UFO Magazine closes - lack of interest

[iain]

The Observer is reporting that, after 25 years, UFO Magazine was shut down last week.

There's an interesting quote from author of UFO books Andy Roberts Ufology is really a thing of the last century. The end of the X-Files series didn't help, and there has been a decline since the televised alien autopsy of the mid 1990s...

[Ed]

Originally posted by iain
The Observer is reporting that, after 25 years, UFO Magazine was shut down last week.

There's an interesting quote from author of UFO books Andy Roberts

absolutely fascinating. So, they found out all there was to know and people lost interest? No? You mean they couldn't keep selling grainy photos to the same nutjobs indefinately? What a shocker.

[Pyrrho]

Originally posted by Ed
absolutely fascinating. So, they found out all there was to know and people lost interest? No? You mean they couldn't keep selling grainy photos to the same nutjobs indefinately? What a shocker.
I believe what actually happened was that once personal computers, digital photography, and image-manipulation software became widely available, people could make their own -- and often much better -- UFO photos. Once the kids realized they could do a better job, the UFO industry began to die. We're now in the autumn of the Ghost Orb era, BTW.

[Checkmite]

My local Borders sells UFO Magazine, just starboard and aft of Skeptical Inquirer. I picked up an issue once, and although it contained a few newer photos, a great many of them were the "old and grainy" type. Knowing what I (we) know, it didn't surprise me, and I wondered then how long it would take for the magazine to tank with no new input. There is another UFO magazine there whose name eludes me. Fortean Times is also there.

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

This is a good sign of a lack of slightly less widespread stupidity!

It’s irrational to consider the unproven possible!

[iain]

Originally posted by !Xx+-Rational-+xX!
This is a good sign of a lack of slightly less widespread stupidity!

It’s irrational to consider the unproven possible! I see you've been increasing the medication dosage then :)

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

Originally posted by iain
I see you've been increasing the medication dosage then :)

Not !Xx+-Rational-+xX! :g1: :run:

[Bikewer]

I guess all those alien abductors got enough probe samples....

[Hutch]

Never fear, if you still need a UFO fix, try this site:

http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear

Quite an interesting character runs it, he thinks there are others out there but it hasn't stopped him from making fun of the more "way out there" folks.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by iain
The Observer is reporting that, after 25 years, UFO Magazine was shut down last week.

There's an interesting quote from author of UFO books Andy Roberts
I could only imagine the final words of the final page of that magazine read:

HA HA HA! Fooled you! I cant believe you thought we were serious ha ha ha ha ha...

[Keneke]

Originally posted by Ed
So, they found out all there was to know and people lost interest? No? You mean they couldn't keep selling grainy photos to the same nutjobs indefinately? What a shocker.

Actually, the fact that they are losing interest somewhat flies in the face of one of our major selling points: that there exists a rising tide of woo-woo that we must fight against.

Are we winning the battle? Or are UFO theories simply being replaced by new fashions, thereby holding steady (or increasing) the overall amount of silliness in the world?

[Ratman_tf]

Originally posted by Keneke


Actually, the fact that they are losing interest somewhat flies in the face of one of our major selling points: that there exists a rising tide of woo-woo that we must fight against.

Are we winning the battle? Or are UFO theories simply being replaced by new fashions, thereby holding steady (or increasing) the overall amount of silliness in the world?

I would go with the latter but note that psuedoscience has it's ebbs and flows.

[Toastrider]

Hey, Ratman! Nice to see you again... haven't seen you since the P2P/LtM boards :)

I think you may be onto something, though. Personally, I'm hoping for the demise of the 'ectoplasm' proponents as well, because I've seen better pics faked using photomanipulation of existing photographs.

That's probably why they're recycling the old paper-mache images; all the really good photomanipulators don't want to make ectoplasm pics, they're too busy making photo alters of tentacle pr0n.

Not that, uh, I'd know about that. Or something.

:D

--Toasty

[Jas]

I think the current trench of 'woo-wooism' is drifting away from little green men and the like, and more towards personal things that "can't be measured by science", such as CAM, spriritualism, psychics, and new-age-ism. Also, there seems to be a growing fundamentalist movement.

[Ratman_tf]

Originally posted by Toastrider
Hey, Ratman! Nice to see you again... haven't seen you since the P2P/LtM boards :)


Heya Toasty! I'm still hanging out at P2P and The Morlocks, if you ever feel like shooting the ****. :D