Ok… For those of you who requested it, here is all the info going on with the whole conpiracy thing behind the Year Zero stuff. I do not take credit for ANY of this knowledge. It has all been gleaned by several people over at www.echoeingthesound.org… and I’m not redoing all the coding so that the links workl as there are just too damn many in the post. If you want you can go visit the site and check out all the interesting info on it.
Last updated: March 3, 2007 at 11:24 AM EST
Alrighty, then.
Everyone, we now have a Nine Inch Nails Wiki set-up for everyone to use. I would appreciate it if people helped out and added information about what is going on to the website. It’s not currently up thanks to our good friends at Digg, but once it is, we’re hoping it becomes a comprehensive source of information for all of this. 
Also, I’d like to thank everyone participating in the IRC channel for all of the incredibly hard work they’ve done. None of this could be done without them, and they deserve every bit of thanks for this. Great work, everybody!
Recent additions:
(Most recent things are at the top. If nothing is new, then nothing has happened since your last visit. Stop PMing me telling me it’s outdated. This is meant for newcomers as well as people checking this damn thing every five minutes.)
NEW SONG: The Beginning of the End was played on KROQ. See the thread for lyrics/download/discussion.
http://securebroadcastinformatics.com/. Website discovered in text on the BYIT Blu-Ray insert. Visit the site here to try and unlock the puzzle. Discuss by clicking the link above.
hippygeek has written a Jabber (gTalk) tracker that periodically scans the sites for changes and will automatically update you if changes are found.
An IRC channel has been added!
Okay, For noobs of IRC:
- Go here.
- Put your ETS nickname as your nickname,
the server as irc.freenode.net
the channel as #iamtryingtobelieve
- Talk. Don’t be a douchebag, either.
For experienced IRC users:
just go to #iamtryingtobelieve on irc.freenode.net on your favorite IRC client. This is meant for ON-TOPIC CONVERSATION AS RELATING TO THE ARG. NO EXCEPTIONS.
For anyone keeping track and helping to figure this out, it’s advised to keep track of the IP 69.20.104.25. Thanks, fkid, for the info.
These ARG tools should help us out in the long run, should anybody want to check this out. Thanks to glory285 for that one, and a sincere apology for not giving proper credit in the first place.
Also, for anyone interested, Shadowless created some icons.
http://thefragilehalo.com/yzicons.aspx
(This also contains the leak for “My Violent Heart,” as well as the phone sound clip.)
Just how deep do you believe?
Welcome to the official discussion of all of this hoo-hah happening in year zero. Enjoy your stay, and be sure to avoid the water at all costs and remember to drink the water, it’s good for you. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
THE RULES:
- Don’t ask stupid questions. Read that over again. I’m serious. They’re listening, and you don’t want anything to happen to you. Tread lightly. To be safe, check this post BEFORE YOU LOOK AT ANYTHING ELSE, as it is being updated CONSTANTLY. I’m at risk, you are not. I’m making this sacrifice for you. Don’t be a dick about it.
- Keep the discussion on-topic, okay? This is your own little history lesson. That doesn’t mean you can start talking about some other kind of music from your past, and this doesn’t mean you can talk about how bad your water might be. This means that I don’t want you guys to be posting random shit every five minutes as if this is some kind of public chat room, okay? Keep it focused!
I will not force-feed you the meaning of what is going on. The people updating this post are doing the factual stuff only. If you want to discuss your visions of the Presence or how fucking tweaked you are on opal, that’s just fine, but it’s not my duty to explain this stuff to you. If you want to waste improve your life with Parepin, it’s your own decision.
One last thing: The website is yearzero.nin.com. It has absolutely NOTHING to do yearzero.com, PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. Don’t even THINK of bringing this up.
Don’t get too lost, folks!
THIS IS WHAT IS GOING ON:
On the back of a new NIN tour shirt, some letters are highlighted. These highlighted letters all come together to form the clause “I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE.” This directly leads to other things, as iamtryingtobelieve.com is an actual site. This website and many others popping up with the same theme depict a very tortured, dystopic world.
Some things to bring you up to speed:
-
The year is year zero. Most dates end with 0000 or something similar. When referring to the past, the years are in negatives. Example: Thirteen years prior to 0000 is listed as “-13 BA,” or “Born Again” (we think), as that would work with the negative sign before the year. It is now proven that year zero itself is actually year 2022, as indicated by the image located here (hint: look to the left of the first image, it’s slightly hard to see!). This makes the year 2007 actually become -15 BA. More discussion on these dates can be found most anywhere on this forum, but I’d like to focus it in this thread.
