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Greetings, Users. Our system may be experiencing some residual glitches from a recent network malfunction. Our technical team is working on getting these issues under control. Please direct any concerns in the meantime to the HR department at humanresources@retrospec.com.

Our staff has furthermore noticed a significant increase in tags and trends for #aprilfools and #pranks. Keep on your toes and be certain to tag your best tricks for Retrospec™!

Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Any emails sent to the HR department will be returned with a failure to send notification, and will furthermore automatically be posted to the Retrospec network. Oops?

Characters who have been in game for one month will find they can now change their profile pictures.

Glitches will be in effect until the 15th and may include:
-Usernames changing to a cat, dog, or bird pun.
-The Retrospec application being changed into a neon color + animal theme of some variety.
-Notifications going off at random and being unable to be turned off.
-Various "special effects" crossing the screens when people comment.
-Users having to beat a level of pac-man to access the application, and then being made to beat a new level every hour to keep using the application.
-Thomas the Tank Engine memes being sent to users every hour for some reason.
-Profile pictures being replaced by pictures of rabbits and easter eggs.
-New creepy pasta stories appearing upon log-in, to be forwarded to someone before the app can continue to be used
-Parental lock and auto-correct on cursing (i.e. fuck -> duck)
-A parade of pixel Chocobos or dancing fruit scrolling across the screen after each comment posted

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Morgnyan Isaacs Yeah, you're right.
Morgnyan Isaacs Or, you would be if they even have an HR department.

[And even if they did... that's not usually where you send bug reports?]

Morgnyan Isaacs Sure, it could be that the email misdirect was a mistake with the programming, or maybe it was intentional.

[He's particularly wary of the calendar on this one.]

Hitori Togusa Supposedly, the pined-after 'Janet Wizeman' works in HR, if her mail communications are to be believed.
Hitori Togusa But she doesn't have a public listing in the city. The employees are just as mysterious as the rest of the company.

Morgnyan Isaacs Oh. Right.
Morgnyan Isaacs That's... not very encouraging. So people have tried to look into these guys and found nothing?
Morgnyan Isaacs I've heard the building is basically empty, too.

[Strange. Concerning.]

Morgnyan Isaacs Well, they might have a HR department, but I'm not convinced on the existence of customer support.

[Because this should be their jobs.]

Hitori Togusa Short answer, yeah.
Hitori Togusa And, it's more accurate to say that the part of their building we've been able to get into is empty. If employees are working at that site, they've got a way in that isn't the public front door.

Hitori Togusa I apologize for having to ask this, but I don't think we've spoken before. Hitori Togusa, what is your name?

Morgnyan Isaacs Hm.
Morgnyan Isaacs Sounds like a front, then.

[Which probably makes sense, considering it's a company that produces an app, and yet seems to have several fingers in a bunch of different pies.

Oh. Right.]

Morgnyan Isaacs No, we haven't. And no need to apologize. Probably should've remembered my manners.
Morgnyan Isaacs Morgan Isaacs. Nice to meet you.

Hitori Togusa Nice to meet you, too.
Hitori Togusa It bothers me, because even a front should have some kind of legitimacy tied to it.
Hitori Togusa You launder your money through an actual running business, not, a building that looks like a business but isn't? Clearly, Retrospec's issue isn't money laundering, but whenever you're using a business to hide something, there has to be a business there.

Morgnyan Isaacs They barely even tried in that regard.
Morgnyan Isaacs Giving them the benefit of the doubt that it isn't just incompetence, it seems they don't feel the need to give off that impression.
Morgnyan Isaacs I'm not even sure how the app would make money, though. As far as I can tell, there are no ads...

[Well, unless it's selling their information, but that would be an entirely different issue.]

Hitori Togusa We complain that we don't want ads in our internet content, but then when you get something compeletely ad-free, it just comes off as suspicious.
Hitori Togusa Say they don't have a money train, okay. Then they'd keep anything off the site to try to increase participation.
Hitori Togusa And somehow that seems to be the beginning and end of their game plan. Just- use the app. In some cases, use it or get shocked, but all they want is content.

Morgnyan Isaacs I'd say something about, "too good to be true," but considering how this app barely seems to function properly, I'm not sure how applicable that is.
Morgnyan Isaacs They do go to pretty excessive lengths to force people to submit something.

[Sometimes even bricking your phone before you acquiesced, like when the app first downloaded.]

