Mark: “I’m sure there are lots of mysteries on twitter.”
Steven: “Oh yes.”
From here. They’re talking about the #SherlockLive thing and how Sherlock could use twitter to find cases…@toxicsemicolon@teapotsubtext if this is both about the Eastenders ‘mistake’ and some…mysterious… twitter accounts aaaaaaaaah
FUCK YOU GUYS!!!! LIKE !! FUck you guys. .. i know but i don’t Know and a sldhf;alskdf i am disgusted
come make these shit eating grins to my face, messers. bonch
what cracks me up is they’re like “”we didn’t do anything”” then **shot of mark on twitter and then both of them on their phones**
Sherlock Season 4 Improv Session Writers Chat (apologies for phone video)
Fucky of note:
“I am not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion” was never in the scripts, and was so LABORED over for that PRECISE wording……… but writing down the much more obvious “you know what we did to our sister” was ok???
“The only way to keep a secret is to make everybody distrust everything.”
HOLY SHIT okay, in the vivala.me video the woman mentions the number 16,676, which is oddly specific, you know. then i realized that it could be a date, so i spent some time googling 16/6/76, until i finally found this:
i mean seriously, how could this just be a coincidence???
omg hahahaha– I was looking up a plot summary to see if I could make any connections. The plot is about a Sherman Holmes suffering a head injury and then believing he’s Sherlock Holmes adlhfsgh BUT
“The genres into which The Return Of The World’s Greatest Detective fits are comedy-drama and mystery-suspense.”
Okay, I have been at work all day but last night I had a discussion with someone who runs a blog about ARGs and it was very helpful. He may be reading this, I don’t know but if so, thanks – not naming so he doesn’t get spammed with questions. I will be paraphrasing from the conversation we had.
From his perspective, A Sherlock – The Lost Special ARG is happening right now whether it is BBC official or not. A fan-run ARG is still an ARG. We are playing something even if it is just amongst ourselves.
It could be something well organized or it could be poorly designed but either way, it still “exists” so maybe the shaming/calling out people who believe in playing it can stop.
However, he also said that when games leave too much ambiguity and room for massive faulty leaps in logic and that goes unchecked, that’s not a well designed game, games where it isn’t clear if they are happening can be harmful for folks who struggle with reality in the first place and can also leave people (like random sitemasters, twitter accounts, etc…) open to harassment if they accidentally get caught up in it. So this is something to consider if the current level of ambiguity goes on for more than just the first few weeks. It could be a “real” game, just not a very good one.
People not interested in playing, reading ARG stuff can stop reading now if you want – just wanted those concerned/annoyed with the whole thing to consider this perspective.
So now here is what we have to consider – Is there a cohesive fan-run ARG happening? What is really a part of it? What is actually gamejackers or trolls?
-the lost special instagram?
-the lost special troll page?
-The “Contact” Twitters/The “Contact” accounts here on Tumblr?
-The “moles”/anons who send coded messages?
-What else might be? (looking for replies here)
If it is an official BBC Sanctioned game there are obviously a lot more things to consider – that can be a separate post if anyone wants to make it but I think most of us already know what pages/accounts/etc… would be the first places to be looking for clues since we have already been doing that the whole time.
Additionally, Once in the ARG mentality we find ourselves wondering about every unusual thing we come across, any site that seems strange or account that reminds us of Sherlock. These things are certainly worth considering but with caution.
One question he said everyone should ask – as a general tip for those new to playing – is “If this thing is *not* part of the game, what is the risk?” are you putting yourself in physical danger? Giving out personal information? Identity theft risk? Throwing money away or leaving your credit card open to fraudulent charges? And so on.
Another thing to consider is tempering your expectations. Which is to say, would you still be interested in playing if it isn’t an official game that actually culminates in a Lost Special/4th episode? In other words are you cool with the real ARG being the friends we made along the way? I don’t mean to take sides one way or another but it is a good question to ask yourself because it may affect the way you approach things.
