Annabeth wishes to thank all the fans who have been behind her over the last year and a half, and she has very kindly asked for the chance to do so personally. So, Thank You Annabeth held a live chat with Annabeth on Thursday, May 16, 2002.

How Did It Go?

Well, we had some technical difficulties. The biggest problem was that Annabeth herself couldn't access the chat. However, we were able to do a chat-by-phone where I relayed some of the IRC action to her and then transcribed her contribution. So some of the submitted questions were able to be answered and it was still somewhat interactive. I think we did reasonably well given the technical difficulties we had (TYA itself also crashed under the strain).

How Do I Know It Was Really Her?

One person asked this, and it's a fair question. Probably the best way to authenticate the chat if you feel a need to do so is to email Ten Thirteen Productions at askthexfiles@fox.com and ask them to check with Annabeth's agent and verify.

Can I Read The Transcript?

Sure. You can see that here. This is not a complete transcript of the entire chat. There was a lot of extraneous discussion by people attending and a lot of "LOL" and other passing remarks that I've edited out for ease of reading. I've also cleaned up typos and added some comments which didn't make it onto IRC.

So, There Was Talk Of A Second Chat...

That is under consideration. I can't tell you precisely how it will happen (if it happens at all) until we work out the technical problems on Annabeth's end and also how to go about minimising the unruly behaviour of the original chat. The deciding factor will be what software and networks work for her while still allowing us the control needed to maintain some sanity for all involved. I think we will probably require people to use an IRC program for the second chat, if it goes ahead. There won't be a web interface.

The second chat will be a lot less free-and-easy than the first. I found the first very overwhelming and a lot of our requests were ignored. There was swearing against moderator instructions, and the TYA server crashed about 5pm because people were trying to get the chat information long before the time we said it would be available. People were very excited and believe me, I understand why that is, but it can't happen again.


SEE THE CHAT TRANSCRIPT