The New Game at whysoserious.com

OK, I am confused as to the nature of the current scavenger hunt going on at the whysoserious.com site. The gist of the puzzle seems to be that a ransom-note style message is being assembled from pictures taken of various letters.

There are clues posted giving people who live in various major cities slightly cryptic instructions on how to find the letters. Each clue leads to a letter located somewhere in North America, or something that looks like a letter (one of the letters is a park bench which, when photographed from the side, makes an "L")

Here's the thing, though. It doesn't look as though the average web-citizen can participate in this Game. there are "tape" marks on the game screen where the letters go, and a few (16 out of 50, if i am guessing right) of the letters are already in place. Each of these letters, when clicked on shows a small portion of the letter's picture (one is the "E" from the sign on this hotel). Each of the clues also has a "Found By" attribution.

At first I kind of wondered if this was a game specifically for participants in the original whysoserious event at comic-con, and that they were getting special instructions at that event. With the reference to "Clowns", It would make sense. (the original website was setup as a recruiting site for "Clowns".) But now I am thinking that the "Found By" attribution is for the clue. The "Clowns" were instructed to find the letters in their various hometowns, and the clue is to lead other folks to these 50 points throughout the continent where there is...

what?

People in costumes? Free candy? it IS halloween, after all.
So far the note says:

-t- --e o-l ----ns-b-e -------- ----- -n t--- -----
w-- --d ---- tho -- t-ru--s

If you figure anything out that I haven't, let me know!

Update: I was using someone else's computer to look at this site who was not cool enough to have Firefox with the Google Searchbar, so I didn't notice the new windows that were popping up underneath my existing window. I would never have missed the clues leading to three of the letters in Atlanta (Just a cold 8 hours away by motorscooter) if I had been using Firefox 2!

and now the note says:

t-e onl- s-ns-ble -a- -o l--e -n t-- -- w-rld
i-- tho -- t-ru-es