![[0905] Cicada Decrypt0r 3.3.0.1](/comics/2017-07-24-0905-cicada-decrypt0r-3301.png "[0905] Cicada Decrypt0r 3.3.0.1")
Update [31 August 2017]: I made this strip available again today. However, please do no longer send Woocoins or any other emails at the given email address. I will NOT answer them anymore!
Here is the email address again: cicada-decrypt0r@yandex.ru
This was wayyyy too much work. Various things I tried didn’t work out at first or took longer than I thought.
I will delete certain comments about the content of the encrypted strip and various other topics related to it. We here at Cicada 3301 want the best, not the followers!
Woocoins don’t count as entry for the fanart contest 2017!
Update [Tuesday, 11:00]: We received 300 Woocoins already! By this rate, we’re going to be rich beyond our wildest dreams! Thank you to everybody who contributed!
Update [Tuesday, 21:25]: All right, the number of sent in Woocoins is slowly going down. It was a pleasure to see all the creative ideas and wonderful art! But I have to put an end to this enormous time sink for me a little earlier than announced in the strip. Point midnight tomorrow, I will take the strip offline. I will then release the hidden strip to the general public in one month as an extra update on 28 August 2017.
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I haven’t the ability nor the patience to screw around with that, and I won’t encourage online miscreants by giving them what they want, which can only lead to more acts of cyber-espionage, data ransoming, and other very bad things. But I do want to read the comic. Fortunately, I have a time-machine. I will use it to travel FORWARD in time, at just over eighty six thousand seconds per day, to a future time in which someone will have posted the decrypted version of this page to the internet, and read it then, then resume living in my own time.
Awesome idea! I’ll carve out some time soon for a doodle. To those posting snotty remarks about being forced to play along, maybe this web comic is not for you!
I got this one. I was seriously overthinking it for a bit there though.
We received over 100 Woocoins already! Thank you to everybody who contributed!
Sigh. Do we need another wiki for this one? Paying ransom always seemed like a cheat to me, plus it encourages people to do more crime.
I kinda would have expected Yuna to immediately react with “No, sound doesn’t travel through space.”, here. Bit disappointing.
Yeah, this is just annoying. I read webcomics to enjoy them, not to have them assign me work.
I first ‘panicked’ a bit, with not having time this week to do anything for this, but then I realised the deadline, and that’s like more than tolerable. (And it took me some time, to get it, and a scroll through the comments).
I understand the critique by some in the comments-section, to which I’d like to respond: In my opinion, this is a very original, ingenious comic idea, asking for viewer interaction. I don’t perceive this as asking for ransom, as it’s basically the same concept as offering e.g. patreon-supporters more, earlier content of a comic, than normal, non-paying viewers. This is still a freely accessible webcomic – if the creator would be forced to take a break with it, or completely leave it be, I could understand the ensuing complaints, because of frustration of not having a finished story, but the creator would still have every right to do that. As readers we sometimes have a certain sense of entitlement, a ‘right’ to comics, when in reality, we really don’t, even if we ‘paid’ for it, by spending time. This is just my opinion, though, feel free to respond, if yours differ from mine 🙂
(And if this is not acceptable because it talks too much about today’s comic, or something, I can understand that, too)
@ Sid:
900 lbs = 408,23 kg
400 lbs = 181,437 kg
900 kg = 1984,16 lbs
/wisecrack off
Damnit guys, I’m at work on mobile, how do you expect me to crack the damn crypto without time and my desktop? I just wanted to read some comics before my shift 😡
I don’t negotiate with terrorists
Can’t we all just send you an Euro and leave it at that?
I paid your damned ransom. I expect a wholesome comic beneath these layers of secrecy, comrade 😛
@ MidoriLuna:
Assuming I know how to use a sketch app. Assuming I have one.
I, for one, refuse to knuckle under to extortion. If we give into these demands, they’ll only take it as a license to escalate? What’s next, tickets to ‘Larisa’s Lingerie Lounge’ in exchange for poorly drawn furries? Where does it end? Someone has to draw a line in the sand!
Oh, that feeling. Again RUSSIAN HAXXORZ EVERYWHERE, dunno if the address is a pun.
*making the coin*
This better be a one time thing. I hate ransom.
I have to go to bed now so i guess i’ll miss this one because i wont be up till 21:00 (i work nights).
