This topic has 59 replies, 31 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by 
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Well, I tried. Look, when Noah toasted the table and praised “second chances,” it struck a chord with me – his struggles, his position, his downfall… I understand how it is to lose everything and be left amidst a sea of worries and mistrust. I think it was his eyes, though – as he shook my hand and told me how glad he is to have a fan, there was a moment of what the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows calls a “flashover” – that moment when you feel that you can truly trust someone despite a lifetime of cynical callouses having been built up through interaction with the world.
So, Noah, that’s what I did. You tugged at my back as you left, and I knew it was a signal to follow you. You walked into the men’s room, and I hesitated as I entered the door, still unsure that it was what you wanted… until you waved me into the back stall.
“Can I trust you?” you asked, pulling a sparkplug of tequila from your pocket and taking a slug. I was bewildered, but I made the decision that no matter what you had done, I didn’t have all the information… and so I said “Yes.”
You offered the small, plastic bottle, and I thought it wiser to keep a clear head in this precarious situation, so I just placed it on the toilet roll and waited for your words. Instead, I received a small flip-phone (a Samsung, some trap/burner model designed for these situations), and a solemn directive: “I need you to answer this no matter what. Can you do that?”
I affirmed that I could, and started to ask for more information, and he cut me off – “Also, you need to get it out of here, and I don’t care what you have to do to get it done; smuggle it out your ass like a Mexican drug-mule if you need to.” I laughed, which was not the appropriate response. He was deadly serious. He wouldn’t tell me how long this would be in my possession (“As long as you have it!”), and he hastily exited, leaving me in a spell of doubt.
How would I pull this one off? What did he need me for, of all people, and – most importantly – what was he hiding from Sarah and the others?! I didn’t know what to do, but I had made him a promise.. and I intended to keep it.
I had actually left my own phone back at the table, I discovered, and so I tried to go back to get it when I was intercepted by a large besuited man with a steel gaze and an earpiece.
“What happened in there?” he barked.
“I… what do you mean?” it was a men’s room, after all…
“Did he give you anything?” it was a face not used to being lied to.
I paused… “Well, a sense of comfort. He’s a very charismatic man.”
He almost smirked… but just spat out a swear before bolting out the door. I was safe… but also burdened.
Fortunately, I discovered that @lilmsfancpants had noticed my phone as everyone was leaving and grabbed it on my behalf (you are an angel for that!), so it was a mixture of relief and dread as I was standing there with the pinnacle of 1998 cellular technology in my pocket, ready to go off at any moment and staring everyone in the face.
I had to lie. I trusted Noah, and I didn’t know the whole story… so it was through omission.
The first call came quickly, and I absconded around the corner to a very annoyed Noah, chiding me for not answering it more quickly and telling me to crank up the volume on the ringer (I had immediately set it to vibrate, naturally). He asked me if Sarah had taken any pictures. I said I really wasn’t sure. He sighed and reminded me to answer more quickly. I went back, and everyone had left, so I met @nosnevets at the Frida theatre nearby, where we had planned to catch the Lynch documentary, “The Art Life” (isn’t it, though?).
Three calls later, he established that he was glad I was getting better at picking up more quickly, and that if I wanted answers, I should check my email. I eagerly thanked him, glad to have a more reliable channel of communication, and waited five minutes before going back in to the movie.
No email arrived.
After the film, there were questions – I looked suspicious, even guilty. And in point of fact, I was. But I wasn’t going to let that ruin my promise to retain a closed and confidential information loop with Noah, even if he was less than straightforward and more than surly.
Still, no email. He wasn’t telling me anything, or to do anything, or even to say anything… and it was getting late. I was imagining how Sarah might have felt, dealing with a person who didn’t respect your need to know their intention, who didn’t mind being used, perhaps – as long as they knew the purpose, at least. I felt like I understood her more by having trusted Noah, and then abandoned by him.
I still don’t know what he wants, but I do know that he isn’t worth lying for anymore.
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There it is.
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Thanks @prufrock5150. Given that Sarah probably reads these forums I understand why you would want to keep it hidden.
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The email will come, and I doubt it’ll be such an obvious Dear John letter. He said the email would “give you answers”. Perhaps you’ll be sent documents, once Noah can get his hands on them. Maybe a person will be forwarded your information? It could be a variety of things. Noah has reasons to be impatient. You should be less so.
