Crowdsourcing Vs ARG?

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Postby elfismiles » Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:28 pm

Hi WR ... yeah I meant to mention over here:

The Fourth Kind (alien encounter/abduction movie)
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board/v ... 121#307121

... I was just at a local ufo xmas party gathering this past Saturday and someone mentioned the CE4k movie - saying it was true. I immediately spoke up and said, "No, it is just a movie that used viral / stealth / ARG-like marketing, creating fake websites as 'official backstory'."

Later that night I was at another xmas party, this one made up mostly of local new age / consciousness raising oriented folks and my friend Barb MacLeod told us about her latest work deciphering the glyphs related to all the 2012 hubbub.

http://www.anomalytelevision.com/site/2 ... a-macleod/
http://www.avweb.com/news/profiles/182926-1.html
http://www.duke.edu/web/carolinadukecon ... ources.htm
http://www.infowars.com/articles/media/ ... alypto.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20070106211149/http://www.prisonplanet.tv/articles/january2007/040107macleod.htm
http://nwoblog.com/apocalypto-myths-and ... ones-show/
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Postby Wombaticus Rex » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:24 pm

The New Age / Conspiracy Theory section really is an open-lab experiment in Social Engineering, huh? They/we just keep refining the formula and testing the results, over and over, year after year.

Teh internets made the X-files possible, which in turn drove more willing participants to teh Internets. That's the basic template for a feedback loop that's increasingly defining our popular culture. I used to think it was a classic case of "Pop Will Eat Itself" -- a thesis that mass spectacle must devour everything as subject matter eventually, which is probably why Nicholas Cage made a movie about snuff films.

Belief systems are mostly unconscious, right? Most American Christians, for instance, have a very specific moral code that's barely Biblical, although their belief in the Bible is invoked to justify and explain what they do. (Not a "dumb Xtians" swipe, we're all just as guilty.)

So the real anchor points that emerge will be unconscious and hard to predict. After a generation of Communion, Independence Day and 2012, what emerges? There's a remarkably widespread belief in aliens and visitation among people who don't understand -- or even care about -- the details and specifics. It's just been in the air enough to take root.

Food for thoughts, and who knows What Else.
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Postby LilyPatToo » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:58 pm

Glad this thread has been revived. My own interest in it centers on the use of "Useful Idiots" to do meme-spreading, since I was one of them for many years :oops: The people behind the New Age-y versions of this seem to have an amazingly detailed knowledge of what combination of buttons to push to get specific segments of the Fringe to react with excitement...probably because they installed the buttons in the first place.

Some of us gradually woke up and rebelled, but many highly intelligent people continue to predictably go off like firecrackers at any blurry photo of a UFO or mention of 2012. I've read some insultingly condescending articles in the mainstream press about "fantasy-prone individuals" and other people whose nervous systems are wired to need a lot more stimulation than most folks' do, but I'd love to see that subject gone into in depth by better-informed people here in the conspiracy territories.

I've lost treasured friendships when I insisted upon thinking rigorously about paranormal incidents, so this is becoming increasingly important to me. It's not that I don't believe in the existence of paranormal abilities and events--how could I not, when I've experienced so many myself, first-hand?--but, no matter how respectful I try to be when asking for a rethinking about something weird, even close long-term friends tend to feel rejected/invalidated/misunderstood by me.

And since around here DE's sort of become the poster child for ARG victims, I'd like to see that discussed too. Whatever happened to him, whether it was deliberate, with malice aforethought, or was just collateral damage resulting from online sociopaths having fun, its result was to remove a voice from the psy-ops conversation and that just sucks. If they could game him so successfully, right after he'd posted a blog about a woman author who'd been similarly taken out of the game by pro intel creeps, then we should all be scared.

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Postby American Dream » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:13 pm

All really important points, LilyPat. Thanks for that.

Just to reiterate a bit, I would submit that a sober and rational examination of the ideas that others are proposing is an essential element. Critical thinking should never be posed as being against the flights of imagination and vision that go with extraordinary ideas and experiences. These two are necessary complements of each other.

So do let's pay attention to symbolism, coded communications, synchronicities, and everything else in those strange and mysterious zones. However, since it is very probable that there are people who want to f**k with our minds (for whatever reason), let's be very discerning also...
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Postby lightningBugout » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:54 pm

So, I'm happily on vacation and was going to take a long break from RI. But when I logged on, I had a message from someone asking me what was going on in the LaRouche thread I had started in the Franklin sub-forum. And when I checked it out, if I followed it correctly, there appears to have been uncovered a fairly substantive ARG closely involving RI going on for a few months. Am I on crack? Or did other people interpret the admittedly cryptic exchange over there the same way? I think I get the very rough idea of ARG but not much beyond that. I think it was Sunny but may have been someone else who explained to me, on request, very loosely what happened with DE. But I remain confused. Am I the only one? I admit I find it all very unsettling. In sum - what's going on? Thanks in advance.

