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When, somewhere between the first and second seasons of Lost, a couple of writer friends and I decided to start a Web page called 815, we envisioned it as a place where we could spout our in(s)ane theories and have something to justify the obscene number of hours we already spent thinking about the show. A blog about a TV show — and a sci-fi show at that! — must surely be the last bastion of dorkery, we thought. But we were so, so wrong. Maybe it’s the long-promised-but-still-unseen island monster, or perhaps Evangeline Lilly’s Kate (geek bait both, in their own ways) but Lost fans are some of the most rabid and, um, creative viewers around. And while it’s bad for their social lives (trust me), the profusion of Web sites created in tribute to the show are a boon for casual fans looking to sink their teeth in a little deeper. Take, for example, the Lost Numbers Reference Guide, a site which contains an exhaustive listing of every single occurrence of the mysterious sequence since the show began. Lost-Media contains hundreds of still images, sounds and videos from the show, perfect for going back and checking whether you really saw what you thought you saw. Even the creative forces behind the show have gotten in on the action, posting regularly and intermingling with fans on the message board at the Fuselage. But Lost also knows viral marketing, and a number of sites (both official and homespun) have popped up purporting to represent various companies in the world of our castaway friends. Appropriately enough, the first site to come along was Oceanic Air, airline of choice for doomed passengers who end up on crazy electromagnetic islands with polar bears. Also apparently legitimate is the Hanso Foundation’s website, which, in typical Lost fashion, provides us with some miniscule slivers of insight to the secrets on said island. Meanwhile, Bigspaceship1 offers frequently-changing animated .gif’s which seem to provide some cryptic clue with each update. It’s not until your now-trained eye scans the page and fails to find a Disney/ABC copyright notice that you realize it’s all for naught. Alas: there’s always a few crazies in the crowd.
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