Twist Posted July 11, 2018 Posted July 11, 2018 But what word of mouth is happening? What training are people receiving? This is a volunteer system but it appears that people need special training before there is any live action. People need to have organization to work together. The foundation is what builds this. I asked earlier, do you want to discuss this or have ppl pat you in the back. To tackle this you need to approach the possible failures and address them. You need to approach this obstacle first. BF is behind the gun. 1
gigantor Posted July 11, 2018 Admin Posted July 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Twist said: If you want a hotline, you need to pay for it. What pays for the hotline which is required to jump start it? I'll donate the hotline. I have a couple of business lines not in use. 2
norseman Posted July 11, 2018 Admin Posted July 11, 2018 I promise everyone that Gig is a man of action.....not words.
cmknight Posted July 11, 2018 Posted July 11, 2018 16 hours ago, NCBFr said: So why not spend a few nights there and record what happens? http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=58703 " LOCATION DETAILS: Our cabin is near West Union in the woods and cant be seen from road. (Specific location details omitted due to ongoing investigation.) "
NCBFr Posted July 11, 2018 Posted July 11, 2018 13 hours ago, gigantor said: You could develop a siding database with a smartphone app that immediately notifies the investigators.... That is a fantastic idea. I do not think the hotline is necessary, a simple submission of the report to a joint email box would be sufficient. Here are a few other ideas: Have the App walk the witness through a few Q&As before getting them to the description box. For example: did you see 1 or more BFs? If yes, how many? what was the estimated range, did you see eye shine? how long did you observe them, what was their color? Use these answers to build out a good searchable database. Have a bunch of BF pics and have the user pick the one that most closely matches their observation. Would be cool to fill in the color based on their answer. If they heard it, have them listen to a bunch of sample BF howls and moans as well as known animal sounds to see which one most closely aligns, Include google map to help pin point the location. Unfortunately the costs of a professionally built app usually starts around $250K for the most simple and takes between 9 months and forever to develop.
gigantor Posted July 11, 2018 Admin Posted July 11, 2018 3 hours ago, NCBFr said: Unfortunately the costs of a professionally built app usually starts around $250K for the most simple and takes between 9 months and forever to develop. Not really. You can sub it out to developers in India for $4/hour... if I had time, I'd do it.
NCBFr Posted July 11, 2018 Posted July 11, 2018 Thus the word professional. Also, you cannot get a good Indian developer for $4/hr. Ours run a little over $20 and they are pretty good, not great. I have worked with many SaaS providers over the last 4 years with development teams in Brazil, India, Ukraine, Canada, and the US and the best any of them were able to do was $250K all in to bring an App to market. Most end up spending in excess of $1M not including hosting costs (my business). 90% start with the basic LAMP stack and then usually have to change DBs and/or FEs as they grow. My best luck was with Brazilians but a good portion of that is not having to deal with time zone differences. With that said, if you can pull it off it would be a great idea and good way to breath some life in to this forum.
SWWASAS Posted July 11, 2018 BFF Patron Posted July 11, 2018 (edited) It appears that the SRN concept is plagued with the same problem areas that the BFRO has. Money to establish websites, collection of reports, timeliness, review, field investigation, ability to interrogate, and publication of results. All are problems that not only have to be solved but have to do it better than the BFRO to have any significant benefit. I do not want to step on any toes, but quite frankly I think the same assets could be focused on field work and have a better chance for success. After all, one of the stated objectives is to get eyes in the area or boots on the ground quicker and have a chance for BF/human contact. If that is the prime objective there are cheaper, faster, more effective ways to do that than dealing with witnesses. Perhaps before this gets too far down the road the objectives need to be clarified. $250,000 buys a lot of gear for field work. Edited July 11, 2018 by SWWASAS
hiflier Posted July 11, 2018 Author Posted July 11, 2018 This seems to be quickly moving from the original grass roots approach to something more on the national level. It was never meant to go to the national level and pushing it in that direction IMHO will only lead to failure. And though I appreciate the intentions a national hotline would be a nightmare. The SRN is a LOCAL entity in that it will only activate when a BF has been sighted. The SRN is not for eye shine, footprints, howls, wood knocking, or any other secondary report. In other words it would not be responding to a Class B or Class C report. ONLY Class A's where a BF was actually seen.
