The Cyberspace Masquerade is a digital convention. It will last five days.

The primary invitees are Discordians and their ilk, invited from all corners of the interblag.

The convention takes place at a forum which will be created explicitly for this purpose. After the convention ends, the forum will be locked. All attendees will register with new usernames and avatars, leaving their old internet identities behind them.

While in this identity-free zone, attendees are encouraged to discuss topics of interest, import, and inconsequence. Isolation from existing social networks and layers of reputation should facilitate honest, open communication (and flames). At the end of the con, attendants will have the opportunity to reveal their "true" identities, but this is neither required nor expected.

The Cyberspace Masquerade will, at the end of the convention, release a booklet of Discordian literature. The contents of the booklet will be determined by the participants. People may submit short pieces (200-500 words) and marginalia for entry in the booklet. Consensus polls may be used to determine inclusion/exclusion.

This is a secret message to the forum hosts. If you're reading this, you're part of the Inner Circle.

There are a few things going on at the Masquerade in addition to the stuff covered in the initial announcement.

The Masquerade is secretly hosted by the Adam Weishaupt Society. This means that treachery, secrecy, and disinformation are the bread and butter of some of the games we'll be playing.

There is an alternate-reality-game built into the Masquerade. By hunting around and connecting the dots, participants will be able to score access to secret boards.

DISCORDIAN LIT

Anyone may submit essays and literature for the booklet we'll be producing. The hosts of the masquerade will be the editors and have final say on what goes in/out. They will also host polls to vote on certain pieces. (if there are two meh pieces, we'll host a poll to choose one of them).

We'll also toss the PDF of this thing up on lulu.com so if this book gets epic, we can sell hard copies. =)

SECRET FORUM

There is a password-protected forum. The password to it is "Milhous". Somewhere on the board, a post will indicate that the password to the secret forum is the middle name of one of the moderators.

We will create a dummy account named "Richard Nixon", who will occasionally modify posts (in very subtle ways). The "Modified by Richard Nixon" tag will appear on the post, giving people a clue that Nixon is a mod, therefore Milhous is the password.

ON THE SECRET FORUM