The site's other creator, Dennis Nyhagen, has proven impossible to contact. Extensive searches using e-mail, U.S. mail, telephone, voting records, his last known attorney, and the internet have all been unsuccessful.

Dee Nyland, who worked with him for years, provides the only available information about him. According to Dee, Dennis was a native of Los Angeles, an Air Force veteran, and had a sister, a daughter named Nancy, and a son whose name is unknown. She recalls that he launched the website around 2001 but that the two never met in person or even spoke on the phone.

Dee noted that Dennis became difficult to work with and cut ties with the project around 2010, speculating that he may have been experiencing memory issues.

In His Own Words: The Site's Philosophy

Since Dennis Nyhagen cannot speak for himself, his own words from The Digital Deli best describe the site's mission and his commitment to transparency and collaborative research:

“What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'OTR community'--none. Nevertheless, here is how we did it--for better or worse. Here is how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here's the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled encodes. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you are free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts. We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.”