The Lost Experience

May 4, 2006 10:02 AM

The Hanso Foundation-- Reaching Out For A Better Tomorrow. Call 1-800-HANSORG for more information. Also, the late Gary Troup's last book has finally been published. There's an interview here.
posted by empath (55 comments total)

Pioneering webpages ever so slightly wider than your browser.
posted by odinsdream at 10:09 AM on May 4, 2006

Can someone help me out with this? I'm Lost.
posted by The Bellman at 10:12 AM on May 4, 2006

Go to the newsletter, enter your login as Breaking Strain... answer yes to the question... For the password I tried freaking out.
posted by drezdn at 10:14 AM on May 4, 2006

It's not a fucking television! I can read, godammit!
posted by mr_roboto at 10:15 AM on May 4, 2006

i just spent half my morning wading through lost forums, lost blogs examing the tv commercial from last night, the 877 number, the voicemails, the secret messages in the new website, secret letters, the gary troup thing.

such a waste of time, but i can't help myself
posted by poppo at 10:20 AM on May 4, 2006

dresdn -- password is breakingstrain, you can choose anything for the login
posted by empath at 10:20 AM on May 4, 2006

Is this another fucking lost post? I was about to call bullshit on the Chimp Life Extension project, but I call bullshit on the whole post now.
posted by illovich at 10:22 AM on May 4, 2006

and be sure to visit joops corner and send him a message which will drop you into a fresh flash page, with lots of weird little circular designs. eventually one of them (highlighted in red for a moment) will be double clickable, that will take you to a "secret" letter. you can also click the signature at the bottom to go onto another "secret" letter

whoopee
posted by poppo at 10:23 AM on May 4, 2006

Is this another fucking lost post?

i can confirm this. i am equally disgusted, and yet here I'll stay for several hours more, not even giving a another passing thought to the lightbulb that has been burning for more than 100 years.
posted by poppo at 10:25 AM on May 4, 2006

Flagged as fundamentally retarded
posted by prostyle at 10:25 AM on May 4, 2006

Can someone please briefly summarize this horse-pluckin' fooforah for those of us who don't own or don't care to own TV sets? You may be topical - IE, why's this Hanso Foundation gimrackery worthy of a front page post?
posted by loquacious at 10:27 AM on May 4, 2006

Flash Friday?

It's a fucking game. Stop being so fucking cynical.
posted by empath at 10:28 AM on May 4, 2006

Can someone

Without judging it's postworthiness, I will report that this is a part of a sort of viral-ly ad-ish treasure hunt game contest being put on by ABC Disney based on the TV series Lost.
posted by poppo at 10:30 AM on May 4, 2006

Remember cloudmakers? That's when I first found myself feeling...old.
posted by ColdChef at 10:31 AM on May 4, 2006

Regardless of what you think of the show or its mystery marketing tactics, I think it's interesting that they can market a book by a phantom author that seems to be nothing more than a cheap detective novel and people snap it up. Bad Twin was mentioned for the first time last night and now it's #89 on the Amazon sales rankings for books.

This is the pinnacle of what networks hope to create: not just shows, but franchises.
posted by camcgee at 10:32 AM on May 4, 2006

JJ Abrams tried to do this kind of thing with Alias soon after Cloudmakers happened, but it kind of petered out. This seems to be much better done.
posted by empath at 10:33 AM on May 4, 2006

Can someone please briefly summarize this horse-pluckin' fooforah for those of us who don't own or don't care to own TV sets?

You don't need a TV set, since you can stream Lost episodes from the ABC site now.
posted by camcgee at 10:34 AM on May 4, 2006

If you go through the Send Joop A Message bit, and get to the letter, you can mess up the site by right-clicking and choosing Play on the macromedia menu.

Quite a cacophony if you do it a second time.
posted by odinsdream at 10:35 AM on May 4, 2006

The music keeps playing

and playing

and playing.

Not that it's not soothing. It may even extend my life. But I'm starting to feel like a chimp.
posted by Dogmilk at 10:42 AM on May 4, 2006

Can someone please briefly summarize this horse-pluckin' fooforah for those of us who don't own or don't care to own TV sets?

