http://8-3-11.info/Water.html : It started as just a summer project. A way to have a little fun. Admittedly it got way bigger than I ever could have imagined. Honestly I didn’t think it would make it out of Houston. Some of my friends and I were just going to post the flyer around the town and that was it. In retrospect I probably should have left it there.
When I chose the date 8•3•11 it was totally random. And then I searched it online to see if it was already related to anything big. I saw the bible verse, and at first didn’t think much of it. Then as summer began I thought that maybe 8•3•11 should actually have some purpose, so I made that crude sketch of an interactive sculpture that was sort of supposed to imitate a stoning. Those were really the only two things that were ever intentionally related to each other. So it sort of started to be some kind of weird stoning awareness thing if you could call it that? The idea never really got developed because I was busy with other things.
So then the whole thing started to blow up online and people thought it was an Alternate Reality Game(ARG). I didn’t know what an ARG was before this whole thing and I’m still not totally clear on it. At any rate people were interested in it and that was interesting to me so I gave “clues”. I put that in quotes because I had no idea where I was going with the whole thing. I’m not much of a story teller. I was actually going to shut it down a few weeks ago (probably should have followed my gut on that one), but it was really interesting reading the ideas people were coming up with and a lot of people seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. They didn’t seem to care that it was possibly nothing, so I carried on.
Eventually the whole thing started falling apart because nothing made sense anymore (probably because pretty much all the “clues” were just random bits of information). A lot of people seemed to think I was trying to create a game for them, but it was never really meant to be a game, that’s why it was a really terrible game. For the people that thought 8•3•11 was supposed to bring some earth shattering news, sorry. I mean, it’s a girl and a date with some spooky noises, how important could it really be? And it has a Formspring account… yeah.
As far as it being a viral campaign it went incredibly well until that whole crashing and burning part at the end. All I did was post about 10 flyers around my town and within two days the site had 1,000 hits and it snowballed from there. It was definitely interesting to see how some people could become so focused on something they knew practically nothing about. It even inspired a few spinoffs. I was never in this to harm anyone. I never said something would actually happen on 8•3•11. I’m sorry if I upset you. This was never meant to be a prank or anything like that.
None of the girls that people found had anything to do with the project and shouldn’t be bothered. It was just me and one friend working on it together.
In the end, I think what people really wanted was a mystery to solve and they did it. I think that’s pretty cool to be honest. I know it’s extremely cheesy to say, but it’s really wild to see what people can do when they work together like they did on this. So, good job. I hope you actually had some fun exposing me.
By the way, I noticed someone put up a CaféPress store with 8•3•11 merchandise. That was not me. Like I said before, I was never in this for some kind of profit.
When I chose the date 8•3•11 it was totally random. And then I searched it online to see if it was already related to anything big. I saw the bible verse, and at first didn’t think much of it. Then as summer began I thought that maybe 8•3•11 should actually have some purpose, so I made that crude sketch of an interactive sculpture that was sort of supposed to imitate a stoning. Those were really the only two things that were ever intentionally related to each other. So it sort of started to be some kind of weird stoning awareness thing if you could call it that? The idea never really got developed because I was busy with other things.
So then the whole thing started to blow up online and people thought it was an Alternate Reality Game(ARG). I didn’t know what an ARG was before this whole thing and I’m still not totally clear on it. At any rate people were interested in it and that was interesting to me so I gave “clues”. I put that in quotes because I had no idea where I was going with the whole thing. I’m not much of a story teller. I was actually going to shut it down a few weeks ago (probably should have followed my gut on that one), but it was really interesting reading the ideas people were coming up with and a lot of people seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. They didn’t seem to care that it was possibly nothing, so I carried on.
Eventually the whole thing started falling apart because nothing made sense anymore (probably because pretty much all the “clues” were just random bits of information). A lot of people seemed to think I was trying to create a game for them, but it was never really meant to be a game, that’s why it was a really terrible game. For the people that thought 8•3•11 was supposed to bring some earth shattering news, sorry. I mean, it’s a girl and a date with some spooky noises, how important could it really be? And it has a Formspring account… yeah.
As far as it being a viral campaign it went incredibly well until that whole crashing and burning part at the end. All I did was post about 10 flyers around my town and within two days the site had 1,000 hits and it snowballed from there. It was definitely interesting to see how some people could become so focused on something they knew practically nothing about. It even inspired a few spinoffs. I was never in this to harm anyone. I never said something would actually happen on 8•3•11. I’m sorry if I upset you. This was never meant to be a prank or anything like that.
None of the girls that people found had anything to do with the project and shouldn’t be bothered. It was just me and one friend working on it together.
In the end, I think what people really wanted was a mystery to solve and they did it. I think that’s pretty cool to be honest. I know it’s extremely cheesy to say, but it’s really wild to see what people can do when they work together like they did on this. So, good job. I hope you actually had some fun exposing me.
By the way, I noticed someone put up a CaféPress store with 8•3•11 merchandise. That was not me. Like I said before, I was never in this for some kind of profit.
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