooting. Originally developed for the comp.publish.cdrom Usenet newsgroups, this meticulously maintained document reached version 2.73 and is available in multiple languages including German, French, Russian, and more.

Fravia's Searchlores is a legendary, advertisement-free collection of advanced internet searching strategies, essays, and techniques for finding information on the web, from basic queries to deep web research. Built by the renowned researcher Fravia, this site offers raw searching knowledge including webbits, guessing techniques, combing methods, and search engine strategies that were far ahead of their time.

Bekanar's cozy corner of the web presents itself as a knowledge-sharing wiki covering topics the creator finds interesting. The decorative buttons and stamps prominently feature One Piece characters like Portgas D. Ace, Buggy the Clown, and Roronoa Zoro, giving the site a strong anime flavor alongside activist and fandom flair.

The official manual for Harlowe 3.3.8, the story format used with Twine 2 for creating interactive fiction, covering every macro, markup syntax, and coding feature in exhaustive detail. With hundreds of documented commands, changers, and variables organized across thousands of links, this reference is an indispensable guide for anyone building Twine-based games or stories.

The Blue Pages is a curated old-web and indie-web directory that functions like a digital yellow pages, listing sites across dozens of categories including tilde servers, webrings, Gemini/Gopher hosts, and retro communities. Built as an alternative to algorithm-driven search engines, it embraces pure human-curated web indexing with a nostalgic small-web philosophy.

ResearchBuzz has been covering the world of search engines, databases, archives, and online information resources since 1998, making it one of the longest-running research-focused web publications around. Run by a single author known as ResearchBuzz, the site pairs news commentary with a growing suite of original tools like SearchTweaks, Local Search America, and Congress Corral that help users get more out of Google, Wikipedia, and RSS feeds.