-
Parepin, found on the first discovered site, is a drug used in the water system and drinking supply of the general public. Its first use was said to combat all disease, though there has been no proof of it. The Administration added it to the drinking supply to both combat disease and reduce the risk of any kind of biological attack on the people; however, many citizens are reluctant to believe this. Discontinued use of the drug reveals clarity of thought, which the government claims is paranoia. Things are not as they seem.
-
Opal is a new drug distributed commonly in liquid form. This is supposedly “the new crack,” as it is cheaper to distribute and more widely available. According to many underground news sources, this drug’s main distribution source is America itself. Opal is said to be a religious experience for many people. Also, many will remember a song called “Head Like a Hole (Opal),” eh?
Consolidated Mail Systems has a professional description of the drug. This implies that its name is “opal” because the color is distinct and black.
This sound clip details various things about the drug. People are arguing whether it’s Trent or not speaking at the beginning. Later in the file is a Colombian woman, which Triple_A has lovingly translated for us:
Colombian woman wrote:
when i was a girl things weren’t easy, but now it rains and rains. we haven’t even dried the coca leaves and then they left. they say its because of global warming. 2 years ago the river took my brothers house, it took my brother his wife, my nephew, and the baby girl. we found her covered with mud and when she dried out she resembled ashes. last year was difficult but the men who by the coca leaves told us to grow what we could. and we did it and they they took it. we waited and we waited and then finally they told us that they could not pay us. because nobody wants to by coca leaves. baby crying in the background (talking to it) shhhhhh… there there pretty girl. this year the rains returned and we could not grow anything. now the people say that nobody will buy the coca leaves, its not worth anything to anyone. in Bogotá they only want OPAL. they buy OPAL in the United States and they bring it to Bogotá… OPAL
- The Presence. You guys remember that old song “The Wretched” and how the singer says that “God himself will reach his arm through,” right? Welcome to reality. The Presence seems to be this gigantic arm pushing through the sky onto the ground. On various websites dealing with the new concept, it is stated that sightings of the Presence can be attributed to many different things, whether it be the new drugs Opal or Parepin, a quasi-religious experience, and many others.
Here are the current images having to do with the Presence:
One, two, three, four, five
(Image one is from iamtryingtobelieve.com, two, three, and four are from the anotherversionofthetruth.com boards, and five originally comes from Consolidated Mail Systems and lovingly cropped and posted by JessicaSarahS.)
The current websites and details about them:
http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/
- This was the first site discovered, and it is about this Parepin drug. The author of the website seems to be someone who has stopped using Parepin. Users may e-mail him to ask any questions, but are greeted with a very creepy auto-reply:
Auto-reply from water@iamtryingtobelieve.com wrote:
Thank you for your interest. It is now clear to me that Parepin is a completely safe and effective agent developed to protect us from bio-terrorism. The Administration is acting purely in the best interests of its citizens; to suggest otherwise was irresponsible and I deeply regret it.
I’m drinking the water. So should you.
Perhaps he’s on to something…?
http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/
- On first glance, this is nothing more than simple, smiley propaganda. Another version of the truth is revealed (quite literally!) if you click and drag. Once new text is revealed, clicking a link takes you to a message board in which citizens of this particular setting are discussing many things about society, most of it being quite negative, scary, or depressing. Three audio files have been revealed so far:
- opalo.mp3, discussing this Opal drug.
- ballgameOver.mp3, taken from the point of view of an “angry sniper.” This angry sniper is most likely the same sniper found on Consolidated Mail Systems’ site, as well as Be the Hammer. Keith from the IRC channel has kindly transcribed all of the chatter in this file, and the complete bit of info can be found here.
- nohurry.mp3, detailing a police raid and showcasing the REAL truth behind it.
Also, some lyrics were posted on the message boards of this site. This is also speculation, but these could be lyrics to a song on Year Zero: “Used to be the leader/ now comes the time to serve/ maybe we show some mercy/ maybe you get what you deserve”
The “My Violent Heart” leak apparently directed people to this site.
http://bethehammer.net/
- This appears to be a resistance site, linked to at the anotherversionofthetruth.com message board. This is pretty much open to interpretation as nobody seems to have any hard evidence as to what this is, who is saying it, or anything else; however, it details several stories that fit within this arc. It’s much too complex to be summarized here, but the stories themselves can be found on the website.
