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From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 20:48:01 -0800 Fwd Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 06:41:35 -0500 Subject: The Mother of All UFO Link Pages is now on-line! If you haven't seen it yet, check it out our "UFO Master Index" at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo As the name implies, we intend this to be the master link guide to all UFO content on the web. Instead of a simple list of links, this is a database of hundred of separate listings grouped by topic, people and media. There are presently 800+ links and 200+ ufologists listed here, and we expect the numbers to grow into the thousands. Large UFO link pages have been attempted before, but this one is different, mainly because we don't maintain it -- you do! Anyone can add or change a link, subject only to later review by our moderator. Our database is a tree structure similar to Yahoo, but it is tailored specifically to the UFO and paranormal fields, where investigations hinge as much on personalities as on lights in the sky. We give you more categories to choose from and more ways to cross-reference information than any other index. We also provide mechanisms for user comments and for "reply links" allowing claims and investigations to be associated together. We do not provide storage for web pages (apart from archived mailing lists), but we do provide many ways to access existing pages. We want to provide the information you need when you need it and to assure that no research, once placed on the web, is ever forgotten. To serve this mission, we provide an environment that is refreshingly free of graphics, music, moving animations, ideology or anything else that might distract from your research. If none of this excites you right now, it will. Because there are so many options available in this new database, it might take a while to understand how to effectively use them. Here are a few examples of what is available: -- See our UFO organizations page at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/org. Here you will find 90+ organizations that have web sites, sorted by location. We don't just list the English language pages, but pages in every language and in every part of the world. Anyone can add a new organization using the "Add Link" option at the bottom of the page. Here, you enter a URL, a title and an optional description as you would expect, but you also have many other available options as well. In this case, you can enter a country, state and city or region to the organization, assuring that it will be sorted correctly on the location list. For all index pages, the Add Link page appears the same, offering you a wide variety of options: publication information, event date, location -- even GPS coordinates if that has some relevance. You can enter as little or as much information as you have. The displayed entry is then sorted according to what you entered. After you create a new entry, it is displayed immediately on the index page, but it is also queued to the moderator for review within the next few days. To avoid the chaos of irrelevant submissions, the moderator has the power to delete, move or change any entry. The moderator does not "censor" anyone for their views, but he does evaluate (a) whether the new entry is directly relevant to the page, and (b) whether the entry contributes new information that has not been linked before. The moderator wants facts and "content", not empty opinions, although he does not try to decide whether the given facts are true. Each page has its own criteria for what is relevant, and a basic description is usually given at the top. -- Every ufologist has their own link page. For example, conspiracy theorist Bill Cooper can be found at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/people/c/cooper. Like other URLs on our site, this address is a simple one that should be both easy to remember and permanent. Link to this address and you can be assured that you will always find the most complete Cooper references available (provided other users add them). This page contains links to the "official" Cooper home page, web searches for Cooper, a Cooper portrait and user-supplied links to Cooper-related documents -- be they pro, con or neutral. The page itself is neither supportive of Cooper nor critical of him. It is simply a list of links. If someone is involved in a conflict with this person, both parties have equal opportunity to post their links here. We do not pass judgement on the content of these documents, apart from confirming that they are relevant. Only the author and the person who stores a page on their server are responsible for its content. On any of our pages, new claims can be posted as main entries. Then, secondary "reply links" can be added that lead to investigations, rebuttals or supporting documents. Readers now have access not only to the original claim, but also to any interactions that went on afterwards -- perhaps debunking, supporting or analyzing it. It is up to the reader to decide who is right or wrong, but at least he has the information he needs to make that judgment. -- See our topical page for "Moon/Mars Structures" at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/topic/marsface/. The topic here is the Face on Mars and any other claimed artificial structures on the planets or moons of our solar system (apart from Earth). Here you will find a list of some of the ufologists actively involved in the field -- both supporters and skeptics. This information is automatically cross-referenced from the ufologist pages. Here you will also find links to external indexes, like the Yahoo page on the Cydonia region. Our Master Index is all-inclusive. We do not compete with others but instead link those resources directly to our own. The links that end up on this page depend largely on what web surfers think is important enough to post here. Thus, individual users have a lot of power. While we are wary of people who might abuse our system and may have to establish new safeguards to discourage it, we are committed to providing an open forum with as few restrictions as possible. -- See our UFO Sightings page at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/topic/sighting/. Here, existing sighting reports from around the world are listed both by date and location. If this page eventually becomes too big to work with, the webmaster will split it into separate pages based on criteria that have yet to be decided. -- See our UFO Conferences page at http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/media/conf/. Here you will find listings for conferences and major public events, both future and past. It is intended that conference entries will be retained even after the event takes place. This gives people the opportunity to post permanent reply links regarding what went on there. -- On our Add Link pages, we support not only links but also references to documents that are not on the net (e.g. "books", etc.). We cannot give you the full content of every resource, but at least we can tell you that it exists and where to find it. Thus, this database can index virtually all known UFO resources on our present planet. The amount of UFO material available on the web is immense, and only a tiny fraction of it is indexed on our site so far. So get to it! We encourage anyone to add links to these pages. Whenever you stumble upon an interesting document, please make sure it has an entry on the appropriate index page. The only thing we ask is that the document be somehow "interesting" -- not just a repeat of information already linked but something that expands our base of data. FINANCIAL SUPPORT How does the Area 51 Research Center pay for such a complex system? (Why a government grant, of course -- not!) Obviously, this has involved many months of programming and a significant commitment of future labor to monitor the submissions -- not to mention the cost of internet services. We intend to support this massive index by inserting unobtrusive advertizing at the bottom of some pages for the UFO books we sell through our catalog. Unlike the link pages themselves, our advertizing is not neutral. We sell only books that we feel qualified to evaluate and can personally recommend to others, and we will not sell advertizing to any outside party. To make sure the advertizing is clearly differentiated from the rest of the index page, it always appears with a purple background (on modern browsers) and only at the bottom of the page, so it never interferes with browsing. You don't have to look at it, but it might offer something relevant to the current topic. We are far from making money, and we do not plan to do better than breaking even. If we ever do show a significant profit, that capital will be put back into the website to fund additional services. The mission is everything! There may be a few bugs to work out, and we are always open to enhancements, but the basic structure of the database is now in place, and readers are invited to explore it. If you would like to experiment with our Add Link system without any risk of damage, visit our practice page at http://www.ufomind.com/org/practice. Here you can add and modify entries to your heart's content, and you will begin to see how powerful the system can be. Glenn Campbell +------ U F O M I N D -------+ | Glenn Campbell campbell@ufomind.com | | AREA 51 RESEARCH CENTER - Las Vegas & Rachel, Nevada | | UFOs - Gov't Secrets - Philosophy - Psychology | | http://www.ufomind.com Box 448, Rachel, NV 89001 | +------------------------------------------------------+
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