Theco DeMaster?

[whispa]

I've been looking for indirect directions (lol) but only find one or two words that even vaguely describe a method besides the Kangaroo/cipher discussion.

[susb8383]

Ok, no doubt in my mind now that Dave and Theco are one in the same.

Here's a FB post from 'author':

"We also realized that if someone says in an interview "anagrams aren't used" then a word that *can* be anagrammed appears in the solve..."oh, look, the word WEST is in the solve, that's an anagram of STEW. See, you used anagrams." But does that really count as "using anagrams?"
Anyway, keep in mind that Dave doesn't know what the solutions are, or how they are decoded. So if anagrams are involved, he wouldn't know it. His answer of "anagrams aren't involved" may be premature. Or may be accurate."

In watching a couple of interviews with Dave, this is written in exactly the same style as Dave's speech. It even has the same STEW vs. WEST example he gave in the interview (which really makes no sense to me, btw). And yet this post refers to Dave in the 3rd person.

[Karen]

In my mind, if Dave and Theco were different people, the only thing Dave should be saying regarding methodologies is "I don't have any of that information so can't comment at all."
Are there anagrams? "Sorry, I don't know and can't comment."
Are the methods laid out in the chapters? "Sorry, I don't know and can't comment."

As whispa says, there is very little hinting at any methods other than the obvious mentions. If he doesn't know, then he should just not say anything at all. I feel like he's just causing confusion, not only around this but around whether or not the chapters are truly 100% self-contained. I don't care if it's one person or not, but if it's just him, then he's messing up his own messaging, and if it's two people, then Theco should be telling him to zip it!

Completely unrelated, but I feel like it speaks very strongly to the level of experience these guys(?) have: For the love of all that is holy, how on earth does a hunt author who has done even a few armchair hunts themselves not know that if they call out "Barrel Diggers Dot Com" THAT THEY AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE TO SECURE THE DOMAIN. I hope that they put out a public call to whomever did them the favor of grabbing it and putting a disclaimer on it and offer to pay for the hosting.

[susb8383]

No need to pay for hosting. That guy is getting free advertising.

I don't know, I'm ok with the whole Dave/Theco thing. I think it's kind of funny.

[stones]

There's nothing wrong with the concept, it's funny.
But Karen is right when she said...

In my mind, if Dave and Theco were different people, the only thing Dave should be saying regarding methodologies is "I don't have any of that information so can't comment at all."
Are there anagrams? "Sorry, I don't know and can't comment."
Are the methods laid out in the chapters? "Sorry, I don't know and can't comment."


They blew it with him commenting on things he's not supposed to know about.
He's a talker that one. 🤣

Dec 11, 2020 20:27:46 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

No need to pay for hosting. That guy is getting free advertising.

I don't know, I'm ok with the whole Dave/Theco thing. I think it's kind of funny.

[Karen]

Dec 11, 2020 20:27:46 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

No need to pay for hosting. That guy is getting free advertising.

I'm guessing you haven't actually visited that site. There is no "free advertising". There aren't any ads hosted on that site and no information or marketing of any kind. It's literally a single line of text:


"This site is not affiliated in any way with The Great American Treasure Hunt. I am just a fellow searcher who snagged the domain so it couldn't be used for nefarious purposes and subterfuge." 


As in, someone doing the normal hunter-thing of looking at a website specifically called out in a treasure hunting book found that the domain was available and paid to secure it and post that message just so that others would not be confused or misled. 

[susb8383]

Dec 11, 2020 23:41:46 GMT -5 Karen said:

Dec 11, 2020 20:27:46 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

No need to pay for hosting. That guy is getting free advertising.

I'm guessing you haven't actually visited that site. There is no "free advertising". There aren't any ads hosted on that site and no information or marketing of any kind. It's literally a single line of text:


"This site is not affiliated in any way with The Great American Treasure Hunt. I am just a fellow searcher who snagged the domain so it couldn't be used for nefarious purposes and subterfuge." 


As in, someone doing the normal hunter-thing of looking at a website specifically called out in a treasure hunting book found that the domain was available and paid to secure it and post that message just so that others would not be confused or misled. 

I see what you mean now. I had gone to the site but forgot what was on it. If I were that person, I'd put up affiliate links to other treasure hunt books. No subterfuge involved meaning malware but if you know that every visitor is someone who is involved in a ATH, I’d take advantage of that.  (By free advertising, I meant that people know the domain without the owner paying to promote it.)

[susb8383]

Who do you think Mark Lincoln is?

[dblauntaundra]

email is [e-mail] it appears, shoot him a message, maybe that's the person using ThecoDemaster pseudonym if not Jeff

[susb8383]

Ok, so there's our answer. The solution to Chapter 4 was using an acrostic. That wasn't described anywhere in the chapter but it's simple enough that you don't have to know there's a thing called an 'acrostic' to be able to pick out the first letter of each word.

[susb8383]

Dec 20, 2020 13:34:42 GMT -5 dblauntaundra said:

email is [e-mail] it appears, shoot him a message, maybe that's the person using ThecoDemaster pseudonym if not Jeff

Sent.

[davem]

Dec 6, 2020 16:17:29 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

So....I suspect that there is no Theco DeMaster (even under a different name) and that Dave really did write the chapters. Anyone else think Theco is Dave's alter ego and is just a way for him to claim that he doesn't know the coding methods?

.....

But claiming that someone else wrote it would be a good way to dodge questions about the methods.

What do you think?

Of course Dave is Theco.  There is no Theco because  ..  THECO DEMASTER = THE CODE MASTER = DAVE

[stones]

Dec 29, 2020 21:20:16 GMT -5 davem said:

Dec 6, 2020 16:17:29 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

So....I suspect that there is no Theco DeMaster (even under a different name) and that Dave really did write the chapters. Anyone else think Theco is Dave's alter ego and is just a way for him to claim that he doesn't know the coding methods?

.....

But claiming that someone else wrote it would be a good way to dodge questions about the methods.

What do you think?

Of course Dave is Theco.  There is no Theco because  ..  THECO DEMASTER = THE CODE MASTER = DAVE

All amazes me that people didn't figure that out right away.
🤔🙄

[susb8383]

I think most people did.

[Karen]

Dec 20, 2020 13:34:42 GMT -5 dblauntaundra said:

email is [e-mail] it appears, shoot him a message, maybe that's the person using ThecoDemaster pseudonym if not Jeff

Yeah, please don't do that. What would the point be? All it will do is annoy an actual person who is not "in game". At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if Theco/Dave/Jeff/Mark are all the same person or not -- Dave is the only one speaking for the hunt. Is he an unreliable narrator? Who knows. But for the love of all that is holy, stop poking around and suggesting that people start pestering people or organizations involved behind the scenes. This isn't that kind of hunt.