It is worthy to note that, as stated above, the author of this website seems to be the same angry sniper in the audio clip as well as the CMS website. As one simple form of evidence, he says “a credit card and a hardware store can make you a hero” in both places. Lines have been drawn between the timeline found further down this post and the stories he has told on his site. Discussion on the matter can be found and brought up in this thread.
http://105thairbornecrusaders.com/
- Soldiers of God under the US flag. Not much is known about this site as of yet. The angry sniper claims to be a sniper who served the 105th Crusaders. KeithG has opened up a thread for discussion, found here.
http://churchofplano.com/
- The Church of Plano. Not much is known about this site of yet, either. cynicmuse lets us know that the Church of Plano is a New Evangelical Church; one congregation of the New Evangelical Church donated land for the first base of the 105th and another took care of Fort Paul during a deployment. The Church of Plano is also a sola scriptura organization (thanks SecretlyFabulous!).
For discussion on the First Evangelical Church of Plano, Enzo Dragon has kindly created a thread found here.
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/
- This is the site for what must be the main mail service of society (perhaps). It features a description of Opal stolen from a police officer and his reference handbook, as well as numerous crude drawings, including one of the Presence. It is definitely worthy to note that the page reads “ANGRY SNIPER sent you this message on Thursday, Feb 10, 0000.” The title “angry sniper” is most likely a reference to the sound clip that features an angry guy shooting people with a sniper rifle. At the bottom of the page is a footnote, talking about a site called Opalescent Haze. Hmm… Interestingly, if you try to click any link on this page, it gives you a warning:
The page at http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com wrote:
WARNING CODE 24.10.4 (All page functionality disabled): You are not the citizen assigned to this account. Close this window immediately and stay where you are. Authorities will be in contact shortly for appropriate reeducation.
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/citizen_unknown/
- Ironically, one cannot enter the site if you are an “unknown citizen,” but “no one important” is able to enter freely to view a detailed drug description from an officer reference handbook.
http://www.uswiretap.com/case_number_required/
AND
http://www.uswiretap.com/71839J/
- This site was discovered through the phone number revealed to us in a spectrograph image of 2432.mp3, a file that was contained inside the .rar that “Me, I’m Not” came in. Calling this number revealed a downright scary conversation. The phone conversation can be heard in links found here, or by calling the number ‘216.333.1810’, which is found in the 2432.mp3 file as well as on the text of the actual site.
Users have reportedly found text from one of my favorite novels, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Discussion can be found in the above thread, while the current cultural impact of this book (as well as The Hobbit) can be found in this thread. I’m not sure how relevant this last bit of info is to the overall Year Zero scheme of things, but it’s certainly an interesting thing to check out.
Discussion on the actual website can be found here. SO FAR, WE DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS WEBSITE. PLEASE HELP US FIGURE OUT WHAT THE FUCK LIES HERE BY POSTING IN THIS THREAD…
http://www.artisresistance.com/
This website popped up through the AVOTT.com forums, in a thread found here. This seems to be a page detailing resistance using art. According to the thread that links to the site, World War Three has already happened. The website itself has stencils, wallpapers, and forum avatars for download. Also, this flyer has been found.
Discussion on the website can be found here.
http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/
- This one was found through this image, found along with “In This Twilight” on a USB thumb drive. Not much is known so far.
Discussion can be found here.
NEW!
http://www.securebroadcastinformatics.com/
- This one was found via the text on the BYIT Blu-Ray insert. Try and unlock the puzzle! Discussion on this site can be found here. (Thanks swindley and fkid for handling shit while I snoozed. <3)
Other
- On one particular tour shirt, much like the old tour shirt, some dates were highlighted, revealing the following number: 13102951040. This is a United States phone number. Calling it reveals a new “sound clip,” featuring a small sample of “Survivalism.”
More on this found here.
A small passage from ‘The Hobbit’ was found by splicing together numerous images from the various websites. More details can be found by clicking here and checking out morethanshapes’ thread here.
Some other sites have been found, but they haven’t been set-up yet as of the time of this edit. Once the sites themselves go up, they will be linked right here.
SONG LEAKS?! WHAT?!
“In This Twilight” was leaked via USB thumb drive, just like the other leaks. This happened on the evening of February 25th, 2007. The drive contained an image, seen here. This has led users to a website, Hollywood in Memoriam, which (along with the image) can be discussed at length here.
A thread for the discussion on the track itself can be found here. This is the main location for lyrics and download links as well. Huge thanks to everybody who contributed, most notably slave2thewage, Elizabeth, and shroudofstatic.
“Me, I’m Not” was found in yet another fucking stall on the floor of a concert on February 19th. Interestingly, it came with a second file which, when put through a spectograph, revealed yet another site. Discussion, lyrics, more information, and (best of all) downloads can be found at this thread here. Thanks to everyone for their contributions!
