Difference between revisions of "Another Version Of The Truth (website)"

Latest revision as of 02:37, 20 March 2025

Both views of the front page.

http://www.anotherversionofthetruth.com/ (Website from the Year Zero alternate reality game)

Discovery

At the Nine Inch Nails concert in Lisbon, Portugal on February 12, 2007. a plain-looking USB flash drive was found in a bathroom stall. It was found to hold a single MP3 file with the title "My Violent Heart." In the ID3 tags of that file, a URL, anotherversionofthetruth.com, was found. It can also be noted that on the "Another Version Of The Truth" page of the Year Zero liner notes, the figures "HTTP://" can be made out through the over-typed effect of the text in the booklet, hinting at the website.

Content

On first glance, the website appears to be nothing more than a large graphic, with a simple, patriotic, (if somewhat propagandistic) American message, not unlike the kind frequently used by politicians, and it is labeled at the bottom as coming from the US Bureau of Morality. Clicking and dragging over the image begins to reveal "another version" of the graphic, with the cheerful image replaced by a dark and bleak revision of the farm scene, and the text replaced with pessimistic and satirical messages. Once the new image is revealed, clicking the large bold words "Another Version of the Truth" takes you to a message board at anotherversionofthetruth.com/forum.htm, in which citizens of this particular setting are discussing many things about society, mostly involving resistance to the oppressive authority in place.

Forums

anotherversionofthetruth.com/forum.htm

Background Text: "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien

The topics viewable on the message board are:

End of the World?

The discussion in this forum centers around The Presence and what it may be, if it in fact exists. It also contains, in a post, song lyrics: "Used to be the leader/ now comes the time to serve/ maybe we show some mercy/ maybe you get what you deserve." The lyrics are from the Year Zero song Meet Your Master.

Acts of Resistance

This forum mainly discusses an act of terrorism at a baseball game that is alluded to by a poster named BeTheHammer. It is assumed that this poster is the same as the author of the Be the Hammer website, which he links to.

Cops Murder Muslim Kid

This forum only has two posts, but does link to an MP3, nohurry.mp3, in which a media report is contrasted with a cell phone recording of what is revealed to be a police murder.

Violent Resistance

This forum centers around the debate which started in the "Acts of Resistance" forum over whether violence is useful in resisting the authority. It also contains a linked MP3, ballgameOver.mp3, in which an assassin, most likely BeTheHammer, talks about organizing the attack as it happens.

Opal/Cocaine

This forum begins with a link to another MP3, opalo.mp3, which contrasts a media report about the Colombian drug trade and a firsthand account from a Colombian woman, indicating that cocaine's downfall is due to global warming and opal. It should be noted that the woman speaking in Spanish does not have a Colombian accent, but it is an accent originated on or influenced by Mexican or Central American accents. This confusion is commonly observed in American films. It has not been clarified if this contradiction is intentional and meaningful or if it would be, otherwise, only due to a mistake during production.

In Memoriam

This forum has only one post, a notice to other forum members that the poster's brother was killed and the circumstances surrounding it.

Missing in Action

This forum lists the names of people who have gone missing, and one post from "Shatter36" indicating he or she is fine; the implication being he or she is one of the people named as missing above.

The list of screennames on these forums is as follows: 8ballz, angelfood, AVT001, AVT019, AVT021, AVT80, AVT092, AVT666, Barnlikr (quoted), BeTheHammer, Che2, ChicagoAnon, fairisfair, Fiddler5Weather, giventake, Gradiosity, GrogeousGeorge, guiltfree, Haberdasher, HumanInterest, kidwithacam, KingdomCome, Lenguetaindia lovemonger, McLuhanDisciple, mitzvah, musiclover06, PaxHarmonica, pharlarope (quoted), Phil&Sophie (unsure about &), romeisburning, Shatter36, ShiHuang, Sunset Clause, ticktock9, Victor12, VoxIsMyCowboy

The last entry on any of the forums is 2/10/00 at 14:26, however, there appears to be evidence that dates were changed.

Evidence of date mismatch in AVT forum topic page. Click image for close-up.

The "glitched" date of the Violent Resistance topic, below the topics on the background image of the topics page, appears different than the text written one. The background shows "Started by AVT001 on 02/04/0000" rather than "Started by AVT001 on 02/10/0000". This same glitch occurs within the discussion threads. Also, the '0's each of the dates' 10s is one pixel wider than other zeros in this same font. Both details suggest that the original dates of these posts may have been altered. It is not yet known the significance of this alteration, however.

