Since the dawn of the internet, it has evolved at an astonishing rate. We are so used to the world wide web of today that just picturing the early days after its birth is almost like a fantasy. One thing that remains constant, however, is that it was brimming with online mysteries, just like today!

When a netizen asked people to spill these unsolved online mysteries of that time, they didn’t hold back. If you are from that age, a few might be familiar to you, while others might be completely new. Some of these will leave you with an itch to solve them; that’s how compelling they are! Just scroll down to check them out.

More info: Reddit

• Read More: Folks Are Intrigued By These 32 Mysteries From The Early Internet Days That Were Never Solved

#1

When The Simpsons did the Who Shot Mr. Burns cliffhanger, they had a contest to see if anyone could solve it. On the Simpsons usenet there was one commenter who solved it using the clues correctly (as opposed to just a lucky guess.)
The showrunners tried all that they could to find the person but never did…

Image credits: das_goose

#2

Back in the day there was a site called bonsai kitten claiming to sell real kittens grown in glass jars. It was a hoax website but people actually believed it.

Image credits: anon

#3

Grngecko.com/torment was crazy to me. I don’t remember how I found it but it started you out on this puzzle that wasn’t too difficult to solve, but it just kept giving more puzzles with increasing difficulty. I remember having a full notebook from writing stuff down trying to figure out how to solve them.

I eventually got stuck and went to some forums to find out there were people who put in some WORK trying to complete it but I don’t believe anyone ever reached the end. They eventually took it down and the creator put up a new series of puzzles that was solved within the first couple days.

I was always curious what was at the end of that grngecko puzzle. That website is what made me have a love for puzzles and riddles.

Image credits: ThreePieces

#4

The “Enigma” conspiracy theory about Pink Floyd’s album “The Division Bell” died with Usenet’s popularity before it ever led to either the treasure the band had allegedly hidden somewhere for fans to find or the identity of the person connected with the band who was contributing to the theories.

Image credits: Zhirrzh

#5

Whether or not “the X-files” is based on *real* FBI files.

Image credits: anon

#6

Who wrote SQL Slammer, an early internet worm. I work in cybersecurity; I remember at the time it was released it was crazy the damage it did: took down 90% of all infectable hosts within 10 minutes or so. Many believe it was an early cyberweapon test. If you get into the technical details of the thing it’s wild: so crazy efficient it’s entire source code sat in a single packet. More info: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer).

#7

Not sure if this counts but the Max Headroom/Dr. Who incident has been discussed on the internet for decades without those involved ever being identified.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion)

It’s a cool story because it’s the cliche where hackers do something harmless just because they can except this really happened and nobody is even sure of how. I’ve read that they would’ve needed to overpower the signal that the station was broadcasting but to do that they would’ve needed to be close to the station and using very expensive and powerful gear.

Image credits: Achack

#8

The leprechaun sighting in Crichton.

I want to know if an entire neighborhood came together to fake it, if something was in the water, a real leprechaun was seen, but most importantly, I want to know where the gold at.

Image credits: JudgementalChair

#9

I’ve always wondered about Ted the caver. I think his original posts was on geocities but he had this whole blog about going caving in some more unknown areas and hearing/smelling weird noises and deathly flesh similar to a wendingo.

Image credits: anon

#10

I can’t remember the name of the channel, but I remember the mistery being set around early Youtube days. There was this one girl doing vlogs in Youtube and she had quite a following. Then she started uploading stuff about being stalked and she was afraid someone was after her. After some time, she completely vanished and stopped uploading.

modern-era replied:
lonelygirl15. It was staged. I’ll admit, it had me for a minute.
There is still one mystery surrounding that, though. Two videos were posted on Youtube by cassieiswatching that used some of the same locations as LG15. No one has ever claimed responsibility

Image credits: TheSovereign2181

#11

Anybody remember cutoffmyfeet.com? A guy had terrible foot pain and wanted to amputate, so the website said. He was taking donations for entry into a contest to be the person who, via the internet, would be able to push a keyboard key that activated a home made guillotine to remove his affected feet. The whole thing was planned out with a scheduled date and audience. Ambulance would be already called. Never heard what happened.

Image credits: PutnamPete

#12

I remember the mystery surrounding John Titor, the time traveller.

He even has his own wikipedia article. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor).

Image credits: nathanosaurus84

#13

The identity of Bloodninja, the greatest internet troll of all time. Ahh, those were the days!

edit: [chat logs](https://ift.tt/NECpULX) for those of you unfamiliar with this legend.

Image credits: valleyvictorian

#14

I was on Stumbleupon and I remember a story about a Russian (?) boy who had knowledge of ancient civilizations even though he was from a small town in Siberia. He claimed to be an alien who was sent down to earth and grew in his host (the mom). Can’t remember why he was sent to earth but I haven’t been able to find that story since.

Image credits: okierika

#15

A long time ago I was chatting with someone over IM and he somehow managed to open my CD tray over the internet. To this day, I have no idea how tf he managed to do that.

Image credits: jcggames1

#16

I remember this random youtube video where a guy kidnaps a girl and after 10 years, he posted a video titled “happy anniversary” and laughed like hell with some mystery puzzle at the end.

cuppateafling replied:
That’s the disappearance of Maura Murray and the video was posted on the eighth year. Supposedly the video creator is not involved, just mentally ill and may enjoy the attention.

Image credits: anon

#17

Not from the early days- but the stories and conspiracies of Cicada 3301 sound amazing, shame they havent posted a puzzle in years though (or figured out the last one).

Image credits: anon

#18

All of those posts from a bunch of different accounts from a bunch of different social media sites that were all about Captain Kutchie’s Key Lime Pie. Captain Kutchies was a local restaurant that closed a long time ago. I seriously wonder what all that was about.

Image credits: Triviess

#19

There a was a site I found only once and have never been able to relocate.

The whole of it seemed to consist of cryptic text in various patterns, with links to other cryptic text in various patterns. The links would be on whole words or sometimes individual letters.

It’s hard to explain how, but going through the pages gave you the sense that you were going *somewhere*, that it wasn’t just endless randomness but some kind of puzzle to be solved.

I never solved it and neglected to bookmark it; now that (486) computer is a scrap heap.

Image credits: quequotion

#20

The Mayday mystery. There were a load of conspiracy theories like a cult, government recruiting, the illuminati, and etc. Basically, this guy found this weird crypric ad in his school paper, and turns out that they date back to the early 80s, possibly even further, and still continue to this day. The ads included the word Mayday, and a lot of ciphers and math. Apparently, the guy who discovered this was messaged by the mysterious group who made it, although im a little skeptical about that.

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Image credits: Iampenguin1234

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