If it's not one thing, it's another

[Kaination]

Not loading for me. Dang, it better load, I'm relaly curious what will happen.

 

[MC]

It could be this:

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/

 

[Kaination]

Anyone with access to EON8.com, give us details. I can't log on, seems like the site got over flowed with people.

damn!

 

[MC]

You can't log on to the site, even if you did it takes you back to the main page, plus there's no area of the site that is secured by the means of needing a log-in.

 

[Kaination]

Well I just got on, I'll update this post.
I <3 you all, specially Kidboy ;_;
4 minutes to go...

Edit:

2 more minutes.

edit: countdown is done.

new website was loading but got timed out

 

[J-Dude]

5 more minutes. Nothing yet hapenning on the site. I have access.

 

[J-Dude]

1 minute...Here we go...hang onto your butts...

 

[MC]

Even though this might be the end of the world/internet, there's no need to double post in the forums.

Well, anything happened? I'm too lazy to check the Eon site.

 

[J-Dude]

Autorefresshed page on end of countdown. Darn server is overloaded, lost access...

 

[Kaination]

Autorefresshed page on end of countdown. Darn server is overloaded, lost access...

same thing.

darn

 

[MC]

You'd think that if it was something that epic that they would at least find a decent host for such an occasion.

 

[Cap J]

"Breaking news story! End of the World thwarted by bad webhosting!" XD

That would be such an awesome story.

 

[J-Dude]

Man, this thing's been totally jammed! Even after ten minutes its still inaccesible!

Update: If anything's hapenned, it can't be huge news. I'm still on channel four and something that big it'd be on all channels.

 

[MC]

to all who can't get onto www.eon8.com

{eon8} Complete
As of July 1st, 2006, the E8 Project has completed.

The purpose of this project was to determine the reactions of the internet public to lack of information.

History
The domain eon8.com was chosen, as it is short, easily remembered, and eon9 was already registered.

It was originally posted on www.msfn.org, but was promptly removed as 'spam'. It was enough time for it to be copied to other forums throughout December 2005.

Results
We were amazed to discover that the site was instantly linked with terrorism, simply for the fact that it seems mysterious. Evil was the number one first impression people had of the site, in spite of the fact that there are no threats on the site.

The only thing Eon 8 says is "We don't want you here". Nothing else.

Other less disappointing opinions were social experimentation (which was correct), James Bond movie viral marketing, and promotions for video games.

For many people, being faced with a countdown timer was an instant reason to try to shut down or hack the site. This is a worrying reaction, that if someone doesn't understand something they must destroy it. As a result, the servers have been hit quite hard these last few days, but luckily 99% of the 'hackers' could easily be described as 'l4me n00bs'.

Another worrying example of paranoia was how quickly people would jump to conclusions, such as telephoning the registered owner of a dog seen in a photograph on a server that hosts a page that links to eon8.

Surprises
The folks at Unfiction.com were the most resourceful and inventive, they successfully managed to decrypt several of the 'codes' on the site, forcing them to be re-encrypted using more secure methods.

FAQ
What about eon5.com?
Nothing to do with us. Pure coincidence, but worked in our favor.

What about the 8th eon being the end of the world?
We picked Eon 8 because Eon 9 was already taken. We didn't know about the significance of this. Eon is a cool sounding word!

Why July 1st?
We didn't know how long it would take to get the word out using our subtle promotion methods. We allowed over 6 months.

What do the codes on the site mean?
They're mostly randomly generated integers encrypted with md5, but with certain letters removed and replaced. The Logs page is simply based on the current timestamp, encrypted and modified. You can't decrypt them, they really are random numbers.

What is the Deployment Map?
They're dots placed over major cities and several random locations, it was done mostly from memory. The random gif filename is an added touch to force a slight delay on loading, which looks more impressive in Internet Explorer, but not as much in Firefox.

What's the password?
There isn't one. If you did somehow manage to get in, you'd see an empty folder with a single text file that says "This is a decoy folder. Please connect to the internal secure network".

Can I see your website statistics?
Yes, click here.

Are you anything to do with Scientology?
Did you see anything talking about a Free Personality Test or Xenu? Use your brain.

Who are you, really?
The most I can tell you is I am a 23 year old web designer from Florida named Mike. I can't narrow it down anymore than that. When I say 'we', I really mean 'me'.

Conclusions
People take things too seriously and panic over the most trivial things. But at the same time there are many people out there who think things through without jumping to conclusions. You can't let pointless speculation rule your lives and force you to live in fear.

In Closing
Thanks to everyone who kept things interesting, especially to the folks at unfiction. Sorry there is no ARG for you to play, but at least you had fun while it lasted.


Click here for one Final Message from Eon 8

BE HAPPY
THE END
Sincerely, x21b

Happy birthday, mtcaptain. From 'ls224' (aka x21b). Yes that really was me in the #eon-8 channel

There you go.

 

[J-Dude]

I'm in! New link: Reveal The Truth...

 

[DiebytheSword]

==BEGIN E8 MSG==

E37G25D9J please confirm that you have received the latest file.

Site: Earth's Special Forces
URL: www.esforces.com
ETA: 0:18:19:30


==END E8 MSG==

IP Address 194.165.130.93
Host Name N/A

Registered with the Email addy: [email protected]

Specifically adjusted it's time to EST as well. Interesting.

 

[Cap J]

So the guy actually found our forums?

 

[Fire Phoenix]

There you happy? Now you know. And now I want to shoot everyone in the face. With a shotgun. Point blank. Die.

 

[MC]

So the guy actually found our forums?

No, it's just a tracking thing. If you go to the site through Wikipedia.org, it will say Wikipedia.org instead, if you go to the site through Google.com it will say Google.com instead, etcetera.

Look at my last reply if you want to know what happened.

I think this was a cool experiment.

 

[Cap J]

There you happy? Now you know. And now I want to shoot everyone in the face. With a shotgun. Point blank. Die.

Who exactly are you talking to when you say that? I don't think anyone here actually believed anything was going to happen.