Only if you get off your high horse first, and come down here with the rest of the unwashed masses, and join us while we suck on the glass tit...
posted by SweetJesus at 10:50 AM on May 4, 2006

EAT A WHOPPER
... no?
DO THE FUNKY CHICKEN
no, that's not it either. I give up.
posted by boo_radley at 10:58 AM on May 4, 2006

you can also click the signature at the bottom to go onto another "secret" letter

Then if you click on that letter's signature, there's a secret message which Mefits should be able to apreciate: "setting land speed records for subverting authority."
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:01 AM on May 4, 2006

For more on this type of thing, look no further than MeFi's own adrianhon's website.
posted by ColdChef at 11:07 AM on May 4, 2006

After watching last night's episode, it's no wonder they went out and did a little drinking.
posted by emelenjr at 11:25 AM on May 4, 2006

Bad Twin was mentioned for the first time last night.

Nope... it was mentioned in an earlier episode. It was Hurley who found the manuscript.
posted by Robot Johnny at 11:34 AM on May 4, 2006

So, what did happen to Mulder's sister?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:39 AM on May 4, 2006

I was playing with this site this morning. If you watch Joop on his camera for a while without doing anything, the darkened face of what appears to be a bald man appears briefly. Creepy!

Also, after last night's episode, I feel more like I did during Season One: interested! Hope the season finishes strong, because the show's been hurting a bit lately.
posted by notmydesk at 11:46 AM on May 4, 2006

I look forward to the day when popular ARG's spawn television shows, instead of vice versa.
posted by bhance at 11:59 AM on May 4, 2006

I like this in the same way I like secret decoder rings.
posted by green herring at 12:11 PM on May 4, 2006

What if like the Others are really the good guys and they are scared of the crazy maniacs the Oceanic flight people are becoming. What if like Sawyer is really the smart one, he's always reading, and he's hiding the guns because he too knows on an island, under stress, people are going to start shooting each other. Michael was like totally wrong for that shit last night.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 12:15 PM on May 4, 2006

You don't need a TV set, since you can stream Lost episodes from the ABC site now.

Argh. Is there any escape? ...from noise?
posted by loquacious at 12:18 PM on May 4, 2006

Although I play these games and enjoy them, I would like to provide some criticism in the form of a cryptogram:

qevax zber binygvar.

Enjoy!
posted by mmcg at 12:40 PM on May 4, 2006

Mmmmm.
posted by emelenjr at 12:45 PM on May 4, 2006

What with the Hanso organization touting “social and scientific endeavors to make your world a better place” and "namaste"s at every turn, has anyone in the media made a parallel between the Dharma Initiative and Transcendental Meditation yet? I wonder if David Lynch watches Lost...
posted by ibeji at 12:53 PM on May 4, 2006

The Valenzetti Foundation, named after Enzo Valenzetti, the subject of Gary Troup's "out of print" first book of non-fiction: The Valenzetti Equation. A mathematical equation that predicts the end of the world.
posted by clunkyrobot at 1:02 PM on May 4, 2006

The Valenzetti Foundation site is a fan site. It's not 'official'
posted by empath at 1:18 PM on May 4, 2006

Gary Troup? Where does he fit in to Lost then? It's an anagram for purgatory by the way. I really hope that's an allusion to what the writers are putting us through rather than the characters.
posted by jiroczech at 1:18 PM on May 4, 2006

empath: I noticed after I posted.
posted by clunkyrobot at 1:21 PM on May 4, 2006

jiro: Nice Catch. The writers have said that they are NOT in purgatory though. It's probably a cute reference to that theory just to drive the lost fans crazy
posted by empath at 1:42 PM on May 4, 2006

Wasn't Troup on the plane? Isn't that how the manuscript ended up on the island?
posted by emelenjr at 1:44 PM on May 4, 2006

Ah. Answering my own question, yes he was.

iTunes has the audio of the first chapter (free) and the rest of the book, too.