Your loyalty is admirable, but nothing is so cut and dry.
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Well that confirms that The Bouncer was not on Noah’s side. He may have been hired by either Sarah, Timothy Granik Jr. or both to keep an eye on us and Noah.
He definitely was watching us for the first part of the evening. His chair facing us directly, watching a basketball game but casually glancing at the rowdy group playing giant Jenga.
I’m curious to learn more about this man and where his allegiances lie.
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Thank you, @prufrock5150. I completely understand the impulse. You were keeping a confidence, knowing that eyes other than ours read this forum. And you yourself were still waiting for a missing piece. I appreciate you being so detailed and candid, especially at the top. It was a great night. Thank you, everyone.
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Noah definitely operates on his own schedule. “I’ll call you” turns into a call weeks later. He WILL probably be sending you something via email, and I understand completely that you were waiting for it to come tonight, but he’s just not a punctual guy. He will get back to you when the time is right and 100% on his schedule only. He has to play along with Sarah’s charade for a while before throwing shit directly at the fan.
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though, total shinigians, I admire you being able to keep the phone out of the bouncer’s hands, on the fly. And also dipping the fuck out as you did. It’s the power of the wolf shirt @prufrock5150. I know it.
#TeamWolfShirt
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Thank you for this full account @prufrock5150. Totally understandable that you’d want to keep it secret to not betray Noah’s trust. I think that fact has been shown! Now we know that even secrets should be shared on the forums I guess?
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@prufrock5150 – you gotta book? Cause I want to read your words! Ha, joking, not really.
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@pandace88
About sharing, what I think is that if no one tells sarah, like emails her tattle-telling, I don’t think she will ‘know’. Like Macy may have received an email akin to, ‘look whats on the interwebs…’ I think on the forum, that’s more of a pick and choose for story motivation and propelling forward?Totally a theory.
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@theladyj Err, so
ifwhen Julie decides to email Sarah, that could be quite not good for Tom and Noah… -
@izryn well, yes. But I’m sure the boys will have a a few hour head start of the tsunami.
If they’re not already dead. -
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@prufrock5150 wonderful retelling of what happened. Seems that Sarah doesn’t have him as controlled as she think she does. So curious to see what that email holds!
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Thank you for sharing this @prufrock5150! Quite a predicament, and I appreciate you coming forward even if it felt like you were breaking your word.
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I’m genuinely curious about what @julierei is gonna do.
Also it sorta looks like @prufrock5150 isn’t really too happy with Noah after the encounter…
“I still don’t know what he wants, but I do know that he isn’t worth lying for anymore.”
This quote really does say it all.
If you are listening… you fucked up. The saving grace is, Sarah’s fucking up too.
#WatchThemBurnThemselves
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@prufrock5150, thanks for the full disclosure! Now we all get to live that crazy interaction through you and play along too! I also feel/hope that the suspension of disbelief means what we post here is still “secret” to the players… Now the only one who seems to be holding back a part of the story is @julierei, I think??
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I find it interesting that everyone is very strongly encouraged to share everything to the forums (otherwise how would people like me know what is going on) while it is also implied that the people you might want to hide things from are also able to read everything on here, so it’s technically not possible to keep anyone’s secrets even if they ask you to. I am glad that’s a dilemma I don’t need to consider.
So, thank you for sharing @prufrock5150, it is a hard position to be in (or it would have been for me at least).
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@lenize – I believe I am partially responsible for that. I am vaguely aware when something is missing and, despite my post as mod, I am still ultimately a participant hungry for knowledge and information. If someone intentionally wants to keep knowledge from the others, it is their choice to do so. It will likely impact the story and characters, so I hope they do so with a modicum of consideration. Going forward I may, in my fervor, press the community to reveal their interactions but I don’t and didn’t mean to strong arm anyone into making decisions. Sometimes my obsession gets the better of me.
With that said… thank you for coming forward with that, @prufrock5150. This gives me a whole lot of hope that Noah’s fight ain’t over yet.
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I’d also like to chime in and thank @prufrock5150 for coming forward with that information. It completely opened up the story and took it a different direction for me. Also, thanks to everybody for such great work on the periscopes. For me this is more like a book in progress than a theater experience since I’m not seeing or talking to anyone. It’s great to finally see and hear some of the action. For the first time I’m starting to feel a bit of a connection to the characters where before it was really easy to be completely uncommitted. Except for Otis. I’m team Otis all day.