Morgnyan Isaacs Does make me wonder what the heck they get out of this, though, if it's not money.

[Something that had to do with the weird shit around the city? Who knows.]

Hitori Togusa Somebody brought up the point that it actually can't be costing them that much money. Last count I tried, there are no more than about 160 of us on here. You can run that on a simple server.
Hitori Togusa This feels so much larger than it is.

Hitori Togusa One theory is just flat-out identity theft, so I've been keeping an eye out on my bank account and credit score.
Hitori Togusa If they've gotten access to my bank passwords, thanks to having so much control over my phone? They haven't done anything with it yet.

Morgnyan Isaacs It does seem like a strangely small sample size for... whatever they're doing. Even if it's just people within city limits.
Morgnyan Isaacs ...But that might be a different discussion.

[Based on what they seemed to be capable of, it seemed like the number of people currently able to use the app was by design, not by limitation.]

Morgnyan Isaacs Probably a good idea.
Morgnyan Isaacs They could be playing the long game, but somehow I feel like... it's not about money. Nothing really adds up, if it is.

[That conclusion seems a little too easy.]

Hitori Togusa It's about content. That's what they seem to want from us right now. Just, keep interacting with the app, no matter how pointless the information we give them is.
Hitori Togusa But if our overlords are only going to give us minimal guidance on what they want, then what can we use this for, while we have access to it?

[It seemed like a bizarre aim. Other apps and websites wanted content, sure, but they also sought to make a profit off of that. Retrospec hadn't. Was it just a matter of time, or was there some other reasoning behind it?]

Morgnyan Isaacs They sure as heck will do whatever it takes to force that interaction.

[From bricking your phone to loud music to electric shocks. Mr. Togusa was definitely on the right track, here.

HE WANTS TO JUST REPLY "SHITPOSTING," but this is a serious conversation, and the profanity filter would catch it, so...]

Morgnyan Isaacs That's a good question.
Morgnyan Isaacs Not exactly sure, myself. But there's plenty of people on here. Give it time, and people'll discover new ways to use it. Maybe we'll stumble across something interesting.

[Shiiiiiitposting. It's all right, he's met Dave.]

Hitori Togusa So far, it's actually been refreshing to see people coming together and helping one another when the strange occurrences keep happening.
Hitori Togusa But, for example, I keep thinking there has to be a way we, as in the police force on here, can use this to better connect with people who need our help. But how to balance that out without accidentally giving preferential treatment to a really limited section of the city?

[Ah, then you are well-introduced...]

Morgnyan Isaacs I guess that's what they mean when they talk about the going getting tough...
Morgnyan Isaacs Or the going just getting weird.

[Okay, so he's with the police. Not the first Morgan has spoken with.]

Morgnyan Isaacs That... hmm.
Morgnyan Isaacs Seems like a waste to give it up as a method of contact at all. Maybe it comes down to what sorts of things the police would respond to?
Morgnyan Isaacs Obviously anything small and personal would be a bit questionable, but if it gives you a heads-up to something that might affect more people, that might be a little more useful.

Hitori Togusa However Retrospec is getting its network out there? Did you notice it was still up last month during the blackout?
Hitori Togusa This could be the most useful thing during an emergency, if the people who have the application are willing to help out the people who don't have it.

Hitori Togusa It's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. How can we turn this into a positive?

Morgyan Isaacs I did... That was pretty weird, since you'd assume they keep their servers here.

[Back-up power, maybe? Hm.]

Morgyan Isaacs That's the only issue, I guess. The fact that they only distribute this app to, well... the people who have it.

Morgyan Isaacs If it comes to emergencies like that one, it could serve as a way to get a general plan of action out quickly. The only issue would be that those with the app would have to contact those without it.
Morgyan Isaacs That's what I can think of off the top of my head, but... I could keep thinking about it. I'm sure there's more we could use this thing for.

Hitori Togusa Thanks. For hearing me out at all, that is.
Hitori Togusa A lot of people are angry, and they've got every right to be. But I think we can do something helpful in the meantime.

Morgnyan Isaacs Oh, yeah, of course.
Morgnyan Isaacs Thanks to you as well. Talking helps me think through it a little differently than just ruminating on my own.
Morgnyan Isaacs But yeah, you're right. We'll just have to deal with the more frustrating aspects of it. Hopefully we can figure out some more helpful stuff soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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