Welcome Thread - New Members Post Here

Grew up as a huge fan of the ufo phenomena and strong believer, but add to that some skills (of now a decade+) in computer generated imagery & critical thinking I've came to realize that ''not everything that shines is gold.''

Also, hi.
 
Howdy! Until maybe a year ago I was a true believer because I wanted to believe aliens visit us. It would be exciting! It would cure our doldrums.

I did a 180 after reluctantly considering two things:
  • There is to date no evidence of alien visits.
  • I learned that the physics of interstellar travel very likely prevent aliens from coming to Earth.
I'm now actively involved in the UFO Twitter sphere.
 
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!
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It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
TD here.

20-year USN fighter pilot/22-year airline pilot: I am taking a UMich MOOC about UFO/UAPs, and saw a couple of Mike West vids there, and was mightily impressed---so I'm here.

As a former VF skipper, I'm very curious about the "Nimitz incidents" and that VF skipper's accounts of the events. Also, as a "Snopes survivor", I've been madly looking for a fact-checker that doesn't need constant fact-checking.

Cheers!
 
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!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/

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!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hi, I'm Betsy, originally from San Francisco and newly retired to Merida, Mexico. I found this website while researching some rather specious theories on Covid19 in The International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research (IJVTPR). Looking forward to seeing more excellent debunking!
 
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!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/

Hi to all, here at Metabunk. Have been ghosting a lot of the forums for a few months now, although I've no axe to grind or cause to support, after a wee child-hood crush on the Bermuda Triangle ran it's fortunately short course. Ironically, I've been getting lost down the "reverse/anti/opposite" Rabbit-Hole of some very good and entertaining threads here. Enjoyable, even though I don't expect to meet a real FE / UFO / 9.11 proponent any time soon. Hmmm, a friend of my partner is into Tarot/astrology, so I may yet have to explore some more here on related subjects...

I really appreciate the depth and breadth of specialist knowledge brought to the threads, along with effort to share it concisely (as far as possible) made by very many people, to explore the limits of understanding. The delivery of argument in a reasoned and (almost) always polite fashion has been a welcome relief against the little time I have spent reading the comments sections of a few videos I've watched.

One thing I have found quite interesting is the general discussions between many of the regular posters, on less cut-and-dried topics: Usually the more current events, like COVID reporting, where there is a struggle between emotive response and rational discourse confounded by cultural/regional variations in so many aspects of the large complicated matter. It helps me personally try to be as considered and objective as possible, and realise I will have my own blindspots and biases: but that can be worked on.

All in all, I will continue to use this site as great GoTo resource, for myself, to refresh and deepen my own understanding of matters. On a non-debunk matter, it has already been a great help. My brother recently asked me if a human weighs more or less at the equator, should the Earth cease rotating (non-catastrophically, of course). I've learnt a heap more than I expected about the Geoid/oblate sphericity, and the impact of distance and rotational velocity, which was very rusty 30 years after high school.

Thanks again to all who contribute, it helps those of us without the same experience.... Regards, PsiKiwi
 
Greetings.

An interesting place !
I look forward to reading various threads in more detail ...
and maybe adding some contributions.
But all in good time !
 
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!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/

Hi there!

I'm Thiago, an attorney-at-law in Brazil. I found this forum after reading The New Yorker's "How the Pentagon Started Taking UFOS seriously". I'm also interested in the collection/assessment of evidences, as well as in the different criteria to confirm the good evidences and to rule the bad ones out.
 
Hi. I am new. My name is Marcos. I am from Chile. I didn't know this page. I think I found it when I searched a lot of the kumburgaz incident. From kid I have been obsessed with UFOs. When I had i think 13 yo, I think saw a metallic cigar ufo, but this was so long ago I think have blurred remembers. Maybe it was a zeppelin. But I have a fresh case.
 
Hi, I'm a programmer and skeptic originally from Argentina, currently living in Japan. I've been a follower of Mick's YouTube channel for a while, but only really came about Metabunk today with the latest Gimbal video (I probably wasn't paying attention before, shame). Not sure I'll be able to contribute much, I'll probably stay a lurker, but I look forward to adding Metabunk to my daily website rotation. Cheers!
 
Hoi! Documentary creator and natural sceptic from the northern hemisphere joining ! How are you all ? We have an hotspot for lights and (some claim chassies) flashes here, and I`m really curious about using examples from this site to sort some of the observations here.
 
Hi everyone!

I used to be into magical thinking, but Douglas Adams, of all people, showed me the way out. So much happier now. I try to help others reject magical thinking, too.
 