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@thegilded FWIW, I appreciate you guiding things when guiding is needed.
I think what we’re all butting up against is the same thing I butted up against when Clint smuggled that message to me. The forums haven’t been defined in-game at all. We don’t know if we can share things here safely, or not — and because of that, we’re actually incentivized to NOT share information here if we feel a character may be in danger.
It seems like this place could easily be defined within the narrative as a “safe space.” The building blocks of that are already here. After all, Noah had to backchannel a message through @maddyxxx in order to post.
Instead, we’ve got this weird dynamic where nobody is really sure what’s safe or not. So “Never Silent” becomes something that actually bumps us out of the story, and prevents us from being fully present and engaged, because we’re forced to share things even though that’s not what we would do from an emotional perspective.
As a result, we get situations like @prufrock5150 playing it safe last night (or me smuggling Clint’s message through EXIF data). And that requires @the-creators to break the fourth wall, either via cryptic Facebook messages or by asking a mod to intervene. Which is the kind of handholding we’re all looking to avoid.
Obviously, none of this is meant in a negative way. Just talking out an issue that seems to be evolving in a certain direction.
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@thegilded it’s certainly not just you, it was posted on the facebook, and “Never Silent” gets reiterated a lot, so you also bringing your fervor into it is not necessarily a bad thing (from this side of the ocean I really appreciate every interaction shared in any form, it helps making me feel more part of it)
When I put myself in @prufrock5150 or @mkarrett’s place where you are given information that you could theoretically keep to yourself but technically is meant to be shared, but sharing it will put someone (perhaps someone you care about even) in trouble or danger, it would be hard for me to intentionally put someone in harms way. But that is what makes this so amazing and interesting, if someday in the (probably far) future I might have to make a decision like this, or even just imagining what I would do if presented with the scenarios (and consequences) they have.
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It seems like this place could easily be defined within the narrative as a “safe space.”
Except when @mkarrett posts forwarded emails and then gets someone fired 😛
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But that’s a great example of the dynamic I’m talking about, @mike! We know that Macy saw @mkarrett leaked here. So if we’re actually trying to be present and engaged and honest, we should absolutely be reluctant to share information here. Doing otherwise just takes us out of the story.
All the more reason I hope an in-game solution is in the offing. 🙂
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@bcbishop, lol, that’s the exact sentiment I was thinking through and was trying to convey, but couldn’t find the right words so did it a lot less elegantly than you did!
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@bcbishop well said. What it seems like @the-creators are trying to hit home is that there’s a difference between personal and private. @prufrock5150 had an interaction that furthered the story that was personal, one-on-one, and specific to him. Then afterwards he was pressured to share it. We are all entitled to hearing and understanding the full narrative. If one person experiences it, we’re all meant to experience it. Nothing is private and meant for one person’s eyes only regardless of the in-game implications, an idea which indeed bumps against the edges of full immersion, but is necessary if we are to understand what is going on. If what happened on the board last night hadn’t happened, I’m sure Tom would have shared his experience with us eventually, once he judged that information needed to be disseminated. But it’s clear they want us all to have the full picture, as it happens, in chronological order. There is and will probably always be confusion when you have events like Melissa’s email leak onto the forums showing real in-game consequences for a character and seemingly no consequences for Tom breaking Noah’s confidence last night, but rationalizing that is their problem, not ours. Our job is to be present and never silent. They were clearly teaching us a lesson last night, and it will be a useful one going forward.
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Remember to, this is exactly what led initially to the creation of the first Slack group last year – we wanted to talk about the OOA without having a space where the OOA read everything. Obviously we eventually understood why that was problematic and it’s understandable here too, but it’s still an odd game mechanic. @thegilded – I am pretty sure we discussed this last year and I don’t remember how you said I Love Bees did it (or if you said) but way way back many centuries ago this is how Cloudmakers formed too, we started our own Yahoo group because we needed a place to congregate, there was no website or forum provided to us to discuss things…and I don’t know how anyone expected we would solve THAT game without globally coming together it was so *!&#^*#@&!*&# hard.
That safe space can be infiltrated as needed to further the story (a la Mr. Ohio) but it is difficult to balance these individual paths wherein we are trusted with information or possibly even lives of characters against the needs of the entire community and potential future interactions. I think a lot of us would prefer to make in-game decisions NOT based on whether or not we’ll get attention in the future but on how we would morally/ethically/emotionally/strategically/instinctually react in a given situation.
