Let’s talk about chestnuts. Not the ones roasting by the open fire. I mean the old ones you hear all the time.

That’s the one that shoves people over 80 to life’s sidelines, figuring there’s nothing left there except maybe some estate money to skim or scam.

Well, meet Trey and Wendy Denton.

In late November, this couple, both marketing specialists in their fields, launched a website for Wendy’s parents, Nina and Papa, who are in their 80s. The Dentons live in Georgia. They thought the parents, who live in Michigan, should learn to use the Web for fun and education.

So we have seniordashboard.com. The easiest website to navigate I’ve ever seen.

There’s a photo of a dashboard up in the right corner but none of the dancing, moving, zooming, cluttered space a homepage usually displays. And no ads.

It cost the Dentons about $1,500 to set the page up, Wendy says. And another $12 a month to host it on Web.com.

Take a look. There’s a list of about six sites for four topics — news, information, interests and staying connected. One easy click takes you to “world news,” for example, and that connects with options for CNN, The New York Times and so on.

“Oh, it was a big commitment to put this together,” Wendy says. “And we’re always adding to it.”

I think what’s amazing is the site’s simplicity. We forget the Internet operates without bells and whistles.

What motivated the creation of seniordashboard.com?

“My parents just don’t leave the house as much as they used to,” Wendy says. “We thought if we could get them on the Internet their lives would be more interesting, more informed, even more fun.”

The elders don’t use a computer now. In fact, they don’t even know there’s a site created for them.

“That’s really a surprise,” Wendy says. “For Christmas, we’re giving them an iPad, complete with e-mail and Facebook accounts, setting this up as their home page and keeping our fingers crossed.

The Dentons launched the site early to “check it out, of course,” Wendy says.

Their biggest surprise: Without fanfare, without publicity, seniordashboard.com has already become an international favorite. Of the 10 top users, four are from Japan.

“I don’t know how they found us,” Wendy says.

Maybe they were looking for what the Dentons offer: A simple, nonintrusive format that gives Web surfers a “safe place” to return as they build Internet confidence and proficiency.

“There are no video ads, no dropdown ads, in fact, no ads at all on the opening homepage,” she says. “Nothing happens that the user does not choose to happen and the page looks the same each time the user returns.”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if simplicity trumps the sophistication of most web sites featured today?

Simplicity in our complicated, convoluted world. What a concept as we launch the second decade of the 21st century!