Leaderboard

That's what most skeptic's don't understand. It isn't like your in a zoo taking pictures of the animals. These are living creatures who are huge, fast and I don't care what anyone says, they are not lovable and fluffy. It's frightening. They are extremely fast and i'm assuming super strong, especially since their bigger than gorilla's. I haven't had another sighting since the one I had. But then I'm not out there looking all the time. It doesn't consume my life. I would love to see another one, yet at the same time I don't. Fear is why. Fear and astonishment is why there aren't decent pictures. It's the last thing on your mind. You have to have that encounter to understand.

If MIB leaves then the skeptics have scored another victory. One by one legitimate researchers get tired of the crap and leave. Is that the chronic skeptic tactic? Silence those that contribute evidence? Note to administrators: That sort of thing will kill this website. I can see that people are becoming reluctant to post experiences because they get pounced on by the skeptics. Much of what happens in the field does not lend itself to being provable. Provable or not I want to hear what others experience.

Victory? How so? Legitimate researchers making claims should be able to provide evidence and shut up the chronic skeptics, no? A true victory would be for those making grandiose claims to provide compelling evidence to shut up the skeptical once and for all. All we hear is crickets insofar as evidence, but the stories are good, I suppose. Maybe those becoming reluctant to post their experiences are getting wise to the fact that not everyone will buy their story without evidence, will ask uncomfortable questions about the claims, and will become frustratingly persistent when those making the claims cop out by not providing answers, and deflecting from their lack of evidence by calling the skeptics "Meanies." Provable or not, all are welcome to post their experiences. While not provable, they can be good reads. While not provable, is a bit of evidence too much to ask for? A note to the membership - We will not moderate whether a claim is true or not. We moderate member interaction, not truth. We also allow you to make any claims you'd like, but you won't be protected because someone doesn't believe you, or wants evidence.

Hello All, Let me start this off by saying I am a proponebt for Sasquatch;s existence. But being a propenet has responsibilities as I think the burden of proof resides squarely in the propenents camp. In this current atmosphere there has been mush said and debated about DNA testing along with it's hopes and failures in proving an extant North American hominid's reality. That idea is only where this story begins. In reading through reports in John Green's Sasquatch database which, thanks to See-Teh-Cah, is now pinned in the "In The Field" board under the "Applied Scientific Methods" title I ran across this li'l tid bit: Report ID # 992565: "Monthly Bigfoot Report, Aug. 1996, Don Keating quoting Jeramiah, Canonsburg, PA, and family." "Jeremiah and family had several unusual sasquatch encounters. Jeremiah interviewed on video about sighting in late summer, 1991. He also had a cast of a 14-inch footprint and gave Don Keating some coarse black hairs collected off the top strand of a 4-foot barbed wire fence." What was it about this particular report you might ask. Like I said- DNA. Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum in a 2011 interview article put out a general request for footprints casts. In 2014 he put out a general request for hair samples. It was a good opportunity for the "coarse black hairs" in the report to perhaps get analysed? Why this set of hairs and not others I ran across? Because of who had them. Don Keating. So got to work to running down those hair samples. For twenty years Don Keating organized and ran the well known and well attended Ohio Bigfoot Conference. Everyone who was anyone knew him. He was a pretty heavy hitter. He was also a long time Bigfoot investigator; longer than he ran the Conference. If anyone could be relied on for information and possible data regarding a Sasquatch like Creature in the Eastern Ohio are it would be him. His high profile and connections would assure that those hair samples got to the head of the line and coming from him personally could almost guarantee the chain of custody on the samples. His status within the Community was undeniable. So I looked him up. I found out that he had had a web site that issued monthly newsletters as the database report had said. But it was no longer on line. After further research I discovered his history with the Conference and that in 2012 he had turned the conference over to a successor handpicked by himself: Marc DeWerth. So I emailed Don Keating. This was on May 27, 1014: "Hello Mr. Keating, I'm interested in a report I read a while back. It concerns several encounters that a family had with a Sasquatch in Canonsburg, Washington County, PA around 1991. After much searching I've not found anything relating to this report which went on to say that the family involved was subsequently interviewed on video by you..... Now in the 1990's you had a web site which posted monthly Bigfoot updates but the 1996 report year was not present when I went there and there's no other information of this event on the web. The report however was listed in John Green's database. The report mentioned that there was a 14 inch footprint cast taken from the encounters and some black hairs were given to you that apparently had been retrieved from a four foot tall barbed wire fence. I've been curious about what had happened to the hair sample and cast and was wondering if this would be something you may be able to shed some light on........Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated." I did get a response..........a month later on June 26, 2014: "I'm sorry but at this time I can not locate my notes on that case. Moving a good bit does that for ya. Thank you for writing. Don Keating" For me the red flags were flying high at this point. I ask you: How does a 25+ year field investigator who may have found some footprints during his tenure, maybe heard some things, and investigated hundreds of reports forget a videotaped interview, recieving casts, AND an actual hair sample from a family who had NUMEROUS unusual encounters not remember such a thing without "notes"? Mind you there is nothing on the internet anywhere on this. The prestigious Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society never heard of this incident and has nothing on it. They suggested I email the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center, ie, Don Keating's website. There's nothing on the BFRO either. It's only on John Green's database which got it from the only source- Don Keating's now-missing monthly newsletter. For me it started out as a simple inquiry. Not any more. I dug deeper. I'm going to stop this here to let it sink in some. Because there's more.......

