"Okay, explain to me how this whole plan works" Hallie requested.

"Well, people show up and they see that subject title" Visionary began proudly. "Being naturally inquisitive, they open the post, upon which they find that there is no awesome news at all and that it was all an elegantly laid trap to have them set off the story's page-counter, thereby giving us an accurate recording of how many lurkers we have out there."

"And this profits us... how?" Fleabot asked.

"Well, um... then we know. And that's the first half of the battle, as our elite special forces units are so fond of saying."

"I'm pretty sure only 80's cartoon writers said that" Hallie offered. "And they apparently believed it was reasonable for terrorist organizations to build elaborate, robotic, carnival ride death-traps inside of their hidden and remote secret bases. I wouldn't exactly put them on par with Sun Tzu."

"How does the page counter work, anyway?" Fleabot asked. "If people open the same message twice, does it count it twice?"

"Do you really think people are going to read this more than once?" Hallie scoffed.

"I'm pretty sure people aren't reading it now" Fleabot shrugged. "I mean, once the page opens and they get a brief story instead of the oh-so-skillfully-teased bait promised them, they're likely to get bored and wander off to play Minecraft or something. I just wonder how you check the trap without adding to the page count and messing up the accuracy of your results."

"Wait... so I can't open the trap to see if any lurkers got caught?" Visionary asked.

"Smooth move, Schrödinger."

"I'd have to look into the counter thing... or wait until the site's administrator chimes in" Hallie answered. "To be honest, I had forgotten that counter even existed."

"Okay, so there might be a few hiccups in it... but this plan will work!" Visionary insisted.

"At the cost of your credibility" the holographic woman reminded him.

"So it comes pretty cheap then" Fleabot said.

"People will click on it. There's a sucker born every minute. I would click on it" Visionary reasoned.

"That only proves that there was a sucker born 39 years ago" Hallie noted.

"39? Cripes, weren't you in your late 20's when you started here? Shouldn't you have found a new hobby by now?"

Visionary eyed him darkly. "Persistence is a virtue."

"Tell that to cartoon coyotes."

Hallie rolled her eyes. "How long were we intending to draw this whole thing out?" she asked reasonably. "Couldn't all of this effort have gone into a story that actually advanced the plot of the board in general, thereby giving readers an incentive to willingly check out the posts here?"

The Regular rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, see... I kind of forgot where we left the plot."

"Have you checked all the pockets in your laundry?" Fleabot asked helpfully.

"It has been a while..." Hallie noted. "Have you even done anything as leader in the year and more that you've been reinstated? Or progressed our halting romantic relationship? Or followed up on that whole Artificial Rights subplot?"

"I'm pacing myself."

"Hard to imagine why you'd need to fool people into reading what you write, isn't it?" Fleabot asked. "So what happens now?"

"Now we wait for the trap to be sprung!"

"And then?" Hallie asked mildly.

"Er... I'm sure something will come to us."

nt

I'm not sure that I like that your stories have become self aware.

It sort of takes all the fun out of replying to story if the story it self makes all the comments that one could make in the story it's self.

Fair enough. I doubt they'll all be this way, but at the moment I'm just going with any idea that comes to me.

Breaking the Forth Wall is a long standing Parodyverse tradition!

Arthur from the Comics, Arthur from the Cartoon or Arthur from the live action TV show?

Dammit all, this pesky traps....one lurker caught…
Funny, i haven´t been able to lurk in ages, and when I do this post gets me, like your posts always did...
Great to see you around and hope to see HH, spiffy, Lisa, Donar, hatty etc, etc also when I lurk next time -
All good here, hope you are all happy too

A lurker who read till the end and loved it

The bunnies miss you terribly. I assume that's the meaning of the message that Rabito left for me in my shoes, in any event.

I hope things have been going well for you! My life has been very up and down in recent years, but I'm hanging in there. This being around the anniversary of when we all spun off this crazy little bit of the web, I get very nostalgic for the old gang. I keep in regular contact with Lisa, but unfortunately too many other friends have drifted away.

