Derek's Big Website of WalMart Purchase Receipts

Site News

12/6/99 -- Added guestbook
12/6/99 -- Hey! Thanks to Useless Pages for mentioning my site.
12/8/99 -- Word gets around! Thanks to NerdPerfect for mentioning my site. here's what he had to say:

"You think you've seen boring? You haven't seen anything yet, buddy. This guy has kept and scanned each receipt he's obtained from Walmart since 1996, and catalogued them for your viewing pleasure. It makes the Dancing Mahirs from the last round of Quickshots seem like cutting edge technology."

12/8/99 -- Must be my 15min. of fame -- another link already! Can't find the source, but here's the URL.
12/9/99 -- Wierdzo...I'm linked here: news://news.mcom.com/384FEFA7.136135BA%40netscape.com, but I can't get to it myself to see what it is. If you know what's there, please let me know.
12/11/99 -- Woohoo! my first search engine hit! Inktomi appears to be the fastest to index this site.
12/14/99 -- Was linked by a post on Sno-Info: from www.ski.com.au. ian s calls this site "Possibly the most boring site on the entire web".
12/17/99 -- Thanks Dre's List-o-Links for the link and positive feedback.
12/17/99 -- Wanna hear something strange? I just realized that this site went live on 11/17/99.....which is exactly 3 years after the first receipt in my file.
12/18/99 -- Was the RN Daily Site for 12/17, from roosh.net. Yes, the Kathie Lee skirts are very comfortable for a strapping young man like me :)
12/27/99 -- Wow...I spend 5 days out of town, 5 days with a broken computer, and all kind of things happen:

--Was made Website of the Week by a Christian radio program. Was my site even referenced on the AIR? I hope so! I'll forgive that he copied the text from my site & rearranged it to sound like it's him speaking, though...
--New sites linking to me: Shiny Happy Person's website, DORK links, and Up Late!.
--I got 5,000 hits on 12/23!?! Wow....you people must have been really bored.

12/27/99 -- removed "Search for Items" and "Raw Data" links. Haven't got the time or effort to get them set up, and the receipts themselves seem to be entertaining enough. I have a new project in the works :)
12/27/99 -- God, you people are funny! Reading through the comments on the receipts, I laugh out loud here in my cubicle at work. Keep it up!
1/10/00 -- no, I haven't abandoned this site. Ongoing computer problems at home are now fixed; will be scanning new receipts soon, so come back in a day or two!
1/10/00 -- The Receipt page is NOT Y2K COMPLIANT, and I'm damn proud of it! The log CGI which allows me to track you all thinks it's the year 19100.
1/10/00 -- was "This week's weird site-ing" at A View From Below. Here's his comment:

".at first I could not believe anyone would spend the time to create (or look at) this...but after about twenty minutes I realized that I was still there. I definitely need to get out more ;-)"

1/10/00 -- was linked by Bad Sites (hopefully 'bad' in a good way)
1/10/00 -- Techdirt linked me in the "Too much free time" section of their newsletter this week. Here's what Mike Masnick has to say:

"It's sites like the following that remind me why I include this section in each Up-To-Date. What sort of world do we live in where someone keeps, scans, and uploads every receipt he has from shopping at Wal-Mart"

1/10/00 -- Every time I go to WalMart now, I fear that some blue-vested minion of the store will stop me and go -- "Are you the Derek from Derek's Big WalMart Receipt website?" But, it hasn't happenned yet. So, I've tried to get myself linked locally here in Fargo, in hopes that people in Fargo realize...something...I dunno....I'm not sure why I want the attention in the first place, let alone for this stupid website. but you love me, don't you? You all love me! I KISS YOU! Er.....never mind. It's almost midnight, and I just got my computer up and running, and I'm doing some much needed maintenance to my various sites, so my brain is a bit mushy. I recently realized that my personal webpage isn't linked here, too, so none of you know much about me other than what you glean from my receipts. It's been almost two months now, with thousands of visitors so far, and more coming...this all boggles my mind. Why do you keep coming!??!!?? Do any of you really scroll down to read all this crap?
1/10/00 -- move most of the older crap to a "old news" page. Most of you aren't scrolling down this far anyways.
1/13/00 -- added several receipts. We're up to date now!
1/15/00 -- Linked by Jason's Collection of Wierd Links.
1/17/00 -- gave in and added banners -- I gotta earn a living somehow! I'm spending all my money at WalMart!
1/17/00 -- Linked here (I thought they linked me & then deleted me, but I'm still linked in their archival material).

