Over the years we've seen some fantastic work in the fan community, and our Lost bookmarks directory is huge. We're going to cover what we think are some of most noteworthy sites that are out there for you to check out as we start the aptly titled regular feature, 'Check out...'.
To begin with, a site that is renowned for its continual contribution to the spoilers universe in particular, but which has grown over the years to cover an enormous scope. DarkUFO is widely considered a Lost--community veteran, and with Easter-eggs, news, media-sightings, theories, spoilers, screen-caps, recaps, forums, polls, fan fiction--and plenty of other fun things to do--DarkUFO's Lost blog seemed like the prime candidate to launch this regular feature.
We're going to assume that most of you already know about the site, but maybe some of you don't. And even those that are aware of the site, we're hoping you can learn a little something about the blog or DarkUFO himself. We caught up with him recently, and he graciously answered some of our questions.
Q&A with DarkUFO
When did you start watching Lost? Did you start in season one, or later?
Being in the UK I did not start watching until the premiere aired [over here] around August 2005, almost a year after it had aired in the USA. It was aired on Channel 4 and I think their premiere night they showed the first four or five episodes back to back. Myself and the wife watched every one of them enthralled.
The next day I went online to look up more about the show and found that I could download the episodes. So I purchased a large pack of blank DVD's, downloaded as many episodes as I could find and burned them onto DVD for me and the wife to watch. I think we caught up in about 10 days for the whole season. At this point I think it's safe to say I was addicted.
So from there, how did the idea for the blog start? I remember the site as it was just growing, mostly providing screen-caps and Easter eggs; but did you always intend to start to cover spoilers and the wide variety of topics you cover today, or was that something that just naturally occurred as you became well-known?
I never went out with the intention of starting a blog. In fact to be honest I probably did not really know what a blog was. My only exposure was via the IMDB messages boards that I tried to catch up with the latest info/news/spoilers [with].
It was during this time--before the season two premiere aired in the USA--that I decided to try and find all the info I could on what was in the hatch and what awaited us in season 2. During lots of searches I came across a report from someone (who I now know watched the beach party premiere in Hawaii) who saw the premiere a week before the ABC premiere of season two. His report sounded strange: [a Scottish guy] in the hatch, pressing buttons etc. etc. I remember posting this on the IMDB message boards (this was my first official spoiler [laughs]) and about 95% of the people thought I was making it up [or was] a troll, etc. etc. It was funny to see the reaction after the episode [laughs].
So from that point on I seemed to find myself unwittingly regarded as a spoiler hound! I then started watching season two the following morning after it aired in the US so I could take screen-caps as well as keeping up with others in the discussions that followed.
I was around this time that I started a little blog for myself as IMDB was not able to post photos etc. to list all the outstanding mysteries. This site got picked up by the social networking site Digg and we had around 200,000 hits in about 24 hours. This obviously was my "lucky break" and I picked up a ton of new followers and RSS subscribers.
Also around this time I was collecting spoilers over at IMDB and DocArzt asked me to join The Tail Section as his spoiler editor. Whilst doing this I also decided to grow my own site to include things like polls, theories, screen-caps etc. And then finally added the spoiler section of my own.
From then to now it's just grown and grown. You can see the page hits below for each year.
| Year | Page views |
| 2006 | 4.4 milllion |
| 2007 | 27.8 million |
| 2008 | 40.9 million |
| 2009 to date | 36.9 million |
Page view statistics for DarkUFO
You mentioned that you are in the UK--and in recent years the gap between airing in the US and over here has been shorter and shorter--but was that gap frustrating for you as, not just a viewer, but someone who relied on pretty much having the latest content (Easter-eggs, screen-caps, etc.)? What was your process for staying ahead of the other blogs who had the advantage of being state-side?
As mentioned previously, until season two I missed the whole of season one and downloaded them all in one go. From season two I started to download the episode the morning after the episode aired so that I could make the screen-caps etc. As the show went on into season three and four it was obvious fans of the site wanted the info quicker so with the help of a few great people in the US we managed to take [high-quality] caps and post the new promos within an hour of the episode airing on the East Coast. Without the help of these people I simply would not be able to have achieved this.