It's very nice to think that they're out there, however, and I might stumble across them when I least expect it. It's a pretty great surprise when it does happen.

or the zorro mask (always a sucker for it)

I have been living in spain for too long now, and my english resent it...

Up and Down.. that can be good, I like up an downs. You get to learn a lot of the downs and enjoy the ups. In any event, I hope you are having fun whatever your doing. Feel free to let me know more if you feel like doing it. I would love it.

Myself, I have change lots since I last posted
I moved to seville, spain (my born city). Changed job again. Made new friends and got in contact with old ones, etc, etc. And discovered new hobbies (A new one per year...Who knew I was going to know how to paint, build a table, and restore furniture.?.. unfortunately for my neighborgs not learning to sing yet tho)

I am nostalgic of these days too, when the parodyverse began (I was younger and that is always a plus ).However, I am pretty happy now too.

You all will have a special place in my heart and memory, even if nowdays I am too busy to read anything

All my love
Yo

Well, that or the fact that your IP address shows up as coming from Spain. I don't know... maybe only I can see it. I'm apparently a moderator here, and that may grant me special powers. Frankly, I've always felt I'm well over-due to be granted special powers.

I'm glad you're doing so well and building furniture! I think I spot-welded a toolbox back in high school metal shop. It was a bit wonky, but that counts as building something.

The company I was working as the Art Director for went under a couple years ago. I've since moved to Pennsylvania and have been working freelance doing artwork for various video games. As a result, I've been spending more time with family, and suddenly there are a lot of little kids in my life (not my own... I get to give them back to their parents every time I get tired of 'em.) A couple of times a week I look after my 4 year old cousin (who is the one who has me watching My Little Pony with her, which I'm far more fascinated in than I really should be as you can see by the board.) My 5 year old nephew is exhausting but fun. Then there's Lisa's son Christopher, who is 11 now. We share lots of video game talk.

Generally, I'm doing okay and am surrounded by people I love and keeping busy. I'm just not sure where I'll be in a few years.

In any event, it's always a treat when you pop up again! Makes me wonder who our other lurkers happen to be, and what it would take for them to say hello. Money, maybe? We could start some kind of paypal fund I suppose...

Got you now cutie Yo! No escaping back to Spainland with all their sexy flamenco dancers and broody matadors...wait...on second thoughts...take me with you!

Good to see you.

Al B.

I didn't realise you'd moved to Penn State.

Thanks for showing me around Annapolis that time an age ago. I think of you whenever Washington DC or Maryland is in the news. I still have a story idea floating around in my head from my visit.

Come to think of it i still have a story idea from when i met the manga shoggoth in london too - but that one is more scary.

Hope you're in one of the up phases.

Al B.

Yeah, without the job holding me in Annapolis I didn't have much incentive to stay, and the area has too high a cost of living to remain unemployed there for long. Of course, my brother and his family just moved into the DC area themselves this summer... had they been around back then I might have stuck it out longer.





Do they involve a cheerleader team?

It was fun having you drop by for a visit. And I felt the DC earthquake all the way out here by Pittsburgh, so if that news made you think of me then it still qualified.






I'm doing all right. As I said, the biggest issue right now is figuring out where to go from here. I had originally intended the freelance work to be temporary, but I pick up more and more of it and may be on the verge of a contract that would pay about half a year's salary on a much shorter timespan. But it's not exactly stable work and so it makes planning for the future difficult.

You were always cute.

Would love to visit for longer. In any case, I am posting more than I thought I was going to be able when I answered Visi yesterday.
In any event, my new job is really demanding aand have only 2h net everyday. I´ll try to read from time to time a story from each of you just to see how your character are doing.

I get your point. Im science, security was always difficult and involved lots of moving. That can be stressfull.

I am now working in a more stable job and I miss the moving .

However, you are so talented that I am pretty sure you will always have a job and hopefully when all this damm crisis end, you will be able to choose more.

In the meantime, enjoy the freedom (I know, is difficult w/o knowing the future)

I wish you the best

Yo The Sexy has returned!  If only for a little while. 

The place misses you.