THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
May 12, 2012
Hear UFO and Occult "Voices of the Past" on The Paracast
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, May 13, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present a special "Voices of the Past" episode featuring Jim Moseley, Editor of Saucer Smear, and long-time broadcaster Bob Zanotti. We will revisit the active UFO and occult scene of the New York area in the 1960s, and present long-forgotten show excerpts featuring such researchers as August C. Roberts, Dominic Lucchesi, John J. Robinson, and Yonah Fortner. For a change of pace, we'll also present two of the more outrageous contactees of the period: Andy Sinatra, "The Mystic Barber," and Alexander McNeil.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Not Just a Paranormal Forum
By Gene Steinberg
When I launched The Paracast Community Forums in 2006, I really had no long-range plan in mind. The show had become extremely popular, with a loyal listenership, and I merely wanted to offer a place where you could hang out and present your points of view. I even set up a few basic message boards, covering common paranormal subjects, such as ghosts and personal experiences, along with several UFO-related topics.
Now I wasn’t a stranger to message boards. Back in the early 1990s, I managed some of the Mac support forums over at AOL. Yes, I was actually an employee of AOL back then, and received a regular salary for my efforts – but no benefits alas. I was also moderately active on some Internet news groups (Usenet), which, being mostly unmanaged, could get extremely messy.
When I set up the forums for The Paracast, I opted for a middle ground. After consulting with the show’s original co-host, I decided to establish very few restrictions on language, to allow for a free and honest discussion of the issues, but personal attacks, posting spam and other illegal content, wasn’t permitted. To be sure, some members cried censorship when they felt their personal agendas weren’t being respected. At the end of the day, some people still think we’re still too restrictive, others believe we allow too much freedom and that we have to set more stringent limits on the behavior of some members.
In one notable case, I withdrew the posting privileges of one member, who had posted, from the position of anonymity, vigorous and often personal attacks against a well-known figure in the UFO field. Those attacks echoed a similar onslaught of personal attacks the poster made online, in letters, magazine articles, and even radio shows. That the attacks were made by someone who refused to provide a real name – even in confidence – put the discussion on an unequal footing. Some of us even tried to engage the member in conversations on other subjects without success. The very same claims were simply repeated, over and over again, so I made the decision to shut it down.
When this move was made, none of The Paracast’s forum moderators objected. Not one. But a year later, when a new discussion arose over the matter in the forums, a former moderator suddenly posted a blog claiming we were being unfair. That moderator was working on the forum when the decision first came down, and never expressed any disagreement, or suggested any alternatives. And so it goes.
I suppose there’s nothing wrong, then, in offending both sides. That way we’re being fair. What’s more, beyond the basic setup of the software and the basic design, I don’t try to hog the forum for myself. I have several talented moderators who handle the day-to-day chores of making sure members don’t get out of hand, including Chris O’Brien, co-host of The Paracast. One of our moderators, Angelo, is actually skeptical of most paranormal claims, but is nonetheless able to separate his personal views from his forum duties. He’s one of our most dedicated volunteers.
The Paracast Community Forums have also undergone several stages of radical transformations, the result of moving to different message board systems to better handle the message load, deliver great performance, and offer a comfortable environment for you to express your points of view. The latest change, made late last year, was to XenForo, a new commercial forum system that is both user-friendly and in sync with social networking from Twitter, Facebook and other services.
It took a few months for members to get accustomed to new layout. Some resisted the change outright, others adapted. But even the people who didn’t like the new message system compared to its predecessor, vBulletin, have mostly come around to embrace the changes.
With over 130,000 messages and counting, I like to think we’re doing a pretty good job offering a comfortable environment for you to express yourself. At the same time, it’s near impossible to know which subjects will garner the most posts. Some episodes of The Paracast get little or none, while others spark heated conversations that span hundreds of thousands of messages. And then there is the news of the day.
As you might expect, the recent episodes featuring crop circle investigator Nancy Talbott, and psychic Robert van den Broeke, have generated a fair amount of response. Some of you object to bringing on guests who might have questionable claims – or at least claims they regard as questionable. At the same time, many of these guests just aren’t being vetted on most paranormal shows, which means they can say whatever they want without having to confront serious or seriously skeptical questions. So if we don’t probe controversial claims, who will?
But it’s not just the paranormal world that generates heavy traffic. Recent developments in the political world, such as President Obama’s statements in support of gay marriage, have resulted in a fair amount of discussion. Over the years, there have been ongoing and intense debates about possible human-made global warming and other hot topics. For a while, we even had an active topic (or thread) about whether we really visited the moon. One of the ongoing conspiracy theories has it that the landings were faked, for reasons known only the U.S. government, and that the photographs taken on the moon were, in reality, made in a studio.
Indeed, conspiracies always fuel active discussions on a message board of this sort. So there are several threads about the 9/11 tragedy, and how it played out. Did the U.S. authorities know in advance that an attack was about to occur, or did the various intelligence and law enforcement agencies simply fall down on the job and fail to connect the dots about what the terrorists were up to?
