From this aritcle: "No one else aside from the fan who emailed Thetailsection.com has ever seen this supposed "local newspaper" ad that claimed to promote the site."
This is not true, the email to The Tailsection read: "The title for this next show is "not in Portland", referring to Portland, OR. Well, I happen to live in Oregon, and in the TV click section of the newspaper, there was an article in which the author wrote that there's a company in the Portland suburbs called Mittelos Bioscience. He said if you happen do stumble upon it, do NOT go in there. Well, that got me curious, so I emailed him asking where I could find Mittelos Bioscience, and he just said it's somewhere in the Portland suburbs and would pop up in the Lost episode on Wednesday (2/7).
I was able to find the website, www.mittelosbioscience.org. All it is is a countdown screen to midnight on Tuesday."
An ad was never mentioned. Only the article, which is real and can be found on this link: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/peter_carlin/index.ssf?/base/living/1170363302152520.xml&coll=7
However that does not prove any connection between the newspaper and the site.
I'm going to edit that part.
Deletion[]
- Delete - This should be merged into Minor imitation websites. -- Jabberwock talk contribs email - 11:00, 7 February 2007 (PST)
- Delete --Princess Dharma (banned) 11:01, 7 February 2007 (PST)
- Not yet -- this fake site is pretty "hot" at the moment, and I made the page because there's a lot of buzz about it on legit sites (including our own forum), as having spoilers for Not in Portland. However, I wanted the info refuting it from Gregg to get out there, so I think we should leave it up at least a few days til after the broadcast of the episode, and then merge it into the Minor sites page. --PandoraX 11:13, 7 February 2007 (PST)
- Not yet agree with Pandora -Mr.Leaf 12:54, 7 February 2007 (PST)
- No - This site is creating a lot of hype among fans. It should stay at least for a little while. ShadowUltra 17:15, 7 February 2007 (PST)
- Delete - to give to some respect to creators ("A fan obviously went to a lot of trouble with it."). Man who made this site lie, steal & cheat, real bad guy. Looks like it was made by insider or someone who see episodes before air date, so it can have spoilers, that's serious! Must be deleted or merged into Minor imitation websites asap. --Znch 06:29, 11 February 2007 (PST)
- Not Yet -- I also agree with pandora. The site is very controversial for the moment, and as such merits its own page for the time being. Stevemarks 17:56, 11 February 2007 (PST)
- Not Yet -- This site is still outputting fresh information. It should stay while it is active. I believe thats part of our job as Lostpedia. To inform, and to inform correctly Plkrtn talk contribs email 14:41, 14 February 2007 (PST)
- Keep for now: as stated earlier. --Gateboy42 14:50, 14 February 2007 (PST)
- Keep -- I don't see the harm of keeping it, since it has been made very clear that this is a hoax --Mr. Crabby (Talk) 08:03, 17 February 2007 (PST)
The logo[]
The logo on the website for Mittelos Bioscience is a pretty good fake, but there are subtle differences between what's on the website and what was seen on "Not in Portland". The middle of the right-side "B" hexagon is slightly lower than the bottom of the left-side "M" in the presentation on the episode. The website's logo has these equal. -- Jabberwock talk contribs email - 20:45, 7 February 2007 (PST)
Website No longer works[]
- Possible because the episode has airs, it has served its purpose. It was a very good fake however. -Mr.Leaf 09:30, 8 February 2007 (PST)
the site is not down, simply being eidted, i'd imagine. i refreshed my cache and it worked. i have edited the article to maker it totally unbiased. i believe you all jumped to the 'its fake' conclusion. let this unfold, then judge its canonicity. Dannyfrankland 12:23, 8 February 2007 (PST)
- Well when it was confirmed that it is fake by a member of the Lost crew, it is considered fake. It can never be taken canonly unless the producers or Gregg take his comments back. And the site is back up so I guess it was just being edited. My thoughts are likely someone leaked the information and thought it would be funny to try and confuse everyone. But then again, maybe it really is someone at ABC, perhaps spawning a new online thing. Only time will tell. -Mr.Leaf 13:17, 8 February 2007 (PST)
