unforum

[sixsidedsquare]

Ah, I don't know why I didn't think of this one last night, but the Wayback machine index of the site is a pretty nice way to see what it's done over the years.
( http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.instealthmode.com )

"We are In Stealth Mode while we build our network."
"We are in stealth mode till 03.03.03"
"Launching Summer 2003"
"Launching Summer 2004"
"We are In Stealth Mode until 05.05.05"
"LAUNCHING: 07.07.07"

Quite an interesting look at the evolution of the site through time, but notice how it's always kept the same mysterious, cyberpunk feel.

[notgordian]

My assumption is Taboo was creating games as a justification to his/her cybersquatting -- I am not sure if this would work, but creating this "ARG" as a business justification for amassing a large library of websites might make more of a case in trademark infringement cases, as it's putting the sites to *some* use. It gives justification for a long countdown clock (over a year for the 7/7/07 "launch) and creates a justification to drive traffic to the sites, thus increasing clickthroughs while waiting to sell.

The last time Taboo's "game" launched, it was an "online treasure hunt" in 2003. Use the Wayback Machine on the instealthmode site if you want to see what I'm talking about. (And RAWR.EXE, if you were the person in IRC we discussed this with, would have helped to include the analysis of the domainer-ing so people didn't need to duplicate efforts)

It could actually turn out to be an ARG (and indeed claims to be one), but history works against that theory fairly strongly. While I give Taboo props on his/her business acumen (seems to be doing fairly well in the domainer world), I don't think this is going to turn out to be more than a "visit my websites" kind of game.

(And yes, I am being a Negative Nellie in this rant. Apologies to those interested in this ARG, but I felt it was worth pointing out)