Rampancy

Just a short update on the goings-on in the world of I Love Bees.

As many suspected, the Links page, that contained times in the PDT time zone and GPS coordinates, were indeed connected (most of the time) to pay phones. The coordinates were grouped in banks of seven each with a code word. If someone was there to at two positions in the group to answer the phone, identify the caller (variably Melissa or The Operator-- not all reports are consistent) and speak the group's code word, then an audio file became available for that group. Currently 23 such files are theoretically available, but I get 404 errors on three of them (eyes, reflected, and say something).

Many sites are following the puzzle now, and as the backstory of the puzzle, now explained clearly in the sidebar of Dana's I Love Bees blog, relates directly to Halo 2, many Halo and Bungie fansites are also now involved in one way or another. However, not every site wants to have discussion of Halo drowned out by speculation on the ILB puzzle. HBO in particular has a single, extremely busy forum where ILB discussion has threatened to drown out everything else. HBO's administrator, Louis Wu, doubts Bungie has much direct involvement in the puzzle, and has thus asked that ILB discussion be kept down on the HBO forum.

Now, with another 350+ post explosion of bee discussion there, Wu is asking that all bee discussion be removed from the forum completely, as none of the discussion there is being well organized, and the repetition of old information is getting in the way of the usual forum operation.

Rampancy's forum has several indexes, so it's no problem for us to isolate Bee discussion in a separate forum, which is what we've now done. Discuss away.

Some resources for those who haven't been following closely:

• A map of coordinates in the Unfiction forums. These phones are supposedly going to be called at the specified times every day. However, keep in mind that some players expect that times and/or coordinates may change. There is a counter on the Links page that currently stands at 74/777, indicating that this phase of the puzzle is far from over.
• Status Page at Melangerie. This lists the times, coordinates and code words for the known "axons" (phones that would be called) along with the status of each one and their grouping.
• Bee Blog at Netninja. This blog tracks the puzzle's progress.
• I Love Bees Blog. This site is the one the in-game character Dana uses to track progress and give hints. The sidebar now has a summary that mentions the Covenant.

Stay tuned for more updates.

KP and HBO's own Louis Wu took time out yesterday to drive out to one of the CT locations listed on the ilovebees.com page, to wait and see if a nearby phone would indeed ring. As it turns out, they had no luck-- no call came in. It is not clear at this point whether all locations actually received a call, but apparently only two per group were needed to trigger one of the audio files now on the ILB site,

The countdown has ended at ilovebees.com and been replaced by the phrase "transmitting" with a link to the groups of GPS coordinates on the links page.

Verdafolio at demented puppy dot com has posted the rules of engagement for the upcoming When Pigs Fly warthog launching contest. Winners will get signed artwork from community regulars like Shishka, Boxer, Stuntmutt, Dogsounds, Warbow and Blackstar.