FWIW, I never, ever argue FOR safe spaces. EVER. Especially not in theater. 😉
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I’m a DnD nerd so I’m fine with full disclosure on the forums and a suspension of disbelief that characters in-game aren’t necessarily gaining insights here.
The Macy example does muddy the waters…
Maybe going forward “Never Silent” doesn’t mean “Complete Truth”
Maybe its just enough to confirm that a meeting happened but then again that’s also a slippery slope
Maybe there needs to be an in-game and out of game section… I don’t know
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@coryphella Great points. And agreed on the narrative potential of infiltration (it’s exactly why I think @maddyxxx is so awesome).
And poor word choice in my earlier post. I should have said “safe-to-post space.” 😉
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@genghistwan – I understand your points and have grappled with them a great deal, myself. We’ve learned before that intentionally keeping these cards close to the chest is a viable strategy that influences the path. I just worry (and presumably The Powers That Be also) that pure silence means that they’re picking the path out of ignorance or laziness or because they don’t think it’s importance.
To that end, I (speaking as a participant, not a mod) absolutely support your quote:
Maybe going forward “Never Silent” doesn’t mean “Complete Truth”
Knowing something happened but they’re keeping it under wraps is highly preferable to hearing nothing at all
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Personally I feel as long as the NPC’s are on/aware of the website, they are privy to the information that is given on this website. In tension, pretty frequently, we had NPC’s in active conversations on the forums. To believe that what we post here is not visible to them really kills the whole alternate reality vibe and personally, pulls us out of the game. It makes them feel… Less Human???
As for Never Silent, I am almost wondering if that will wind up being more of a faction battle cry kinda like GLORY BE!!! for the OOA. I dont remember many BOS saying that. I could be wrong. But we really don’t know who the people are that have been saying “Never Silent” do we?
If you want to look at past lore, Michelle said that they were gathering as much data from us as possible. If you are cautious of someone wanting your information. Your passions, your fears, your weaknesses, are all things we hide from the outside world. We dont go publicly broadcasting those things because they can be used against us. Maybe Never Silent is honestly just that. The data minors creating such a simple “Battle cry” in which really is saying “Tell us everything.” -
The deeper we dive into the narrative, the more invested we become. It’s easy to start to believing that these people’s lives are affected by us. It becomes harder and harder to step away.
Just as an example, Posting about Noah’s plans to meet me last week made me absolutely nauseous, but I had to. And I never even gave an exact location or neighborhood until after the event happened. They still dragged him away and threw him in a SUV.
Ultimately, we have to remember, you can’t save your Sadie.
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YOU LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!
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@shinobi HAHAH
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Maybe going forward “Never Silent” doesn’t mean “Complete Truth”
It doesn’t seem like that totally holds. Tom’s first post last night offered up some information, but not all of it. Then it became clear that they wanted all the information out there.
So going forward it doesn’t seem like they want people playing things close to their vest. But that does present the problem of eliminating some choices that we’ll be allowed to make.
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@lilmsfancpants see I disagree on that. I remember Clint and Darren talking about how they had to change Tension multiple times because of our actions. The way I have seen designers deal with this in past games is that their was an overall storyline that is followed to a T. But the players navigate how they get to each plot point. This gives the player the feeling of an open sandbox game but still holds true to the anticipated end game. Or you can really have it be an open world, but that is insanely difficult on the designers. But the player actions do affect the path.
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players’ ideas or actions.
The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players’ responses. Subsequently, it is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game’s designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and collaborate as a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium.
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Yup, what Lukas said. And TPTB have repeatedly said that our actions and choices have consequences. I think this is (and should be) a situation where we DO affect these people’s lives – it’s not Sleep No More. We can change the narrative, not by being assholes but by making choices or missing opportunities or seizing them or making them, the way Buz did last year. Buz is a very specific example of having a huge effect on the narrative because of his choices.
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Also, @lukasrl – my plan for 2018 has been to begin designing an ARG/theater hybrid piece, not as ambitious as Tension/Lust but something that would bridge a couple of cities I have collaborators in. And the idea with that has been to have a VERY loose story from the start that is affected every step of the way by the participants’ choices. Yes, absolute murder on the creators and actors and everyone, but I believe with the right team (I have some really great people on board) we can pull it off without killing ourselves.
