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BSRuthers- I see your point, but I believe Shellie has no belief in bigfoot, whatsoever, which is her perogative, so my response was tailored to fit the situation. There are many posters that I don't think are fantasy prone that believe or know bigfoot exists and should not be dumped in with the likes of some of the more sensational posters on here, to put it kindly. I call people out too, but I try not to label, just parse out what exactly they are saying, and form my private opinion based on that. Sometimes my opinion is evident whether I want it to be or not. If the woowoo bothers you there is always that IGNORE button you can hit for the woowoo posts you don't care to read. This might be something to consider, why not have a section devoted to alternative bigfoot theories with the clear caveat that the BFF is neutral or doesn't support that stance? Then like can stay with like, nobody feels disenfranchised, and peace and harmony can reign down on the BFF.

I actually leaned towards believing until I began to spend time on the old BFF and came to understand that squatch "facts" are nothing of the sort. I found that the old truism "keep repeating something and it will become the truth" is a very honest representation of the "facts" surrounding this myth. People with no training, experience, skill, or certification are cited as "experts" with such stunning regularity that they are accepted as such. Farenbach for example. His notions concerning gross hair morphology is outdated and inaccurate; and, the fact that his "sasquatch hairs" are "indistinguishable from human hair" is such a dead giveaway as to make someone familiar with the topic belly laugh. The idea that there exists a cross cultural myth throughout the North American Indigenous population about a giant hairy bi-pedal primate is an utter crock - yet people actually believe this and use it as a reason for "believing" when there is absolutely no validity to this "fact"! People actually cite other squatch believers and squatch websites without any realization that they are not citing real research that has been verified by in depth study and peer review! THE ACTUAL PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH IS TOTALLY IGNORED! Of course - the fact that "beliefs" that are touted as being "real" by the squatch proponents that go hand in hand with the other "beliefs" that are purposefully and conveniently ignored is very telling. Who on this board believes that Indian maidens were kidnapped by giant beavers and mated with and produced beaver/human offspring? (Algonquin). Why not? Why should that belief be less alluring than giant hairy bi-pedal primates kidnapped Indian maidens and produced offspring? Because it fits in with what you WANT to believe, of course. What about Gods in the form of bears giving three Chiefs the ability to write and when discovering that the Chiefs did not share this knowledge with the people - turn them into a Giant Stone? (Sto:lo). Why not believe that story as much as the same tribe's story about squatches? Because it fits in with what you WANT to believe, of course. I learned that the "Skookum Cast" was definitely an elk lay. No ifs and/or butts (pun intended) about it. I learned that Chilcutt did a flawed analysis of casts of questionable provenance. He did not come even close to what he knows is the minimum standard of "evidence" with his so-called "dermal ridges" that were shown to be casting artifacts by actual dedicated researchers who followed tried and true research methods that are repeatable and falsifiable. I learned that the so-called "Four Horsemen" were very poor in the way of research and interviewing skills. They were much more interested in self promotion and the being the first with the "find of the century" than any sort of real investigations. I learned that their lack of any proper investigative and proper research abilities has caused many of the problems in today's beliefs about this phenomenon. If anyone had bothered to ask: "Say Roger, exactly how did you get that film developed and here so fast?" - one of the greatest pieces of "evidence" would have been put to rest very quickly. I learned that the vast majority of people have no idea what a living foot does when it hits the ground and lifts off in various soil types. Most of all - I learned that "belief" is very much uninfluenced and uninhibited by the actual truth. All this IMHO, of course. edited for spelllink