1/17/00 -- Linked by Yuppie Slayer's Weblog:

"Wow. This person sure does seem to love Walmart. On July 31 1999, Derek bought "Royal Cargo" and a "Cotton Tank"... This is what the Internet is all about people! "

1/17/00 -- was made Site of the Week by Laugh of the Day.
1/18/00 -- some local recognition! Local "best kept secret" of Fargo, local webzine Yahtzeen both Reviewed this site and interviewed me!
1/19/00 -- Running out of room to give credit for links!
1/19/00 -- Linked by Yahoo - Internet Life! magazine's online entity! It's the big-time baby!
1/19/00 -- Linked by Headliners from Merge933:

"I just got an email from my friend John, and I am just beside myself. This is the site to hit if you think that you have too much time on your hands. This is the perfect medicine for a low self-esteem. Click on Derek.com. You will not be disappointed, I guarantee it."

1/19/00 -- Linked by Byron Bussey(?).
1/19/00 -- Linked by TurlyMing dot com.
1/19/00 -- Linked by famous jam band, the Indiana Trip Factory.
1/21/00 -- linked breifly by bad-karma.net.
1/22/00 -- getting lots of hits from WebTV's usenet group alt.discuss.internet.sites. I, however, cannot click that link (and neither will most of you).
1/23/00 -- New links from Sand Dollar Crafts, RRRRRRInside (anyone speak German?), and violentnation.com.
1/25/00 -- It keeps getting better!

I made USA Today's Hot Site list. Via that list, I got hits from all over -- Goo Hio (actually, "Go Ohio"), Artigen,PennsNet.
1/25/00 -- Artigen gets extra credit for adding my link separately from a just USA Today daily list. Also linked by Fark.com, and a reference in a post in Tribesplayers Bulletin Board at Sierra Online.
1/25/00 -- I get the Worst waste of designer's time award from Webfeet, via PC Review. He called me a designer!!
1/25/00 -- it's been a big day! Also got this:

1/26/00 -- Northern Light search engine is sending a lot of hits, get this, from people whose search consists of "Derek's Big Site", "Derek's purchases", etc. People are LOOKING for this site, not jsut running across it by accident anymore...
1/26/00 -- New links from The Corey and Jay Show (FM morning show on Lick 96.5), BobWorld, a post on teachers.net BBS, some site without a domain name, Josh's links, and someone's weblog.
1/28/00 -- Linked by Third Age.
1/30/00 -- It's getting difficult to keep track of people linking to me. If I don't show you here, you can email me and let me know. For now, I'm just going to be showing the most significant ones, the awards I get, and the ones who let me know about the link.
1/30/00 -- User Friendly, everyone's favorite tech-industry comic strip, has made me Link of the Day. Thanks to my brother for getting me this link!
1/30/00 -- ONLY THREE!!??!!??

2/6/00 -- New links from MetaMarkets.com (aka OpenFund.com), Net4TV Voice, and camworld.
2/9/00 -- New link from dragonleg.com, and a new link (and a pleasant email from :) Nagqueen.
2/9/00 -- received the following note (sorry about HTML being disabled in the comments, where this was originally posted; it's a security issue):

Hi Derek,
You will probably be happy reading this. Your site was mentioned in one of the articles that appears in " Nana", the Israeli leading portal.

