A hoax? A distribution of viruses? Islamic fundamentalist terrorists?

Have a look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon8

http://www.eon8.com/ -- often unresponsive


And then there are a few YTMNDs:

http://eon8theinvestigation.ytmnd.com

http://eon8hackeduserscreen.ytmnd.com/

It seems familiar to an Alternate Reality game, somewhat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
That's my take on it.
We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

It runs slow as hell, though. They must be paying a lot for the bandwidth...

Ah well, it's over now.

The world isn't going to blow up, unfortunately, but here's what it was:

{eon8} Complete
As of July 1st, 2006, the E8 Project has completed.
The purpose of this project was to determine the reactions of the internet public to lack of information.
History
The domain eon8.com was chosen, as it is short, easily remembered, and eon9 was already registered.
It was originally posted on www.msfn.org, but was promptly removed as 'spam'. It was enough time for it to be copied to other forums throughout December 2005.
Results
We were amazed to discover that the site was instantly linked with terrorism, simply for the fact that it seems mysterious. Evil was the number one first impression people had of the site, in spite of the fact that there are no threats on the site. The only thing Eon 8 says is "We don't want you here". Nothing else.
Other less disappointing opinions were social experimentation (which was correct), James Bond movie viral marketing, and promotions for video games.
For many people, being faced with a countdown timer was an instant reason to try to shut down or hack the site. This is a worrying reaction, that if someone doesn't understand something they must destroy it. As a result, the servers have been hit quite hard these last few days, but luckily 99% of the 'hackers' could easily be described as 'l4me n00bs'.
Another worrying example of paranoia was how quickly people would jump to conclusions, such as telephoning the registered owner of a dog seen in a photograph on a server that hosts a page that links to eon8.
Surprises
The folks at Unfiction.com were the most resourceful and inventive, they successfully managed to decrypt several of the 'codes' on the site, forcing them to be re-encrypted using more secure methods.
FAQ
What about eon5.com?
Nothing to do with us. Pure coincidence, but worked in our favor.

What about the 8th eon being the end of the world?
We picked Eon 8 because Eon 9 was already taken. We didn't know about the significance of this. Eon is a cool sounding word!

Why July 1st?
We didn't know how long it would take to get the word out using our subtle promotion methods. We allowed over 6 months.

What do the codes on the site mean?
They're mostly randomly generated integers encrypted with md5, but with certain letters removed and replaced. The Logs page is simply based on the current timestamp, encrypted and modified. You can't decrypt them, they really are random numbers.

What is the Deployment Map?
They're dots placed over major cities and several random locations, it was done mostly from memory. The random gif filename is an added touch to force a slight delay on loading, which looks more impressive in Internet Explorer, but not as much in Firefox.

What's the password?
There isn't one. If you did somehow manage to get in, you'd see an empty folder with a single text file that says "This is a decoy folder. Please connect to the internal secure network".

Can I see your website statistics?
Yes, click here.

Are you anything to do with Scientology?
Did you see anything talking about a Free Personality Test or Xenu? Use your brain.

Who are you, really?
The most I can tell you is I am a 23 year old web designer from Florida named Mike. I can't narrow it down anymore than that. When I say 'we', I really mean 'me'.
Conclusions
People take things too seriously and panic over the most trivial things. But at the same time there are many people out there who think things through without jumping to conclusions. You can't let pointless speculation rule your lives and force you to live in fear.
In Closing
Thanks to everyone who kept things interesting, especially to the folks at unfiction. Sorry there is no ARG for you to play, but at least you had fun while it lasted.


Click here for one Final Message from Eon 8

BE HAPPY
THE END
Sincerely, x21b

Fake retarded hoax. Knew it all along. It was just a countdown to the site's expiration, and it attracted people to it.

Let's go kill everyone named Mike in Florida! :p

http://www.eon8.com/july1statistics.gif

Site stats. Page hasn't loaded for me yet, but here's the link, anyway.

Don't even try and access the eon8 page, it's completely clogged up with traffic. Wikipedia lists some mirror sites where you can see the conclusions, I think.

Fake retarded hoax. Knew it all along. It was just a countdown to the site's expiration, and it attracted people to it.

Actually I thought it was an excellent hoax.

What sort of hoax would you have preferred? I'd only have described it as retarded if it had any commercial interests whatsoever.

http://24-7gaming.net/$/eon8/july1statistics.gif

Has the world blown up yet?

Well well, so there was a timer ticking away as we headed down the last stretch of river on our raft screaming "WE CAN OVERTAKE YOU DAMMIT!".

Someone had a bit of a laugh then, setting it up just to see what happens. I really hope the wikipedia article doesnt' get deleted.

It won't now, as the reasons ffor deletion were that it was a marketing ploy or something virus-based. now it's a bonafide internet phenomenon and event, it has every reason to stay.

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/ LOL

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/ LOL
HAHAHAH! Very good.

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/
Hilarious! :D

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/ LOL
Hahaha! The joke itself is pretty good, but that music is FANTASTIC. I must have it.

Actually I thought it was an excellent hoax.

What sort of hoax would you have preferred? I'd only have described it as retarded if it had any commercial interests whatsoever.

Well, maybe it was cool.

I mean, who can attract 3 million people with a countdown to nothing?

Mike of Florida can, evidently.

http://eon8timer.ytmnd.com/ LOL
BWHAHAHAHA,that made my day...lol

The hoax was rather brilliant, really.
It makes me wonder what the largest internet attendance at one time at one site was.