It's also a little different now in that technology has progressed so that I am now able to watch Lost with other fans via [live online streams]. The quality is not great but for someone like me it's vital to see the episode with the fans so that I can update the site promptly. Plus it's a lot of fun in the chat rooms with 400+ other Lost fans... total chaos [laughs]
As you grew, you became one of the biggest sites offering spoilers for Lost, but more recently you've expanded that to a whole array of shows with SpoilerTV; is this your full-time job, now? Does running such a huge site allow you to have any spare time?
[Laughs] It certainly feels that way at times. Yes, it does take a lot of work and it would be a full time job if it paid enough!
Seriously though, I have a fantastic team of volunteers behind the scenes who help with the both sites. We have a great team of moderators and staff that maintain what I think is the best run forum [that] I've seen, they really do a great job. I also have the great people who help out on DarkUFO and SpoilerTV. They help me post and process the hundreds of submissions that we get daily. Having this great set of people working with me means that I can enjoy my holidays knowing the site is being looked after, go out for beers knowing that if anything major breaks there is someone to post it and when I play cricket during the weekends I don't have to face 4000 emails on a Monday with a hangover.
You've mentioned before that you have a number of inside sources, for Lost at least, how does that come about? Have they approached you, or vice versa?
Pure luck if I'm honest. As I mentioned in an interview last year, it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation: the site grew popular so more people would send me snippets, the site grew again as more readers saw us as a good source of info, and then more bigger sources recognised us and started leaking their info via us.
I think our sources (I've had over 50+ during my time running the site) feel safe that we release the information responsibly and protect their identity at all costs (the last thing we want is for people to get into trouble)--I think they feel safe using me as their outlet. So it sort of snowballs from there. I'd say 95% of [the] sources contact me. I've [had] a couple who I've seen posting on forums or Twitter who I've approached personally and asked them for more info, and if they wanted to release their info through me directly, but it's quite rare.
There's a few shows cropping up that look to be trying to replace Lost in terms of its themes and the nature of collecting evidence, etc.--shows like FlashForward and Fringe--do any of these shows have a chance at taking the spotlight once Lost finishes next year?
Yes, there are some interesting shows. I'm a big fan of FlashForward and Fringe, and I'm looking forward to the reboot of V. Also there are a couple of [other shows] that look interesting, like Day One and Persons Unknown, but nothing is going to be like Lost. The TV landscape has changed too much, in my opinion, for a show like Lost to appear on TV again for quite some time. I really think it's the last of it's kind due to the way the economic landscape has changed as well as the way people watch TV these days. I'm just glad I was around while Lost happened.
Speaking of Lost ending--and I know that there's still SpoilerTV--but what does the end of the show mean for the future of DarkUFO, which has been a solely Lost-related blog? Do you aim to continue the blog, or move onto another theme but stick with the name--or the 'brand'--that people have come to know you by?
Good question. Well I've no intention of deleting the blog that's for sure. It will remain as long as the Google server hosting remains. Having said that, when the [series ends] it won't mean the site will stop dead in its tracks. We have a lot planned for at least six months after the show ends. [For example] we'll have all the great recaps and write-ups, a whole bunch of polls/awards/cups for people's favourite episodes/characters/season etc. We'll also have all the DVD/Blu-ray box-sets to look forward to. So I think that for at least six months the site will keep us and our readers busy, and hopefully entertained. After that then yes, sure, the site will slow down and will eventually remain as an archive that people can continue to look through, reminisce and comment etc.
It will be sad when its all over and I hope that the fantastic community of friends and fans that I've made over the years will continue to visit and join us via SpoilerTV and the forums. It would be a shame to lose that.
As for the DarkUFO "brand", well that really was just my handle/online name that I'd used for years prior to Lost and I never intended for it to become a brand as such. It was the first thing I thought of when I created my first blog [laughs]. In hindsight I should have called it lost.blogspot.com, but it's nice that so many people now recognise DarkUFO as a Lost site.
I'll continue to post on SpoilerTV under the DarkUFO name--as well as on other social media sites--but DarkUFO, as a web-site, will remain a Lost site.
If I ever find a show that sparks my interest in the same way as Lost has done then I may consider a similar, but new site, but I really can't see that happening.
A note about spoilers
Although--as we've mentioned--DarkUFO's blog is known for its insider information and spoilers, it should be noted that there are no spoilers on the main page, nor in the comments section for articles. So if you're afraid of spoilers, you can feel safe checking this one out.
If you've got a Lost-site--or just know of one--that you think others might enjoy, feel free to get in touch.