Many, many stories and points of contention. Some (not all) proponents believe bigfoot communicates with them through telepathy, and are able to "zap" humans with infrasound. That bigfoot has pets and proxies, such as coyotes, wolves, crows, and ravens. Some proponents believe bigfoot has near supernatural ability, that it somehow knows what a human in the area is thinking or their intentions. How can anyone imagine such ability from an animal not confirmed to even exist?

Well, if those making extraordinary claims would offer evidence to support them, we wouldn't have a problem, now would we?

One day I think "Yes - Too many sightings..."..... Then the next day I read about another hoax or see another blurry photo and I say, "What the heck was I thinking....No!" I just don't know. But I want to be around when the TRUTH finally is revealed....Whatever it may be!

Rereading the additions to this thread by the forum administrators I can see why researchers are leaving. We like anyone would love to lay your extraordinary proof on the table. That is hard to get and takes time to gather. In the mean time I am expected to sit on my hands and not post my findings? I do get those now and then. A picture of a footprint is not extraordinary evidence so I suppose that has no place here? I could care less if some witness has proof of his experience. Let me be the judge of that. If the only thing welcome is extraordinary proof to support a claim there will be nothing here of interest to read because little of that exists and if it did, this forum would be superfluous because BF would be accepted by science. If the reason for allowing witnesses and researchers to post is to provide fodder for skeptics to argue with, then not only will witnesses and researchers leave because they have better things to do but the concept behind the present forum policies seems to support skeptics rather than promote knowledge about BF. If that is the case, like MIB maybe I don't belong here either.

Maybe not woo woo, but taking down a 2ft healthy diameter tree rates at least a single woo...

By all means purge all skeptics if that is what you want. Create an environment where the only acceptable response to certain posts is: "That's a lovely photo of a bush. I don't quite see the juvenille sasquatch and family hiding in there, but thanks for sharing! Also, when can we expect another exciting installation in your ongoing tales of telepathic bigfoots and their backyard antics! So exciting!" Is that what you want? Making a claim is acceptable. Questioning one is not?

Do members not submit evidence they may have not collected on this forum? There is no lack of evidence Dmaker...............there is admittedly a lack of PROOF. And unfortunately, if someone doesn't take the subject seriously? Then they contribute very little to the conversation at hand. I think it's pretty hard to promote a Bigfoot website and keep the lights on while giving both proponent and skeptic equal footing...................yes. The proponent that has stories, foot casts, audio files and blob squatch photos to share? No matter how weak sauce it is? Is still doing a lot more to promote this website than the denialist is. I think that is simple logic.

Simple question Inc: Did the NAWAC leave this forum over too much woo? I think this is a much bigger problem..........

How do you know how DWA reads report's ? Your comment on that is so frigging arrogant it's sickening. Yes , this is about you. You made it about you. You like to play games with people which is creepy.