OMG!! There's 466 Eon8 YTMND's!! (http://ytmnd.com/list/?search=eon8)

Wow, I can't beleive anybody finds that kind of site exciting or mysterious.

If what it's counting down to actually IS important, then there is no need for a timer or even the site itself; just post it at a news site and it's importance will dictate it's own popularity.

Hahaha! The joke itself is pretty good, but that music is FANTASTIC. I must have it.

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/e/9/0e9d9e3e7d3ee692dba19d439857d516.mp3

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/e/9/0e9d9e3e7d3ee692dba19d439857d516.mp3

That hardly intact mp3 can't count?

Edit: Why does every YTMND site you guys link to just show a glowing ytmnd sign for a vast number of minutes (untill I finally give up and close them)?

...hm and i MISSED the whole thing about eon8 i mean when it was around for 6 months,never heard of it.

...hm and i MISSED the whole thing about eon8 i mean when it was around for 6 months,never heard of it.
So did I.
On the other hand, I completely missed 'The Beast' too.

Edit: Why does every YTMND site you guys link to just show a glowing ytmnd sign for a vast number of minutes (untill I finally give up and close them)?Try opening it in another browser.

Hahaha! The joke itself is pretty good, but that music is FANTASTIC. I must have it.

I FOUND IT!:http://content.ytmnd.com/content/f/0/4/f046ea11182b99402d6cd63d1c8853e9.wav

Original song: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/8/b/08b0c235a9460e62f0e47212f6bd035a.mp3
8 bit version: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/3/1/e/31ee9fecd775e975018fbf891d5afec7.mp3
NES version (not complete):http://content.ytmnd.com/content/9/0/c/90c81727eb12c1854110d9da67f6ef40.wav
Guy who knows how to use protracker: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/c/d/1/cd159096e35cb58c9ffc27fdb750f7a8.wav
Sounds nice: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/6/7/0674a440afd55d1c27ac54776d747a29.mp3



OMGWTFBBQ? :http://content.ytmnd.com/content/8/7/f/87fa970f9a43c516755fe02cf90d9ad8.wav
OMGWTF NINJA???: http://ninjabh.ytmnd.com/

Oh and this cool remix: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp028-01-mesu_kasumai-axel_f.mp3


You're welcome!

I FOUND IT!:http://content.ytmnd.com/content/f/0/4/f046ea11182b99402d6cd63d1c8853e9.wav

Original song: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/8/b/08b0c235a9460e62f0e47212f6bd035a.mp3
8 bit version: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/3/1/e/31ee9fecd775e975018fbf891d5afec7.mp3
NES version (not complete):http://content.ytmnd.com/content/9/0/c/90c81727eb12c1854110d9da67f6ef40.wav
Guy who knows how to use protracker: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/c/d/1/cd159096e35cb58c9ffc27fdb750f7a8.wav
Sounds nice: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/6/7/0674a440afd55d1c27ac54776d747a29.mp3



OMGWTFBBQ? :http://content.ytmnd.com/content/8/7/f/87fa970f9a43c516755fe02cf90d9ad8.wav
OMGWTF NINJA???: http://ninjabh.ytmnd.com/

Oh and this cool remix: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp028-01-mesu_kasumai-axel_f.mp3


You're welcome!
Or else can be found in all good video stores.

I FOUND IT!:http://content.ytmnd.com/content/f/0/4/f046ea11182b99402d6cd63d1c8853e9.wav

Original song: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/8/b/08b0c235a9460e62f0e47212f6bd035a.mp3
8 bit version: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/3/1/e/31ee9fecd775e975018fbf891d5afec7.mp3
NES version (not complete):http://content.ytmnd.com/content/9/0/c/90c81727eb12c1854110d9da67f6ef40.wav
Guy who knows how to use protracker: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/c/d/1/cd159096e35cb58c9ffc27fdb750f7a8.wav
Sounds nice: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/6/7/0674a440afd55d1c27ac54776d747a29.mp3



OMGWTFBBQ? :http://content.ytmnd.com/content/8/7/f/87fa970f9a43c516755fe02cf90d9ad8.wav
OMGWTF NINJA???: http://ninjabh.ytmnd.com/

Oh and this cool remix: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp028-01-mesu_kasumai-axel_f.mp3


You're welcome!
HOLY CRAP lots of links! Thanks, you saved the day or something!

I FOUND IT!:http://content.ytmnd.com/content/f/0/4/f046ea11182b99402d6cd63d1c8853e9.wav

Original song: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/8/b/08b0c235a9460e62f0e47212f6bd035a.mp3
8 bit version: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/3/1/e/31ee9fecd775e975018fbf891d5afec7.mp3
NES version (not complete):http://content.ytmnd.com/content/9/0/c/90c81727eb12c1854110d9da67f6ef40.wav
Guy who knows how to use protracker: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/c/d/1/cd159096e35cb58c9ffc27fdb750f7a8.wav
Sounds nice: http://content.ytmnd.com/content/0/6/7/0674a440afd55d1c27ac54776d747a29.mp3



OMGWTFBBQ? :http://content.ytmnd.com/content/8/7/f/87fa970f9a43c516755fe02cf90d9ad8.wav
OMGWTF NINJA???: http://ninjabh.ytmnd.com/

Oh and this cool remix: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp028-01-mesu_kasumai-axel_f.mp3


You're welcome!
Yay!Cool remixes and such...YAY!