Talk:Unidentified flying object

Major structural edits 12 Oct 2012

Hello wikipedians. I've trying to reorganize this page into a coherent structure. This article did not flow in any logical manner, and contains extensive redundancies and contradictions of terminology. Thus far I've made three major starting changes:

1. Moved the discussion of the ET hypothesis deeper in the article where it can appear in context with other hypotheses, and removed the reference to the ETH in the intro
2. Put the Terminology section to the top, rewrote much of it, and added more detailed references.
3. Deleted the long Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting section from the Early History.

Obviously this is a contentious subject, so I'm going to see how people react before going forward with fixing up this entry. But I suggest the following areas for improvement:

1. Address the strong US-bias of this entry
2. Delete redundant sections (this article has both "Studies" and "Investigations" sections)
3. Create a "UFO Controversy" section?
4. Create a "UFO Theories" section to contain Identification of UFOs, the ET Hypothesis, Hoaxes, and Conspiracy Theories subsections.
5. Removing the descriptions from the sources. Ie, "Analysis of 640 high-quality cases through 1969 by UFO legend Hynek." or "Many classic cases and UFO history provided in great detail; highly documented."
6. Add more and better references

Clotten (talk) 18:32, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 25 February 2012

Please Remove: ( first line ) An unidentified flying object, often abbreviated UFO or U.F.O., is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object.

And Replace With: The phrase "unidentified flying object" was created by the United States Air Force during the late 1940s as an official internal reference to what were then being referred to by the public as flying saucers, believed by some USAF investigators at the time to have been craft of extraterrestrial origin.

SOURCES:

1. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, USAF ( the person who created the word UFO ). From his book: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956 Ace Books, Chapter 1:

“I know the full story about flying saucers and I know that it has never before been told because I organized and was chief of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, the special project set up to investigate and analyze unidentified flying object, or UFO, reports. ( UFO is the official term that I created to replace the words ‘flying saucers.’ )”

2. A routing and record sheet used for inter-office correspondence at Air Materiel Command dated February 13, 1948. Source NARA Archives:

"Referenced item states Kodachrome pictures were taken of an unidentified flying object by [NAME WITHELD] of Harmon Field, Newfoundland on 10 July, 1947. It is requested that the films or photographs be obtained for study."

3. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, USAF ( the person who created the word UFO ). From his book: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956 Ace Books, Introduction:

"It is well known that ever since the first flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers ... "

4. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, USAF ( the person who created the word UFO ). From his book: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956 Ace Books:

"In intelligence, if you have something to say about some vital problem you write a report that is known as an 'Estimate of the Situation.' A few days after the DC-3 was buzzed, the people at ATIC decided that the time had arrived to make an Estimate of the Situation. The situation was the UFO's; the estimate was that they were interplanetary! "

5. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, USAF ( the person who created the word UFO ). From his book: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956 Ace Books, Chapter 1:

The commanding officer of the fighter group, a full colonel and command pilot, believed that UFO's were real. The colonel believed in UFO's because he had a lot of faith in his pilots -- and they had chased UFO's in their F-86's. He had seen UFO's on the scopes of his radar sets, and he knew radar.

Further Considerations: There is no doubt that Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was head of the official USAF investigation into UFOs known as Project Blue Book. Also note that these references are not intended to prove UFOs are alien, only that as stated in the requested changes that some officials believed they were. Also, further records go on to make it very clear that UFOs were not to be considered as merely some vague shape or unusual anomaly that was not readily unidentifiable. Special efforts were made when screening UFO reports to eliminate as many known natural or manmade objects as possible all the way down to blowing bits of paper. This makes the existing opening statement very misleading and it hints at a typical bias by skeptics who willfully ignore the independent objective information above. Some of this is also covered in the Talk section, the only objection being one of offhanded dismissal rather than a response to the evidence.

