Hey all. I hope we’ve all been having a great summer thusfar.

As previously mentioned, things involving myself and Cloverfield have slowed down a bit recently. I had written up a draft of a little humor article about the craziness behind keeping the wikipedia article on Cloverfield sane and by the book, but honestly, I couldn’t write it in a way where I felt it was funny to anyone besides myself. So I scrapped it. And things there have finally calmed down there anyway. It’s just so funny how, despite plain english warnings that wikipedia is nto a place for general discussion on a topic (only on article inclusions, which are subject to various guidelines), people still continue to resist, argue with, or ignore the guidelines. And then they bitch when their dumb comments are deleted. Kids, I guess. But now, as a result of the chaos, there is this absolutely huge warning on the top of the discussion page about not during wikipedia into a forum or blog.

As I have been saying, the way insider info is coming out now, and given that I’m trying desperately to avoid spoilers (and I’m almost never that kind of guy), my choice of Cloverfield topics to read and write seem to grow more limited by the day. Fortunately, this article was posted by Moriarty of Ain’t it Cool News. I figured my correspondence to him about Cloverfield (covering past events, including the wikipedia stuff) would be a fair contribution to this great blog.

Hey Moriarty, I’m Yooka. I’m just a 27 year old web developer who’s had an interesting perspective on the Cloverfield rumor mill, since I’ve dived headfirst into wikipedia, and “insider” sites since the trailer hit. I would say with the exception of one or two other people (who have taught me a great deal) , I have researched, edited, and altered the Cloverfield wikipedia article than anyone.

This is relevant to you because, whether you realize it or not, it is probably how the comments Kirk Montgomery made got so popular. I mean, the guy is in Colorado, hardly the entertainment media of the world. But here’s why so many people are citing him, and not you.

The great thing about Wikipedia is that anyone can add anything to it. As I’m sure you’ve heard, that’s also it’s main flaw. To add any info of a “current events” nature, it has to have a “verifiable, attributable” source. In other words, someone has to go on record that the information is fact - and that someone has to be backed by an organization with a history of responsible journalism, and editorial oversight. If it doesn’t meet those standards, it can and will be erased. Wikipedia would rather say nothing on a subject, than say something and have to correct itself. These are wikipedia policies.

The problem with a marketing campaign like this is that it’s usually the guys like yourself and Harry who find out the truth. But since you’re not the Times, or USAToday, or even Variety (yes, I see the hypocrisy of all of this, since many of them openly cite you), AICN is not considered an attributable source. Apparently, Harry’s antics over the years have earned him a reputation as being an “irresponsible” or at the very least, unreliable source in regards to his self editing. I have no say in this. I wanted to cite you and Harry from the get go. It wasn’t until other entertainment reports started citing AICN, that we could then cite them citing you. Because they have “responsible editors”.

If anything, this is just evidence that viral marketing is too new and fluid a device for wikipedia to accurately cover. Most wikipedia editors will admit this. Anyway, this is why Montgomery is getting the exposure - we couldn’t cite AICN. Another thing that was pointed out to my on the wikipedia discussion page is that, in regards to his inside source, only Montgomery will ever really know if that’s a real inside source, or if he’s just saying that to use your work.

Anyway, since wikipedia is one of the top 20 sites in bandwidth on the net, you can see why the things we are doing brought so much attention to some Denver entertainment reporter. Crazy world, right?

Anyway, on another subject, I have an interesting scoop for you in regards to Cloverfield. The information is all public knowledge also, you can verify it all for yourself. Basically, Hollywood FX man Ken Tarallo admitted on his website frightstuff.com that he was working on Cloverfield. The forums, which are “private” in as much as they require registration, also had desciptions of the work he was doing, and pictures of the sets and gadgets that they’ve designed for the film. Nothing groundbreaking, but everything seemed consistent with the kind of film the trailer hints at.

So Tarallo posts these on his password protected forums. Now either he thought his fans wouldn’t spread these descriptions and photos, or he “accidently” did all this in a forum he thought was limited to his friends and family, separate from the fan site. Regardless, the pics and info leaked, his name was all over it, and Paramount has fired him because of it. He says the only way he’ll ever work in Hollywood again is if he can contain it, or prove no wrong doing, or something to that effect. Paramount’s copyright lawyers have been sending out a wave of C&D e-mails to almost everyone who’s hosted the pics.

So this is the synopsis. To read more, you might want to check out frightstuff.com, and projectcloverfield.com, which is run by a gal who’s saved and published every correspondence. Might be interesting for people to know that a guy with Tarallo’s resume (worth checking on imdb) might never work again because he wasn’t careful with his NDA. Hopefully finding a substitute for him won’t cost the production too much time.

- Yooka