Is this Mark Zuckerberg's teenage website from 1999?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A rather sparse looking website from 1999 that allegedly belonged to Mark Zuckerberg is making the rounds on the web today.
If it's true, well, let's just be glad that the Facebook CEO’s web design skills have improved over the last 14 years.
And old Zuck might be a little redfaced over the fact that the username was Slim Shady -- the name of rapper Eminem's alter-ego during the mid '90s.
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"No, really, my name is Slim Shady," it says on the website, Angelfire, which was one of the first blogging sites on the web back in the day.
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"Just kidding, my name is Mark (for those of you that don't know me) and I live in a small town near the massive city of New York. I am currently 15 years old and I just finished freshman year in high school."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the bio, the site was set up to promote a program Zuckerberg built called the "Vader Fader" -- a program that manipulated the text in AOL chat texts, instant messages and emails.
For a teenager, Zuck seemed to have his finger on the pulse in regard to what the future would bring. He described a Java application called "The Web" on his site, which allowed people to connect to each other over the Internet.
"As of now, the web is pretty small," he wrote. "Hopefully, it will grow into a larger web."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This is one of the few applets that require your participation to work well. If your name is already on The Web because someone else has chosen to be linked to you, then you may choose two additional people to be linked with. Otherwise, if you see someone who you know and would like to be linked with but your name is not already on The Web, then you can contact me and I will link that person to you and put you on The Web."
"If you do not know anyone on The Web, contact me anyway and I will put you on it. In order for this applet to work, you must E-Mail me your name and the names of the two people that you would like to be linked with. Thank you!"
It's almost a little bit freaky in its foresight. Zuck was trying to connect people to each other via the web even back in 1999.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Other pages on his site included a list of "the best" things including "The best web presence: Me" and "The best way to stay out of shape: Eating School Lunch."
The site also contained a magnetic poetry section and a Java drawing tool.
So is the page real? It seems to be.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The website was discovered by Hacker News and Vice magazine discovered that the contact email on the page was an old AOL account belonging to account holder "ekzooks," a name used all over the web by Mark Zuckerberg's father, Edward Zuckerberg.
The source code of the page also shows that the creator of the website was Mark Zuckerberg.
What do you think? Is it just a detailed hoax?
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