Is the Bigfoot Forum losing interest?

[Explorer]

I still check BFF occasionally to see if there are any recent topics of interest. However, a lot of the material and debates in BFF seem to go through repeat cycles.

 

For field research topics of interest and in my region (CA, OR, and WA), I have moved on to Facebook and interact with non-anonymous field researchers in private Facebook groups.

 

I find it more rewarding to deal with folks who I have actually met in the field, many who have more years of field experience and/or that have focused on particular aspects (like audio recording or thermal imaging or other technical aspect) and are willing to share their expertise.

[Trogluddite]

On 6/15/2025 at 12:21 AM, MIB said:

 

Agree.

 

Agree BUT ..

 

Agree BUT !!!!  ... I think the quality and detail of information on the non-forum platforms is somewhat lacking.   Or maybe you could say the signal to noise ratio is lower.    So while forums may be perceived as old fogey stuff they're still where to go for better quality.   The others are fine if you're primarily there for entertainment but if you are trying to do research .. nah.   

 

Agree 100% with MIB about the lack of detail of information on non-forum platforms and I will add to that the lack of historical perspective.  Not necessarily hundreds of years ago, but I doubt that there is any Reddit thread, you-tube library, or Facebook group which has the depth of information on the P-G film, as an example, as these Forums.  

[Art1972]

Hey everyone!   First time back here in a long while.  As someone who used to be a moderator and admin years ago (when HRPuffnstuff was the Chief), it certainly seems much slower on the forums these days, myself included.  I don't believe it's from lack of interest, I think it's mostly because as mentioned, there's a ton of other places discussing the same topic.  Facebook was a substantial "thing" when I joined the forums in 2016, but it was not even close to being the behemoth it is today.   In my opinion the term "bottom feeders" used above is an apt description.  There's little moderation, tons of smart aleck trolls, and skeptics and non believers are pretty vicious to anyone claiming anything.   It's always been my belief that these forums offered more serious discussion (believer or non), more personal interaction between members, many of whom form friendships that transcend their interactions here.   It probably wouldn't hurt if some of the members here made posts in some of the FB groups and pages talking up how great these forums are, and the immense amount of content they contain.    

It's good to be back.  I look forward to catching up with some names I see are still active here, and some newer members I don't know much at all.  

Edited July 7 by Art1972

[Trogluddite]

^^ Good to see you back!

[MIB]

2 hours ago, Art1972 said:

Hey everyone!   First time back here in a long while.

 

Welcome back.   I remember you though I don't know if it was from after I joined or from the few years that I lurked first.   I think continuity with older times is as important as new blood .. can save a lot of unnecessary wheel spinning if we remember what has already been done.

 

MIB

[AlaskaDreamer]

On 6/4/2025 at 6:08 PM, BlackRockBigfoot said:

I was a pretty prolific member for a while.  I still check in semi-regularly, but don’t feel the desire to post much anymore.  For me, it’s the overwhelming negativity on a topic that is supposed to be enjoyable.  
 

 

The overall Bigfoot community is growing larger every day, but it’s also becoming more fragmented every day as well.  
 

Even this thread, which is about why is the forum dying, is filled with complaints about pretty much everything under the Sasquatch sun.  TV shows, YouTube, rehashed topics, etc.  Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, but there is a constant complaining that permeates the Bigfoot community that often turns into outright hostility when what are relatively minor differences arise.  
 

People who believe or have an interest in Bigfoot should have a great deal in common, but instead those minor differences of opinion cause a lot of discord.  

 

Don’t like Mountain Monsters or Expedition Bigfoot?  Don’t watch it.  However, shows like that plant a seed of interest in a new generation, insuring that there is a fresh crop of enthusiasts who will hopefully carry on the search.  TV executives don’t really make shows geared towards real life Bigfoot researchers.  Maybe just be glad that the subject has enough mainstream acceptance to make its way onto television in any form?

 

Tired of a topic that (for you) has been beaten to death?  Scroll past it.  
 

Are you a flesh and blood proponent irritated by the Woo?  Are you a Woo supporter who hates the Apers?  Well, at the end of the day you both have more on common with one another than you would have with a skeptic.  Not to mention that we are dealing with almost zero proven facts about the phenomenon, so you both have a good chance at being somewhat correct.  
 

