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Myths busted, hoaxes exposed.


Hazzard

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If the Earth were young, it would imply that All XX century physics is very wrong.

We have no clue about why chemistry works, and all modern biology is wrong, we dont really understand modern medicine, or Paleontology? Nope, all wrong. Geology? Back to the XIX century as well.

http://skeptics.stac...-6000-years-old

But try telling this to the Y.E crowd,... :lol:

This guy is doing his part http://www.richarddawkins.net/ would you like to know more? (Starship Troopers) ;)

Check him out on youtube. :tu:

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Well it seems like quite a few liked the idea to have some sort of 'confirmed hoaxes and fakes'-thread! What say you guys, should be try to do this? Perhaps we could contact a mod or something?

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Thats what I was thinking,... slinging the creationists BS was by no means the intent.

Thats a great idea! Who would we have to ask about this? Theres no stickies on any of the boards on here that i am aware of.

I actually kind of like this idea. So new members who come here and want to talk about something that's already been debunked/proven to be fake can be directed there. I just wonder how we would organize it.

To the subject of hoaxes and fakes, there are quite a few out there. The Surgeon's Photograph of Nessie is supposed to be a fake. There's also the hippo swallows a dwarf hoax or something like that.

I thought I'd reply to y'all at once ^^ I for one think Hazzard could "transform" the OP and add every hoax and fake that we post here, like the surgeon's photo and the Gable Footage. What do you think about that idea? And if some one's curious about a cryptid, or a footage or a pic they could come here and ask if it's a fake.

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I for one are in favor of a thread like that,... Exposing all the nonsense, if for nothing else than to see whats left, if anything at all. :)

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I for one are in favor of a thread like that,... Exposing all the nonsense, if for nothing else than to see whats left, if anything at all. :)

Well we better compile some sort of data base then :) can we contact a mod or something about making this a sticky? Or perhaps we should gather a few known hoaxes first to get started?

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It's not really practical to have a single thread containing details of every hoax that's ever been.

Some potential problems:

- Disagreements over what constitutes 'confirmed hoax' on some topics

- Stifling of original discussion by just referring everyone to this one thread

- Negativity aimed at members who haven't checked the thread before posting

- Lack of organization, no clear formatting will make for a messy thread

- Difficult to find specific things within the thread

- Sending visitors off to other sites for info is somewhat self-defeating

Also we get people asking for threads to be pinned all the time so we generally only do so on very rare occasions.

A thread dedicating to collating hoax cases is a nice idea but very problematic to implement in practice.

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A rational explanation - However tenuous - Has far more empirical value than the hare-brained hysterical nonsense that believers in the paranormal would have you believe.

Take this 'out-there' response to a skeptical analysis of the "Flatwoods Monster".

http://www.skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19266

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It's not really practical to have a single thread containing details of every hoax that's ever been.

Some potential problems:

- Disagreements over what constitutes 'confirmed hoax' on some topics

- Stifling of original discussion by just referring everyone to this one thread

- Negativity aimed at members who haven't checked the thread before posting

- Lack of organization, no clear formatting will make for a messy thread

- Difficult to find specific things within the thread

- Sending visitors off to other sites for info is somewhat self-defeating

Also we get people asking for threads to be pinned all the time so we generally only do so on very rare occasions.

A thread dedicating to collating hoax cases is a nice idea but very problematic to implement in practice.

While I do agree that a topic like this could potentially be a complicated thing, I also think it is a manageable one. Let me address your points:

We could have two categories of hoaxes, each discussed in the first and second post in the thread: the first post has confirmed hoaxes and faked pictures/videos, while the second post could contain debatable/unconfirmed "evidence". For instance, the surgeon's photo of the Loch Ness would fall into the first post of Confirmed Hoaxes, as would the Gable Film, and all the various photoshoped photos. The second post would contain pictures/videos of suspected ha hoaxes, but without any evidence to back it up. Now, we wouldn't include the Paterson Film in this category (or similarly debated "evidence") since we have no concrete evidence for or against it. We would include pictures and videos we all take for granted that they are fakes, but we don't have evidence of this.

While discussion might be stifled, we might also see less "trash threads", so to speak. We wouldn't have to get as many "have you guys seen this!?"-threads where everyone commenting simply says "It's a confirmed hoax". I don't think a thread like this would stifle the discussion per say, since new photos and videos wouldn't be posted there, UNTIL they are confirmed (or strongly thought to be) hoaxes/fakes. All we might take away from the discussion here is the "already confirmed fakes"-threads.