PS. I am not finding Wikipedia terribly helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
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Postby American Dream » Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:36 pm

lBo:

I can't explain what happened before, as I missed the whole debacle, and never studied up on it enough to feel like I truly understand it.

I think you are on exactly the right track regarding the LaRouche thread on the Franklin sub-forum.

I would only add that one subtext of a lot of psyops is to promote a lot of generalized paranoia and I don't think we should feed into that unnecessarily either...

That said, this should not in any way be taken to say that we should in any way discard our intuitions about this either...



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Postby Penguin » Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:49 pm

ARGs are like live action role playing, it seems to me.
Then there are people who seem to just like fucking with people (for fun or for profit). Unavoidable possibly.. Some of the arg stuff seems like viral marketing and trolling to me. Or pranksterism.

One might probably say that most of what goes on in the media and western "information" society in general today could be considered an arg, as it is often several degrees removed from reality of things, or at least portrayed as such.

Im not an expert though. Just an ex-game master of the garden variety of role playing. The kind you play in your head with your friends.

Edit: after reading page 1 of this thread, it seems to define ARGs quite well...
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Postby LilyPatToo » Thu Dec 24, 2009 1:20 am

lightningBugout, another aspect of ARGs that you might run into is the kind that's claimed to be "performance art" by its players. I, though a lifelong artist, have a serious problem with calling deceiving and manipulating unwitting people *Art* with a capital A. My personal opinion of the "performance art" ones I've heard about was that there's apparently no shortage of empathy-deficient folks in the arts, as in the rest of society. Just MHO, of course, but I really, really hate being lied to...

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Postby elfismiles » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:20 am

Okay, regarding the supposed ARGishness over in the Franklin subforum:

Okay ... wow, I didn't realize there had finally been a discussion of TLS (The Last Statue metafiction) over at UnForums. Nor that a wiki had been started to "decipher" it. The last times I talked to DE (a long while ago) he was trying to get me interested in deciphering LTS which he believed was (perhaps) the next big ARGish thing that he believed Joseph Methany was behind - and sometimes he believed Methany was behind some of the post Duncan and Blake arg-or-cybergaslighting shenanigans that overtook DE and this forum.

The Tina Delgado user sounds an awful lot like the LTS related user who was communicating with DE in his KadesCorner blog comments area (before DE pulled that site). But the assumption by Project Willow that the Tina Delgado user is Eve (the presumed ringleader/nemesis one of the multiple hearts at the center of the post-Blake/Duncan shenanigans) is a leap to me.

Here is some of what DE as Kade said about LTS:

The Last Statue: Part One, The Cost of Admission is Your Mind
http://dreamsend2.wordpress.com/2009/05 ... your-mind/

It is the Mother of all ARGs, yet it is not an ARG at all. It is a densely packed labyrinth designed to change the world. For what purpose? I simply do not know.


dreamsend Says:
May 16, 2009 at 7:40 pm

cloudmakers.org/

Don’t make clouds if you can’t stand the rain. Cloudmakers evolved to solve the massive arg around the film AI. It was unofficially dubbed “The Beast” due to its size and I think it had 666 files or related sites or something that was said to be coincidence. Jeanine Salla was a character in that arg.

Some cloudmakers wanted to go on to use their skills to solve real world mysteries like 9/11. that did not go over too well, I guess.

This arg…let’s just call it…I don’t know…the Behemoth…might, therefore have shades of Enders Game. New aesthetic “This is a Game or TIAG, to disguise the fact that this activity is expected to have some real world effects.

Just thinkin’ out loud here…


anywhoo...
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Postby elfismiles » Thu Dec 24, 2009 3:06 am

LilyPatToo wrote:That was a thought-provoking post, elfsmiles. (I'd appreciate a definition of "noia gnosis" though, for non-gamer types like me)


elfismiles wrote:It is easy for me to believe that the synchronistic nature of information, the internet and a community of minds such as this at RI coupled with the witty nature of online discourse could weave together the synchromystic trappings necessary to ensnare most anyone in a cycle of noia gnosis that might convince them that there are such nefarious things going on here and various other communities.