- I'm the same way... some can be so naive. ALL the TLE websites were confirmed this way (yes, all... I followed TLE very closely... confirmed through TV ads, links from known related pages, so forth) Oh, and yes, it always appears "down" lately without a refresh, I'll leave a note up about it. --PandoraX 04:29, 9 February 2007 (PST)
this in no way proves it is fake. try to remain open minded for a second, yes? THF.org originally aired as a base HTML site beofre lost season 2. It was regarded as fake until it reopened as flash. Now, who's to say this isn't the same damn thing? That would explain the low bandwidth, double click links, etc. It would also explain gregg nations denial of this sites canonicity, and the fact it isn't on the usual server. Maybe ABC want this one to be more surprising. maybe it isn't ready. Who knows? All i'm asking is we make this article fair, not very biased towards fake. Maybe we should hold a vote for it? Dannyfrankland 13:59, 9 February 2007 (PST)
- The straw poll is fine if you're bored, but that's not how we determine canonicity on Lostpedia, we use facts, not popular votes on speculation about what seems like it "should be" a fact. This article is unbiased with the hoax tag, since the fact is confirmed by an official source. If you wish to discuss the site for fun, then please register with some forums. --PandoraX 06:03, 11 February 2007 (PST) PS: THF.org was never regarded as fake by people who actually followed TLE closely. It was advertized heavily from ABC.com's commercial lineup, and promoted several months in advance on the official podcast. The site was also the same URL as a prior official pre-TLE website (much like oceanic-air.com), which was nonflash.
This site is using cheap shared web-hosting, on same ip 82.165.203.3 you can find 152 other domains/websites (A-Z):
- 1stplayable.com, 1stplayableproductions.com, 2inspyre.com, 79mef.org, americanpoolsonline.com, archangel-systems.com, ..., workingagreements.com, yachtscharterxchange.com, yachtsservicexchange.com, yachtsxchange.com.
- ( For example on thehansofoundation.org ip 64.207.133.244 there are only 5 official domains/websites: apollocandy.com, hansoexposed.com, rachelblake.com, valenzettiequation.com, whereisalvar.com )
That's why site didnt work sometimes... Also that is another reason why it's FAKE. --Znch 10:56, 12 February 2007 (PST)
Straw Poll[]
How do you view the cannonicity of the website Mittelosbioscience.org, considering all the points made above? Vote Real,Fake, or TBD if you suspect the site may eventually be put to use by the show:
- Fake- Looking at it, I'm pretty sure it's a fan-made site, and not affiliated with the show in anyway. -BearDog 14:07, 9 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake- I have my doubts about it --Mr. Crabby (Talk) 14:09, 9 February 2007 (PST)
- TBD- for reasons i have stated above. Dannyfrankland 14:10, 9 February 2007 (PST)
- TBD- The producers might try to trick us, so I don't have a opion.--WarthenMan14:17 February 9 2007 (CST)
- Fake -Gregg Nations has said so twice. Before and after the episode aired. -Mr.Leaf 14:33, 9 February 2007 (PST)
- TBD-If a lot of hype is built up around it being fake, the LOST guys might buy it up from the current owners and make it canon to make things harder. Or, it could already be an intentionally confused real site.--Ex-Pope Cardinal Richard Corey 23:41, 10 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake Fairly clearly, actually, since there are no ties whatsoever of the site to TPTB (as was true for the TLE sites). The nature of hoaxes are not assumed by design quality, etc. The Lost writers are concerned about canonicity, because it affects the credibility of how they tell stories, so the idea that a fake site (which has information which already deviates from the storyline) being bought up by ABC at a later date is a bit silly. The production has never "intentionally tried to confuse fans" with websites (any confusion is caused purely by fans), and from a marketing standpoint, there's no advantage to doing this. --PandoraX 05:44, 11 February 2007 (PST)
