Check out https://contrailscience.com/ which is a precursor site to Metabunk.
Welcome Thread - New Members Post Here
- Thread starter Mick West
- Start date
Mendel
Senior Member.
You succeeded, welcome!
Metabunk uses a webforum software called "Xenforo". Any basic tutorials or help you can find on that probably apply here, with occasional small differences.
For an overview, use the "Forums" link on the site menu; this'll give you an idea what the site is about, and help you find areas of interest. It's probably a good idea to look at the pinned topics in the subforums that interest you.
Use the site search at the right if you have something specific in mind. A google search for it with the word "metabunk" added is often helpful, as well.
If you plan to post, take a look at the site policies under the "Info" tab in the site menu. The link policy is especially unique to Metabunk, and requires you to quote the relevant bits from any sources you cite. For new topics, remember to have one claim of evidence per topic. ("Topic" and "thread" means the same.)
That should get you (and anyone else who reads this) started! Good luck!
Robinson
New Member
Hello again. Ten years later, lol. I mostly read, but I have questions, need some advice/discussion on a matter that needs debunking. Been a skeptic/debunker since about 2002. Looking for the right topic.
Totally out of my comfort zone, but in no hurry. It's pretty much the same topic I originally came here for.
UnduguOjibwe
New Member
Hi!
Been a fan of Mick's for a couple of years now since I came across his gimbal and bokeh analyses. I have a weakness for UAP videos and stories, and have dipped my toes into some of the standard Reddits and Discords.
The recent MH370 videos have made my brain bleed with infuriating frustration. I don't chat online much, but like to peruse UAP talk (is there a Metabunk Discord??). However, I really want to be around more skeptically-minded people who can tell when a simple stock effect clearly matches a frame and debunks a video.
My favourite sighting is the Phoenix Lights because it definitely happened. I've seen no persuasive evidence that NHI have visited Earth.
But yeah, would love to know if there's a Metabunk Discord.
Been a fan of Mick's for a couple of years now since I came across his gimbal and bokeh analyses. I have a weakness for UAP videos and stories, and have dipped my toes into some of the standard Reddits and Discords.
The recent MH370 videos have made my brain bleed with infuriating frustration. I don't chat online much, but like to peruse UAP talk (is there a Metabunk Discord??). However, I really want to be around more skeptically-minded people who can tell when a simple stock effect clearly matches a frame and debunks a video.
My favourite sighting is the Phoenix Lights because it definitely happened. I've seen no persuasive evidence that NHI have visited Earth.
But yeah, would love to know if there's a Metabunk Discord.
Mendel
Senior Member.
Would you like me to set one up?
UnduguOjibwe
New Member
Not on my account, I just got here, happy to keep feeling things out. Love the forum content so far. Thank you, though.
FatPhil
Senior Member.
Metabunk is well within the remit of Libera.Chat's policies, so they could just host chat for us on their well-established distributed IRC network.
-- https://libera.chat/chanreg/What is on-topic?
Projects considered to be on-topic for Libera.Chat are primarily free and open-source software projects, and other peer-directed projects, for instance Linux User Groups (LUGs), student societies, hacker- or makerspaces and other collaborative efforts.
I feel this is up to Mick.
Hello.
I am really bad at introducing myself, because I don’t know what’s relevant and what’s just unnecessary noise.
I am an immigrant to United States, making English a second language for me. I have served in the United States Army for almost 20 years as an enlisted infantryman, and I will be retiring soon, moving on to civilian life.
I started following Mick West after his video on parallax for explaining the go fast video. I am very skeptical about absolutely everything in life, and Mick West’s argument seemed to me far more likely than the claim of alien visitation. While in the military I have seen many AUPs, but they are all perfectly explainable as misunderstood new technology, physical phenomena, or videos taken at the maximum range of that equipment, thus resulting in a low quality image whose interpretation depends on the viewer.
I see the UFO/AUP phenomena as very similar to stolen valor, where people make claims of military service and belonging to elite units, but the difference is we can make FOIA requests of their DD214 thus exposing their lies and embellishments, while with AUP stories their is usually no official records to investigate.
I understand many people that claim to have seen UFOs are not necessarily lying, merely misunderstanding what they saw, therefore I am very interested in the psychological aspect of AUP interpretation.
Thank you.
I am really bad at introducing myself, because I don’t know what’s relevant and what’s just unnecessary noise.
I am an immigrant to United States, making English a second language for me. I have served in the United States Army for almost 20 years as an enlisted infantryman, and I will be retiring soon, moving on to civilian life.