In short, The Paracast Community Forums can be entertaining, informative, sometimes infuriating, and sometimes all of the above. If you’re curious as to what it’s all about, point your browser to forum.theparacast.com, and sign up. The welcome mat is there for you.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
May 12, 2012
Hear UFO and Occult "Voices of the Past" on The Paracast
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Consider a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Brand New Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
Sunday, May 13, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present a special "Voices of the Past" episode featuring Jim Moseley, Editor of Saucer Smear, and long-time broadcaster Bob Zanotti. We will revisit the active UFO and occult scene of the New York area in the 1960s, and present long-forgotten show excerpts featuring such researchers as August C. Roberts, Dominic Lucchesi, John J. Robinson, and Yonah Fortner. For a change of pace, we'll also present two of the more outrageous contactees of the period: Andy Sinatra, "The Mystic Barber," and Alexander McNeil.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Not Just a Paranormal Forum
By Gene Steinberg
When I launched The Paracast Community Forums in 2006, I really had no long-range plan in mind. The show had become extremely popular, with a loyal listenership, and I merely wanted to offer a place where you could hang out and present your points of view. I even set up a few basic message boards, covering common paranormal subjects, such as ghosts and personal experiences, along with several UFO-related topics.
Now I wasn’t a stranger to message boards. Back in the early 1990s, I managed some of the Mac support forums over at AOL. Yes, I was actually an employee of AOL back then, and received a regular salary for my efforts – but no benefits alas. I was also moderately active on some Internet news groups (Usenet), which, being mostly unmanaged, could get extremely messy.
When I set up the forums for The Paracast, I opted for a middle ground. After consulting with the show’s original co-host, I decided to establish very few restrictions on language, to allow for a free and honest discussion of the issues, but personal attacks, posting spam and other illegal content, wasn’t permitted. To be sure, some members cried censorship when they felt their personal agendas weren’t being respected. At the end of the day, some people still think we’re still too restrictive, others believe we allow too much freedom and that we have to set more stringent limits on the behavior of some members.
In one notable case, I withdrew the posting privileges of one member, who had posted, from the position of anonymity, vigorous and often personal attacks against a well-known figure in the UFO field. Those attacks echoed a similar onslaught of personal attacks the poster made online, in letters, magazine articles, and even radio shows. That the attacks were made by someone who refused to provide a real name – even in confidence – put the discussion on an unequal footing. Some of us even tried to engage the member in conversations on other subjects without success. The very same claims were simply repeated, over and over again, so I made the decision to shut it down.
When this move was made, none of The Paracast’s forum moderators objected. Not one. But a year later, when a new discussion arose over the matter in the forums, a former moderator suddenly posted a blog claiming we were being unfair. That moderator was working on the forum when the decision first came down, and never expressed any disagreement, or suggested any alternatives. And so it goes.
I suppose there’s nothing wrong, then, in offending both sides. That way we’re being fair. What’s more, beyond the basic setup of the software and the basic design, I don’t try to hog the forum for myself. I have several talented moderators who handle the day-to-day chores of making sure members don’t get out of hand, including Chris O’Brien, co-host of The Paracast. One of our moderators, Angelo, is actually skeptical of most paranormal claims, but is nonetheless able to separate his personal views from his forum duties. He’s one of our most dedicated volunteers.
The Paracast Community Forums have also undergone several stages of radical transformations, the result of moving to different message board systems to better handle the message load, deliver great performance, and offer a comfortable environment for you to express your points of view. The latest change, made late last year, was to XenForo, a new commercial forum system that is both user-friendly and in sync with social networking from Twitter, Facebook and other services.
It took a few months for members to get accustomed to new layout. Some resisted the change outright, others adapted. But even the people who didn’t like the new message system compared to its predecessor, vBulletin, have mostly come around to embrace the changes.
With over 130,000 messages and counting, I like to think we’re doing a pretty good job offering a comfortable environment for you to express yourself. At the same time, it’s near impossible to know which subjects will garner the most posts. Some episodes of The Paracast get little or none, while others spark heated conversations that span hundreds of thousands of messages. And then there is the news of the day.
As you might expect, the recent episodes featuring crop circle investigator Nancy Talbott, and psychic Robert van den Broeke, have generated a fair amount of response. Some of you object to bringing on guests who might have questionable claims – or at least claims they regard as questionable. At the same time, many of these guests just aren’t being vetted on most paranormal shows, which means they can say whatever they want without having to confront serious or seriously skeptical questions. So if we don’t probe controversial claims, who will?
But it’s not just the paranormal world that generates heavy traffic. Recent developments in the political world, such as President Obama’s statements in support of gay marriage, have resulted in a fair amount of discussion. Over the years, there have been ongoing and intense debates about possible human-made global warming and other hot topics. For a while, we even had an active topic (or thread) about whether we really visited the moon. One of the ongoing conspiracy theories has it that the landings were faked, for reasons known only the U.S. government, and that the photographs taken on the moon were, in reality, made in a studio.
Indeed, conspiracies always fuel active discussions on a message board of this sort. So there are several threads about the 9/11 tragedy, and how it played out. Did the U.S. authorities know in advance that an attack was about to occur, or did the various intelligence and law enforcement agencies simply fall down on the job and fail to connect the dots about what the terrorists were up to?
In short, The Paracast Community Forums can be entertaining, informative, sometimes infuriating, and sometimes all of the above. If you’re curious as to what it’s all about, point your browser to forum.theparacast.com, and sign up. The welcome mat is there for you.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