- But from a creative standpoint, it creates tension. I'm not saying that your points are invalid, because they're very mcuh correct; i'm just saying that as a creative endeavor, making the facts uncertain until near the end is suspenseful.--Ex-Pope Cardinal Richard Corey 10:01, 12 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake Agree with previous writers, also agree that "The logo" is fake, plus read my opinion @ delete poll. --Znch 10:33, 12 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake - the fact that all of the whois info is fake is enough for me. Jabberwock talk contribs email - 11:09, 12 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake --Marik7772003 15:03, 14 February 2007 (PST)
- Fake - 1. Gregg Nations has twice confirmed this. 2. The websites whois information does not match any of the whois information for the official spin off sites. All the spinoff official sites have the same information on each whois request. 3. The logo is a well designed copy of the one from the show. It shouldn't even need discussing the production team have told us its fake, its blatantly fake... Plkrtn talk contribs email 05:01, 20 February 2007 (PST)
RevveR[]
We can see in "secret message" link to video on external website:
Word "affiliate" in url attract my attention, because usualy that means Affiliate Marketing. So i checked this website and find:
"Earn money for sharing Revver videos", and they give 40% profit to creator, 20% to sharer (and 40% for themself; this affiliate 62101 is sharer id). So this guys using insider information for makin profit, huh? And lostpedia give informative support to this website... I think its not good... --Znch 11:31, 12 February 2007 (PST)
- We're not "supporting" the website, quite the contrary. We are telling the truth about the website, so people know what's real and what isn't. People are talking about it one way or another on the forums, and the more naive ones are determined to believe it, but at least this way, they have the facts. I have since seen a few forum threads shut down because people went to lostpedia, a trusted site, and gotten the info about Gregg and /whois info. For a full list of hoax articles that are too long to fit in Minor imitation websites, see here. --PandoraX 11:41, 12 February 2007 (PST)
What if he's just using the video profit to pay for the web hosting? So far the video has had 30,000+ watches, which means the site has probably had more. Maybe it all evens out. --p01ar 12:30, 14 February 2007 (PST)
- Informative support? Far from it. As far as I can see, we do nothing but debunk this site and make it clear its a hoax. Plkrtn talk contribs email 05:07, 20 February 2007 (PST)
PANDORA- i do hope that in your PS above you are not insinuating that i barely followed at TLE> I posted from the beginning to the end of the ARG, and still very regularly post at ITE. I do not appreciate insuations. Dannyfrankland 04:47, 20 February 2007 (PST)
- Posted where exactly? Not on Lostpedia. The only contributions that you've made to this site are an article about "The Flame" (edited twice) and the rest is for this article. -- Plkrtn talk contribs email 05:07, 20 February 2007 (PST)
excuse me- i do not remember in the ARg being told 'thou must post on lostpedia'. lostpedia is a fan site, it will remain a fansite and therefore was not a part of the ARG. by post i mean on official sites, or closely involved sites, such as ITE. Dannyfrankland 07:27, 20 February 2007 (PST)
- Moot. I call moot. Where you've posted in the past is irrelevant to the point. Yep, Lostpedia- fansite. As a good fansite, Lostpedia doesn't pretend to be affiliated with the television show to make a buck. Reading back, I didn't see Pandora insinuate or suggest anything at all about whether you followed TLE. Squarin for a fight? Just curious, but have you got some personal stake in this fake site Dannyfrankland? You seem awfully intense about something that isn't very important...-BearDog 09:06, 20 February 2007 (PST)
yes, i truly do have no other life other than creating fake websites. Seriously; you need money for websites. my money is being saved for something completely different. but seriously, you wanna have a pop at me, go ahead. Dannyfrankland 09:10, 20 February 2007 (PST)
hey, i ain't flaming anyone. I just don't like people who insinuate stuff. Dannyfrankland 09:21, 20 February 2007 (PST)