(A hypertext that works) I always come back to the Victorian Web. It must be one of the oldest hypertexts on the Web, as it started on the Intermedia system at Brown U in 1985, and was converted to HTML in 1994 and 95.
Throughout the huge web, you can feel that this was created in some other tool than most Web designers use. Its linking is much more fluent, graceful and prolific. What excites me most is that it has no hierarchy and almost no navigation. Inside the Web, there exists a large amount of "overview pages" for different subjects. New Overviews can be added at any time. Then, all pages listed on any overview will have a link to that overview at the bottom. Some are only linked to one overview, some to several.
Try it, it works! Much easier to navigate than any commercial site I know of. And much easier to get lost in, in a good way. There is always more interesting stuff, more relevant material to read.
It's hypertext, and it works.
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Where are all the Hypertexts?
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Cascading Style Sheets