A lot of the members here want a more active forum, with more active participants.  You can’t have that with multiple filters put into place.  

 

Anyway, I would like to see the forum become more active again.  But, to do that you need new members who stick around.  They need to enjoy the place to do that.  Maybe start there?
 

 

I still visit here quite often. I watch many of the Sasquatch related programs on Youtube and I visit the Bigfoot communities on Reddit. Although many of the posters on Reddit to me are negative.

[NorCalWitness]

1 hour ago, AlaskaDreamer said:

I still visit here quite often. I watch many of the Sasquatch related programs on Youtube and I visit the Bigfoot communities on Reddit. Although many of the posters on Reddit to me are negative.

reddit is full of complete psychopaths. stay away. 

[BlackRockBigfoot]

22 hours ago, AlaskaDreamer said:

I still visit here quite often. I watch many of the Sasquatch related programs on Youtube and I visit the Bigfoot communities on Reddit. Although many of the posters on Reddit to me are negative.

There’s some decent discussion on Reddit occasionally, however you are right.  It’s mostly extremely negative and overrun with very closed minded people 

[AlaskaDreamer]

Yes I get annoyed with people constantly trying to debunk every single thing that is posted on Reddit.  Sure there are some photos that I will agree with that are fake but it seems they think every single photo or experience is a hoax.  I'm glad many of those folks are not on here. I hope they don't discover this forum.

[georgerm]

It's good to hear a lot of people posting on this topic, and it seems like we all agree that the Bigfoot Forum has lost a little energy. It's really encouraging to see that we have pages of replies on this topic so maybe the Bigfoot forum will remain alive for quite a while longer. I originally became interested in Bigfoot around 1980 after I had a midnight sighting while we're camped out under the stars up by Prospect Oregon on a wood cutting trip. At the time Bigfoot was not on my radar and what I saw was thought to be a big black bear looking at us while we were sleeping out but later I realized that whatever was looking at us did not have pronounced fuzzy ears, and it had a flat face and cone shaped head so I finally decided it was a Bigfoot. This incident got me started in Bigfoot research and I began to visit various spots in Southwest Oregon and visited deserted campgrounds at night and had some spooky experiences.

 

I stopped going out and researching as much as I used to because at a couple of different areas I got tangled up in the woo and it was so confusing that I just decided I wouldn't pursue the study of Bigfoot for a while. Well, I kind of missed the subject, and I decided to get back on Bigfoot Forum and at least have interaction with other people. I'm 77 years old and will be 78 August 1st and I might start  doing more field research. I have found some really out of the way campgrounds that are close to Coquille, Oregon, that are right in the middle of what I consider to be a Bigfoot territory.

 

Anyway, if there are people that would like to come to southern Oregon and camp out in a primitive campground then maybe we can get this expedition going for 10 people who qualify and agree to meet in Coos Bay, Oregon where my wife and I live. We will meet at my home, for two days then head about 40 miles east to the mountains north of Coquille, Oregon for a primitive campout under the stars on tarps, or in tents or in trailers 16' or under.  We will attract bigfoots into out campground and not hunt for them. This needs to happen before the middle of September before deer season. I don't use drugs and moderately drink so keep this in mind. If interested email me at gmcnair800@ gmail.com 

[Art1972]

On 7/7/2025 at 10:38 PM, MIB said:

 

Welcome back.   I remember you though I don't know if it was from after I joined or from the few years that I lurked first.   I think continuity with older times is as important as new blood .. can save a lot of unnecessary wheel spinning if we remember what has already been done.

 

MIB

You were here MIB, I remember you for sure.  I joined in 2016, so 9 years ago.  Which I have to admit is kind of crazy, because it surely doesn't seem that long.  

[guyzonthropus]

I've thought of mentioning the BFF on the Facebook groups more often, but then I really don't want to be the one that inspires a bunch trolls to enlist here with their "they simply can't exist and you're either crazy or drunk if you think any of these reports are real, no matter what you think you saw" style or attitude...since those folks tend to drag down every thread they join with their insistent denial and defamation of any with perspectives that differ from their own....

[Backdoc]

Interest in Bigfoot... Demographics?

 

How much is the topic of Bigfoot of interest in various generations?   Does this explain any dip in BFF activity?   