The whole effect is ruined by this disclaimer on the iTMS page as well as Amazon: "...The author himself is a fictional character."
posted by emelenjr at 1:50 PM on May 4, 2006

The problem with all great Lost conspiracy theories is that the writers just aren't that good. So any super-complex thing that the fans come up with that makes sense, is probably just a pipe dream. Knowing Abrams, the plot will get too complicated and we'll throw it to the side. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get evil twins (whoa...like..Bad Twin. whoa) ala Alias.

So did they go get drunk after they found out that they'd be killed off? Or did they get drunk, and the writers//producers decided they were bad baggage?
posted by graventy at 2:32 PM on May 4, 2006

graventy, I don't completely disagree with you but I feel like I have to stick up for Alias a little bit. Although it's turned into a crapfest, the first seasons were great -- up until he was told that it was too convoluted and that each episode needed to be self-sufficient. I'm sure that the actual story behind the island in Lost won't be anywhere near as complex and interesting as what some of the obsessive-compulsives have dreamt up, but I'm still holding out hope that it's KINDA cool.
posted by papercake at 2:38 PM on May 4, 2006

emelenjr: He was on the plane, yes. I think he's generally considered the "plane engine guy." (he went boom in the pilot).
posted by absalom at 3:37 PM on May 4, 2006

That was not a Hanso sword.
posted by anotherbrick at 4:25 PM on May 4, 2006

After watching last night's episode, it's no wonder they went out and did a little drinking.

And -- what was the title of last night's episode? 'Two for the Road.' A subtle reference to the two DWI arrests?
posted by ericb at 4:55 PM on May 4, 2006

Elsewhere on the Internets:

"The "Liddy Wales" name/pic was changed this morning, which must be part of the plan. Last night, immediately following the show, the name said "Libby" and the her pic was posted. This morning the name has been changed to "Liddy" and the pic has been replaced by a question mark.

Also, the screenplay that Sawyer was reading, "Bad Twin", is now available from Amazon. They even have a "bio" of the author that states he submitted it just days before boarding Oceanic 815 and disappearing.

Also, if you stay for the closing credits of MI:3 (also written by JJ Abrams) you'll see a thank you to the Hanso Foundation."

posted by ericb at 4:56 PM on May 4, 2006

Well, papercake, it's not like Alias sucking made me not watch. I just have reserved hopes for Lost. It's just an enigma wrapped in an enigma that's wrapped in another enigma, and on and on, without ever giving us answers to the enigmas. Which is simultaneously fun and a letdown.
posted by graventy at 7:03 PM on May 4, 2006

I am afraid that viral internet games are probably no match for power of wiki.
posted by absalom at 7:51 PM on May 4, 2006

me: "Damn you Lostpedia! I want my life back!"

Lostpedia: "You never even had a life."

me: (hangs head in shame.)
posted by bstreep at 9:25 PM on May 4, 2006

Domain Name:THEHANSOFOUNDATION.ORG
Registrant Name:hanso foundation
Registrant Organization:hanso foundation
Registrant Street1:544 Orsund Klengvjel
Registrant City:Copenhagen
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:DK-1604
Registrant Country:DK
Registrant Phone:[phone]

Hmmm, can't registrations be yanked if they use bogus contact info?
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:25 PM on May 4, 2006

okay, if this turns out to be something big enough in scale as to compare with cloudmakers, I will be *FULLY* onboard and ready to decode. Does anyone have any proof that that's the case yet?

I just got the message that we should check back.
posted by Parannoyed at 1:37 AM on May 5, 2006

Gary Troup... purgatory... interesting.

The writers ALSO said that they weren't killing off Ana-Lucia either, but LO! Man, I felt sucker punched after that one.

Some of my friends were having a discussion about how now that Lost has turned all viral-marketing, they're not watching anymore because of their morals. I don't care about morals. It's like crack. I CAN'T STOP. They got me. They fucking got me and I will probably order that fucking book as soon as a used copy is available. Fuckers.

CAN'T. STOP. MUST. WATCH. GAAHHHH.

