The Internet Oracle

The Internet Oracle, also known as The Usenet Oracle, is quite possibly the Internet's earliest New Media work.

It was created by Steve Kinzler in October 1989, although the software predates his creation. Yes, The Internet Oracle is Older Than the Web (although, obviously, the website isn't).

How it operates is simple: one sends an email to a particular address, asking it to "askme" a question or "tellme" the answer to a question. Every "tellme" gets sent to an "askme", and the recipient of the question answers it and sends the answer back. The best questions and answers are added to the digests.

What sort of questions are asked, and what sort of answers are given? Let's put it this way: before the Web, the Usenet Oracle had its public home in the Usenet newsgroup rec.humor.oracle. This is not a place to ask about minutiae of Oracle RDBMS queries. Nor is it a place to ask about the quantity of lumber that a groundhog could toss if groundhogs could toss lumber. They've heard that one before, with various wordings. Repeatedly. This is a place for original humor - and, with 30 years of questions and answers, that's asking a lot.

Of course, with three decades of humor under its belt, the Oracle has a few running gags. ... raid Internet Oracle to start things off


 * Never Heard That One Before:
 * The woodchuck question.
 * Employment ads for Oracle programmers.
 * Ur Example: of New Media.


 * You owe the Oracle a truly original trope.