Comments on: Test Your Inner Sleuth With 5 Minute Mystery

By: FiveMinuteMystery - a pirate tale

FiveMinuteMystery - a pirate tale — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:31:59 +0000

[...] http://www.5minutemystery.com is a new website launched last month and profiled by TechCrunch. [...]

By: FiveMinuteMystery - a pirate tale — Nicholas Lovell’s Games Industry Blog

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:50:37 +0000

[...] http://www.5minutemystery.com is a new website launched last month and profiled by TechCrunch. [...]

By: Big Sea Baitshop » 5 Minute Mystery Gets Buzz!

Big Sea Baitshop » 5 Minute Mystery Gets Buzz! — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:29:09 +0000

[...] TechCrunch really started the buzz a few weeks ago. [...]

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:27:49 +0000

I’ve been selling “5 Minute Mysteries for years” in MP3 format.

Check out the first link on this page:

http://www.oldr...ndex.asp?Cat=DE

Maybe that is where they get some of the stories? Not sure….

By: Colnector

Colnector — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:55:51 +0000

Let’s help raise a generation of brilliant criminals

By: 5 Minute Mystery Is Appropriate Contents To Mobile Business. « Weblibraryjpn’s Weblog

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:30:46 +0000

[...] Test Your Inner Sleuth With 5 Minute Mystery(October 20, 2008　TechCrunch)　 Now entrepreneur Randy Okane is trying to bring the format back to life at his site 5MinuteMystery.com. Every day the site posts a new mystery, followed by the solution the next day. At the end of the story is a menu asking who the reader thinks committed the crime. Users are also asked to highlight up to four statements in each story, indicating if they either Exonerate or Incriminate one of story’s characters. To help spice things up, the site keeps score for every member based on their accuracy, with the most ingenious detectives featured on the site’s leaderboard. Unlike many mystery stories, which tend to be gruesome, 5MinuteMystery is being written to appeal to a younger audience. Crimes are gore-free, and tend to be written at an accessible reading level. The site charges $20 a year for a daily subscription, and offers a program for schools and charities who receive 50% of all subscriptions sold through their fundraising efforts. Prospective authors can also submit their own stories and will be paid if their stories are published. [...]

By: gilltots

gilltots — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:06:52 +0000

i say parker too. he knows who the confederate president is, he says that the dynamite was under the bridge when the sargeant just said it was “on” the bridge, he doesn’t have a good reason for sleeping where others can’t see him, and his job back home makes no sense – a receiving house is a theater for traveling theatre companies. i don’t know why there’d be ships there, especially in west virginia.

By: Karen Templer

Karen Templer — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:06:38 +0000

Oh my god, what a flashback — I was the designer on Salon Games and had somehow completely forgotten about 5 Minute Mystery! Those little navigation “cards” might be one my favorite things I ever did, and were my very first mouseover, as I recall. Man, that was a long time ago. Thanks for the walk down memory lane …

By: Yeroc

Yeroc — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:32:56 +0000

My guess for confederate spy is Parker:

1) Arriving first allows him to put the dynamite at the bridge without anyone noticing.
2) Sleeping behind a rock means he’s not able to be seen by everyone so he can sneak away to light it when necessary
3) Maryland is where the Confederates are, Parker is from West Virginia (not as far as the other soldiers)

By: Sqij

Sqij — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:21:32 +0000

The night was moist…. [no] The night was humid… [nope]
The night was sleepy, and death was lurking around with his iPhone… [hmm, this has potential!! Quick, call my agent]

By: Nellboy

Nellboy — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:09:57 +0000

When I read it first, I thought – yessssssss, brilliant

then I visited the site, and having spent a minute browsing – i’m really thinking, no… the design isn’t good, and we really need to be able to try this out properly for free, in order to reel in potential addicts (because that’s what you need!)…

I was really thinking a demonstration of the event timeline (maybe using flash or AJAX) would have been far more interesting than just reading text, so each event is presented to the user as a story… I know it’s a lot more work, but that’s what ya gotta do to stand out..

By: Kenny

Kenny — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:08:51 +0000

what was the answer to the Riddle of the Confederate Spy?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:51:25 +0000

Sounded cool until I saw I had to pay for it.

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 5分間ミステリで、あたなの中の探偵度をチェック

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 5分間ミステリで、あたなの中の探偵度をチェック — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:47:58 +0000

[...] ［原文へ］ [...]

By: Tim Garner

Tim Garner — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:33:28 +0000

Something about their logo just doesn’t look right. The letters are kerned too tightly and It kind of looks like Sherlock has a giant earlobe.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:01:53 +0000

I don’t know if this was the point you were making or if you were just sharing a childhood anecdote but for the record Donald J. Sobol (author of Encyclopedia Brown) started this whole trend with his “2-Minute Mysteries” which were pre-cursors to the Encyclopedia Brown series (published in ‘59 I believe)

Sobol really is a giant in my opinion. Not only did he write the best children’s book when I was a kid but he’s amazingly still kicking ‘em out (latest Encyclopedia Brown book was published last year by an 83 year old Mr. Sobol)

By: TeC

TeC — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:56:42 +0000

I hadn’t even finished the first paragraph before i was on the website, trying to rekindle my love for detective stories, but just as i was about to sign up, i saw the dreaded payment information.

I would definitly not mind to pay a measly $20 a year for something i am genuinly interested in, but i’m not sure that this is actually worth it. It is quite fun from what i can gather on the website, but as a student and part time worker, i’ve got very little time on my hands and this kind of stuff would be fun to delve in once in a while; however it’s not to the standard of quality that i’d enjoy it to the degree of forking out money for it.

I bought a Poirot and Three Investigators (my prime detective story source as a kid) omnibus collections for about $23 which will probably serve me far better than a subscription currently would.

Let me know if it ever comes available for free.

By: Peter Urban

Peter Urban — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:47:17 +0000

I loved Sherlock Holmes mysteries as a kid. Time to get back into it – once I have more time again …

By: ls

ls — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:42:23 +0000

Hokey internet fun + free = awesome

Hokey internet fun + paid subscription = fail.

By: Jmartens

Jmartens — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:12:46 +0000

which is clever marketing, but I still think its kinda cheap to not let me do at least 1 full mystery for free.

By: gilltots

gilltots — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:09:15 +0000

it was colonel musterd, in the pooper, with the candlestick.

what was the question?

By: Jason Kincaid

Jason Kincaid — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:05:07 +0000

I think you can read a few of the stories for free, but you need to sign up to view the solutions.

By: Jmartens

Jmartens — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:04:07 +0000

They really should have some sort of free or demo version in addition to the subscription.

By: Jason Kincaid

Jason Kincaid — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:54:46 +0000

I used to read Encyclopedia Brown and Hardy Boys all the time. Also Boys’ Life used to have mysteries sometimes.

By: silicon valley dropout

silicon valley dropout — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:35:00 +0000

i was a big fan of encyclopedia brown series. i pretty much read all their books.