SWWASAS Posted July 11, 2018 BFF Patron Posted July 11, 2018 I would love to have 2 or three guys in my area, I could call when I hear about a report or want mutual support in the field. Sometimes sightings are reported on the evening news. Most news outlets would give you links or contact information with a witness. I will not do field work solo at night.
NCBFr Posted July 12, 2018 Posted July 12, 2018 2 hours ago, SWWASAS said: I would love to have 2 or three guys in my area, I could call when I hear about a report or want mutual support in the field. 2 hours ago, SWWASAS said: Completely agree. 2 hours ago, SWWASAS said: I will not do field work solo at night. Yup, a simple set of wood knocks late at night when taking the dogs out, albeit crazy loud, sent me scurrying back in to the house and in to bed. To this day I have no idea what I was thinking and why I did not even try to observe them from my deck, truck, or anything else.
hiflier Posted July 12, 2018 Author Posted July 12, 2018 2 hours ago, SWWASAS said: I will not do field work solo at night Don't blame you. And like you say, you would love to have two or three guys in your area. So would I. The thing is there may BE two or three guys in my area and yours too. I just don't know who they would be. And even if I find out and we end up meeting some day they may wish to stay working alone. What I say to that is FINE, there is no reason they cannot continue doing things the way they are doing things. But if a Class A sighting report comes in would they want to be involved in also doing the research long the roads that surround or are closest to the point of incident? If that point is closer to one of them instead of say me then would one of them call me in to support one of them by having me patrol roads while THEY conduct an interview? That's how a good team functions. Anyone can do what the other can do depending on where the point of encounter happens. Ideally we should be around 75 miles apart from each other. It is not easy for everyone to picture this on a larger scale where one wouldn't know and doesn't HAVE to know researchers 200 miles away. The best way to illustrate this is the image I posted as a visual that had the different colored circles. If that image was actually a map of a large area of several hundred miles I think that is what the network in the real world would mostly look like; although perfect circles of researchers would probably not exist because of different topographical constraints.
Wolfjewel Posted July 12, 2018 Posted July 12, 2018 Hiflier, do you envision having the northeastern states involved, as they don't yield too many reports? Specifically, eastern Massachusetts has very few recent sightings but western Mass. does. Would the interlocking circles stop, or would they just get a lot larger? At any rate I would consider being a part of it. Being retired I could hotrod out to the locale quickly at least most days. However, I don't live in the right area (outside Boston). And what would be the qualifications in terms of sasquatch research? i do hope you keep this idea alive; perhaps try it in one small area of hot spots in the NW.
wiiawiwb Posted July 12, 2018 Posted July 12, 2018 5 hours ago, SWWASAS said: I will not do field work solo at night. Why? For concern of personal safety?
MagniAesir Posted July 12, 2018 Posted July 12, 2018 Nothing there in the dark that isn't there in the day. I usually love listening to dogmen and sasquatch attacks stories on YouTube before going out on night ops or camping. Our area has a number of researchers in it, however a couple have been caught hoaxing, and a couple are secretive and territorial. Having said that our group is fairly well connected, due in no small part to Thomas' connections On 10/07/2018 at 7:09 PM, Twist said: So Hiflier, the nature of the current system, i.e. not being very time sensitive, could be the exact reason the SRN does not work. Lets discuss how you want to change this.... Google seems a good option, if you can get people to have a sighting and google how to report it. That's how it works, right? You enter a search term that corresponds. If you want a hotline, you need to pay for it. What pays for the hotline which is required to jump start it? These are things that need to be hashed out. IMO of course. Many of Thomas' reports come from Google searches that result in his name coming up. Our last 3 reports came from someone Google and finding our little local forum
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