I think others around here have said it better than I did there. My "noia gnosis" reference was more twist of phrase than gamer-terminology. I simply meant the paranoiac / metanoiac sense of perceived patterns. "Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data." But someone can also have skills in "Remote Association" and see genuine patterns in seemingly random data that noone else without the proper background would recognize. The synchromystic or Jungian approach to interpretation of the signs and meaningful coincidences in one's life can be perceived as more meaningful than they may really be and/or more threatening than they may really be.


LilyPatToo wrote:Since Dream's End inexplicably lashed out at me on his way out the door here, I've been trying to (belatedly) learn as much as I can about ARGs and about the labyrinthine tangle of personalities involved in whatever it was that was perpetrated upon him back then. And not simply to figure out how to clear myself of culpability, either. I too have run into some extremely toxic people in the online Fringe and I'd feel better--safer--if I could make some sense out of their attitudes and actions.


Yes, DE lashed out at a lot of people. It was not a character trait I liked in him. The only way I could understand it was his anger over his bailiwick: the dangers of alleged MK/SRA survivors and/or alien abductees being manipulated / diagnosed what have you, by other alleged MK/SRA survivors and/or alien abductees within a forum, via online chat etc., perhaps in ways that could lead someone to become more confused, unstable or ultimately suicidal - much in the way that he / others suggest TD/JB might've been. But I also recall DE having suspicions that user OneSmartRat might somehow have been a part of such shenanigans and he also suspected these kinds of cybergaslighting.
[url="http://conspiracytheory.tribe.net/thread/0771001e-1679-4c97-9541-73e2a2cffa1e#fcf08bdb-1c67-439f-a036-7bd0f0f85a72"]Ong's Hat / El Centro / Incunabula[/url]

I don't think its very easy to know who's who without a score-card and access to posters IP addresses.

LilyPatToo wrote:You said:
DreamsEnd believed that a group of such "game players" was behind certain online stalking and harassment of him and claimed RA/MK survivors and Alien Abductees.


Are you saying that he believed the stalking was BY them? (that they were behind it?)

That was one of the (probably many) things I missed hearing about back when he was imploding. I'm sorry that I did, since I'm a survivor of what appears to have been a succession of government-connected mind control programs and for many years I ignorantly blamed my missing time on "alien" abductions. So it might partly explain DE's sudden turning on me, personally.


I'm not sure which "them" we are talking about now ... one hypothesis was ARG game-players harassing survivors, perhaps trying to win by driving someone over the edge. But there were so many variations of possibilities in my mind (and DE's) that it's hard to articulate them all, especially after so much time has passed.

LilyPatToo wrote:Like JackRiddler, I wish there was some way of figuring out who the people gaming unwitting others really are and whether they're doing it for their own malignant narcissistic/sociopathic fun OR whether there are actual psy-ops types pulling their strings. Or both, I guess. But I do understand why, on a parapolitical board like this one, labeling people as "agents" is forbidden...it's just unfortunate that the policy serves to enable troublemakers.


As I've said before, the mods have a power I wish we all did - they can see folks IP addresses and that makes it a little easier to spot some sock-puppetry.

LilyPatToo wrote:My life experiences have left me with a violent allergy to all games and especially to manipulative people--tricksters--no matter what their excuse is for being less-than-honest about who they are and what they're doing. So I doubt if I'll ever be able to come to terms with ARGs, no matter how highly-principled the excuse for playing one happens to be. I get that most people seem to love to play games of all sorts, so they should be free to do so...as long as those of us who would prefer to abstain are able to do so.

But since there is no way to do that at present, it takes a real effort of will to control my own paranoia sometimes....

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Postby elfismiles » Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:32 am

Back to topic of ARG vs CS.

Plan to 'crowdsource' federal policymaking unveiled
SmartPlanet.com (blog) - Joe McKendrick - ‎Dec 22, 2009‎
We're starting to see the possibilities from applying crowdsourcing to tough questions. Rather than rely on an limited ...
http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blo ... iled/3986/

Inflated Expectations: Crowd-Sourcing Comes of Age in the DARPA Network Challenge
Scientific American - Larry Greenemeier - ‎Dec 21, 2009‎
... The competition was instructive not only in the ways that social networks can be successful at crowd-sourcing—using the Internet's long reach to rally ...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ge-results

Crowdsourcing done perfectly !
India Business Blog (blog) - Arun Prabhudesai - ‎4 hours ago‎
This is probably the first time that I am seeing Crowd-Sourcing done in main stream advertising at such a large scale. I am sure you have already seen this ...
http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/12/24 ... perfectly/

Shop Talk: Image Revolver uses crowdsourcing to curate art
Technically Philly (blog) - ‎21 hours ago‎
“[By crowdsourcing], we're eseentially creating mini marketing studies for every image we get. If you poll enough people, you'll come to a reasonable ...
http://technicallyphilly.com/2009/12/23 ... curate-art
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Postby elfismiles » Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:03 pm

