Website
The Basecamp 33 Forum was the headquarters for Mountaineer activity during the events of The Monarch Papers. It was connected to the Basecamp 33 website, until the creation of the new Ackerly Green Forum, and was where most of the puzzle-solving occurred. With the creation of the Ackerly Green Forum, all of the categories and threads of the Basecamp 33 Forum migrated over and were preserved in the new forum.
Overview
The Basecamp 33 Forum was developed by Bash on August 2nd, 2016, to better facilitate conversations between the Mountaineers. On August 30th, Endri became the main forum moderator, switching places with Eaves. Due to her record-keeping and information gathering skills, it was decided that she would be a better fit for that aspect of the Mountaineers’ social media. From then on, Eaves would take care of the Weekly Recaps.
The Forum worked in tandem with the main Basecamp 33 website. Real-time puzzle-solving and character interaction occurred on the forums, and that information was compiled into weekly updates on the blog.
The Forum as a Hub for Puzzle Solving
The Basecamp 33 Forums were the primary location where the puzzles were solved. The Fragment Category separated each fragment into its own section, and with most of the legwork being consolidated into a few threads. There are a few notable exceptions, such as Fragment Four when recruits utilized group private messaging to hide their knowledge from The Devoted. In addition to the fragments category, the Exploration Category held loose threads, often with information spanning multiple fragments or even phases.
In many instances, the Forum also served as the point of contact for major characters. Cole Sumner joined the forum at the end of Fragment Three, and was a “ground operative” for much of Fragment Four, posting his information on the forum. Similarly, Reader joined the forum to relay information to Mountaineers in secret, and Martin Rank used it to post his audio recording of Fragment Eight’s finale.
The Forum as a Movement
After the events of Fragment Four, Itsuki was inspired to empower other Mountaineers to create magic through artistic means. He created The Campfire Project, a space for Mountaineers to creatively discuss magical endeavors and theorize about the guilds.
Hidden Categories
Hidden Categories were sections of the forum that didn’t appear on the main page of the forum. The most notable of these was the CJ Bernstein category, which held notifications of CJ’s vlogs, fragment recaps, and other meta-game related subjects.
The other hidden category was the Cabinet of Otherworldy Wonders, which was the off-topic section of the forum. It held general discussions that might not fit elsewhere on the forum. With the creation of the Ackerly Green forum, the Cabinet, and other “out-of-world” threads, were incorporated into the main dashboard and categorized by “in-world” or “out-of-world.”