70.72.83.184 (talk) 18:21, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Even in Calgary, there is not a single shred of definite hard, physical evidence for what you are assuming. HammerFilmFan (talk) 17:40, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. Given that this request substantially alters the first line, generally considered one of the most important parts of an article, I'd prefer to see some outside feedback before making a change like this. elektrikSHOOS (talk) 05:16, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Part of it has some substantiation in a reliable secondary source, [1] however I would not alter the first line of the lead, but rather add the information to the body text in an appropriate section, e.g. "The phrase "unidentified flying object" was created by the United States Air Force in 1952 to describe what were then being referred to by the public as flying saucers" - LuckyLouie (talk) 21:20, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Edit Request

Can a sysop PLEASE fix the first image caption? You know, the one that says "alleged UFO"? If you don't know what it is, it's a UFO. UNIDENTIFIED. FLYING. OBJECT. Please change it to either "a UFO spotted" or "an alleged spacecraft spotted". TrollGlaDOS (talk) 04:41, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

How about "tossed pie-pan spotted"? Alien spacecraft? Please. "Alleged UFO" is the best caption. HammerFilmFan (talk) 17:31, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Section "Allegations of evidence suppression"

Not only is the section heavily POV biased, it also lacks reliable sources entirely and seems to be a way for the UFO-believer crowd to garner attention. That is not what Wikipedia is for. In addition, the section is but two sentences, and could easily be incorporated under the L2 heading "Conspiracy theories" without its own L3 heading. In short, the L3 heading only draws attention to those believing in the "evidence" for unidentified flying objects being alien spacecraft. Wer900 ^talk_{essay on the definition of consensus} 20:41, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Systematic deletion of pages related to UFOlogy, UFOs, "aliens", and interdimensional beings? Misrepresentations in articles?

I've been noticing some deletions and suggestions for deletions of various pages related to UFOlogy.

And just as we find during times of sightings, we might be seeing some examples of misrepresentations, misinformation, or disinformation. I find this disturbing, and would like investigators and students of UFOlogy/Ufology to keep watch. I suggest/propose that this be an organized watch.

Examples of deletions (selected):

• List of life forms. This was just deleted a few days ago. I requested that it be undeleted. It's back—for now. It may need some work.
• Non-physical entity. Being considered for deletion. Needs more citations, and some rewriting to keep it from being a "synth". There is even a Project Page and its own Talk page, related to discussions about deletion.
• Interdimensional being. Old deletion?
• Interdimensional travel. Old deletion?
• Missing time. Deletion proposed on the Talk page. There is NO WAY this should be deleted, but it is VERY sparse, and needs several citations to be added, as well as several more examples. (Currently, there is only 1 example listed, making the article seem "anecdotal". Not good.)
• Others.

Example of misrepresentations/misinformation/disinformation (selected):

• Phoenix Lights. I tried to make factual changes several months ago to this article, but my changes were Undone. I was ticked enough to go out and partially reread – and write notes in – the famous Dr. Kitei book, and watch a video about "The Phoenix Lights", just so that I could do two main things: 1) Fix confusing and false descriptions of various time orders of sightings. (The article made it seem like there were only two types of sightings to consider.) 2) Add citations regarding the CRAFT that people thought they saw. The article read like it was mostly if not ONLY lights, in spots in the article, which is simply not true. I found several pages in the book which refer to what was seen as "craft" (and even "crafts", lol).
• Others.

Please LIST other examples in your comments just below this. Thanks.

I want to see the facts and various hypotheses kept intact!

Is there UFO Portal page? Would it be advisable?

How can people organize a watch by students and investigators of these phenomena, rather than seeing skeptics and "debunkers" pick off or diminish articles one by one? If they do so, it would typically and likely be done quietly/silently. Therefore, there MUST be a watch kept. (If I had more time, and more experience here, I might spearhead it.)

Please don't edit my comments above. Please comment below this. Thank you!

Misty MH (talk) 03:44, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Because (technically, anyway) this is an encyclopedia project, which requires that information in the articles come from Reliable Sources as defined by the Wiki project, not wishful thinking. "Craft" is a term used by UFO nuts without regard to the complete absence of any scientific evidence. If/until physical evidence is provided (which will never be), neutral strict referencing avoiding such terms should be the norm here (except as a general statement on what 'believers' utilize.) HammerFilmFan (talk) 08:01, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Please comment here. :) Misty MH (talk) 21:43, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 2 October 2012

On July 2 of each year World UFO Day is held. World UFO Day is a day in which individuals and groups are encouraged to gather together to watch the skies for unidentified flying objects. Draek (talk) 23:06, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

? Is there a specific place you want it go? Michaelzeng7 (talk) 20:07, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

I think it should have a subject of it's own called: World UFO Day

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. It probably would be more appropriate for the article Ufology, which is prominently linked from this article. (Incidentally, a brief glance at World UFO Day suggests it needs more sources.) Rivertorch (talk) 10:11, 8 October 2012 (UTC)