Nana - Netvision's multilingual portal - the English version

  You can find it now in the next address: http://www.nana.co.il/thestory.asp?storyid=763. The article (written in Hebrew) is about the results of the merge of two companies: "DoubleClick" and "Abakos". DoubleClick, an Internet advertising company, uses "cookies" for identifying Internet users for commercial purposes. In June, DoubleClick bought Abakos, who had its own database of users. The result is a nowadays risk for the Internet users' privacy.
Your site, Derek is mentioned in the last paragraph of the article. After examples for the potential risk in this losing of privacy by the cookies, you are brought as someone who probably doesn't care for a bit lack of privacy.
  This is the translation from Hebrew of the paragraph:
" And there are also some people who do not care about the loosing of privacy. People like Derek, who scanned and uploaded to his site all the receipts of the things he has purchased in different Wal-Mart stores since 1996. He showes it to all the people surfing to his site. "

Well Derek, you have a very special site and now it is even much more famous.
   Bye bye and keep this very good, though a bit strange, work you're doing.
     Liron Dorfman
     ISRAEL

   p.s. Can you give us all an answer for the biggest question of all: Why are you doing it? bye, Liron.

2/12/00 -- hey, fans of Matt Kreig -- he was interviewed in the Fargo Forum!
2/18/00 -- *snif* I feel dirty...I did all my shopping yesterday at KMart...they have a better kid's clothes section than WalMart.
2/19/00 -- some redesigning of site; finally moved news & awards to it's own page.
2/19/00 -- not many new links lately -- although I was Webby site of the day on the 16th.
3/30/00 -- things are slowing down....*sigh*...however, search engines are indexing your comments! Google is the most prominent one. I've compiled a list of interesting searches
3/31/00 -- linked by Mad Merlin's Lair...I had promised this link long ago, but forgot -- sorry!
4/10/00 -- been neglectful of this site. Sorry! I'll do better!
4/10/00 -- WOOHOO! traffic is back up, thanks to ZDNet's InternetTonight.
4/10/00 -- this guy says he's going to link to me, but I haven't checked yet. Anyways, he has some good insights on being part of the WalMart family.

4/10/00 -- new award!

4/10/00 -- I don't speak italian, but www.jumpy.it thought me fit to link to.
4/10/00 -- aw man -- I forgot to link this site: We Compute magazine linked to me. They were also nice enough to send me a free hard-copy of the magazine for my scrapbook!
4/10/00 -- I wanna be a nutcase! vote for me!
4/10/00 -- webbieworld lists me on their "worst of the web" site. You can vote for me there, too, but I'm not sure what I get.
4/10/00 -- interesting story: Last week, Jimmy Baron of the 99x morning show sent me an email, asking to interview me on the radio. Great! I thought -- I've never been on the radio before! So, we arrange a time, and Jimmy calls me to say they're running behind and couldn't talk to me at that time. Then, he never gets back to me to reschedule. *snif* I feel so abandoned!
4/10/00 -- Nice comment from this site: "One of the more inspired useless sites."
4/10/00 -- interesting: no link this entry, but just a general comment that online diaries really like linking to this site.
4/15/00 -- I encountered Matt Kreig for the first time today! Passed right by him in an aisle. If you're not sure who Mr. Kreig is, read some of the more recent receipts.
4/27/00 -- This site is officially a meme now! Memepool.com has brought many new visitors over the past day.
4/29/00 -- I just like this commentary:

When stumbling around aimlessly through the spiderweb I came across something that was actually worth plugging to. Despite it's nonsense, it's appropriate for an e/n site to link, don't you think? Go have a looksee. This guy is more of a pack rat than my mother is, or so it seems.

Or maybe he's just an all-American boy wanting to promote a "family-friendly" company. Who knows what motivates people like this.

Usually writers would classify a boy that makes a site cataloging all of his Wal-Mart Receipts as "scary" or "strange," but I'm going to differ from the norm and offer a fresh opinion to you: he likes the publicity that he gets for doing it. I mean, the boy did his job. He caught -my- attention, and I'm positive he's caught a lot of other people's interest churning as well. So bravo, Derek, you put on an awesome facade. But it's getting a bit old now after 3 years.

Crumple them up and throw them away, please? Or if you're into that whole "don't waste anything" movement, use them as toilet paper. Just do something, it's making me irritable. It's also making me twitch.

