The Arcane Ensconced by Anna Louise
October 14th, 2008 11:56 PMSecret messages are often right where everyone can see them. They are just not recognised as such.
With that in mind I immediately thought of a debate I want to start amongst my colleagues (educational scientists) about the way secret societies and ancient religions etc. train their students. It has much to do with secrets and codes etc.
So I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone:
Bird 1: Write a story that sparks a debate amongst my colleagues.
Bird 2: Hide a secret message in the story and complete my very first sf0 task!
At work we have a magnetic message board right next to the coffee machine. Everyone posts funny or controversial news items and scientific articles there, so that we can have hot debates over a hot cup of coffee.
A perfect place for my secret message!
Click on the pictures below to read the rest of the story.
When will my colleagues notice the strange article on the message board? Will they debate it seriously? Will someone notice that there's something fishy about the article? Will someone read the secret message? Will I lose my job due to faking a scientific article? Eep!
I will keep you posted!
UPDATE:
Thank you for answering my question:
(Also, can someone comment to tell me how I can get more votes to distribute to other people's projects? I've already handed them all out. (So many fantastic ideas here!) How do I get new ones? )
And UPDATE II:
Someone took the secret down, but I have just reposted it. It just makes me smile when I see it in the morning! :-) And it has still sparked neither debate, nor code-breaking. So I'm really just giving my colleagues a second chance!
24 vote(s)
Mr Everyday
1
Ink Tea
1
emma ungoldman
1
[smedly]
3
Jackie H
5
Lincøln
4
The Found Walrus
3
Loki
1
zer0gee
1
Morte
1
Darkaardvark
5
done
3
Jennifer Juniper
2
rongo rongo
3
Optical Dave
3
Kid A
3
Charlie Fish
5
Augustus deCorbeau
1
Dela Dejavoo
5
Force TheOneAndOnly
3
Spidere
3
Juxtapolemic
3
relet 裁判長
4
Maudlin Rainhammock
Favorite of:
Terms
work, secret, words17 comment(s)
And this is how you do it. You do tasks like this that are full of win, and you get more votes, and thus more points to spend and the economy booms. So keep being awesome and producing win.
I like this. I like the clues you gave to the solution - and I like how it's a secret message that we all can know the secret of, but that is an encoded secret to others (unlike Mr Everyday's completion, which will have to remain a mystery to me).
I also like how - at least based on the way you wrote it up - took the task a couple steps further than you maybe intended to in your original conception.
Will you give us updates?
Thank you! :-) And yes, I kept adding little bits of secrets and clues as I went on :-D
I will keep you posted!
Oh! That's a nice completion!
Are you playing in the Netherlands or elsewhere?
I like this a lot. A great first task!
The Walrus approves. Welcome to the game!
Thank you all for your comments!
The article is still up, and none of my colleagues seems to have the slightest inkling yet.
Finding a MAF logo was a great touch, and the article looks so convincing. Welcome to SF0!
Thank you :-)
The article is still in place, and my colleagues haven't even noticed that the article is fake, let alone read the secret. Hmmm ... Maybe I'm going to have to give further clues.
I do get a kick out of it, every time I go to get coffee though! :-D
A wonderful first task, very well executed and written-up.
Thanks!
An update: none of my colleagues seems to be aware yet that there is a secret amongst them :-) The article has been moved up, down and sideways over the months, to make room for other items, but it is still there! Unsolved.
I love the fact of how you linked it all together. Absolutely amazing. You put a lot of work into this, and that's what it's all about. Good job! (:
Thank you! :-)
Update: The article is no longer there... Someone cleaned all the articles away about a month ago. No-one seems to have noticed the odd subject, nor the secret message..oh well! Proves to me that the best hiding places for secrets are right out there in the open!
Update: ah what the ****! I reposted it; it was too much fun to see it every morning!
nicely done.
you get more votes by completing more tasks. the more points you get the more votes you have to give out.