3301

[b]Cicada 3301[/b] is a mysterious secret society or think tank that recruits via complex Internet puzzles. It first recruited from the public via Internet puzzle on January 5, 2012, which ran for approximately one month. A second round began exactly one year later on January 5, 2013, and is possibly still ongoing. The stated intent was to recruit "intelligent individuals" by presenting a series of puzzles which were to be solved, each in order, to find the next. The puzzles focused heavily on data security, cryptography, and steganography.

hah wikipedia

I did one of those things once. The problem was:

``4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 873, -29. Consider the next three terms of this sequence carefully...''

The next three terms were clearly 7, 288, and ``Gather in Times Square on July 17 while holding a newspaper from March 3 to confirm your membership.'' I did as instructed, but nobody else showed up. Since I'm now the only one in my secret society, I figure I should hold recruitment rounds or something.