(Note: This never happens to me with TV shows. I don't watch anything else, I d/l Lost. And my husband got me hooked. I thought the pilot sucked, but he made me keep going. And now... I will watch as something I love goes and gets all dirty. Because I can't stop.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:16 PM on May 6, 2006

graventry: I read an interview with one of the creators that says that Michelle Rodriguez was only hired for a year and that the DUIs had nothing to do with killing off those two characters. I have no link, but you can find it through (oh god, here it goes) http://livejournal.com/community/_we_are_lost/
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:19 PM on May 6, 2006

I've found myself for the past week or so fascinated with this whole ARG thing and yet frustrated and annoyed by it at the same time. I have a vague understanding of the history behind it, and that one is supposed to become immersed enough into it where you get phone calls and emails from the 'game' and freak yourself out and ooh isn't that really cool and all that? Haven't figured out how to actually DO that, and not sure if I'd WANT to if I could, but what I find fascinating is this. Over at thetailsection.com diligent participants like Tom_LostMonkey and WaitingForGodot have an ongoing tally regarding which websites that look like they're a part of the game actually are, and which ones are not.

These sites are official:
thehansofoundation.org is the Big Kahuna
ABC's Lost Portal
BBC's Channel Four Lost Portal
Australian Portal
oceanicflight815.com
theislandiswaiting.com
oceanic-airlines.com & oceanic-air.com
garytroupbooks.com
SubLymonal

That last one is a blatant advertisement for Sprite posing as a clue to the hanso website. In fact the use of advertising permeating this 'new phenomenon' is gut wrenching. I understand it costs them money to make these and audiences are becoming more and more jaded by conventional commercial advertising, but that doesn't mean I want advertisers to get smart and infiltrate where I'm trying to go to avoid them. It's sad, really. Still, sublymonal for better or worse is an official part of TLE.

ABC's "The Speaker" has gone on record as saying if the website in question is not a FLASH site, chances are it's not an official part of the ARG.

These are some fan sites which, so far as one can tell, are not officially part of the game but in many cases are trying to pass themselves off as such. Either they're sincere fan sites that people are mistaking to be part of the artificial reality game, or they're thieves in the night posing as fictional BS:
thedharmainitiative.org
dharmaindustries.com (now trying to rob you of money)
megalottojackpot.com
oceanicworldair.com (spyware warning)
minnesotametallurgy.com
marvincandle.com
bigspaceship1.com
mrclucks.com
th3sn0wman.com
marvincandle.com
kingcrossstatepolice.com
dharmainitiative.com
paikheavyindustries.com
emri.perception.net
geronimo-jackson.com
valenzettifoundation.org
garytroup.com
oceanicairlines.com
community.livejournal.com/driveshaftband
driveshaftband.com
widmorelaboratories.com
widmoreindustries.com
widmoregroup.com
widmore.com
globalparadigmscorp.com
and anything with 'kraftkost' in the url

This is not a complete list per se, but it is rather extensive. The thing I find fascinating is that this ongoing debate over which website is just a fan effort, which ones are actually officially a part of the "The Lost Experience" effort by ABC and Disney, and which ones are somewhere in between; websites made by people allegedly fans of the show who are also trying to take advantage of Other friends of the show by aquiring their credit card information or identifying markers for questionable practices of their own. Spyware cookie collecting, or credit card information gathering and the like.

The question isn't "which sites are real?" because all the sites are not real. The question is "which websites are unreal, and which are fake?" Perhaps I'm the only one who sees the absurdity in that. People left their phone numbers at some phone number they thought they got to with the game, and left information on some website, and then the next day a rumor permeated that said someone had hacked into the computer which housed all this information and was calling people back, pretending at first to be a part of the game, but doing it so terribly that either they were never part of the game, or were so good at being bad at it, they were obviously a part of it.

Oh. And no doubt this list will be out of date by the time I post it, if not entirely in error. Seems when it comes to these ARG things a lot of it is about admitting what you don't know about your own subjective perception of reality. Your thoughts? Anyone?
posted by ZachsMind at 7:16 AM on May 14, 2006