I think these are important things to consider so I would appreciate a reblog/tag if you have followers who post in the sherlock arg tag or if you have followers who speak out against it/have concerns. Also, if reblogging, totally feel free to TL; DR it for your followers, I’m not great at brevity. Thanks
the deep web is extremely dangerous – it contains everything from hit men for hire to child pornography to horrific human and animal abuse, often disguised as links to innocent pages, and is used by a lot of people with excellent hacking and doxxing skills and very troubling morals
in fact, even if you disregard points 1 – 3, there is absolutely no way that the bbc or any of its affiliates would ever encourage young people, especially children under 18, to go to such a dangerous part of the internet – that would be asking for a lawsuit which the bbc would never risk or be able to afford (they’re tax funded, after all)
i am telling you right now that there is no chance whatsoever that any coded messages encouraging you to go to the deep web are in any way related to the bbc – i promise you that this is the work of an anti who doesn’t like this community and may actually mean you actual harm
if there is an arg (which honestly i find hard to believe at this stage, but this point stands regardless), i promise you this isn’t part of it
too late.. …. …. i’m sinking here
i’m telling you without any shadow of a doubt that anyone leading you to the deep web has nothing to do with the bbc and means you harm, this isn’t an opinion, there is absolutely no way the bbc would ever do anything like this and the evidence corroborates this being the work of an anti, please be sensible for your own sake
This looks like a public call to bloggers and journalists to pay attention to what is going on on @tjlcisthenewsexy ‘s Tumblr page. Unsure if real or ARG-devised, but either way there may be some wider attention focused on all of this fairly soon. The bitly link is a shortened link to the Vivala.me homepage – its purpose is likely to track how many people are using that particular link to check out Vivala.me. Brace yourselves, folks.
Fucky….
For those that don’t know already, he works for the company.
Literally this is what my ask to them was about, a research project on posthumous death ritual.
ANSWER ME
Umm. Ok. I’m not sure if I quite understand what’s going on here.
The header image of “Sabatiel”’s twitter is a reference to the group Anonymous. They wear Guy Fawkes masks when appearing in public.
He is a Digital Marketer & Marketing Specialist. This might actually e the ARG?!
From wiki: “Anonymous is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website nominally associated with the group describes it as “an Internet gathering” with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives”. The group became known for a series of well-publicized publicity stunts and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites.
Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. Anonymous members (known as “Anons”) can be distinguished in public by the wearing of Guy Fawkes masks in the style portrayed in the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta.
In its early form, the concept was adopted by a decentralized online community acting anonymously in a coordinated manner, usually toward a loosely self-agreed goal, and primarily focused on entertainment, or “lulz”. Beginning with 2008’s Project Chanology—a series of protests, pranks, and hacks targeting the Church of Scientology—the Anonymous collective became increasingly associated with collaborative hacktivism on a number of issues internationally…..
…Broadly speaking, Anons oppose Internet censorship and control, and the majority of their actions target governments, organizations, and corporations that they accuse of censorship. Anons were early supporters of the global Occupy movement and the Arab Spring.[15] Since 2008, a frequent subject of disagreement within Anonymous is whether members should focus on pranking and entertainment or more serious (and, in some cases, political) activism….Brian Kelly writes that three of the group’s key characteristics are “(1) an unrelenting moral stance on issues and rights, regardless of direct provocation; (2) a physical presence that accompanies online hacking activity; and (3) a distinctive brand.”
Anonymous is also the one who sends Sherlock puzzles
And is ‘Anonymous’ also the one that hacks John’s blog?
He also posted stuff about vivala on the 7th. How long have we known about the site? I feel like it’s been less than a week, but idk anymore
Uh, a marketing specialist with hardly any followers or tweets?
🚨🚨huge red flag🚨🚨
And if he is indeed that…then he just wants to use is so…I think it’s time we take a huge step back from this you guys. Thelostspecial.com was fun. Now it’s just getting super weird and dark weblike
I know I probably shouldn’t fan the flames of this, and you probably won’t see this post. But I’m making it anyways.
I’ve read over the message on your website.
Oh boy.
I don’t know exactly what you were trying to get at with all of this.
Maybe, like, 02% of the TJLC fandom + others genuinely believed that your site meant something. I know that percentage is completely pulled out of the air…and I’m not about to do an actual calculation here. BUT I see quite a bit of fandom traffic everyday being an archive. I know and see what people are talking about. What they agree with and what they don’t.
You’ve made something out of nothing just like you say TJLC did. (Oh the tangled webs we weave for ourselves).
That 20 minutes a week you say that work on your site? Yeah, no.
There is no way to 1) design and code pages 2) read through all of our theories 3) come up with codes and clues 4) mange a website, Twitter AND your regular tumblr account with 20 minutes a week. IT’S NOT POSSIBLE. Even if you are a web designer of some sort.
I spend an hour day (AT LEAST) reading through theory posts. And some of them I even skim. There’s just too much posted everyday. And that’s not even taking into account reading though posts about your site! Honestly!
