unforum

[Nighthawk]

IG/OOG Addresses and phone numbers

[imbri]

PO boxes work well for addresses but aren't free.

Unified Messaging services work great for vmail and if you look around you can often find free ones that may work for you.

[Nighthawk]

[redct]

For phones:

I used iNumbr (http://inumbr.com/) when it was just Numbr (now a different business). You choose an area code from major cities and it gives you an extension at one of their 3 or 4 numbers in that area code. So, choose Texas, and you get (512) 123-4567 x1111 as the number. It forwards it to a number of your choosing and you get a nifty little web interface since it records all calls.

It's awesome for an ARGer, but it's now gone into private beta. Blegh.

[pancito]

[Rekidk]

www.privatephone.com used to be an excellent free resource for phone voice mailboxes, but it appears to have just closed up its services.

Alternatives can be found here:

http://www.voip-weblog.com/50226711/privatephone_alternatives.php

[Vecheeso]

I've thought of this same problem, I dont want people with my personal phone #, or just a crappy fake #, or to give out some real person's phone #. Same with the addresses, but that one I *think* I know of a possible other solution.
Its reasonable to suppose that you dont make ARGs solely on your own, and also pretty reasonable that everyone working with you on your ARGs live in south florida. So the other possible alternative is to get the people whom you are working on your ARG with to open P.O. boxes, and then ship out the goods with one of their return addresses.
Currently I have team members from Scottland, New Mexico, Florida, Chicago, and many other places, so the opportunities for various P.O. Boxes is high, even if abit pricey...

[Nighthawk]

But should the postmark always be considered "in game"? If I'm mailing something that's supposed to look like it's being mailed from California to New York, but it has a Miami postmark, does the illusion collapse like a house of cards?

[natas]

You could drive to Cali, drop it in a mailbox. then drive back home. JK. I have thought about this, and the only way to work around it is to have collaboration in the areas you want mail to originate from. Personally, I could overlook a simple thing as a postmark once it's figured out as a PM oversight. but I can see where many people in the community would see it as a kloo. Sorry that I've just wrote a whole paragraph and haven't helped a bit.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Northern California or Southern California?
Any actions that help to preserve the gamespace should be taken, if possible.
It won't be a game-killer, but it does take away from the game's believability.

[faeryqueen21]

As far as the postmark is concerned, I've heard that you can send a letter to a post office in a city with a note on the outside to open it and send the letter inside. So, you put an addressed and stamped envelope inside another envelope, send that to a post office in California. They open it up, find your addressed and stamped letter inside and send it. That way it gets a postmark from that city. This would obviously only work with letters and not packages. And I don't really know if it works at all, I think I saw it in a movie or something.

[pancito]

Try this. Sheesh, it's like nobody has ever heard of Google. (remailing service)

http://maildropguide.com/

It looks like MailBoxes etc. does this. If you have a local one, they could probably set the whole thing up for you.

ETA: I voluteer to remail from honolulu... just add a couple days each direction.

I promise not to look

[MotaHed]

As long as the address or phone number is not important to the game, I think it's fair to use a deliberately fake addy or number, such as

Mega Corp, Inc.
1 Mega Corp. Lane
Suite 00G
MegaCity, CA 90210
800.555.1212

I mean, most companies are on their own "lanes" anyway, since they build their own roads at large headquarters. And if the phone isn't important, well, at least they won't be deliberately calling it!

(and note by oh-so-clever hint that the addy is out of game... Oh, the cleverness of me.)

[Euchre]

For addresses the most effective thing I've seen is using an address number that doesn't actually exist, on a real road in a real city. These numbers almost invariably fall into an allotment for a given road, but if you do a little research you'll find where the 'gaps' are in the numbers. This means Google Maps and such will show you the area of the street but not report a direct location - because it doesn't exist. Anyone crazy... er... ambitious enough to actually go there will discover that it's just not there. It does however lend a sense of realism to the game as it's a place you can at least at some level actually look at. Bounced mail sent from that address would 'black hole', but really if you are sending something that would be important to get back on a bounce why mail it 'blind'? I think that also points to why a PO Box is a better idea for any real correspondence. Mailing services will allow you to use a PO Box with your business name, and many large companies actually do use PO boxes for their bulk correspondence handling. They can literally take a truck to pick it up to be sorted in their own mailrooms.

Basically, I think for non-correspondence addys you'd just use the bogus street number tactic. For something you do want correspondence on, use a PO Box via a mailing service in the appropriate city and have a player validate their addy with a self-addressed envelope or label sent within a suitably addressed letter.

[Flobblem]

for the private phone number thing, does anyone know any for England?