Art is Resistance

The Art Is Resistance website has a link (anotherversionofthetruth.com/artist.htm) to an archived thread, entitled "Artist Behind AIR Goes Missing". The thread mainly discusses the usefulness of art (as opposed to violence) as a tool for resistance.

In this thread one of the posters is named BanksyForDictator, which is a note-worthy allusion to the underground icon amongst stencil & graffiti artists worldwide. Art is an invaluable tool of the counter culture, & though many of his masterpieces are fun and light-hearted Banksy is a real world example of art's amazing power to transfer ideas and messages to those who would otherwise remain unaware. For more information on Banksy see www.banksy.co.uk.

Another important point made is by Philomela: "It makes it easy for you to think that the cops and the bankers and the soldiers are all Them. They aren’t. They’re us, too." The meaning behind this quote shows that despite a corporations & institutions being symbols of the enemy, the individuals within are not all necessarily enemies, but some maybe victims of circumstance.

Revisionism

Hidden page

anotherversionofthetruth.com/revisionism.htm

Background Text: "A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present" by Howard Zinn

This page was found through the Survivalism lyrics pdf posted on Yearzero.nin.com. Initially,it shows a page with a dated history of how America created a "new world order" in Year Zero. Similar to the splash screen of the AVT website, this is a propagandistic version, and there is hidden text which shows a contrasting, dissident view.

Clicking and dragging the left section of the page to the right, and the top section downward, until the two line up, one can reveal the alternate text. (It is also possible to open the flash file called road.swf). This new text shows how past, current and predicted future events lead to the world described in Year Zero.

0 Pages

anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/

Background Text: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Found as a link in the Mailstrom Wreckage "Pain", a series of 0 pages have been discovered, each with a clue leading to the next.

anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/play
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/glossy
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/goldaward
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/hotshots
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/left
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/3168
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/cameo
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/agoraphobia
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/baggage
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/tattoo
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/brass
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/radar
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/equation
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/merry
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/~
anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/devil

The "merry" page links to anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/2699-012a-Sherer.htm

Every few pages there is another step in building a bomb out of a computer:

(Page 1) Step 1: take a new gelled hydrogen power cell and swap it out for the old one in my machine. The point here is— --well, I’ll get to that in time.

(Page 5) Step 2: puncture the oxygen line into the power cell and cover the hole with a piece of masking tape.

(Page 10) Step 3: Affix a model rocket igniter and 10 second fuse to the masking tape. They have ‘em at any decent hobby store.

(Page 13) Step 4: Wire the igniter to a key…

(Page 15) … Say you wired the ~ key. When it’s hit, it will burn to the igniter which will eat through the tape and ignite the gelled hydrogen inside.

If someone is reading a very very small font, their face is likely to be closer to the monitor when it blows up.

You lived to betray. Tonight you die for it.

Which is followed by the puzzle 16 -> works backwards thus requiring you to type a ~