And with the website comes paying for bandwidth and the domain name. I’m not a IT person by any means, but there’s probably other things that cost money to run a website (besides your time). We sure has heck didn’t lose any sleep or money over this.
Regardless…thank you. I mean it! You gave the fandom one last BBC Sherlock hoora! Most of us didn’t get that with s4. We played your game, had some fun together before we all start going our separate ways over the coming months and years.
I was never TJLC. I read the theories just like any semi/regular academic essay in college. I joined the fandom years ago to stretch my theory muscle. And to learn what I could from those who posted metas and ideas into the tumblrsphere. If anything, you showed me the fandom that I came to know over the last 4 years. They are smart, able to write academic length essays with sources and quotes quickly. They are funny, taking PR goofs to the extreme and making memes that make me cry with laughter. They are kind, being considerate of those who decided not to stay in the fandom after s4. They are all those things and more. And if this is the end of BBC Sherlock, or at least the end of an era of fandom, I thank you.
Because your website gave everyone the opportunity to be so amazing, smart, funny and wonderful one more time.
Even if you aren’t the nicest person for thinking that the fandom needed to learn a lesson.
Here is the text, with my first thought comments in bold:
I was going to draw this out longer but the truth is, I’m
bored.
OK
There is no Lost Special. There never was, and there never
will be.
And you know this
objectively?
Once again, in their need to keep this midnight train going,
TJLC fans created something out of nothing.
Even if that is that
case, why do you care?
Seeing this obsession with “The Lost Special,” even though
series 4 was clearly over, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to run a
sociological experiment with a vicious fandom in denial.
Steven brought it up,
not us. Also, even if the series is
over, that doesn’t mean it’s over. They’ve
repeatedly said they have through series 5 mapped out. It was only in December
2016 they started hinting at “we don’t know, this could be it.” Sure Jan.
My poorly assembled website took not more than twenty
minutes to cobble together (as some people rightly pointed out) and very little
effort to maintain.
This is a lie.
“By the pricking of my thumbs (something wicked this way
comes)”- I edited an ominous message into the code and title, referencing the
Macbeth quote used in The Six Thatchers. It was strange to see how many people
didn’t recognise the “pricking” quote and even criticised the website because
it allegedly didn’t call back to Sherlock in any way- except that I was
directly quoting a series 4 episode.
Except most of us did
recognize this? What about your dancing
man code reference to Unto the Breach?
Watching fans defend how shoddy the website is, in their
need for thelostspecial to be real was especially funny. It was also funny to
see the people who guessed the website was fake and said as much, but didn’t
even care because they desperately needed something to hold onto, with Sherlock
over.
Whichever, why do you
care? Why would it be funny to you?
Then there’s the people who clocked that thelostspecial.com
wasn’t “real”… and yet never question their own dedication to TJLC and/or the
existence of a fourth episode of series 4, concepts entirely created by Tumblr.
The lost special site
was only one of hundreds of indications something is fucky.
Anyhow. Next, I threw a random bunch of numbers and photos
out there to see how people would scramble and react, and you didn’t let me
down. Mostly I chose the first photo I found of a character that I liked the
look of, in Google; there wasn’t real logic. I re-used some images out of
laziness. I used an online generator to make the Dancing Men/Henry V code post.
So the meanings we
found in everything, tying it somehow back to Sherlock, or ACD canon, or anything
else were all coincidences?
What do we say about
coincidences?
40, 27, kra, the various “hints” you think you found on the
website and found countless possible meanings of, they were chosen at random.
Even the elephant photo was chosen at random. It wasn’t until after I edited it
into the main website photo that I discovered the poor thing was named Mary and
had been shot and executed for killing a man (on 9.13.16. Everyone overthought that
one too much.) So I used that info
because it was serendipitous. “The universe is rarely so lazy?” Friends, the
universe is often lazy.
“They were chosen at
random.” “The universe is rarely so
lazy?
Sure Jan.
When I added a black image with five pixels of colour to the
website, you did not let me down. People played with the image until they
became convinced it was QR code spelling something out. It was just five
meaningless pixels of nothing, created in MS Paint.
Yet you did the whole
thing in 20 minutes.
The static gif was taken from a YouTube video of TV static
from some movie, with an old Moriarty close-up thrown in.
We know, 28 days
later. With Moriarty loaded in. Again, whole thing in 20 minutes.
