Battleangel

Wired: Blogger: Catch Me If You Can

A mysterious weblog purporting to be the journal of an anonymous heiress on the run from her wealthy family appears to be a hoax. But the site and offline elements supporting it are so elaborate and so well executed that many bloggers suspect the whole thing just might be true.

In fact, most online observers take it for granted that Isabella’s journal is the latest in a long line of Web hoaxes. Earlier this year, a war journal ostensibly written by someone in Baghdad, Where is Raed?, sparked debate about its authenticity, which has still not been resolved.

And Isabella’s blending of online and offline elements is reminiscent of a viral promotional campaign for Steven Spielberg’s AI movie, which set up a mystery for Web surfers to solve through a elaborate network of websites and telephone answering machines.

“I’m thinking it’s a very well-executed hoax,” said Joshua Schachter, editor of Memepool, a popular community weblog. “She’s a good writer. It’s a perfect setup for a story. The implicit challenge to the readers is tempting…. Fiction or not, it’s pretty compelling. I think we’re going to see a lot more like this.”

Now she surely has all the attention she could ever want. The debate still rages over whether this is a clever hoax or not. At any rate these are certainly busy days for bloggers.