I started following Mick West after his video on parallax for explaining the go fast video. I am very skeptical about absolutely everything in life, and Mick West’s argument seemed to me far more likely than the claim of alien visitation. While in the military I have seen many AUPs, but they are all perfectly explainable as misunderstood new technology, physical phenomena, or videos taken at the maximum range of that equipment, thus resulting in a low quality image whose interpretation depends on the viewer.
I see the UFO/AUP phenomena as very similar to stolen valor, where people make claims of military service and belonging to elite units, but the difference is we can make FOIA requests of their DD214 thus exposing their lies and embellishments, while with AUP stories their is usually no official records to investigate.
I understand many people that claim to have seen UFOs are not necessarily lying, merely misunderstanding what they saw, therefore I am very interested in the psychological aspect of AUP interpretation.
Thank you.
I signed onto Metabunk back in July but just stumbled across this thread. Better late than never.
As for my past and pathway here, I grew up in the heyday of the space program and was interested in anything space-related, including news reports of UFOs. In my early teens I explored all the woo du jour: ESP, ancient astronauts, bigfoot, alien encounters, etc. Reading books by Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov when I was in high school clarified my thinking on a lot of popular ideas. I discovered books by Randi, Gardner, and later, Shermer, Klass, Shaeffer, et al. Aside from my library of science and skeptical literature, since the 1980s I've been collecting UFO books, magazines, pulps, and comics with flying saucer covers. The more garish the better!
As for my past and pathway here, I grew up in the heyday of the space program and was interested in anything space-related, including news reports of UFOs. In my early teens I explored all the woo du jour: ESP, ancient astronauts, bigfoot, alien encounters, etc. Reading books by Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov when I was in high school clarified my thinking on a lot of popular ideas. I discovered books by Randi, Gardner, and later, Shermer, Klass, Shaeffer, et al. Aside from my library of science and skeptical literature, since the 1980s I've been collecting UFO books, magazines, pulps, and comics with flying saucer covers. The more garish the better!
Kickflip
New Member
Hey all! Found my way here after becoming interested in the UFO topic following the Grusch hearing. I generally align with the highly-skeptical end of the spectrum, interested in the social psychology of cultlike thinking in pseudoscience communities. I want to grow as an empathetic and effective communicator to those down the rabbit hole.
jesseconnell
New Member
Hello, Metabunk! I find the approach to fantastical claims employed by Mick West and collaborators here very compelling.
sentientCode
New Member
Hi, I'm here to get weird and prove a bunch of people wrong with experiments, schematics and test results
JackTReason
Member
Greetings! I'm JackTReason, and it is very nice to find kindred spirits.
(Here I use spirit in the colloquial sense, as in we all share a similar skeptical basis of thought, rather than any of us being spectral beings).
(Also, I say kindred to emphasize this shared reality, rather than implying actual blood relations with anyone).
(Nor am I rejecting there might be some blood relations here, I don't really know).
(Here I use spirit in the colloquial sense, as in we all share a similar skeptical basis of thought, rather than any of us being spectral beings).
(Also, I say kindred to emphasize this shared reality, rather than implying actual blood relations with anyone).
(Nor am I rejecting there might be some blood relations here, I don't really know).
unclepaulie
Member
Mick and I have shared a couple emails, its always refreshing when someone takes the time to reach out!This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
I am a retired scientist and teacher. My good fortune happened in 1989 when I met Phil Klass.
I had read every UFO book on the market, I was fully invested. Every single case I asked Phil about, he had a really good explanation and often a pile of evidence for his claims. I immediately became a skeptic.
Phil always gets ripped for being an ornery old man, often hyper critical. I can tell you personally that he was super respectful during interviews of witnesses, he wasn't there to cut them down or belittle them.
On the other hand, he couldn't stand a liar. Claims about education, military and work experience were met with research. If a persons claim was a lie, Phil could not contain himself.
His feeling was that any lie that slipped by was one too many.
Personally, he was a hoot. He had a complex sense of humor and appreciated people that got the joke.
Our fight is the good fight in a world of opinion and disinformation.
I've been lurking for months and recently joined to be able to upvote/downvote and make comments, so I guess I should introduce myself. I'm a former journalist now working in science-adjacent web content management. I first stumbled across Mick's analysis videos on YouTube in 2022 and found myself coming to Metabunk for more content after watching most of his back catalog. I'm fascinated by how people actively fool themselves by misinterpreting imagery, like the supposed sunken cities and underwater artifacts that show up on Google Maps and Google Earth that are actually mostly due to the varying sonar methodologies and transects used by research vessels.
deirdre
Senior Member.
please don't follow Shill Murray's lead and invade the town's privacy more than is necessary.
a metabunk discord would be great
Geo
New Member
Hi all, Geoffrey Rucker here. I've been lurking for about a week now, so I've gotten to know something about some of you. I'm 48, professionally an electro-mechanical technician, originally trained in the US Navy. I'm a Christian, no particular denomination, and a conspiracy researcher. I found this place researching the Abraham Lincoln quote about the giants/Niagara Falls, so I appreciate that. Being in the conspiracy realm is becoming much more treacherous these days, so I'm glad to have found a place that will help keep me up to speed, and a group that searches for the truth. Thanks for making this place, Mick, it is a service. (Especially the flat earth section, my goodness, they are everywhere!)
