Sam Thursfield: 25th October 2026
A PHP-based wiki project created by a teenager in 2002 offers a snapshot of how the internet has transformed from a niche hacker culture to mainstream awareness.
Thursfield, now a seasoned operating systems developer, reflects on his early forays into web development through his personal blog. His 2002 PHP wiki project, simply named 'Wiki!', represents a time when web development was the domain of hobbyists rather than global news outlets.
The project began when Atkinson asked Thursfield to create a wiki in PHP, which at the time was a relatively unknown technology. Even then, the code contained security vulnerabilities that would be unacceptable today, including the ability to impersonate users through cookie manipulation.
Early Web Development
Hosted on SourceForge, the platform that served as the GitHub of its era, the wiki project unintentionally gained significant visibility due to its subdomain name. Despite its flaws, the project attracted genuine users who contributed content, including thoughtful poems in Italian and Russian.
Sam, there are some serious bugs in this wiki. I keep on getting 'document contains no data' errors; get me on AIM.
Security Evolution
The project's security flaws were eventually discovered by SourceForge administrators, who took down the site around 2007. This contrasts sharply with what would happen today, where such vulnerabilities would be exploited almost immediately for malicious purposes.
Thursfield notes that while some aspects of early web development like QBASIC are now obsolete, others like PHP have become foundational to the modern web. The recent mainstream attention to PHP following the BBC's confusion about the technology underscores how far web development has come from its niche origins.
From Niche to Mainstream
The author observes that the current moment with large language models represents a similar transition as what happened with wikis - hacker culture going mainstream. He reflects on how the word 'wiki' once evoked exotic feelings but now immediately brings to mind Wikipedia.
Thursfield's journey from teenage hacker to professional developer illustrates the evolution of the tech industry, where obscure programming languages and practices become fundamental to our digital infrastructure. His early project, though simple, represents a piece of internet history that continues to exist through web archives.
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