[FReepaholic]

The earliest that the Internet Archive has is a snapshot from December 21, 1996:

http://web.archive.org/web/19961221165158/http://freerepublic.com/

Looks like you needed a userid in order to read the forum then. I got here in 1998.

Happy Anniversary from the Class of '98!

[Lazlo in PA]

That’s really cool. I often wonder what the place looked like back in the beginning. Thanks.

[American Quilter]

Thanks very much for that link, FReepaholic! Great to see what the site looked like it its early days. I started getting interested in politics in 1994, but didn’t discover FR until 2005, when Sean Hannity was criticizing the site on his show one day. I thought, “Hm, sounds interesting.” I come over and had signed up by the end of the day. Thanks, Hannity!