“Survivalism” was played around 7:20 AM pacific time on KROQ on the morning of February 16th. Discussion on the song, its “leak,” its lyrics, and how downright awesome it is can be found here. Thanks, slave2thewage and cynicmuse for the hard work, and botley for his superhuman ears. Also, HUGE thanks to shroudofstatic for hosting the song for us!
Recently, the NIN Hotline showed off the cover art to the radio promo of the single: Front cover, back, disc. Thanks to eBay user backinblack005 for the images, and TNH for hosting as well as bringing this news to everyone’s attention!
“My Violent Heart” has been leaked! A flash drive was reportedly found on the stall floor of one of the restrooms at TWO Nine Inch Nails shows on February 13th and February 14th in Lisbon, Portugal and Madrid, Spain, respectively. These two flash drives had references to anotherversionofthetruth.com and contained “My Violent Heart” encoded as 320kbps MP3s.
Interestingly enough, the song ends with a small burst of noise. Members of the community have put the noise through a spectrograph, and they ended up getting a rather scary image of the Presence.
Download links can be found at the end of this post.
Lyrics, images, and other information can be found at the Nine Inch Nails Wiki here. Discussion on the song, its leak, its lyrics, and so on can be found at ETS here.
Previously, it was thought that these numbers coincided with some kind of Biblical passages. Soon after, the ‘halo.track.letter’ scheme was pointed out to us. Thanks to NINman, we may have come closer to a solution.
If each code represents halo.track.letter (example: 24.01.1 would be “H”), then things seem a bit too easy because, hey, we automatically know every code, from 24.01.1 to 24.16.8. NINman found an extra step, or so we think. Currently, there are graphics on yearzero.nin.com that appear a bit weird, so to speak. Off to the left there is some noise, and around the track “My Violent Heart” there is an odd pattern. These exact same graphics are found on churchofplano.com. Since 24.10.2 is the only code on there, it’s reasonable to suspect that O (the letter that 24.10.2 goes with) is the first letter in the puzzle. The next site to use these graphics will be the next letter, and so on.
We’re not sure if this is correct, as it’s simply speculation. We’ll see how things turn out. For some awesome discussion on these 24.xx.x numbers and what they MIGHT mean, check out this thread!
OKAY YEAH THIS ISN’T REAL I’LL EDIT IT LATER STFU
Numbers for the MP3 files are decoded from the Morse Code at the end of each sound file. Don’t trust the accuracy? Do it yourself.
24.3.1 - s - 216.333.1810 phone number
24.3.2 - u - myviolentheart.mp3 (ID3 comments), also from 2432.mp3 on “Me, I’m Not” RAR file
24.3.3 - r - uswiretap.com
24.10.1 - g - nohurry.mp3
24.10.2 - o - http://churchofplano.com/
24.10.3 - d - opalo.mp3
24.10.4 - g - WARNING CODE
24.10.5 - i - ballgameOver.mp3
24.10.6 - v - http://www.105thairbornecrusaders.com
24.10.7 - e - http://www.bethehammer.net/
24.10.8 - n - http://www.anotherversionofthetruth.com - “Select All” to see it.
24.13.1 - t - http://www.artisresistance.com/warning_tools.htm
24.13.2 - Flyer
Screech of Machines says: “Under the right side of the horizontal part of the T, there are a bunch of horizontal lines running down alongside it. If you count, there are 24 horizontal lines, then a vertical line, then 13 horizontal lines, then another vertical line, and finally 2 more horizontal lines. This gives 24.13.2.” Thanks!
24.14.1 - a - Black/red 2007 tour t-shirt
24.14.2 - n - E-mail from iamtryingtobelieve.com, "------------------------AUTO_RESPONSE--------------_-- " (Thanks, Gewalt Warten!)
24.14.3 - o - http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/
24.15.1 - i - White 2007 tour t-shirt
24.15.2 - n - 1-310-295-1040 PHoneMessage.mp3
24.17.1 - http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/memoriam.htm
24.19.1 - (From the Auto-Reply email from fransisco at the SBI site. Count the “>” symbols. thanks DudeG!)
24.19.2 - (from the “pilgrims” background on the SBI site)
(Thanks for this list, TheBang!)
TheBang has also composed a list of actual dates seen so far, such as blog entries, forum posts, and other such things. He’s put together a kind of timeline which greatly helps to put this setting in check, so much thanks for that!
Year 0000 = 2022
BA = America is “Born Again”, presumably at the beginning of year 2022, uncertain
8/??/-13 BA (8/??/2009) - L.A. attacked with dirty bomb. Anaheim attacked with biological weapons.
