Written by
Last modified: Friday 30-Jul-2010 16:38:21 EEST
List of UFO Forums and mailing-lists
Summary: In a Web 2.0+ world, many people believe that all the action is in blogs, podcasts, RSS, etc. It's true that a lot of good discussion happens on blogs, but there are also gems to be found from reading forums.
Typically the most informed and on-topic discussions take place in semi-private mailing-lists run by and for UFO researchers. Next are pre-moderated lists. The "signal-to-noise ratio" at UFO forums used by the general public can vary widely, but even in the high-traffic forums one can still find insightful posts. You may still want to check the UFO blogs and podcasts page.
Web-forums A quick glance at the list of recent topics discussed gives one a good idea of what people are excited about. What happens quite often, is that people who have had a UFO sighting will do a Google search and end up posting a UFO report on-line, often to one of these forums. I have seen interesting UFO reports from countries as diverse as Denmark, Lithouania and Uganda. In a 2008 interview, British pop-star Robbie Williams said he spent much time at AboveTopSecret.com, looking for answers to his own UFO sightings. My advice is to avoid spending too much time at UFO forums, unless you're already well-versed into the UFO subject and can separate the wheat from the chaff.
AboteTopSecret.com (ATS) UFO-Alien sub-forum, at one of busiest forums site in the Internet. The overarching theme of ATS is alleged conspiracies. All UFO/alien posts fall into a single subforum. [Tip: frequent posters who typically contribute interesting material include: ArMaP, Chadwickus, easynow, Gazrok, internos, IsaacKoi, jkrog08, Kandinsky, karl12, Xtraeme]
www.theparacast.com/forum/ of The Paracast podcast show, with Gene Steinberg and co-hosts (posters to check include ArchieBedford, Tom From Hong Kong)
theusofe.com forum of podcaster Tim Binall (binnallofamerica.com)
Whitley Strieber's unknowncountry.com(note: regardless of what one thinks about Strieber's own stories, due to the popularity of his 1988 book "Communion: A True Story", which became a NY Times best-seller, his web-forum tends to attract people who think they may have had similar "alien abduction" experiences)
Professional Pilots Rumor Network pprune.org forum. Several UFO threads: 154622, 371584
Mailing-lists (note: most of these lists are designed to serve the UFO researchers and seriously interested individuals. These lists are worth reading if you have the time, but if you think that all the answers are available on such private lists then you will be disappointed)
www.ufoupdateslist.com (old URL: virtuallystrange.net UFO Updates) - the archive of mailing list UFOupdates, moderated by retired radio-host Errol Bruce-Knapp. The list has been in operation since 1996 and several notable Ufologists are members. Participation has declined in recent years, but the archived discussions of the earlier years are quite interesting.
Current Encounters
magonia_exchange is a private information and data-sharing list for serious researchers of Fortean phenomena, with strong emphasis on accumulation of pre-1947 accounts of anomalous aerial phenomena - accounts found in old newspapers from many different nations and years, in old journals, scientific publications, books, and so on.
EuroUfoNet is intended to connect scientifically-oriented UFO researchers and students throughout Europe (by invitation only)
Ufomind archived messages from the Ufomind Mailling list, which served a supporting role for the ufomind.com website when it was still active. This mailing list was active between 1997-1999 and was moderated by Glenn Campbell.
Greek language sites / forums which I occasionally visit, in search of UFO reports. Generally speaking, the general populace in Greece knows practically nothing about UFOs, other than the acronym itself (I belonged in that group until late 2006). There are several groups which I would like to query about possible UFO sightings: seamen (Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world, and although some of it is flying a flag of convenience, they still employ mostly Greek naval officers), airline pilots, policemen, retired military personell and air defense radar controllers, amateur astronomers, mountaineers and fishermen.
If you enjoyed this page, you are welcome to link to it from your Website or Blog, or add it to "social bookmarking" services so others can find it too!
Subscribe free via newsreader to an aggregate feed of UFO news.