Author Evan Ratliff Is on the run, what is it all about?

We are tracking Evan Ratliff, a writer for Wired Magazine who has gone missing. Our goal is to bring Evan home, safely, and as soon as possible.

Wired magazine ran a story where author Evan Ratiff went on the run.

Wired has put together a contest called “Find Evan.” You can read more  but basically the article’s author, Evan Ratliff, is “on the lam” for the next month, and the reader who tracks him down will win $5,000.
Now, while the “Find Evan” contest seems really contrived, there is also something compelling about it. I think it appeals to that teenage fantasy everyone had of becoming a glamorous, clever FBI agent. And I’m sure it’s also sort of fun for Evan, because anyone who has seen a movie knows that going on the lam is super-exciting.

On the other hand, consider the Wired Mystery Issue, which was basically a big puzzle for crazypants. To give you some idea of how bananas this thing was, it involved the television show Lost, false ads, ASCII codes(?!?), encrypted messages, Braille, something called transaddition, and many other things I’ve never even heard of. Figuring out, like, how to work the puzzle (much less solve it) involved quitting your life and joining the Knights Templar.

Not only did loads of readers rise to the challenge, many of them ended up solving puzzles that the editors didn’t even know they had included. There was no prize.

With that in mind, my question for Evan Ratliff is this: Given that Wired’s readership has demonstrated its capacity for obsessing over weird pointless puzzles that offered no prize, do you really think it’s a good idea to invite said readership to stalk you for a reward of $5,000? Especially at a time when many of these obsessive stalkers might be unemployed?

The aim was for Evan to stay offline and not be caught, using costumes and any means necessary to stay hidden.

Using  the power of the internet, twitter etc, a hungry bunch of readers went in pursuit solving puzzles as they went.

This blog chronicled some of his activities and helped in the finding of Evan.