5/13/00 -- sorry about the popup ad-windows. It's not my doing. My webspace provider, who has always been staunchly against mandatory ads, has done an about-face and is forcing ads on it's users.
5/13/00 -- I used to consider the High Plains Reader a quality paper, but I think it's declining and this is an example of it. I submitted the receipt site to their "best of the net" column in SPAM:

Apparently a few of you thought that What Fred Ate from a recent SPAM article wasn't the most worthless site on the web. You were right. After sifting through literally six websites sent in by our readers I have chosen what may simply be the biggest waste of time that any human may have undertaken. The thing that really strikes me as odd is how dedicated this person is. This is something he does on a regular basis. At Derek's Big Website of Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts you'll find Derek's Big Website of Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts. That's it. This guy just has every receipt he's received from Wal-Mart since late 1996 on the web. There's no catch. There's no humorous commentary. There's just receipts. That's it. If you want to see what happenned to that wierd guy from the Audio/Visual club, go to http://lightning.prohosting.com/~receipts/ and revel in your normalcy.

the emphasis above was my addition -- no humorous commentary? Did this guy even visit the site? I don't know what HE saw, but apparently he didn't "sift" through the sites as he claimed. Plus, the guy completely missed the fact that I'm local. He wasn't just writing in a Fargo newspaper about some anonymous wierdo on the 'net; he was writing about a wierdo that the readers probably have run into at WalMart! If you're a "Receipt Site Regular", give this guy crap for not researching things before writing about them.
5/14/00 -- excellent! Yahoo has made me one of it's Picks of the Week this week:

Some web sites emerge as overnight sensations (I Kiss You, anyone?), but perhaps more satisfying are the pages that go about their business, day in and day out, slowly building a devoted following. Such is the case with Derek and his trusty collection of Wal-Mart receipts. Not only has he crafted a smartly designed archive of mind-numbingly useless minutiae, he's also created a home for the spirited repartee of his readers. Need a place to discuss the finer points of every conceivable discount-store item, from potting soil to Pokemon? Don't answer. Yes. Trust us, you do...

I'm also one of Tony's Picks.
5/18/00 -- OK, if you read (on 5/13) above about the High Plains Reader review of the receipt site, the writer of the article has issued a correction:

Last week's submission for Derek's Big Website of Walmart Receipts came from Derek Dahlsad (I don't think it's the same guy) Sorry for the mistake Derek!

To this guy, I award a big "HUH???" Well, yes, I am the guy who submitted the site, and if he were to have read this receipt while preparing his article, he would know it was my name. Apparently you Receipt Site Visitors haven't been doing a good enough job emailing him over his disregard of your humerous commentary! How can you let this guy slight all your work?
5/20/00 -- This shocked me, but I'm not sure why; probably because I got it from a mailing list that i've been subscribed to quite a while, I got it before I saw the hits in my logs. I can't link to it, because it's part of Infobeat's services, only available via email:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cool Site of the Day
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Strangely compelling" is what you'd have to call Derek's Big Website of Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts. Some people may call it postmodern genius, others may call it really dumb, but Derek's clearly onto something here. He has scanned every receipt he's ever received from his local Wal-Mart store since 1996 - and believe me, he goes there a lot. There's really not a lot else going on here except for the fact that, on each receipt's page, visitors to the site can make their own comments. The comments are fanatical - people really dig Derek. For example, the fans gave Derek a lot of heat when he purchased his Mother's Day cards just one day before the holiday. Careful, Derek, people are watching... http://lightning.prohosting.com/~receipts

I need to put the phrase "postmodern genius" on my business cards now!
5/21/00 -- The Kim Komando Rado Show called this site "Amazing!"
5/21/00 -- Phreaky Phriday Phun Linx (fun to say, but english teachers are crying) linked to me, too.
5/21/00 -- A surprising number of hits have come from a Buffy the Vampire Slayer bulletin board post. Vampire hunters love WalMart too!
5/24/00 -- WIN98CENTRAL.COM has linked to me, but their site crashes my Netscape browser - imagine that!
5/28/00 -- Was interviewed yesterday by c00kie's CyberNiche. Finally -- an interviewer who let me be myself!
6/4/00 -- Linky & Dinky linked to me both in their mailing list, and on their website. Here's what they had to say:

