{"id":630,"date":"2009-05-23T12:47:50","date_gmt":"2009-05-23T20:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=630"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:25:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:25:49","slug":"arghhh-again-naturally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/arghhh-again-naturally\/","title":{"rendered":"ARG(hhh!) Again, Naturally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again.<\/p>\n<p>Back in November I wrote a post that detailed my small brush with infamy related to <a title=\"Darma Wants You\" href=\"http:\/\/www.darmawantsyou.com\/Dharma.html\" target=\"_self\">DarmaWantsYou.com<\/a>. \u00a0This week saw the stars align for another 15 minutes of fame that felt worthy of revisiting. \u00a0The rough timeline:<\/p>\n<p><strong>February 29, 2008<\/strong><br \/>\n<a title=\"Amazon.com - Timely Persuasion\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0615188826\/?tag=timelpersu-20\" target=\"_self\"><em>Timely Persuasion<\/em><\/a> is released. \u00a0The book includes 2 hidden easter eggs into a mini-ARG. \u00a0These go undiscovered for quite some time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>July 30, 2008<br \/>\n<\/strong>Kick-off of the official DharmaWantsYou ARG in between seasons 4 and 5 of Lost. \u00a0I accidentally typo the site when trying to visit it and get a page not found, which inspires me to register it myself as a good samaritan. \u00a0The intent was always this: &#8220;Hey, wrong site. \u00a0Here&#8217;s the real one, plus a shameless plug on something that might be of mutual interest.&#8221; This sets the series of events <a title=\"A Blog of Timely Persuasion - ARG(hhh!)\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=242\" target=\"_self\">detailed in this post<\/a> into motion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>May 1, 2009<\/strong><br \/>\nEmail from GoDaddy reminding me that DarmaWantsYou.com would be expiring in July. \u00a0I hadn&#8217;t touched the site since linking to my in-game Dharma questionnaire, which no longer existed since ABC took down the site of the original game. \u00a0With the content now somewhat pointless I decide I&#8217;ll most likely let the registration lapse in July.<\/p>\n<p><strong>May 16, 2009<\/strong><br \/>\nWith some time on my hands for the first time in ages, I check out my website stats and notice that DarmaWantsYou was still getting 30-50 hits per day even without a &#8220;real&#8221; site to point people back to. \u00a0With a little bit of traffic and a couple of months before expiration I thought it made sense to do a minor revision:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I changed the sub-header from &#8220;Has There Been An Incursion On This Site By The Hostiles?&#8221; to &#8220;What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>I killed the dead link to my time travel Dharma quiz from the defunct &#8220;real&#8221; game and replaced it with this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Although Dharma is no more, there are other Initiatives&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"study.lb-dg.com\" href=\"http:\/\/study.lb-dg.com\" target=\"_self\">study.LB-DG.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The link points to the <em>Timely Persuasion<\/em> easter egg\/mini-ARG that&#8217;s been up since the book&#8217;s launch in February of 2008.\u00c2\u00a0 My logic was that if people were looking for an ARG I might as well point them to something similar rather than leaving them with nothing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_633\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-633\" style=\"width: 134px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-633\" title=\"Page Views\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/screenshot_4.jpg?resize=134%2C44\" alt=\"Traffic to study.lb-dg.com went through the roof!\" width=\"134\" height=\"44\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-633\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traffic to study.lb-dg.com went through the roof!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>May 18, 2009<\/strong><br \/>\nUnbeknownst to me, a new Lost ARG called &#8220;<a title=\"Who Is Simeon Hobbes? Blog\" href=\"http:\/\/whoissimeonhobbes.wordpress.com\/\">Who Is Simeon Hobbes?<\/a>&#8221; was on the verge of starting. \u00a0(Note: \u00a0This new ARG has since been revealed to be fan made and not canon. \u00a0Still pretty cool though.) \u00a0Someone discovers the LBDG study page with the password protected PDF and thinks it&#8217;s in-game despite the &#8220;I registered this page because of a typo&#8221; intro. \u00a0It hit <a title=\"Twitter search: lb-dg\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#search?q=lb-dg\" target=\"_self\">Twitter<\/a>, and things started to skyrocket from there.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So to be clear:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m not part of an official Lost ARG.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m not part of this fan-made WISH? ARG; nor did I intentionally try to hijack it.<\/li>\n<li>There is a mini-ARG type thing embedded in <em>Timely Persuasion<\/em>, and the password protected PDF, the questions, and the word &#8220;Nelsonification&#8221; all tie back into the plot of the book.<\/li>\n<li>The book is pretty good if I do say so myself \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Props to user <a title=\"Lostpedia Forum - LBDG\/Titor\" href=\"http:\/\/forum.lostpedia.com\/showpost.php?p=1630768&amp;postcount=150\" target=\"_self\">Jesus_Stick<\/a> at the Lostpedia forums for figuring out the nod to John Titor in the LBDG logo, and to <a title=\"Lostpedia Forum - LBDG\/Carter USM\" href=\"http:\/\/forum.lostpedia.com\/showpost.php?p=1630787&amp;postcount=152\" target=\"_self\">South<\/a> for catching the Carter USM references in the questionnaire. Nice work!