LOST Site: Save Joop
I have seen talk about this site for a week and had just dismissed it as another fan site set up with the sole intention of cashing in on the LOST Experience, and selling some t-shirts. However, because of the fact the two ingame characters, The Speaker from Inside the Lost Experience, and now Hugh McIntyre on Jimmy Kimmel Live, both mentioned the site, I now think that this site is worth looking into.
Upon first glance, it is obvious that the pictures that they have on the site is not the same Orangetan that is on the Hanso Foundation site.
Then when I took a look at the whois.com domain info, and found out that the domain was registered on May 15, 2006 by a David Penuel from Herndon, VA. I also checked the Source, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. My assumptions were confirmed that this was most likely a fan site. HOWEVER, as I was looking over this site, the thought occured to my inner theory monger that if the people running the ARG are willing to get coorporate sponsorship to off set the operation costs (Monster.com, Verizon, Sprite, Jeep). Then it is entirly possible that they would use the hype that they have created to further cash in by selling t-shirts, and playing to the contempt for the Hanso Foundation that they instilled in fans. FRIGGIN BRILLIANT!
UPDATE:
After hitting the petition mark, several people started to send e-mails to the site asking about whether or not the owner of the site was in fact going to send the petition to ABC/the Hanso Foundation. It was then that the owner(s) admitted that they were in fact the guys from the LOST Experience Clues blog. Needless to say, many people became very angry with the TLEC guys, and a few even went as far as to boycott the site. Although I personally didn’t think it was that big a deal, and found the reactions of some people rather extreme, this did place a black mark on the credibility of the LOST Experience Clues blog. It was because of this that several other gamers, including myself, were VERY skeptical when TLEC started posting entries about the Hanso Exposed site during the weeks leading up to Comic-Con. It was later shown that the Hanso Exposed site was a legitamate ARG site, but people’s hesitance to accept the validity of their post only showed how much of a shot the credibility of the blog took after the Save Joop stunt.
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[…] On August 10th, Glyph 33 with the code “GLLV8B” was found through a glyph hunt administered by the guys at thelostexperienceclues.blogspot.com. It was quite a day since this was the first time in the ARG that a glyph hunt was administered by out of game characters. However, because of a previous stunt that the guys pulled with the Save Joop site, many people (including myself) were skeptical as to the validity to their claims of having a glyph. As a result, people on LOST sites all over the net were claiming SHENANNIGANS! BUT… As it turns out, they did have a glyph and perhaps in the near future after the ARG ends, the guys will fill us in as to how they became in-game insiders. I know that I would sure like to know. […]