Unlinked Images

There has been 1 image found that was not linked in the HTML.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:AVOTT_index.jpg|thumb|Both views of the front page.]]
-http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/<br/>
+<nowiki>http://www.anotherversionofthetruth.com/</nowiki> (Website from the [[Year_Zero#Alternate_Reality_Game|Year Zero alternate reality game]])
-Go to [http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?p=815528#815528 this thread] on ETS for discussion of this website
+Number: [[Year_Zero_Numbers#24.10.08|24.10.8]]
-- On first glance, this is nothing more than simple, smiley propaganda. Another version of the truth is revealed (quite literally!) if you click and drag. Once new text is revealed, clicking a link takes you to a message board in which citizens of this particular setting are discussing many things about society, most of it being quite negative, scary, or depressing. Three audio files have been revealed so far:
+==Discovery==
-* [[opalo.mp3]], discussing this Opal drug.
+At the [[Nine Inch Nails]] concert in [[2007/02/12 Lisbon, Portugal|Lisbon, Portugal]] on February 12, 2007. a plain-looking USB flash drive was found in a bathroom stall. It was found to hold a single MP3 file with the title "[[My Violent Heart]]." In the ID3 tags of that file, a URL, anotherversionofthetruth.com, was found. It can also be noted that on the "[[Another Version Of The Truth (song)|Another Version Of The Truth]]" page of the ''[[Year Zero]]'' liner notes, the figures "HTTP://" can be made out through the over-typed effect of the text in the booklet, hinting at the website.
-* [[ballgameOver.mp3]], taken from the point of view of an "angry sniper."
-* [[nohurry.mp3]], detailing a police raid and showcasing the REAL truth behind it.
-Also, some lyrics were posted on the message boards of this site. This is also speculation, but these could be lyrics to a song on Year Zero: "Used to be the leader/ now comes the time to serve/ maybe we show some mercy/ maybe you get what you deserve." These lyrics are also very similar to the NIN song [[Head Like A Hole]]: "Bow down before the one you serve/ you're going to get what you deserve."
+==Content==
+On first glance, the website appears to be nothing more than a large graphic, with a simple, patriotic, (if somewhat propagandistic) American message, not unlike the kind frequently used by politicians, and it is labeled at the bottom as coming from the [[US Bureau of Morality]]. Clicking and dragging over the image begins to reveal "another version" of the graphic, with the cheerful image replaced by a dark and bleak revision of the farm scene, and the text replaced with pessimistic and satirical messages. Once the new image is revealed, clicking the large bold words "Another Version of the Truth" takes you to a message board at anotherversionofthetruth.com/forum.htm, in which citizens of this particular setting are discussing many things about society, mostly involving resistance to the oppressive authority in place.
+===Forums===
+anotherversionofthetruth.com/forum.htm
-== Topics ==
+Background Text: [[Year_Zero_Banned_Media#The Hobbit|"The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien]]
-The topics are:
-- End of the World?
+The topics viewable on the message board are:
-- Acts of Resistance
+====End of the World?====
+The discussion in this forum centers around [[The Presence]] and what it may be, if it in fact exists. It also contains, in a post, song lyrics: "Used to be the leader/ now comes the time to serve/ maybe we show some mercy/ maybe you get what you deserve." The lyrics are from the Year Zero song [[Meet Your Master|Meet Your Master]].
-- Cops Murder Muslim Kid
+====Acts of Resistance====
+This forum mainly discusses an act of terrorism at a [[Baseball in February|baseball]] game that is alluded to by a poster named [[Be the Hammer|BeTheHammer]]. It is assumed that this poster is the same as the author of the [[Be the Hammer]] website, which he links to.
-- Violent Resistance
+====Cops Murder Muslim Kid====
+This forum only has two posts, but does link to an MP3, [[nohurry.mp3]], in which a media report is contrasted with a cell phone recording of what is revealed to be a police murder.
-- Opal/Cocaine
+====Violent Resistance====
+This forum centers around the debate which started in the "Acts of Resistance" forum over whether violence is useful in resisting the authority. It also contains a linked MP3, [[ballgameOver.mp3]], in which an assassin, most likely BeTheHammer, talks about organizing the attack as it happens.
-- In Memorian
+====Opal/Cocaine====
+This forum begins with a link to another MP3, [[opalo.mp3]], which contrasts a media report about the Colombian drug trade and a firsthand account from a Colombian woman, indicating that cocaine's downfall is due to global warming and [[opal]]. It should be noted that the woman speaking in Spanish does not have a Colombian accent, but it is an accent originated on or influenced by Mexican or Central American accents. This confusion is commonly observed in American films. It has not been clarified if this contradiction is intentional and meaningful or if it would be, otherwise, only due to a mistake during production.
-- Missing in Action
+====In Memoriam====
+This forum has only one post, a notice to other forum members that the poster's brother was killed and the circumstances surrounding it.
+====Missing in Action====
+This forum lists the names of people who have gone missing, and one post from "Shatter36" indicating he or she is fine; the implication being he or she is one of the people named as missing above.
 The list of screennames on these forums is as follows:
 ballz, angelfood, AVT001, AVT019, AVT021, AVT80, AVT092, AVT666, Barnlikr (quoted), BeTheHammer, Che2, ChicagoAnon, fairisfair, Fiddler5Weather, giventake, Gradiosity, GrogeousGeorge, guiltfree, Haberdasher, HumanInterest, kidwithacam, KingdomCome, Lenguetaindia lovemonger, McLuhanDisciple, mitzvah, musiclover06, PaxHarmonica, pharlarope (quoted), Phil&Sophie (unsure about &), romeisburning, [[Shatter36]], ShiHuang, Sunset Clause, ticktock9, Victor12, VoxIsMyCowboy
-The last entry on any of the forums is 2/10/00 at 14:26.