New Voyeuristic Twist: LEER AT A MAN'S WAL-MART RECEIPTS
Derek has posted every receipt from every Wal-Mart purchase he's made since 1996. Careful study reveals odd characteristics of his buying habits -- sometimes he buys bras and makeup, other days he only buys macho items. Several times he bought something called "wipes". Each receipt is pictured without modesty, nothing is held back. Derek candidly answers questions about his purchases, so I beseech our technically-oriented readers to contact Derek and aid him in setting up a database. Derek fans should be able to view his Wal-Mart purchase data in many ways, such as "Were diapers ever purchased +/- 3 days of a cat litter purchase?" and "How many socks were purchased in each calendar year?" The potential views into the data are endless...

6/12/00 -- Linked by CharlesP's Wacky Ass Links.
6/12/00 -- Linked by Star 95.7. The only other genre who link to me regularly, besides blogs, are radio morning shows.
6/12/00 -- The Daily Radar Peepshow has made me their "Daily Obsessive Compulsive".
6/12/00 -- remember that radio show who wanted to interview me, and then bailed? At least they're linking to me now.
6/12/00 -- Gary Kemble from The Toowoomba Chronicle in Australia interviewed me for the print paper, and was nice enough to link to this site, too.
6/12/00 -- Apparently my site isn't cool enough for the MetaFilter people; It's so 5 minutes ago.
6/14/00 -- on 5/24/00, The Australian ran a little blurb about this site in the Business section, page 30. In front of a bus, you say?
6/29/00 -- Linked on icollectpostcards.com. Yes, you read it right! The owner is one of the Receipt Site Regulars, so don't make jokes!
6/29/00 -- This surprises me, for a blog. Just in the past day, lots of traffic has been referred by this site, far more than any other private journal so far. It must be good reading!
6/29/00 -- Not sure how this works, but I'm getting an uncomfortable number of references from here.
6/29/00 -- Linked in Bandwidth on Alternet.org.
7/1/00 -- The tech writer for the High Plains Reader keeps mentioning my site. For some back history, check these bits of past news. Anyways, today he makes a snide comment towards me:

In spite of what the webmaster at Derek's Big Website of WalMart Purchase Receipts thinks, I really like his site.

Well, thank you, but it still doesn't change the fact that there's no evidence he's ever seen the site. Has he contributed any comments? Once upon a time he said there was no humerous commentary. Some random visitor took the opportunity to track down my phone number. HE found my name pretty easily, yet the guy from HPR didn't catch the fact that I'm the guy who created the site. And, for the HPR being the Fargo-area arts & creativity outlet, they haven't mentioned once that this is a local website, not some distant east-coast one. Who's with me -- do we want this guy to prove that he's seen the site? Everyone now! Let's chant something regarding solidarity! WOOOOO!
7/13/00 -- Please, PLEASE - anyone who has a copy of the Fortean Times which refers to this website, I would like to get it from you. I think it was the June or May issue -- I found the July issue, and it's not in there. I'm trying to keep my real-world scrapbook updated, and the Fortean Times is a big deal -- I mean, how many people find themselves mentioned in a magazine about aliens, ghosts, mutants, and conspiracies?
7/24/00 -- hey, thanks FARK.com for linking me AGAIN! They must really like my site to link it twice.
7/30/00

7/30/00 An About.com tourguide considers this site an alternative journal:
"What is a journal? Just your life, chronicled any way you want"
7/30/00 -- klcheshire has bookmarked me.
7/30/00 -- I helped inspire a similar website!
8/1/00 -- Hot damn! Once you're linked by Suck, you KNOW you're da man!
8/3/00 --

8/3/00 -- I love it when people try to figure this site out.
8/4/00 -- Speaks for itself:

8/6/00 -- I think this is the first article to genuinely focus on the visitors to this site: Reviewed in Driftnet, from Icon.
8/8/00 -- My interview on Internet Tonight went very well last night! We'll see if I can create a downloadable version for you all.
8/8/00 --

8/11/00 -- Finally: Downloadable copies of my interview on InternetTonight:

Intro from the episode, which previews the interview (ITIntro.asf 249K)

The interview (ITInterview.asf 3.2MB)

