Is the Bigfoot Forum losing interest?

[RedHawk454]

10 minutes ago, MIB said:

 

Offered as a blanket condemnation of all, I'd have to argue with you on that.   There are a couple groups I'm part of that I think are pretty good.   Not real active, but doing real research and having real discussion.   Some of the folks are BFF members though they post there under their own names, not the screen pseudonyms used here.    I will agree that SOME of the "groups" suck and some are just marketing platforms.  

 

 

from the bigfoot fb groups that i've seen, someone will post a screenshot from a bigfoot movie or a blobsquatch and you literally have 1k guys that are convinced its real..

[MIB]

I've seen the same with many .. but not with all.   I'm a part of one moderated, private group that would toss you out on your ear for doing that.    In many ways they're more serious about the science than BFF is.  

 

[JKH]

21 hours ago, norseman said:

I have been watching forums die a slow death for years.

The younger crowd doesn’t do forums for some reason. They stick with social media. And then cry about censorship, etc.

I just don’t get it. I find forums like these much easier to navigate and interact with. 

 

I don't have a smartphone; I think it would be harder to use this format on a phone. Does anyone even learn to type anymore?

I agree, oldies like us used to like to have discussions at length, for days or more. I mostly blame social media, which has damaged attention spans and increased sources of information. Another reason could be progression of knowledge; people learn answers to personal questions and move on.

 

Edited 22 hours ago by JKH

[JKH]

21 hours ago, NorCalWitness said:

I think more people are watching youtube channels for info on the subject. I love it here and don't miss the extra people. 

 

This is happening for sure. I noticed trends long ago to facebook and blogs, but youtube is a massive force. Everybody has a channel and if you do it right, it's monetized.

[georgerm]

It sounds like most of us can agree that the Bigfoot Forum is losing steam and people aren't responding as much as they did before. There are lots of old-time members that had one star or many, and they have dropped out of the Bigfoot forum. Most of us that have responded to this thread agree that this is a problem and rather than letting it fade like a setting sun where Bigfoot Forum takes a slow-motion death dive until no one else is responding that we open a new forum section. In this Reach Out section, we contact professionals in government, universities and private practice who have an interest in primates and wildlife.

 

There are many on this forum who are still working and are responding to other forms and simply don't have the time to participate in this forum anymore. The Patterson Gimlin film came out years ago and created a huge interest in Bigfoot so the forum has been very active ever since. Now we can sit back and wait for another Bigfoot event to happen such as a capture or bringing in a body and the form may light up again. Now we can sit back and wait or we can create a plan to keep this form alive in the meantime. Now a suggestion that I have is for us to do several things that may help rejuvenate the forum.

 

1. If we have the emails of all forum members, we can have a committee that can recontact old members that have dropped out and invited them back on and let them know the rejuvenation plan. Do we have their emails?

2. Another thing that we can do is to lift the forum up to professional scientific level where qualified individuals post and regular forum members with three of more stars by their name. We invite professional people involved in primate studies or who work in environments where animals live such as zoos, wildlife parks, government foresters etc. This committee can email them and invite them onto the forum and post their qualifications. Now this would be a special forum section were these professionals are vetted, and we post their credentials along with their forum name. 

 

in conclusion, I'm 77 years old and retired. I have time to work on this plan. There are other retired members on the forum who have extra time and smarts to push the forum ahead. And some of us can take on various duties that involves some of the suggestions that I've come up with. Now I apologize for using my first name rather than coming up with some Bigfoot name. It's too late for me to change, but you can also think of me as George of the jungle. 

[CelticKevin]

Well, from my perspective, I think it is the simple fact that there is nothing new happening in the field. There are no big events such as a major sighting caught on film or DNA evidence being reported. And when the only t.v. exposure is the ..imho...dismally overdone and woefully laughable "Expedition Bigfoot" (the twin sister of Mountain Monsters) where the principal actors are always thisclose to catching one only to have it vanish into thin air...why wouldn't the subject turn into a joke or piece of fluff entertainment? Why would people want to "waste their time"? Hell, Sasquatch is everywhere now as a pop icon from stickers to jerky to toys to tv and i think that hurt the credibility of the subject as well by making it kitschy.

I listen to the B&B podcast and I think some interesting, new evidence is being readied for presentation in the comments Cliff makes about certain research. Hopefully then, new life and new blood will perk things up.
When Norseman collects a body for us...then you watch how active this sight becomes.

 

[NorCalWitness]

On 5/30/2025 at 2:24 PM, RedHawk454 said:

Forum activity comes and goes

 

I'm 36, i'm prolly the last of my generation to  be active on a few other forums.  I come and go on BFF and others.

 

reddit is pretty big

 

r/bigfoot has a lot of activity.  I think Bob Gymlan started there too, but i dont know. 

 

r/bigfoot is somewhat comparative to BFF imo

 

The bigfoot fb groups are bottom feeders though.

reddit is run by fascist dictator moderators who ban anyone they don't agree with politically. given that most conservatives are banned, and given that most hunters are conservative, they have priced themself right out of most of the encounters. 