I will just interject to say that the BFRO's sighting report/follow-up methods give a body much more greater access to details. Of course, the content is only as good as the witnesses' willingness to share details, and the investigator's skill in pursuing the information. Results vary, to say the least. This is what you can expect when you leave it to amateurs to do this work (and I don't mean to condescend in that description...they are doing good work that no sanctioned scientific organization deigns to acknowledge as being an open question. So, good on them). Here's what I think DWA is saying, because I say it a lot too: Parsing any one report is a fool's errand, and will guarantee you will draw inaccurate conclusions. The data set is much, much larger. There are types of reports that you can lump into broad categories (i.e., nighttime vs. daytime, military vs. civilian, law enforcement sightings, etc.) but even those have to be read in the greater context. There is no way to do this without reading LOTS of reports, with an eye for detail. For starters, I'd suggest reading the new BFRO reports daily. Do that for a few years. Look back at other reports from the same areas. Draw your own conclusions, and share them. Nobody here is going to get (I don't think) a "go away" response from anyone else who has read them if you invest that time. We all respect diligence and hard work. You've got to do more than dip your toe in this, and I think I can presume to say DWA would tell you that too.

I'm on the fence about the 'extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence' thing. As humans we assign meaning to things- what is ordinary to one person might be extraordinary to another. I suspect as a result the claims simply require evidence to be supported. In addition, I have probably assassinated my character by claiming that I had an experience. Or not. I find that some people are supportive and interested- want to hear more- and others write the whole thing off as a joke. I also know why evidence is so hard to come by: I sat in my truck's driver seat and looked at a BF that was no more than about 10 feet from me at the time. Its arms were bigger around and obviously more powerful than my legs and its legs were about as big around as my torso. Its appearance spoke of immense physical strength. Because of that, I did not want to take my eyes off of it. I felt relatively safe in the truck, but only because at any instance I could floor the gas and be gone. I did not feel comfortable taking a photo because it meant getting the camera on the same side of the glass as the creature itself, and it also meant taking my eyes off of it. I suspect many people have been in similar situations. With the current situation (BF = career suicide) its not likely there will ever be any truly serious research on the subject. So we should be prepared for the status quo for a long time!

Yeah. That was us. Cliff and I have been trying to get a trip up there for a year. After the cabin site was found last July, Cliff contacted me to ask for a trip. Finally got around to it just now. Got a fair amount done. Have one more work trip in spring. marc

Then why don't you just post it hiflier ? You have no room to talk seeing how you constantly go after DWA. I don't think dmaker needs your help. Lack of scientific proof means nothing to those of us who have seen them. So what dmaker thinks means nothing to us either.Then there are people who know someone who has seen one and believe them because they know the person and know the person is honest. Of which I believe DWA has mentioned before, he knows such a person and if 1 person has seen one then so have other's. To just ignore this fact or think everyone is hullucinating, making crap up, or seeing some other animal is ridiculous.

Truth? In the time I've been here I haven't seen you add anything to a conversation, all I see is your snarky one line quips and comments taking away, distracting and derailing topics ... ending discussions I would like to see continue because I might learn something. Are you here for any reason other than to stroke your ego by intellectually bullying others? That's a serious question, not the insult it probably looks like. I'm trying to solve the puzzle, not just talk about it as a form of entertainment. I don't care about your faux-intellectual wrangling. I want to hear from the witnesses. Y' know what? Some are indeed full of crap. My ego is not wrapped up in abusing people just because I don't believe them. I listen, I judge, I move on. Nowhere on that list is pronouncing my judgment. Maybe I don't belong here. Folks here have chased most of the witnesses off and gagged the rest. If you think about it, without the witnesses, a bigfoot discussion is pretty much a mental masturbation exercise. That's not what I came here for. People wonder why BF hasn't been proven. The conduct right here on BFF illustrates the answer. Ego ahead of understanding. MIB

I certainly think that they have greater evasion and tactical skills than military divisions but I also think that they do get desperate and or careless from time to time. They do make mistakes like any living thing does. You know every inch of your home and land so you could avoid a passing person with ease because you know where to hide and when, so does the sasquatch but just like you they do have to live life by hunting, foraging, sleeping, checking on the pesky neighbors and raising offspring. These activities are where mistakes are made and thus sightings and encounters happen.

Oh, some here claim intimate inside knowledge, and know all about the creatures. Even that they're not nearing extinction, but are overrunning areas of Tennessee. Your mileage may vary. Some claiming inside knowledge profess there are three or more unidentified species. Some claim bigfoot ride trains, smoke tobacco, and wear clothing or pelts. Lotsa claims, damned little verification. But hey, bring some garlic to the table and let's be happy with the woo.

Has anyone actually listened to the link? Coonbo makes it very clear that it is a second or third hand story and that he doesn't believe that it happened.