For interest … the oldest thread still accessible appears to be this one:
https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=51
In which we discussed an American Senator who wanted to seize computers belonging to Napster users and have them destroyed
Even as a mod I can’t see any older threads than this. I seem to recall Mick saying in the past there are a few very early threads only accessible to the original site admins in which they discussed site rules and policies and (IIRC) said some very unkind things about certain people at NTL.