Ghosts Attack game comes to iPhone
Mobiletor.com - ‎Dec 11, 2009‎
... coordinates to procedurally create game levels, enabling players to enter an alternate reality gaming experience (ARG) that corresponds the real world. ...
http://www.mobiletor.com/2009/12/11/gho ... to-iphone/

Sundance Announces Screenwriters Lab Projects
DearCinema - ‎Dec 14, 2009‎
Always interested in experimenting with new ways to tell stories and reach audiences, Weiler developed a cinema ARG (alternate realty game) around Head ...
http://dearcinema.com/sundance-screenwr ... b-2010-332

Sherlock Holmes and a new twist in game narrative
guardian.co.uk - ‎Dec 1, 2009‎
"Our intention," explains the game's creators in their press release, "is to take the things we love about ARG - the mystery, the excitement, ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/ga ... ameculture

Narrative Experiments in Social Media: Valemont and Circle of 8
The Social Robot (blog) - ‎Dec 17, 2009‎
Valemont artfully utilized an alternate reality game (ARG) through the website, www.valemontu.com, to create a fictional world. ...
http://thesocialrobot.com/2009/12/narra ... rcle-of-8/

Building an ARG
School Library Journal - Heather Owings - ‎Nov 30, 2009‎
Chelsie is just one of the characters that teens “met” during Carroll County (MD) Public Library's first Summer Reading 2009 Alternate Reality Game (ARG). ...
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/art ... ryid=47087

3 Idiots' marketing blitzkrieg: Aamir Khan disappears
Business of Cinema - Manisha Pradhan Singh - ‎Dec 12, 2009‎
As the release of 3 Idiots nears closer, Khan is on the run as part of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that has been conceived. The game has been conceived ...
http://businessofcinema.com/news.php?newsid=15125
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Postby Wombaticus Rex » Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:38 pm

"Crowd Sourcing" operationally defined, is getting lots of people to work for free. I'm stunned by how often that gets left out of the social media discussion. You're getting tons of people to participate in something that results in publicity and new intellectual property assets. You don't pay anyone a fucking thing.

I can see why it's such a hot topic at the tech conferences....ROI is the core of all great business narratives.

EDIT: Just wanted to expand that to intel agencies -- why tie up your highly trained, clearance-level agents with the work of actual information collection and target harassment? Make it an ARG and you'll get dozens if not hundreds of willing accomplices who with work for free and never know what they really did.

That's a winning proposition. That's a cost-effective model. That's leveraging synergy, baby.
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Postby chump » Thu Dec 24, 2009 1:45 pm

Did Dreamsend go off the deep end?

This is exactly what spooks me about the Internet. There are so many tricksters. I sometimes feel like I'm gonna wake up the demons. I have read a lot here and have a vivid imagination. I must admit I have been fooled a number of times.

I now recognise that misinformation is frequently spread on the Internet in a wide ranging and sophisticated number of ways. A person or organization can take an element of truth and embellish it to fit their agenda. They can rely on the 'useful idiots' to expound upon and propagate the disinformation.

The WTC "no planes theory" is the first time I noticed it (maybe not the best example of what you're talking about here). It was thrown out there on the Internet and spread like wildfire; and it took a considerable amount of time for me to weed it out. Now, whenever something like that becomes prominant, even here, I always think: Why? What is the agenda behind that? I don't have the answers and it is disheartening; but I think a big part of it is to deflect the truth, and to instill fear and paranoia.

Of course, the 'Veil' itself is sort of an ARG. History, as it is taught in schools, is also. Am I off base here?

Time to go my happy place.
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Postby lightningBugout » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:18 pm

I, for one, am still trying to get a better working understanding of ARGS as they pertain to RI. I get that it mostly involves posters who wildly mis-represent themselves in order to generally fuck with the dynamics of this place.

But I remain highly disturbed by what I saw happen when "Tina" attacked Willow on that other thread. That looked very specifically targeted and showed serious, serious malintent. As a result, it seems very important that everybody on this board have a solid working understanding of what the F an ARG looks like when it starts to contaminate RI.

For example, looking through that blog, I noticed that the "game" seems to have begun during the exact same week of October that a bunch of new members registered here. And that at least one of the cryptic passages on that blog (a statistically unlikely-to-be-random one) includes two words in the username of a poster who registered during that week.

Do I just note that and then keep it to myself? I guess so.

BTW does it not seem likely to assume that most ARGers use proxy servers by default, making the IP-identification pretty anemic?
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