Hi everyone!

I used to be into magical thinking, but Douglas Adams, of all people, showed me the way out. So much happier now. I try to help others reject magical thinking, too.

Welcome. I'm wondering what it was about Douglas Adams that was so helpful. If you'd like to expand, please do.
 
Welcome. I'm wondering what it was about Douglas Adams that was so helpful. If you'd like to expand, please do.
That’s a bit of a story, but since you asked…

A bit of background:

I came for a fairly religious (Roman Catholic) family and attended Catholic school through high school and I bought into that religion hard.

I don’t wish to turn this into an anti-religious thread, but it’s an important part of my particular story. My religion greatly warped my thinking and made me think that blind belief was far more important than logic. I nearly joined the seminary at one point. This got me into all sorts of other magical thinking, ghosts, demons, extraterrestrials, etc. because my religion said that essentially all sorts of the unprovable was unquestionably REAL, and that my belief in these things was good. I nearly left home in high school to try to focus on a sort of odd (to me now) mix of Catholic ideas and the kabbalah (which is a form of Jewish mysticism).

I was, and still am, an avid reader and one of my favorite authors is Douglas Adams (he of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame). I knew him to be both funny and quite erudite. Shortly after his death, I picked up a lot of his lesser-know writings and read them voraciously. What I didn’t know at the time is that Mr. Adams was an atheist. I’ve since learned that he thought of himself as a “radical atheist” just so people would understand he thought a lot about it and really was an atheist and not an agnostic.

I picked up the text of several speeches he gave and in them he pointed out many of the key tenets of religions and pointed out how ridiculous and contradictory they are to what we now know of the real world. He also pointed out how harmful blind belief can be. This really hurt me. I stopped reading mid-way through those speeches and didn’t return to them for about a month. It felt like my whole life was a lie. However, too much of what he said answered a lot of the questions I had about the inconsistency in my own faith. I finishing reading and from that point on I’ve been an atheist and secular humanist.

This got me to re-examine all of the other bunk I had bought into over my life and I went looking for reputable sources to see what science said about those things and none of them have any evidence, either.

I still enjoy a good ghost story, but now I just enjoy it for entertainment and don’t think it is based on anything real.

This is the first time I’ve told the story of my deconversion to anyone. My family is still religious, so I’ve never said anything to them.

Anyway, for those interested, you can read The Salmon of Doubt and catch several other speeches he gave on religion on YouTube and other locations.

I’m happy to help others out of the rabbit hole, because it’s a better place to be, but I know you can’t get anyone out who isn’t ready.
 
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Hi all,

A week ago I had never heard of Mick West or Metabunk. Then I googled the words "escaping from the rabbit-hole stories", being my own concoction. Only to find there's a book thus titled and an associated web forum. With that I bought the (e)book through Kobo, am a few chapters in, and have now landed up here. Said google search was inspired by ... ... concern for a friend who's signed up to Big Pharma / Libertarian / anti-(covid)vax theories. Looking forward to insights and productive conversations with my friend and others ...
 
This is the first time I’ve told the story of my deconversion to anyone. My family is still religious, so I’ve never said anything to them.

Anyway, for those interested, you can read The Salmon of Doubt and catch several other speeches he gave on religion on YouTube and other locations.

I’m happy to help others out of the rabbit hole, because it’s a better place to be, but I know you can’t get anyone out who isn’t ready.

Thanks for sharing. I'm fairly embarassed about some of the religious baggage that I've now thankfully discarded. It got its claws deep into me when I was at a very low patch, but being brought up in an religious household made it a very easy slippery slope to fall down. It makes me thankful that I had such great friends that put up with what I'm perfectly happy to call idiocy. Strangely, the friend most instrumental in my deconversion at university had a very low patch himself several years later, and he's become what I once was. I wonder if there's some conservation law in physics to explain such things. I'll check out /The Salmon of Doubt/, and do some hunting on youtube - thanks!
 
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!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hey there hi there I'm new here and I just wanted to give a warm greeting to you all and wanted to be a part of finding and putting together evidence together for fun.
 
Hi! I'm Bezequil! I found this site doing research on the "Cooper family photo/hanging body photo" and was delighted to finally find an answer to who made the hoax after all these years. So many fascinating topics being discussed on this site, I had to register an account!
 
Hi, I recently did dive deep on a piece of video footage and really enjoyed the process. I'm here to learn more about analysis and debunking processes.
 