Hi,
Firstly thank you for accepting my application to join,
I found the site while researching information on the 9/11 conspiracy theories as they popped up recently on Quora or at least in my feed as most are replies to years old questions. Some were laughably absurd, a beam weapon causing mid-air pulverization (dustification) being my personal favourite (or least favourite depending on how you look at it), but others required a bit more to deal with and this site was a goldmine of for such information.
Firstly thank you for accepting my application to join,
I found the site while researching information on the 9/11 conspiracy theories as they popped up recently on Quora or at least in my feed as most are replies to years old questions. Some were laughably absurd, a beam weapon causing mid-air pulverization (dustification) being my personal favourite (or least favourite depending on how you look at it), but others required a bit more to deal with and this site was a goldmine of for such information.
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JMartJr
Senior Member.
I see some potential disadvantages, but won't go into them here -- if there is ever (or is now and I missed it) a thread discussing the idea, I can weigh in there.
So while HERE, welcome Egor, and everybody else up-thread!
wolfgang58
New Member
Hi! I am Wolfgang from Bad Voeslau in Austria (30 km south of Vienna) abd I want to share with you a video of a strange worm-like formation in the sky captured on 30th Dez 2023 14:18 CET .. unfortunately these are only screenshots from my 3 min video, it is too large for upload.This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Attachments
Hevach
Senior Member.
Welcome!
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/si...y-hybrid-contrails-the-rook-instability.4539/
This is likely a relevant thread to share those screenshots, as it appears to be a phenomenon discussed on the site before.
You can upload the video to YouTube and them embed it in a post as well.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/si...y-hybrid-contrails-the-rook-instability.4539/
This is likely a relevant thread to share those screenshots, as it appears to be a phenomenon discussed on the site before.
You can upload the video to YouTube and them embed it in a post as well.
deported_from_magonia
New Member
i just joined and can't post in the thread I basically joined to post to.
Last edited by a moderator:
This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hey guys! I joined recently to put my paranoia at ease after reading about conspiracies throughout my life. So thank you all for your help!This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
JohnCS1950
New Member
My best introduction is to ask you to scan and/or read my article (link to follow) about John Keel and Gray Barker for Skeptical Inquirer. I'm that guy. I've just discovered Metabunk through the recent UFO movie by Brian Dunning, whose podcasts I've followed -- off and on -- for several years. I'm still interested in the topic, and on a few occasions I've given talks to underscore the material in my experiences with Barker and Keel. In addition, I'm the editor of Neil McAleer's 2012 biography of Sir Arthur C. Clarke ("Odyssey of a Visionary"), but more info is available at my website (MysteryVisits.com). Here's the article: https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2002/05/22164744/p39.pdf
Been frustrated by the apparent inability of so many to critically view supposed UFO claims, and have followed MW for a year or so in my search for sanity. Once in a while I feel like I can contribute, and now hope to be able to help in this effort.This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Avalon
New Member
Just joined. Have recently become reintererested in the subject after years away, and rather frustrated by the credulity of too many over bizarre claims with little evidence, and their resistance to logic or rational explanations.
Glad to be here and look forward to participating to the best of my ability!
Glad to be here and look forward to participating to the best of my ability!
Curtis Morris
New Member
Hey Everyone, I'm Curtis. I've followed the phenomenon since the 1980's. I am a stanch sceptic on the matter. I am only interested in provable facts. I found this site by my interactions on the sub reddit we all know well. Anyways, I look forward to more informed discussions.This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.
A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hey all! I found Mick West after the David Grusch UAP testimonies, and subsequently learned about Metabunk. I love investigating and debating conspiracy-related topics (especially since some of my buddies are very prone to believing them) so hopefully I can contribute something to the community.
2pint
Member
Hey everyone! Been reading a few posts on the site over the last couple of months, some proper amazing work you guys do and really tech knowledge from many of the posters. Have always found the UAP subject intriguing, have tended to side toward the "believer" label I suppose but I like to think i'm pretty open minded and am happy seeing things throughly picked apart! Is good to see a lot of the video's being debunked and in my view just shows we're yet to be presented with any incontrovertible evidence.
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