[norseman]

4 hours ago, CelticKevin said:

Well, from my perspective, I think it is the simple fact that there is nothing new happening in the field. There are no big events such as a major sighting caught on film or DNA evidence being reported. And when the only t.v. exposure is the ..imho...dismally overdone and woefully laughable "Expedition Bigfoot" (the twin sister of Mountain Monsters) where the principal actors are always thisclose to catching one only to have it vanish into thin air...why wouldn't the subject turn into a joke or piece of fluff entertainment? Why would people want to "waste their time"? Hell, Sasquatch is everywhere now as a pop icon from stickers to jerky to toys to tv and i think that hurt the credibility of the subject as well by making it kitschy.

I listen to the B&B podcast and I think some interesting, new evidence is being readied for presentation in the comments Cliff makes about certain research. Hopefully then, new life and new blood will perk things up.
When Norseman collects a body for us...then you watch how active this sight becomes.

 

Man I wish!
 

I have fallen out of the health tree and hit every branch on the way down. Fingers crossed I can park my AR this fall and go back to hairy chested high caliber rifles.🤞

[gigantor]

I tried guys, even had researcher of the year contests with $3000 prizes, advertised on google, reprinted research papers with permission, etc and it kinda of worked. But new members wouldn't stick around, they showed up for the buzz and then leave.

 

I agree that the problem is a lack of new discoveries.

 

Even hoaxes would get the forum busy, remember Biscardi?

 

[Trogluddite]

On 5/30/2025 at 1:14 PM, OldMort said:

^^^ Well said, as well...

There comes a time when every thread and every point has pretty much already been made.

 

On 5/30/2025 at 1:43 PM, Backdoc said:

I use the PGF now as essentially an encyclopedia......  

 

On 5/29/2025 at 8:41 PM, georgerm said:

FWhat can be done to rejuvenate the forum?   

 

8 hours ago, gigantor said:

I tried guys, even had researcher of the year contests with $3000 prizes, advertised on google, reprinted research papers with permission, etc and it kinda of worked. But new members wouldn't stick around, they showed up for the buzz and then leave.

 

Bear with me; I came up 20 years doing things a certain way and the first step is clearly identify the problem and the second step is come up with possible solutions, no matter how outlandish.

 

1.  What is the problem?

    a) That we don't want the Forums to collapse as a going concern, or ....

 

    b) We want more comments, interaction, etc.

 

I see these as slightly different questions - e.g., can the Forums continue having an online presence at a relatively low cost.  Are costs low enough that they can be covered by relatively few dedicated members or even undedicated viewers who have an incentive to pay a $20 entrance fee?  Or will the whole thing collapse without an inflow of new paying members.  

 

Perhaps another way of asking the question is "what should the Forums be?"  Back in the day when I led units or offices, I always said, "I want our unit/office to be the place that other units/offices come to when they can't figure out what they're doing wrong.  We find and overcome problems that others can't.  I would love for the Forums to become that kind of resource for Bigfoot research.

 

2) What are possible solutions?

 

   I'm just going to put one out there because Backdoc hit on the solution I would turn to.  Revamp the current Forums to make it more of an exacting reference source.  A few examples of the knowledge this Forum has, but gets buried with the 38th thread on the same question include:

 

a) Highlight the Bill Munns' material that's already here (with his permission of course) so that people get an introduction to the technical aspects of the P-G- Film

 

b) Offer a clear timeline of the P-G- Film or other major events

 

c) Build out Tirademan's historical archives.  I now have over 100 old reports that either he found and are not included in the BFF 2.0 Tirademan section or that I don't believe he found.

 

d) Have a section detailing (in layman's terms) the elk/Bigfoot body cast arguments (sorry, I'm a bit foggy on that one)

 

 

Backdoc is absolutely correct in observing that this place is an encyclopedia of knowledge, unfortunately a lot of it is arranged alphabetically by height and weight.  It's impossible to find.  Curating (sorry for using that word) the information could provide everyone who has time to do so with projects that add to the Forums' value as the go-to online place for Bigfoot knowledge.  Having a reputation as a key, unbiased source could help drive traffic.

 

Okay, I've flung the first glob of mud against the wall to see if it will stick.  And I apologize for doing so after being absent for such a long time.  But like GeorgeM, I am retired now and can devote more time here.

 

Feel free to discuss or not; I've got to go outside to attend to new and old items on my honeydew list. 

 

 

[7.62]

One of you guys need to post a photo of one from your private collection . You want a buzz ? That's how you get members visiting and opening accounts .

I have seen posts that they say I will never post my photos and that's fine but this forum will die like so many others have on the web.

[WSA]

Guilty as charged. For me it probably does come down to my feeling that I have expressed my opinions as frequently as I have wanted, and absorbed a huge body of opinions and facts to the point of satiation. For that I am grateful to the BFF and all who keep this thing up and running…Norseman, Gigantor, et al. Thank you!  I wouldn’t say that I have moved on, exactly. It is more about freeing up bandwidth for more/other interests. 
 

Speaking of…OT shameless plug for my son’s band: The Mountain Grass Unit   Jam Grass and BF just seems to pair nicely. They are right now rolling from Gainesville, FL to Sanford. Told them to keep their eyes peeled in the Ocala NF, don’t you know?