The photo of John and Sherlock sitting in the watery 221B, I
got it from Farfarawaysite.com, and scaled it down a little because the photo
was large. That’s it. I didn’t change the proportions in any way, or alter the
colours, or add anything to the photo. Anything you saw in it, you imagined. I
left the big black header on the website as a hint to keep your eye on those,
since the thing I changed on 2/11 was in the similar Twitter header.
”That’s it. I didn’t
change the proportions in any way, or alter the colours, or add anything to the
photo. Anything you saw in it, you imagined.”
I changed the plain black header of the Twitter to a black
one with a word embedded in it. The profile photo was changed to a plain black
photo with XX hidden in it. No one bothered checking it, though clearly the
account was active again, so I changed the profile photo to show the Xs, as a
hint to look deeper. Finally people found the “clue” today, not that it
matters. The word spelled out there is another blind alley that leads nowhere.
Then accept all our
follow requests.
MMTE: The source code message was a hint toward Murderous
Mary the Elephant, which some of you guessed but no one looked for it.
murderousmarytheelephant.tumblr.com
(Don’t bother trying to access it, there’s nothing in
there.)
DON’T LOOK NOTHING TO
SEE HERE, EVEN THOUGH THERE’S A PASSWORD.
There was no set schedule for changes to thelostspecial. I
used intermittent reinforcement to keep people frustrated but coming back for
more. That’s why I added and removed things at unexpected times. There is no
pattern.
Ok?
For people wondering, wow, why would anyone take so much
time to do this? Well, I didn’t. Creating the plain black squares with a few
letters, throwing a message into the source coding, and uploading the new website photo of John
and Sherlock took maybe 5 minutes. Creating a side blog with no posts and
keeping it private takes one minute.
Except the
photoshopping you DID do as established would have taken more. Even searching for the first image you found
would have taken time.
Overall, it takes less than twenty minutes a week to do
this, once it was set up, because really? You do all the work for me. You all
did what TJLCers do best- you took a bunch of random data, inflated it into
something much more complicated than it really was, and created your own
narrative out of it. Even knowing it might be nothing, and was probably just a
fan-made site, you’ve still allowed yourselves to get worked up over it and
allowed yourselves to hope. You’re reading into nonsense and finding clues
where there are none, and naturally most of those “clues” pointed exactly where
you wanted them to point to. Confirmation bias at its finest.
Well all I get from
this is that we’re smarter than you are.
Learn from this.
Stop falling into conspiracies. Trust yourself when you can
see that something isn’t real or likely. Alternately, find something that
doesn’t make you feel sad or heartbroken.
Seriously? “Trust yourself when you can see that
something isn’t real or likely.”
Instincts are to be
trusted, John.
Also, my instincts
have gotten me into a pretty good place.
I’ll keep trusting them, thanks, and they tell me something is
fucky. We’ve seen this episode before.
Goddamn you’re
arrogant.
A few final notes:
“And in conclusion
*jerk off motion*
I was somewhat entertained by the several dozen times people
attempted to reset the password for the website and access the control panel.
If I was petty, I would’ve logged your IPs and reported you to your ISP. (Don’t
worry, I didn’t. I don’t care that much.)’
You cared enough to
look.
I didn’t send the “mole” anons or any other messages on
Tumblr. I think other fans decided to join the game. I imagine they’ll continue
until they get bored, too.
Read: I can’t say why
everything else is fucky too. Must be
more people like me.
The only twitter account connected to thelostspecial.com is
twitter.com/thelostspecial. I have no idea who runs the “contact” twitters but
I’m positive they’re fan accounts. (If you think BBC-sanctioned accounts would
post like that, I have a bridge to sell you.)
As for my twitter, I set up the thelostspecial twitter account, followed
some BBC-related accounts and left it alone for a week while TJLC fans went
wild trying to suss out who I was following. That’s all I did with it.
Then accept my follow
request. Seriously, YOU’RE SO CLEVER I
need to follow you to learn your secrets.
I didn’t start thelostspecial Instagram account. Someone
else did that, I don’t know who.
Nobody asked. Actually, I didn’t even know there was an
instragram account. Did anyone else
know?
And if you enjoyed hunting, try a legitimate online riddle
game, such as Amnesya.com for a challenge! All the fun, none of the TJLC and
fandom “fucky” business.
Well, since you
brought up “fucky business,” why are they screenshots of the Shrewd Living
posts in the “Museum?” Did you do that too?
Wow. In charge of a scam
website. Oh, you don’t know about
that? Then why put it in there? Why, John?
Nah.
Sherlock Series 4 is over. This is the end.
Thanks for playing TheLostSpecial! Goodbye and God bless.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 