Mis-Information Campaign (MIC)
Some time ago I began a long look into the concept of having a campaign focused at my family and nosy friends who kept inquiring about my personal life. I have used the idea of misinformation for the longest time. To me the idea was to limit the amount and quality of the information given in such a way that not only could it be easily traced to the source sharing it but also to determine the validity of the source to begin with.
So in my head I tell person A a tidbit. I do the same with B, C, and D. Each person getting a tidbit shared with them that is similar but different enough to follow a path. The idea was to see how the information is shared between A, B, C, and D. The initial trail run of my plan was a small run, with the results of weeding out a person that distorted the information to make them better for it.
So at 21 I began my grand campaign, and for the last 4 years it has worked out well. Now as I am sitting here I am beginning to adjust some of the finer elements of the on-going campaign and as I have set some it down in writing, I spent some time on the Internet looking up use of 'misinformation' and discovered I might have been mis-using the concept in my head.
From a google search i got 'erroneous material, not necessarily intentional' as a definition of misinformation. Some more looking came up with 'Incorrect information from any source that is released for unknown reasons or to solicit a response or interest from a nonpolitical or nonmilitary target.' Now this was closer to what I had in mind, but to me the idea was to release limited information, not false information. So thus I have a misinformation campaign. Its a campaign against my family and their gossiping ways.
This all began a few years ago. I had returned from serving a mission in Germany and after dealing with too much bad information that was being spread around the family and people I was associating with I began my mis-information campaign. The concept was simple. Tell only tidbits of information to particularly chosen individuals and see how the information came back to me.
The campaign has continued to grow as time goes on. I found that the only reliable and trustworthy source for information is Jordan, my younger brother. I have found that as information is passed to him, I don't hear about it, and on rare occasions that I do hear something shared, it could have been pieced together from the other tidbits.
Over the last couple of months I have been spending plenty of time with my older brother John, mooching rides to places, talking, doing things, and the like. John sat high on my scale of information sharing at the time, and then I began hearing a ton of feedback from the misinformation campaign that began pointing fingers in various direction. Every bit i heard began narrowing the field quickly until it became obvious that John was the sift. I felt hurt hard. So as a result, I began work on the new scale of information sharing.
I am currently envisioning 5 levels of information sharing also known as MIC levels.
MIC1--bare basic information. Status (alive/dead) and health.
MIC2--limiting details. Willing to confirm/deny some information [original position for most people]
MIC3--better details. Willing to elaborate on daily activities
MIC4--un-defined at this time
MIC5--open access. Willing to answer all questions
This system will be reviewed and updated, but the system is currently in place for a reason. Thursday as the chatter and feedback began pouring in rather heavily [its a relative term] I began to get furious that someone had begun to 'sing like a canary.' Quickly in my mind I began to wall up and within an instant; everyone was now at level 1 information.
So this morning I had to explain the entire idea of my MIC to Jordan. He began to understand it but at the same time he was hurt that he was on the same level as the rest of the family, noting he was a pretty good at keeping his mouth shut [relatively speaking]. So as of this morning about crack of noon-ish, Jordan was raised to MIC2.