Also, just because I noticed it while tagging lukasrl – the person who chose @lustcaution as a username, that’s fantastic.
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Ultimately its up to the player. “Never Silent” has become a rallying call for “Give me everything you know” and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing.
Personally, I wouldn’t be upset if a player decides to not completely tell the truth as a choice if an in-game character tells them something in confidence.
As for things like drops, intercepted emails, public event etc… There’s really no need to keep things to yourself.
The more I think about @mkarrett leaked Macy’s email to us, the more I feel there wasn’t really a choice there…
@mkarrett didn’t know who Macy was, and just saw a piece of information that she thought we all should know… and she was right. Macy only interjected when the email was leaked… and by that time it was too late…there was really no choice given to @mkarrettIf Macy had called @mkarrett and had confided her that she didn’t agree with sarah and told her not to say anything…then she would have a choice
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The way I’m playing it, I’m going to be “never silent” unless a character specifically tells me to keep it confidential. My mission is to reveal the truth (or help those who are trying to do so, such as with Macy). If there’s new info that’s revealed, I want that shit out there. If there’s some shadiness coming out of someone *glares at Sarah* I’m going to point that out to everyone.
We all deserve to know what’s going on with The System. Therefore, I’m “never silent” unless explicitly told otherwise by someone I trust.
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The meta-narrative of an experience like this makes these kind of things difficult. It may not make narrative sense for one of us to reveal, but it may be required to move the entire story forward. It’s a difficult line to toe. I do agree that the “full” disclosure is the best route unless specifically told to keep it a complete secret. Noah could easily have said “Don’t tell anyone. ANYONE.” instead of “Don’t let the bodyguard know.”
I also wonder if there’s a possibility that we aren’t looking at the meta quite large enough. Maybe the Facebook posts aren’t, in fact, the “creators” but the conspirators. Noah, if he has people working with him, are posting to encourage the sharing of information. Maybe this hand holding isn’t all form the actual creators, but instead some in-game entity. Though, again, that gets narrative really complicated quite quickly.
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@genghistwan Sorry, I was kind of vague there. Last night Tom posted one version of events that left out some information before it was deleted. He eventually posted this thread to give a full account of events. In that sense, he wasn’t really allowed keep something to himself that a character told him. That may be specific to this situation (they needed people to know he had that phone), but it isn’t clear how much that extends to other happenings moving forward.
I did check with @thegilded before posting this, so hopefully it’s fine.
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Also to throw a little shade on @prufrock5150
Maybe he wants us to believe that he feels abandoned by Noah… but in fact he did get a call and they both are plotting at this very moment.. DUN DUN DUN!!!!!
Bullshit with chunks of the truth is easy to swallow folks….
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An alternate interpretation of “Never Silent” occurred to me. What if we read it as more of a commentary rather than a directive or battle cry? A lament on our need to share so much with strangers, “to be seen” as @daela said), and all of the noise the pursuit of this desire creates.
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PERFECTION, @prufrock5150!!!
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My interpretation is Never Silent, means to say something happened. It’s no I need to tell you all on the forums everything that just happened. In the past I was talking to Sarah, and I didn’t tell anyone for quite awhile, and I even mentioned in the messages since no new information has been gathered I’m not going to mention our messages.
Discretion is important in specif situations.
Although if you are given direct in game info, website links, told to tell people what you found, opened a dead drop, it’s your responsibility to report that to everyone, and asap either through a periscope (with a link on the forums) or directly on the forums. That’s how the story moves along, by participant interaction. The problem is we as a community will never know if someone withholds information, and that’s were it becomes a grey area.
This just my opinion, gathered from what people have told me about Tension, Podcasts in the Past with DLB and Clint, and what I’ve noticed with Lust.
Never Silent
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@jay956 We all want to believe in something, right? That said, Noah hasn’t given me a reason to trust him, but he does have my attention.
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@mistere, I meant more generally/OOG, dealing with all the distractions that come with being “never silent” online and in the various ways we promote/market/publicly share ourselves with others in real life. I recall that interviewer Ramin (??) made comments about this subject during a few of the in-person registrations.
When it comes to IG info, I’m all about sharing. Unless, of course, I’m specifically directed not to. But, maybe even then, who knows? 🙂
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