9/??/-13 BA (9/??/2009) - Parepin first added to public water in Orlando, Wash DC, NYC, Atlanta, Boston, and then the rest of the nation.
9/??/-13 BA (9/??/2009) - 105th Airborne Crusaders commissioned
12/25/-13 BA (12/25/2009) - 105th first engagement in Syria
??/??/2019 - Bioterrorism “attack” on Northwest
2/2/0000 (2/2/2022) - I kill people, so should you blog
2/3/0000 (2/3/2022) - Posts on AIR thread
2/4/0000 (2/4/2022) - Obscured messages on message board.
2/4/0000(?) (2/4/2022) - The Presence visits the 105th
2/5/0000 (2/5/2022) - Raid on Quaker Outreach center at University of South Florida.
2/5/0000 (2/5/2022) - “Terrorist attack” on Star Chamber club kills 112 people over 2 days
2/7/0000 (2/7/2022) - Local police and feds respond to Star Chamber slaughter discovery
2/9(?)/0000 (2/9/2022) - Police raid home of Saginaw, Michigan muslim cleric, kill his son.
2/9/0000 (2/9/2022) - Angry Sniper shoots people at baseball game in Chicago
2/9/0000 (2/9/2022) - Vince shot in his car after visited by The Presence?
2/9/0000 (2/9/2022) - Female fed agent with coppery smell and orange tears directs decon operation of Star Chamber with flamethrowers
2/9/0000 (2/9/2022) - Homeland Defense agent T. Claire Sikes interrogates Police Sgt. Jeff Slanski re: Star Chamber
2/10/0000 (2/10/2022) - Readable messages on message board.
2/10/0000, Thursday (2/10/2022) - Angry Sniper sends Parcel to NoOneImportant
2/13/0000, Sunday (2/13/2022) - FECP sermon
Major Events without firm dates
- Seattle has a “bioterrorism attack” that people survive thanks to Parepin (sometime soon after 2009?)
- 105th campaigns in Syria, Yemen, Chad, Kashmir, former-Iran, Post-Iran, Turkey (sometime between 2010 - 2022?)
- Conflict in South Africa (sometime closer to YZ, maybe 2020-2022?)
- “The Presence” visitations begin (recent? 2021-2022?)
- Opal overtakes cocaine as predominant drug (recent? 2020-2022?)
- Mallory killed[/quote]
(Once again, thanks, TheBang!)
MISSING PEOPLE:
Suyai Abbot
Dylan Chast
Kyle Bilgare
Ellison (?)
FINE & LAYING LOW:
“Shatter36”
KILLED IN ANOTHER PERSON’S CAR:
Vince
AUTHOR, KILLED HERSELF:
Calista Whitcomb
LINKED TO REPORT ON PAREPIN’S RELATION TO DROPPING BIRTH RATES:
Dahlasik C., Allbright L., Grunewald N.
NFL COMMISIONER:
Jerry Bomzer
MENTIONED @ CHURCH OF PLANO:
Pastor Johnson
Pastor Green
Bill Chapman
Tyler Chapman
Barnet(t) Family
MENTIONED @ 105th AIRBORNE:
John Fellstone MSgt - Retired
Pvt Gordon Shula
Cpl Jill Nasmith
Pvt Bunde
Dave P. MSgt. Ret’d
Cpl. Joseph M.
Murray S. Mjr. Ret’d
Lt. Ramsay
‘Badland’
MENTIONED ON BETHEHAMMER:
Mallory
MENTIONED ON CONSOLIDATEDMAILSYSTEMS:
Ellison (?)
Thanks to morethanshapes for the list!
Download links for “My Violent Heart”:
Download: http://download.yousendit.com/10B7FD7F0D23F833
Mirror 1: http://www.rogepost.com/n/1984468024
Mirror 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=THFEKTMM
Mirror 3: http://www.rogepost.com/n/4894613815
Mirror 4: http://www.zshare.net/audio/myviolentheart-mp3.html
This last one is password protected. PM fkid if you want the pass, but only if these above mirrors don’t work!
http://download.yousendit.com/19A8F9C86A0F4591
Many, many thanks to the posters of this thread for all of the discussion, information, and other such things. Some notable thanks go to Malechite, Tony, fkid, and TheBang. I know I missed some people, and I apologize for that, but compiling all of this is a pain in the ass, so it’s tough to give credit where it’s due; however, I didn’t write this on my own, as all of the ideas came from YOU. Thanks, ETS!
That’s all for now, folks. Now that you’re up to speed, join in on the discussion! Keep it clean, and don’t go posting random crap that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. 
Remember, the water is good for you. Drink it up.
Hope that answers all questions.
Peace!
Krowe