The one thing that I still don't get is what SOTA has yet to do. But from what I understand is that Iris is automated and works without people controlling it. For example on The Artifact Location the page info at first said a date and time of the site expiring once that time hit it revealed the next set of numbers. Then a new site expiring time came up and it revealed the next set of numbers. If you're still not convinced after a server was unlocked the site expiration time changed and at that time the server was made public. Now what I'm driving at here is that the S.O.T.A. website says it expires on "Thursday, September 06, 2007 5:30:21 AM". I beleive it's to early to say that Iris is over because remember that Bungie said "Iris will run up to Halo 3's launch date September 25th" so if S.O.T.A. has anything those 19 days between S.O.T.A.'s expiration and Halo 3's launch will reveal it.

I think it's kinda, used in Episode 1, to start off Iris...

And I think no more info is gonna be released with this and stuff like that

No, the website page file has been exactly the same version since the first server. They haven't edited the files at all since.

The page, or the server tells your browser that the page expires in 9 or so days, and your browser evaluates that when you look in the info of the page, and tells you that date. That doesn't mean the site is going to shut down in 9 days unless someone does something - it means if you visit the site again after 9 days, it tells the browser not to use the cache and connect to the site and see if there's an update (which there hasn't been since before the arg started).

Not to be a party pooper, but the amount of action anyone has seen with regard to Iris since the opening of Server 5 last month--outside the glyphs and Iris references used in Halo 3 promotional materials--should be evidence enough that this game is over.

That said, I think we (and I include myself in this) are all hoping something new Iris-wise will pop up before our collective attentions are drawn to a glowing screen in the early morning hours of September 25th.

I am starting to wonder if SOTA and the Membership Application was used PRE-Iris... as in, it was an internal MS company thing, to recruit people to fly out to New York and all those places where there were SOTA demonstrations. Then, after they had enough members, Aaron Elliott commented out the code and it was supposed to stay hidden. Just a guess, but it seems to be that way.