 

Most people around my age group (59 years old) got their Bigfoot interest by movies like Boggy Creek or especially Peter Graves The Mysterious Monsters show.  It was in the Peter Graves show where most saw the PGF for the first time.  Once you left the theaters, you were done seeing the PGF.  The only time you saw the PGF again would be a book or two you could buy or rent at the library.  Even then, the only thing you got in such as book was a still shot of Patty on the famous look back.

 

 

In the 1980s those of us who rented VCR tapes (and for a while VCR's themselves) could for the first time rent a video about Bigfoot.  For the first time we could not only watch the PGF multiple times but could also freeze frame, slow it down, and run it back and forth.  

 

 

About the time of serious home computers of the 2000's some researchers were able to take the PGF and stabilize it.   Then, two things happened.   1) Discovery channel type shows started having Bigfoot TV shows on.   Unlike the ugly 1970's these shows where clean, well-produced with good sold fair scientific discussion about the subject.   2)  The internet created discussion boards as well as YouTube which allowed further video access to the PGF subject.

 

As long as these generations feels interested in Bigfoot they will continue to consume the Bigfoot subject with TV Ratings and other activity.   This would apply to activity on the BFF.

 

Yet, the next thing to happen may be two-fold.  1) The older generation feels tapped out about Bigfoot.  They studied it to death and now they either accept it or reject it.  They then move on to other interests or things that effect their life now (grandkids, a reverse mortgage ad, or arguing politics on the internet)   2) The young generation quickly considered the subject based on what they are exposed to (Finding Bigfoot, American Paranormal - Bigfoot, and so on)  The hear people like Jeff Meldrum on TV and are much more likely to give him consideration in his opinions and are willing to challenge the old guard.  To some young person they couldn't imagine someone like Meldrum would be taking a risk even talking about Bigfoot.

 

The younger generation has less bigfoot concerns because they are focused on many of the issues they care about.  Being more open minded they might be more inclined to believe in Bigfoot but then move right off of it because once they accept it, they don't need/care to study it further.   It's just a given and they move on.  They watch a Messin' with Sasquatch commercial and think Bigfoot or something like him is probably out there.  They laugh and move on.  

 

 

 

As far as the BFF I have to think the population itself as seen a shift.  The number of people who grew up (8 track tape generation and older) have sustained or died off.   The younger generation replacing them might not have a deeper interest in Bigfoot since it didn't make up a big part of what they grew up with.   In that way, I wonder if we get less interest in the BFF based on fewer being passionately interested in Bigfoot. 

 

I think the BFF probably skews older like me who grew up with less tings competing for our attention.  One Bigfoot movie (Peter Graves) or some book in elementary school would be more likely to have a deeper impact on us.   If the BFF is down, it actually makes sense.  A downturn is probably expected no different than Car Shows, Cruise Nights, or Baseball Collections.

 

I wonder if increasing BFF activity means reaching those older 50+ somethings who are -to my thinking- a lot more likely to have the interests in Bigfoot in the first place.  

Other than that, I have to think only newsworthy Bigfoot events would drive further interest.  As we all know, there hasn't been another PGF in 50 + years.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Huntster]

1 hour ago, Backdoc said:

Interest in Bigfoot... Demographics?

 

How much is the topic of Bigfoot of interest in various generations?............

 

This is an excellent thought, and even beyond what you detailed. In addition to "how much" the subject of Bigfoot has changed generationally, there is "how" the subject of Bigfoot has changed generationally. 

 

Like you outlined, older folks saw Bigfoot as a mysterious monster lurking about in the deepest forests because that's what the media at the time built. After "Harry and the Hendersons", in the early '90's,  bigfoot became a cool, primitive human being with incredible skills in invisibility.

 

More recently, Bigfoot has become a revenue generator for advertisers, product motto creators, and anybody building a YouTube channel.

 

[Doug]

Dr. Squatch soap and deodorant are awesome!

I think that the further the younger generation gets from their hunting roots and woodsmanship, the less they care about nature other than in a general, climate change way. The less one cares about nature, the less something like sasquatch comes up in their thoughts or cares.

Because I am a hunter, have loads of woodsmanship, am very old and spend a lot of time in nature, sasquatches are important to me. 

Edited 14 minutes ago by Doug