
Cicada 3301 - imb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
======
tokenadult
Please submit Wikipedia articles, if at all, with their original article
titles. It's bad enough to have submissions of most articles from the
Encyclopedia That Anyone Can Make Stuff Up In (can you tell I was just editing
Wikipedia this evening, trying to fix problems), but worse when Hacker News
guidelines are ignored to submit a Wikipedia article with a linkbait title.
There are a few sources for this article (which is good) but there isn't much
information about the article topic even from those.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, by the way. Thanks for the kind submission, and
don't mind my objection to the title not being the original article title.

AFTER EDIT: After all, I read the other comments here before I posted my
comment, and it's not even clear that a "secret think tank" is really what the
source of the cryptic messages is. That's reason enough to change the title of
the submission here.

~~~
tzs
Personally, I'd rather see a useful title on Wikipedia submissions (I'm not
saying the particular title chosen in this case was useful).

For submissions of magazine or blog articles, the original title policy makes
sense usually, because magazine and blog authors or editors choose titles
designed to catch the reader's interest.

Wikipedia titles are more names than titles. They are meant to allow people
who are already looking for information on the thing in the title. When a
Wikipedia article is submitted with the Wikipedia title, there is usually
nothing that tells me why I might find it interesting.

I'd like to see HN allow submitters to include a one line statement saying
what is interesting about the submission.

~~~
tptacek
Stories are community property; the first person to submit a story doesn't
"own" it, and shouldn't have a special right to editorialize the submission.

~~~
tzs
Can't there be a sensible middle ground between slavishly copying the title
from the source and editorializing?

Consider this video of Alan Kay's Turing Award lecture:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymF94cFfzUQ&list=PLn0nrSd4xjj...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymF94cFfzUQ&list=PLn0nrSd4xjjYCkOxtYqozyDuwt-4sC2L6&index=5)

The title is "Turing Award Lecture". Is it really editorializing if it were to
be submitted as "Alan Kay Delivers His Turing Award Lecture"?

~~~
tptacek
No, it's not. But that's not how the feature would actually end up getting
used, is it? If you could design a simple feature that would resist abuses,
'pg would probably consider it.

~~~
tzs
How about allowing the submitter to optionally add a one line explanation if
he thinks the title is not clear?

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eieio
This is neat, but from the second paragraph of the article:

    
    
      According to a document posted anonymously, 
      the puzzles are a recruiting for a "think tank." 
      Thus far, this is unverified.[citation needed]
    

Calling it a "secret think tank" seems disingenuous here.

~~~
frinxor
agreed, these misleading titles really bug me. hackernews turning into
buzzfeed?

------
FLUX-YOU
[http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/Uncovering_Cicada_Wi...](http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/Uncovering_Cicada_Wiki)

Have fun. Also, no way to verify if it's an ARG or an actual group to my
knowledge.

------
mmastrac
Seems more likely that this is a group of 4channers looking to have some fun
rather than a "secret think tank".

~~~
clamour
That physical clues were distributed worldwide indicates there might be a
little more to the story. Wikipedia lists the locations as

Annapolis, Maryland / Chino, California / Columbus, Georgia / Erskineville,
Australia / Fayetteville, Arkansas / Granada, Spain / Greenville, Texas /
Haleiwa, Hawaii / Little Rock, Arkansas / Miami, Florida / Moscow, Russia /
New Orleans, Louisiana / Okinawa, Japan / Paris, France / Portland, Oregon /
Seattle, Washington / Seoul, South Korea / Warsaw, Poland

I hadn't heard about this, does anybody have links to some of the original
forum threads/puzzles?

~~~
adamnemecek
How would that disprove anything? Can people from Poland not use 4chan?

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perfectcents
So I just read through the Cicada 3301 wiki and on the last page (link below),
in the questions sent to the last puzzle's "solvers," there are a couple
references to Douglas Hofstadter.

One of the response options is "Strange Loop," and one of the questions is:

'I am the voice* inside my head (You undoubtedly just thought "I don't have a
voice inside my head." That is the voice the question is referring to).'

(If you aren't familiar, these are both references "I Am a Strange Loop", a
book by Hofstadter.)

Anyway, the reference to Hofstadter and the mysterious, elaborate,
international nature of this Cicada operation reminded me of a previous thing.
A book called “Being or Nothingness” by “Joe K” was mysteriously mailed to
academics all over the world a few years ago, and I'm not sure anyone ever
figured out why. In it, there were references to Hofstadter and other
thinkers. Much like Cicada 3301, the whole thing was kind of intriguing and a
little creepy.

In "The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson, Ronson asks Hofstadter if he had
anything to do with the book and Hofstadter said no. And why would he, right,
but both the book and this Cicada 3301 thing seem very Hofstadter-esque to me.
Just thought that might be worth pointing out.

[http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/What_Happened_Part_2...](http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/What_Happened_Part_2_\(2013\))

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aroman
I submitted the same wikipedia page a few months ago and it only got around
half the up votes. I guess titles and timing are everything :)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6389167](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6389167)

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ruchir_21hj
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10468112/The-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10468112/The-
internet-mystery-that-has-the-world-baffled.html?fb) A detailed analysis on
Cicada 3301 by Telegraph.

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nospace
I have decided, arbitrarily, that Cicada/3301 is Satoshi. That was their first
project (Bitcoin).

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stephenaturner
Seems like a game, or art project or something of that kind. It doesn't have
to be overtly commercial to still be an elaborate ruse, and it's probably more
fun if it's not particularly commercial.

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ajiang
Let's not give technical recruiters any more ideas ;)

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PublicEnemy111
Anonymous has a great HR team

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somee
NEMO 33 Zwartebeek Brussels

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rfnslyr
Seems like an elaborate ruse.