<\/p>\n<p><strong>PS<\/strong>: One last note, in regards to this at the <a title=\"Unofficial Lost ARG Blog\" href=\"http:\/\/lostarg.wordpress.com\/2009\/05\/18\/very-important-information-for-those-just-joining\/\" target=\"_self\">LostARG blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>PLEASE be especially aware of the lb-dg one, it asks you to send off a questionnaire with money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The $1 I ask for at the bottom of the PDF isn&#8217;t a scam and isn&#8217;t intended as a money making scheme. \u00a0It&#8217;s actually there to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">discourage<\/span> people from mailing the questionnaire back to the PO box, as I don&#8217;t really have a use for it. \u00a0But if someone does happen to send me a buck, they will get something of equal or greater value in return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again. Back in November I wrote a post that detailed my small brush with infamy related to DarmaWantsYou.com. \u00a0This week saw the stars align for another 15 minutes of fame that felt worthy of revisiting. \u00a0The rough timeline: February 29, 2008 Timely Persuasion is released. \u00a0The book includes 2 hidden easter eggs&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","tag-lost"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-aa","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/arghhh\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":0},"title":"ARG(hhh!)","author":"LBDG","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a big fan of the TV show LOST. \u00a0I'm also a bit of an Internet geek. So when they pulled these two concepts together in their nearly annual Alternate Reality Game (ARG) between seasons I was quite excited -- especially when they hinted at more time travel in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Misc Debris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ramblings-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":1},"title":"Ramblings I","author":"LBDG","date":"December 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In the spirit of the early years of the Pearl Jam Xmas Single, here are some tangentially on-topic thoughts not big enough for their own posts: I've been having recurring dreams (and\/or daydreams) where M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (aka She & Him) cover \"Start Choppin'\" by Dinosaur Jr., trading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Misc Debris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":899,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/free-tp-ebooks-for-read-an-ebook-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":2},"title":"Free TP eBooks for Read an eBook Week","author":"LBDG","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of the annual Read an eBook Week celebration I'm offering free copies of Timely Persuasion via Smashwords.com through 3\/13\/10. Enter coupon code \"RFREE\" at checkout on the Smashwords site to pick up your copy in a variety of formats including Kindle, Sony Reader, Palm, etc. Timely Persuasion @\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Read an eBook Week 2010","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/rebw10_ad_darwin_250x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/cover-me-the-art-of-jose-roberto\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":3},"title":"Cover Me: The Art of Jose Roberto","author":"LBDG","date":"January 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most common questions I get regarding Timely Persuasion is about the cover artwork. Where did it come from? How does it relate to the plot? Is that you in the picture? I was surprised to realize I haven't told that story on this blog before now. Way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The original painting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/lost_in_time-254x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/ramblings-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":4},"title":"Ramblings II","author":"LBDG","date":"January 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Got a text message from my cousin Adam at around 7pm PT on Wednesday that said \"Are you in time travel heaven right now?\" He was referring to the season premiere of LOST, but forgot that I was 3 hours behind and thus hadn't watched it yet.\u00c2\u00a0 Note to self:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Misc Debris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Timecrimes sketch.  Crayon on Butcher Paper, 2008","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/timecrimes-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":888,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/award\/","url_meta":{"origin":630,"position":5},"title":"Award","author":"LBDG","date":"February 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Fun little award courtesy of my friend LibbyHyaline at the TimeLoopTheory forum, in honor of my repeated ramblings on everyone's favorite episode of LOST.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Misc Debris&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"If anything goes wrong...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/4Timely.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/4Timely.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/4Timely.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}