+The last entry on any of the forums is 2/10/00 at 14:26, however, there appears to be evidence that dates were changed. [[Image:Date_mismatch_avt.png|thumb|302px|Evidence of date mismatch in AVT forum topic page.  Click image for close-up.]]
+The "glitched" date of the Violent Resistance topic, below the topics on the background image of the topics page, appears different than the text written one.  The background shows "Started by AVT001 on 02/04/0000" rather than "Started by AVT001 on 02/10/0000".  This same glitch occurs within the discussion threads.  Also, the '0's each of the dates' 10s is one pixel wider than other zeros in this same font.  Both details suggest that the original dates of these posts may have been altered. It is not yet known the significance of this alteration, however.
+==== Art is Resistance ====
+The [[Art Is Resistance]] website has a link (anotherversionofthetruth.com/artist.htm) to an archived thread, entitled "Artist Behind AIR Goes Missing". The thread mainly discusses the usefulness of art (as opposed to violence) as a tool for resistance.
+In this thread one of the posters is named BanksyForDictator, which is a note-worthy allusion to the underground icon amongst stencil & graffiti artists worldwide. Art is an invaluable tool of the counter culture, & though many of his masterpieces are fun and light-hearted Banksy is a real world example of art's amazing power to transfer ideas and messages to those who would otherwise remain unaware. For more information on Banksy see [http://www.banksy.co.uk/ www.banksy.co.uk].
+Another important point made is by [[Philomela]]: "It makes it easy for you to think that the cops and the bankers and the soldiers are all Them. They aren’t. They’re us, too." The meaning behind this quote shows that despite a corporations & institutions being symbols of the enemy, the individuals within are not all necessarily enemies, but some maybe victims of circumstance.
+=== Revisionism ===
+[[Image:Another_Version_of_the_Truth_revisionism.jpg|thumb|200px|Hidden page]]
+anotherversionofthetruth.com/revisionism.htm
+Background Text: [[Year_Zero_Banned_Media#A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present|"A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present" by Howard Zinn]]
+This page was found through the [http://yearzero.nin.com/survivalism/survivalism.pdf Survivalism lyrics pdf] posted on [[Yearzero.nin.com]]. Initially,it shows a page with a dated history of how America created a "new world order" in Year Zero. Similar to the splash screen of the AVT website, this is a propagandistic version, and there is hidden text which shows a contrasting, dissident view.
+Clicking and dragging the left section of the page to the right, and the top section downward, until the two line up, one can reveal the alternate text. (It is also possible to open the flash file called road.swf). This new text shows how past, current and predicted future events lead to the world described in Year Zero.
+===0 Pages===
+anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/
+Background Text: [[Year_Zero_Banned_Media#One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey]]
+Found as a link in [[The Mailstrom|the Mailstrom]] Wreckage "Pain", a series of 0 pages have been discovered, each with a clue leading to the next.
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/play
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/glossy
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/goldaward
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/hotshots
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/left
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/3168
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/cameo
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/agoraphobia
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/baggage
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/tattoo
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/brass
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/radar
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/equation
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/merry
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/~
+# anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/devil
+The "merry" page links to anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/2699-012a-Sherer.htm
+Every few pages there is another step in building a bomb out of a computer:
+:(Page 1) Step 1: take a new gelled hydrogen power cell and swap it out for the old one in my machine. The point here is— --well, I’ll get to that in time.
+:(Page 5) Step 2: puncture the oxygen line into the power cell and cover the hole with a piece of masking tape.
+:(Page 10) Step 3: Affix a model rocket igniter and 10 second fuse to the masking tape. They have ‘em at any decent hobby store.
-Code number:
+:(Page 13) Step 4: Wire the igniter to a key…
-This website reveals the [[numbers|code number]]: 24.10.8
-The number shows up on the main web page right below the flash object. To reveal it choose "Select All" or press 'CTRL + A'.
-== Speculation ==
+:(Page 15) … Say you wired the ~ key. When it’s hit, it will burn to the igniter which will eat through the tape and ignite the gelled hydrogen inside.
+:<small>If someone is reading a very very small font, their face is likely to be closer to the monitor when it blows up.</small>
+:You lived to betray. Tonight you die for it.
-BeTheHammer is probably the author of the [[Be the Hammer]] website.<br>
+Which is followed by the puzzle ''16 -> works backwards'' thus requiring you to type a ~
-[[Shatter36]] is one of the three people mentioned in the Missing in Action thread (He replies to the thread with "I'm fine and just laying low.")<br><br>
-The "glitched" date of the Violent Resistance topic, below the topics on the background image of the topics page, appears different than the text written one.  The background shows "Started by AVT001 on 2/04/0000" rather than "Started by AVT001 on 2/10/0000".  This would suggest that the original dates of these posts may have been altered.
-== Unlinked Images ==
+=== Unlinked Images ===
-There has been [[Unlinked Images#From anotherversionofthetruth.com|1 image]] found that was not linked in the html
+There has been [[Unlinked Images#From anotherversionofthetruth.com|1 image]] found that was not linked in the HTML.
 [[Category:World of Year Zero]]