The following table lists all of the things that are new and improved with Scott Pakin's Automatic Complaint-Letter Generator.
| When? | What's new? | What's improved? |
|---|---|---|
| 15 December 2007 | Version 5.1 of the automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary is now at 11,000 words and phrases. Punctuation has been modernized in spots. |
| 17 September 2005 | Version 5.0 of the automatic complaint-letter generator released | After over a decade of development, the program's vocabulary has finally reached a whopping 10,000 words and phrases! Generated complaints should now be funnier than ever. |
| 17 July 2005 | Web server upgraded | More speed and stability (I hope) |
| ?? April 2004 | The automatic complaint-letter generator celebrates its 10-year anniversary! | The program has now outlived virtually all other sites from the early days of the Web |
| 2 February 2004 | Version 4.9 of the automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 9000 words and phrases! Also, a few minor punctuation problems were corrected. |
| 11 November 2003 | Secure HTTP (i.e., https://) support added | Can now generate complaints without network snoops being able to see what/whom you're complaining about. |
| 8 November 2003 | Permanent new server | I'm my own webmaster and have complete control over everything on the server. |
| 19 August 2001 | Temporary new server | No improvement, just a new server. |
| 5 March 2001 | Version 4.7 of the automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 8000 words and phrases! |
| 12 December 2000 | Made the program's input-checking more lenient. | It is now possible to complain about people who go by their initials. It is also possible to complain about a name written "French style" (i.e., with the surname in all-uppercase). |
| 26 September 2000 | Added new "question" and "answer" categories to the program's grammar. | Sentences involving questions should flow a lot better. |
| 3 August 2000 | Modified form interface and generated URLs to use the word "gender" instead of a particular, 3-letter synonym. | Users trapped behind censorware programs and proxies can now use the automatic complaint-letter generator. |
| 5 April 2000 | Version 4.2 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 7000 words and phrases! |
| 29 September 1999 | Version 4.0 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Introduced, as an experiment, the ability to complain about companies/organizations. Also, restructured the HTML to use a cascading style sheet. |
| 23 September 1999 | Version 3.8 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 6000 words and phrases! |
| 7 June 1999 | Added a note of explanation to the bottom of each generated complaint. | Angry "victims" will -- I hope -- stop demanding to know why I have a complaint about them on my Web page. |
| 24 March 1999 | Added a BASE HREF to this page's HEAD | Netscape users can now access the complaint-letter generator and all the links on this page, even if they incorrectly use a URL that ends in "/". |
| 15 January 1999 | Completely rewrote form inteface | Now possible to specify multiword surnames (e.g. "de Joode") and to refer to the victim by title + surname (e.g. "Mrs. Smith") |
| 13 January 1999 | Modified to reject URLs that end in "/" | Eliminates problem that makes all links appear broken. (Hopefully, the 15 Feb 1996 problem is not a problem for the latest batch of browsers.) |
| 26 December 1998 | Added a new "mistruth" category to the grammar | More variety in the sentences that can be generated |
| 13 November 1998 | Deleted over 100 un-funny words and phrases and replaced them with new, funny ones | More humorous -- and more realistic -- complaint letters |
| 5 October 1998 | Version 3.5 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 5000 words and phrases! |
| 3 October 1997 | Version 3.4 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 4000 words and phrases! |
| 8 December 1996 | Version 3.3 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Cleaned up context-free grammar, so some sentences should sound more "natural" |
| 27 November 1996 | Version 3.21 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 3000 words and phrases! |
| 12 November 1996 | Added workaround for HTTP "Location:" bug that certain browsers suffer from | People using brain-damaged browsers will no longer see an outdated, internal URL for this page |
| 29 August 1996 | Corrected bug involving check for missing or invalid paragraph count | People using stupid browsers or erroneous, home-brewed forms will no longer receive multibillion-paragraph complaint letters |
| 7 August 1996 | Version 3.1 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary reached a major milestone: 2500 words and phrases! |
| 18 February 1996 | Made usage statistics generator more robust | Weird reverse-video glitch is gone |
| 15 February 1996 | Modified form to tolerate a spurious trailing "/" in the URL | People following incorrect links or using stupid browsers can still generate complaint letters |
| 23 January 1996 | Version 3.0 of automatic complaint-letter generator released | Program's vocabulary is over 50% larger than before |
| 16 January 1996 | CSAG Web server upgraded | Response times down & reliability up |
| ?? April 1994 | Complaint-letter generator first appears on the Web | Users can generate humorous complaint letters automatically |