Exclusive Wishing Well Interview

I'm here today with Timmy (mikh26), the individual who discovered the Wishing well Avatar. On December 3rd, 2011, at 10:15 Am Timmy solved the hints and discovered the avatar. Timmy is Co-Founder of the Wishing Well - Occam's Razor Theory Board. This board was dedicated to the discovery of the Wishing Well avatar and went on the theory that the simplest solution is often the answer.

Timmy, what was your first reaction when you discovered the WW av?

If I were to tell you that my first reaction was like yep about time that was expected, I would be lying. After donating so much, you kind of feel like it's going to happen, but it was still very unexpected and caught me off guard. My first reaction was, wait... What.... OMG NOOOOOOO WAAAAAAAAY.

Who saw this reaction and what was their reaction to it?

Nobody was here to see my reaction, but I did get a hold of a few friends right away and they were even in shock.

I didn't witness your big reveal. How did you reveal your avatar and was sort of reactions did you get?

After about 10-20 minutes, I made an Avatar Simon board, "Av Simon newest 10" On the last av I said, "WISHING WELL" while using the default av. After a minute or two and a I wish Timmy comment I then changed to the wishing well avatar and posted "Oops, I mean this av B)". That is when people were like wait, no way, how? Except for the one person on my av Simon board who got back from hiatus and had no clue how rare the avatar was.

With very few people I also went to another board, I was first to post and just posted OMG with the avatar and just sat back and watched both boards and people figured out what happened.

How did you come to the answer?

Finding the number wasn't that hard after TNT's latest editorial. I wasn't sure if TNT was just having fun at our expense again with the numbers or if they were actually part of the answer. So I figured I might as well test some amounts. After getting a list of numbers, I took All of TNT's hints into consideration. Starting with the hint in 505 when they said, "The answer is f.. *dragged away by Meepits*" So I decided to have 4 as the starting amount. Then for the last few weeks I believed that 8 was a hint. Only reason I believe this because on Dec 8th of 2010, there was a Wishing Well themed Advent video. I thought about this for a while after someone posted a link to that day. I watched the advent video plenty of times figuring out coins on the well, in the well, in neopets' hands, on the Yurble and so on. Then I thought maybe it's just the 8. Also, just last week Dragona posted with 8 sock smilies on a premium board. There were a few of us who thought it was a hint because of the amount of times she posted a new smilie. Others thought it was something like 2 since it was 2 socks. I thought this just because it would make sense to release on a day with the number that is in the amount. Then I knew 6 and 7 were in there because we got both of those hints from Dragona earlier this year. So knowing those 4 numbers, I believe that only 1 of the two 3s from the editorial was significant. So I started testing 48k amounts with 6 7 and 3 being as the last 3 numbers. On the 3rd amount I tested was the correct one.

If SN hadn't given away your answer, how long would you have waited before revealing it?

If SN weren't to post the solution to the av, I would've waited a few days before releasing the solution.

Would you have just given the answer or would you have given hints?

I think I would've just given the answer to a few people that helped me a lot. Then about ten minutes later I would give the solution to SN to post for everyone else.

If you didn't give the answer at all, why wouldn't you have shared it?

I never had any intention of not sharing the answer because tons of people put a lot of effort into it and helped and they deserved it as well. But as being the first person to find it, it was nice to be able to be the only person on the boards with it as well.

How do you feel about SN taking your answer and revealing it?

I was kind of disappointed about it. I don't want to say that they put less work into it because they did an awesome job helping the board throughout our journey with page sources as well as editing the project from our requests. But I didn't like the fact that they just looked through the page sources possibly tested a few amounts and figure it out and posted it for everyone.

What was the reasoning behind keeping your neomail open knowing you were going to get the a lot of neomails asking for the answer?

I figured it would be fun to see how many people would neomail me asking for the solution. Also, it was awesome for me to get neomails from others who have made their mark in Neopets history.

About how many neomails did you get?

I got nearly 300 neomails in two days. Given a few were from the same person. But one neomail from at least 275 different people.

Any hate mail? Your reactions to hate mail?

I didn't really get any hate mail. There were some posts on boards that were hateful. I just overlooked those posts and didn't let them bother me.

Do you read every neomail?

I have read every single neomail that I got, but I didn't reply to all of them.

What sort of neomails did you get from others who have made their mark?

It was just the usual congrats, but it was cool because I have seen them around and they are pretty well known.

How do you feel about your new-found fame?

I'm enjoying it. I'm glad it's because of the Wishing Well because of all the time and effort put into it.

How do you feel about your victory in the Caption Competition, and do you feel it's fair?

It's just another win, I only wanted to place for an item. I think it is fair. Most contests are won from advertising, and posting with an avatar nobody has will definitely get attention.

Where do you go from here as an avatar collector?

From here I will begin working on the NT avatars, play bilge dice a bit more to try for the lucky streak avatar and hope to get the last two randoms that I need.

Plans on what you would do if there is another avatar mystery?

What I would love to do if we get another avatar mystery would be to get a group together with a lot of people from the Occam's Razor Theory Wishing well board and try to figure it out. Depending on the avatar and my belief of how to get it, I will decide whether I want to work with a group that keeps tracks of page sources again or not. But I would definitely want another avatar mystery to figure out.

What is going to happen to the Occam's Razor Theory Wishing Well board?

At the request of a lot of people, we will remain as a chat group.

Any thing else you would like to say?

I would just like to thank everyone who helped on the Occam's Razor Theory Wishing Well boards with bumps to keep the board alive for others, everyone who made donations to help, everyone who just posted with support and encouragement. Thanks to the SN team for keeping us updated with lists of numbers, for the project that they ran and even for the petpage layout by a SN staffer. I would also like to thank everyone who helped and donated amounts regularly, even if you never posted on a wishing well board. Thank you to all the people sending in questions to the editorial every week to ask for hints. And last but not least, thanks to Dragona for giving us hints, responding to neomails about the wishing well and making an avatar that was a challenge to find (ok, maybe only just a challenge because of the expense).

Thank you for your time, it was great talking with you, Timmy.