I was just checking b4 bed 🙁
Damn it, I can’t [Removed by Novil] correctly. I will Unlock your secrets! This I SWEAR!
Wtf…o-o
Request denied. I refuse to give you my email address in exchange for a comic.
Microsoft has a scam in which they send you spam, the unsubscribe link requires you to create an account, and when you do they lock the account until you give them your cell phone number. It’s a form of extortion.
Do you really want to be like them?
If the strip is added later, that’s fine, but if the only way to ever see it is to draw a coin and email it, I’m sorry, that is stupid. I appreciate the thought and effort put into this idea, but come one. It sounds like about 100 folks did this, and that’s out of how many visit and read the comic regularly? I’m willing to bet it’s quite a low ratio. This really leaves a sour taste in my mouth regarding the comic. I really hope this doesn’t become a trend. Otherwise, keep up the good work.
Mistwraith wrote:
Look at the date again, you have a full month!
Vidad wrote:
Thank you for that. I looked at the date several times to make sure I was reading it right and every single time I was like, “yeah July is month 8.” I feel really stupid now.
Oh, a sailboat!
Drumstep wrote:
It is very easy. August is the month before September, September starts with sept, meaning seven, thus it is month 9, therefore August is month 8.
I really like the detail in the reds 🙂
Agarax wrote:
@ Commentary Ver.2.72:
Dammit, it posted before I could finish writing it. I was going to ask, I’d you’re not giving him your email, what did you use for the REQUIRED email section?
@ Commentary Ver.2.72:
You know, the one that has to be filled out every team you comment? Eh.
I checked my email only to be confused by the interface and unsure if you replied. What?
Who cares about the coins. I wonder how many found the other part.
@ cariad:
Not sure what other part you’re referring to, so I’m not sure If I found it or not.
Novil wrote:
I really hope you do. I like that you made this fun game for people that want to participate, but forcing people to play along in order to ever see the strip would just feel like a dick move, especially because it would mean that anyone with the misfortune to not be a reader right now is completely disbarred from ever seeing it through no fault of their own.
@Commentary Ver.2.72
i would not dare to be more precise. I hear Cicada has employed Ruth in hunting down everyone who has displeased them. But they did mention something of that sort in the replie with the ransomed comic strip.
Checked my email, received reply: “Okay, this is the first one where we have to say that it doesn’t even look remotely like a coin with Woo on it in some shape or form.” If I didn’t agree, I would’ve taken offense. I screwed my first attempt up. But, I was the first? Cool.
Commentary Ver.2.72 wrote:
Did you at least submit something with the round shape typical of coins? I’d like to know how low you set the bar before I try Limboing under it. I may have to resort to sand dollar shapes, or beads.
(I assume copying and pasting Woo from anywhere on this site is out of the question. That’s the limit of my artistic skills.)
I hope I don’t start getting spam email because of this. So what was the whole point of this anyway. And yes I played along and sent in a Woocoin. I’d he collecting emails to sell to companies or what? Or just wondering how many people will play along with this silly game? So what’s up with the Sandra clue. Anyone figure that one out?
@ Dave:
yes. I did ^^ and I’m waiting eagerly for the next e-mail.
I’m now wondering how deep this ends up going.
I have submitted my random, I apologize to anyone that will view my payment and try to see how it resembles a coin…
I have submitted my random, I apologize to anyone that will view my payment and try to see how it resembles a coin…Eli Spalter wrote:
I MEANT TO WRITE RANSOM!!! NOT RANDOM! We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
I have been trying to get gimp to make curved text from this path for 4 hours now, to the point I don’t even care what this comic is, life has no meaning, nothing makes sense, I just want to curl up and die.
… you know normal artist stuff.
@ Charlie Spencer:
It was a coin shape drawn using the email I wrote as a background which I drew too small and try to put Sly’s cane on the back of. Why I attempted such a thing with such a small screen with an even smaller circle, I wouldn’t know. The drawing wasn’t really a raccoon anymore 😐
Well… Time To get on space engineers
@ Arthiem:
Mine had the text uncurved, and it passed muster.
@ Red5: Easy way of waiting: Play 20+ runs of FTL in less than a day
I’m cheap, so I didn’t pay.
But… Why is Sandra tagged?
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’m wondering: Is the comic the only thing to be found? Is there something else hidden?
So, is anyone else is trying to decrypt this?
did anyone succeed by now?
@ ender1200:
I think he just put a Gauss Blur over it with Photoshop.