About Web-Heads

This is a collection of links from the Web-Heads mailing list, semi-managed by Gene Spafford since about 1995. It was created as a companion to the Yucks list (published more or less continually since 1990), and is devoted primarily to oddities discovered on the WWW. There is no guarantee that any of these are tasteful, polite, or useful. In fact, any pages that fit all of the above descriptions are almost automatically disqualified!

N.B. If you subscribe to the list or browse the links in this collection, you are doing so at your own risk. The following is taken from the intro message to the mailing list:

The "web-heads" list is an unmoderated collection of URLs people find pointing to a variety of sites with images, games, and prose that strike them as bizarre, unusual, humorous, or outright insane.

Note that WWW sites referenced in these URLs may contain offensive words, may be considered politically incorrect, present partisan political views, and/or question established authority. They may also display pictures of nude people, and those nude people may be doing things to each other you find offensive or disturbing. If you are afraid of any of these things, then unsubscribe NOW. This list is not for the humor-impaired or for those who believe speech should be free, but only for themselves. If you are bothered by what is on the other end of any URL posted to this list, it is not the fault of the person who sent it or the person who created the page -- it is yours. You have been warned! (And you probably shouldn't open these links while at work or in a public place if you are concerned about the reactions of management and/or bystanders.)

Postings to the list may only be made by subscribers to the list. This is not a forum for arguments, or for putting forth a particular agenda. If you think something you are about to post could offend the average person, please put some kind of warning in the subject line.

Do NOT post pictures or graphics in email to the list!

The basic idea here is to have some fun, and marvel at the breadth of human thought available on the WWW. Be nice if you post, and be amused if you read.

Peace.

To be added to the mailing list, send e-mail to "web-heads-request@cerias.purdue.edu" with a message body of "subscribe". Submissions to the list can be mailed directly. Of course, you unsubscribe by sending e-mail to "web-heads-request@cerias.purdue.edu" with a message body of "unsubscribe".

Many of the earliest links (and a surprising percentage of more recent finds) are no longer accessible. The nature of the WWW tends towards a certain impermanence of the impertinent. Note also that some descriptions may not match the page contents with which they are associated -- some pages have changed quite a bit since they were published in the web-heads list. Thus, if a tag line doesn't make any sense with respect to what is at the end of the link, then it could be our obtuse senses of humor, or it could be that the link/page structure has changed. If you really want to track down one of these pages, then you can visit the "Wayback Machine" at <http://www.archive.org> with the URL you are seeking; their archives go back to 1996, so some of these might be findable there. (Thanks to Werner for the reminder.)

Early Links -- 1994-1999

These are offered in no particular order. Giving some credit (blame?) where it is due, we note that many of these earliest, uncredited links on these pages were found on Mirsky's Worst of the Web -- sadly, now defunct. Most of the others were found by Spaf, by Jeff Pajor, Ivan Krsul, Craig Pfeifer, Bryn Dole, Steve Lodin, Tanya Mastin, Mark Crosbie, and Will McVey, (to name the repeat offenders). All comments are from the contributors (usually Spaf).

Recent archives 2000-2009

These are ordered mail archives. Some of the postings were single links, and some were large collections. Most were from Spaf, and continue his tradition of one-liner introductions (some obscure, and some in bad taste, of course). The posters are identified, and the archives are available both by date and by subject thread (follow-ups are unusual, but not unheard of).

2000/index.html 2000/threads.html
2001/index.html 2001/threads.html
2002/index.html 2002/threads.html
2003/index.html 2003/threads.html
2004/index.html 2004/threads.html
2005/index.html 2005/threads.html
2006/index.html 2006/threads.html
2007/index.html 2007/threads.html
2008/index.html 2008/threads.html
2009/index.html (current) 2009/threads.html