As far as I know, these require Windows Media Player for viewing.
8/15/00 -- Eh, I've been lazy; shoulda linked this on Sunday when it appeared in the Fargo Forum. Very cool -- the entire far-right column of the front page of the Entertainment section was all about this site. Sidenote: This article precipitated a small article in my employer's intranet, but, well, you guys can't get to it.
8/30/00 -- finally, a copy of what's been said about me in the Fortean Times:

"Just as many 'outsider' artists are now recognized as genuine geniuses, so may Derek one day be seen as an inadvertent, brilliant crackpot of the web. His collection of more than 150 Wal-mart receipts forms a curious, consumerist diary, created by his simply scanning each one and offering it on the web. Visitor comments run alongside each receipt, forming a compelling dialogue and accidental community."

Okay, I'm starting to think people actually get this website now! And, he says I'm not just a crackpot, I'm a brilliant crackpot.
9/7/00 -- Just when I think the public is starting to understand this site (if that's possible), I get an email from this webmaster, regarding an attempt by me to submit the receipt site to Snark Bite:

It's pretty amusing in a totally useless way, but not substantial enough to refer to our readers. A suggestion, if you don't mind... Instead of being so nice and explaining your site's raison d'etre (or lack thereof), why not indulge in an inane rant about your feelings for WalMart? Or, if you must list Faqs, why not make up absurd reasons? Just an idea. Best of luck.

Try us in another six months.

This, from a person who thought David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist was "substantial" enough to link. Would the receipt site be better if I got rid of your guys opinions and just put mine, like every other personal site in the world? Pfsh. And, if the webmaster thinks I've divulged this site's "raison d'etre" (ooh, foreign words), then he's sorely mistaken. Strange thing is, I don't even remember sending an email to Snark Bite.
9/11/00 -- The Shift Magazine article is out finally! I've both typed the article out, and I've also got an image scanned from the magazine.
9/16/00 -- I've been Best Site of the Day at Vistar's Web Pick of the Day for a couple days now.
9/16/00 -- Linked in a forum at Network54. He found the site in Shift magazine!
9/16/00 -- Positive commentary regarding the commenting system I use on the site.
9/16/00 -- More just a mention of the receipt site, they also linked the I Am site.
9/16/00 -- Linked on Slashdot, but very few hits came from it.
9/25/00 -- only seconds - moments - ago, I was interviewed by Brent, from 105.9 YNF in Sarasota, FL. It was sort of an ambush interview, they called me and interviewed me right away, so I wasn't very prepared, but it got my adrenaline pumping for a fine Monday at work! (Thanks to Meat [yes, Meat apparently is his name] from 105.9 for e-mailing me their URL)
9/25/00: You know, I love AM radio. WJBC 1230, out of Bloomington, Illinois, called me for an interview, and they talked to me for over 8 minutes! Interviews with commercial broadcasters that I'd done had either cancelled on me due to time constraints, or they really rushed me through their question-and-answers, but this AM talk radio station took the time to talk to me at length about this site. It was actually a good interview, in my opinion, and I had the foresight to hook up my recorder, thus providing you both a low quality recording and the entire transcript of the interview.
9/30/00 -- Wow, going on NPR's news gameshow Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me! has been a greater asset than I had expected! When I signed up to be considered to be a contestant, it was just as myself, Derek (I listen to the show regularly), but they like to talk about interesting attributes of contestants, and I couldn't help but mention the Receipt site. Quite a bit of traffic has come from me rambling, unprepared & nervous, about this site. I mean, joking with some radio station morning show DJ is nothing compared to intelligent NPR personalities; it's quite intimidating. Wait Wait is nice enough to have archives of their shows online for listening pleasure, so go listen to the show (I was in Who's Carl II).
10/15/00 -- Okay, I've been linked at FARK three distinct times now, so I've taken out that annoying "Netscape Now!" button, and the ad for my annoying webspace provider, and permanently replaced BOTH of them with the distinctly non-annoying FARK button. Their site is worth reading daily anyways, whether they mention the Receipt website or not.

All news after this point was posted on the Receipt Site BBS - go there!

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