While we might see some negativity towards members posting confirmed hoaxes and asking about them, wouldn't it be a great idea to guide them to a thread containing all the fakes we, as a community, can come to think off? This way, unknowing members/posters might learn a great many things - not only about the hoax they themselves are interested in, but also about a lot of other hoaxes. And I don't think we'll see a lot of negativity. I'm pretty sure that we'll mostly see comments like "Check out the hoax-thread; you'll find this picture there. It's a hoax"

What I think is the most important part of a possible hoax-thread is the first posts, and that they get updated with new information, when they are available. A thread like this could contain discussions about known hoaxes, and about what constitutes a hoax, and things like that. The most important thing is to gather the known hoaxes in the first post, so it gets very easy and accessible for everyone to find the fakes. The rest of the thread could be left for discussion, and posting questions about pictures/videos if you are curious to know if it could be a fake...

And we don't necessarily have to gather information about the hoaxes on other sites; all we have to do is to have a picture and/or a video of the known hoax with maybe a short text with information. Let's use the surgeon's photo as an example yet again; there is conclusive information that this picture in fact is a hoax, so let's just show the photo, name it and maybe (but necessarily) write a short text about it. A lot of times people just wanna know if a vid/pic is in fact a hoax. If they want more information about the hoax they could ask us, or google for further information....

I hope that wall of text makes sense....

EDIT: We could just name it "Well known hoaxes and fakes", so that we don't have to post EVERY fake/hoax there.... Just, the most well known.... I think the pictures of American civil war soldiers posting with a pterodactyl would be a good example of confirmed hoaxes, or suspected hoaxes that would fit very nicely in a thread like this.

Edited by Vidgange
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We already have a catalogue of commonly distributed cryptozoological images with statuses to indicate known hoaxes:

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/gallery/category/7/cryptozoological-mysteries

Out of those that aren't included, most are not posted due to copyright concerns.

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Too bad. But I can understand why the thread wouldn't work.

I just want to point out that creepypasta are not real as well. It's frustrating to see people claim they've seen Slenderman or some other creepypasta creature.

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We already have a catalogue of commonly distributed cryptozoological images with statuses to indicate known hoaxes:

http://www.unexplain...gical-mysteries

Out of those that aren't included, most are not posted due to copyright concerns.

Oh I browsed through those images quite a few times! But, I don't think it's really the same thing. You have to go through A LOT of pictures just to see what's a fake, and what's real. I still think it would be a good idea to have a sticky here in the crypto department to show what pic/vids we know is hoaxes/fakes. I have watched youtube-vids and wondered to myself "Is that fake? It must be! Right...?" So a thread like the one we are discussing would be a great idea imho.

EDIT: Perhaps you could have a category called "Hoaxes/Fakes" just like you have categories like "Big Foot" and "Sea Monsters"??

Edited by Vidgange
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That's so stupid ^^

I have a question... I've really been looking into Bigfoot lately, and stumbled upon Philip Morris talking about how they faked the PG film... Now, I've seen Bob Heironimus re-enact the Patty walk, and it doesn't look too convincing. But apparently both Philip and Bob was featured in some documentary about this (alleged?) hoax, where they re-enacted the whole footage of the PG film, but I haven't been able to see this re-enactment. Is there any thoughts on this around here?

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That's so stupid ^^

I have a question... I've really been looking into Bigfoot lately, and stumbled upon Philip Morris talking about how they faked the PG film... Now, I've seen Bob Heironimus re-enact the Patty walk, and it doesn't look too convincing. But apparently both Philip and Bob was featured in some documentary about this (alleged?) hoax, where they re-enacted the whole footage of the PG film, but I haven't been able to see this re-enactment. Is there any thoughts on this around here?

The PG film is really tricky. Many people have claimed that they've had a part in the film, mostly people saying that they were the person in the Bigfoot suit. And then other people point the finger the other way saying stuff like the Bigfoot walk can't be replicated and other things like that. With no way to really prove anything, it is debated and unknown as to what is genuine and what is a hoax.

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It's a bad sign when the existence of a species hinges on whether or not a person can walk a certain way wearing a costume.

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It's a bad sign when the existence of a species hinges on whether or not a person can walk a certain way wearing a costume.

I couldn't agree more.

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It's a bad sign when the existence of a species hinges on whether or not a person can walk a certain way wearing a costume.

Absolutely.

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