In addition to the below history, checkpoint quote counts and other such hazerei on a more-or-less annual basis can be found in the Administrivia category.
- December 1988: WIST is born as a hardcopy Word document, to be distributed as a Christmas gift to friends.
- June 1999:WIST goes on-line with about 1,600 quotations.
- November 2000: WIST is “upgraded” to FrontPage, with about 3,600 quotations.
- June 2001: The free WIST-a-Day list begins on Topica.
- February 2002: WIST gets its own domain! Minor formatting changes. New edition has about 4,300 quotations.
- April 2002: The free WIST-a-Day list moves onto the Hill-Kleerup.org server.
- June 2003: WIST is moved onto a Movable Type platform.
- August 2003: WIST on MT is made “live” on the wist.info site.
- August 2004: The WIST shop at CafePress opens. Fortunately, CafePress does not rely upon it to make their quarterly earnings.
- July 2007: WIST v2 is launched, completely reorganized to use MT on a per-entry basis.
- August 2007: Begin offering feeds (including email) via FeedBurner.
- December 2007: Include the Google search bar.
- March 2008: Change to static pages in MT, for performance.
- July 2008: 6,000 quotations and growing!
- April 2009: WIST v3 is launched, using WordPress instead of MT, with about 7,000 quotations.
- January 2010: The WIST Twitter feed is created.
- June 2013: Replaced iNove theme with the WordPress TwentyTen theme.
- January 2014: WIST starts having topic tags added to each quotation for better searching.
- March 2014; Pictures of the quotation authors start being added.
- April 2014: The WIST Facebook feed is created.
- January 2015: WIST starts being mirrored (manually) onto Google+.
- October 2015: One quote a day is now given a graphic image / “meme”.
- May 2016: 15,000 quotations and growing!
- June 2016: WIST graphics start being mirrored (manually) onto Pinterist and Tumblr.
- November 2021: First full “refresh” of the authors. 19,000 quote and counting!
- September 2022: A new, responsive theme, Astra, implemented. Tip of the hat to Philip Lakra, via guru.com, who did the conversion to my crazy theme needs. He did a fine job, and I’d hire him again if I needed him for something (like, in another nine years).
- October 2022: 20,000 quotation and growing!
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Hey, didn’t chris barlow help conceive the idea for this site?
Sorry, no, I don’t know any Chris Barlow. He may have had some involvement in some other quotation site, but not mine.
Hi Dave,
My son-in-law, whom I like very much, sent me a quote by Thomas Jefferson regarding religion. I think he may have found the quote on WIST. Troy is struggling with the concept of organized religion and belief in God because of the hipocracy he sees among the christian community, and lately he’s been finding quotes from the “founding fathers” that indicate their disapproval of certain aspects of christianity. I appreciate your list of Jefferson quotes as they indicate his personal belief in God along with his discontent of the religious hipocracy. Thank you!
Thanks, Vann. Jefferson was not alone among the Founders in his disdain for aspects of organized religion, even though he maintained a belief in spirituality. Jefferson was a bit more radical than some — it’s unclear (and he kept it unclear) whether he actually believed in God (he certainly did not ascribe divinity to Jesus). Others (such as Adams) were more orthodox believers while still thinking that hypocrisy and superstition among Christian leaders were a scandal. Many felt that religion was a powerful force for maintaining social order and public morality, regardless of their personal beliefs. And still others were, in fact, staunch Christians and partisans of their particular denomination over all others. It was an interesting group of individuals.