The required skills and desire to work only for karma are practically guaranteed on a site like reddit.
Also, if it's a marketing campaign, the op was exactly the right person to target as he exhibited best-case behavior for such a campaign. Going online for help to a highly viral community is precisely what you'd want as a marketer.
Now.
I'm still not sure I believe that somehow someone targeted him in such a way. That's the part that seems unlikely. The profiling is too perfect in this case.
There's a lot of people who code on any site like reddit. While people may have relevant skills, the likelihood of having the raw talent isn't that good.
It just took someone who recognized the type of cipher (which was apparently also named on the paper itself). That's virtually guaranteed in a worldwide community of geeky folk.
Agreed. The thing named itself as a ?FIDI cipher .
Just typing FIDI cipher into google will auto correct into BIFID cipher which ofcourse brings up any number of tools that will solve the cipher for you.
While its not 100% straight forward, its not exactly rocket surgery either.
Also, if it's a marketing campaign, the op was exactly the right person to target as he exhibited best-case behavior for such a campaign. Going online for help to a highly viral community is precisely what you'd want as a marketer.
Now.
I'm still not sure I believe that somehow someone targeted him in such a way. That's the part that seems unlikely. The profiling is too perfect in this case.