Hi everyone,
and: thanks Mick, for all your eminent debunking work and for setting up this brilliant forum. I am an investigative reporter and editor for the Swedish bi-monthly magazine Filter (not to be confused with the American music mag Filter). Interested in mass psychogenic illness, social delusion and general bullshit. Hopefully I can submit helpful facts and/or reflections when threads touch subjects I've covered during my 25+ years as a reporter. I am also looking forward to tapping the wisdom of this crowd if opportunity arises.
 
Greetings,

I have visited a few times to share obvious details about aircraft ballast tanks that people are mis-representing.

Electronic engineer residing in Finland having spent many decades in South Africa.

I have a cautious optimism for this site but have been a bit disappointed by some of the prejudice here.

I understand that this strives to be a fact based forum but bad faith by officials and large corporations is allowed more leeway than less bad faith by random conspiracy enthusiasts. I speak here when observing discussions relating to covid, and Ivermectin in particular. A supporting study may be torn apart for a host of large and small weaknesses but a lot less time is spent on the fact that studies that are used to dismiss Ivermectin or promote vaccines are almost equally full of smaller or larger failing but they are accepted because they conform to the mainstream narrative. If it turns out that criticism of government, healthcare policy makers, mainstream media, big pharma is automatically assumed to be poor judgement than I may not contribute much as the old smoke/fire test has been passed a long time ago in my estimation.

This forum has great value in systematically eliminating what I consider hobby conspiracies that I believe ill intentioned people spread for sport such as chem trails and flat earth which simply confuse the credulous. I hope it will more systematically approach actual societal dangers as well or it may turn out to be a toothless sideline for self proclaimed critics to tackle the easy topics.

The reason I thought to register is so I can "weigh in" as an another welcome message indicated on topics I read here and I will also be posting a few claims that relate to topic I have followed with the current healthcare crisis.

I would also be most cheered up if I find a discussion group that considers what should be done and how one could determine if there is in fact an official narrative in the covid crisis that is not geared towards population health but has other goals. I would love to find simple risk analysis for various scenarios should they be true to determine where people could focus their attention. Not sure if there is a meta forum where this would fit in but will be looking around. I might start one if I find the right place.

Mostly I like what I have read as the people are polite and seem to be educated and rational.

Kalle
 
Hi, I'm pixeljones, software developer and fan of civil debate which can feel as practical as being a fan of the Tooth Fairy these days.
Just reading the Politeness Policy I can tell Mick's heart (and mind) is in the right place. This looks fantastic.

BTW: I got here from Michael Gambone's excellent interview on countering conspiracy theories where he promoted Metabunk specifically.
David Pakman | How to Cure Conspiracy Theories (Michael Gambone Interview)
 
Hey, came to this site after looking up info on the V3solar cell and really like the analysis of the tech. The tech seemed to be to Good to be true and it seems to be.
 
Hello everyone! About a year ago is when I first came across Mick West and his analysis of all those Pentagon UFO videos. I would say that I used to be a bit of a believer in UFO’s and such but over time I’ve thankfully been exposed to more level-headed analysis from multiple skeptic sources. Can’t wait to learn more from this community!
 
Hi everyone. For the past year or so, I've been pretty fascinated with some conspiracy stuff, particularly 9/11. My interest actually got started from watching a video of Mick interviewing a truther while randomly browsing his UFO videos. Since then, I've been reading Metabunk threads as the best source for skeptical/debunking takes on the collapses of WTC 1, 2 and 7. I find that mainstream articles/videos on this issue are often very shallow, and Mick is one of the few people who really digs into this stuff and has detailed conversations with people like Tony Szamboti etc. However I've no degrees in anything scientific, so I'm just trying to understand the topic with a layman's understanding of basic physics and such. I've no interest in other popular conspiracies like chemtrails, UFOs, paranormal stuff etc, so I expect to mostly just hang out in the 9/11 board.
 
Hello everyone,
I've been a worker to the site for about 2 years and I figure it's about time to join so I can actually contribute. Can't wait to start posting without moderation.
 
Hey everyone! I am buzz, and I enjoy learning about what is in the sky above us. I am more focused on the UAP side of debunking, as I have seen my own sightings and debunked them myself through research. Though I have had a couple that I couldn't explain.

Looking forward to great discussions soon :)
 
Hi All,
Thanks for the add. I’m just interested in all the cool, unexplained ”stuff” out there. Mainly because, having no scientific background, it’s great to read genuine suggestions as to possible explanations as to what causes/may be causing unusual anamolous events.
 
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