A FORTEAN'S GUIDE TO COMPUTER RESOURCES

by Steve Mizrach, aka Seeker1

ACCESSING THESE RESOURCES - WHAT DO YOU NEED?

All you need to get at much of the stuff I'm telling you about is a computer and a modem. An 020/286 machine is generally fine, but unless you have lots of patience, I recommend a 9600 or faster baud modem. This short guide will not be a comprehensive description of how to access Bulletin Board Systems, how to get an account on various services, or how to access the Internet. Rather, I am assuming that readers have some familiarity with all of these things; if not, I offer some useful texts in my bibliography. Instead, I am offering pointers to the myriad amounts of Fortean wonder to be found in electronic form. But, as always, caveat lector . On the Net, there are many gems, but to find them you do need to sort through a vast load of garbage. It's no different than your local occult bookstore, I suppose.

Much of this material comes from Michael Strangelove's Electric Mystic's Guide, the ever-zany High Weirdness by Email (now defunct) put out by the indefatigable SubGenii, and and the Mages' Guide to the Internet. There is no Fortean guide per se. Perhaps this will become one, and you will find it on some obscure network tucked away in the 'miscellaneous' file section. I have no intention of uploading it in the near future, but documents always seem to turn up on the net anyway; lots of people out there seem to have scanners (such as the folks at the Online Books Initiative) and a lot of time on their hands. The second section is all Internet, and I implore you to look for Internet access if you can find it... I assure you, it's well worth it. If you want to ask me about anything in here, my email is

SEEKER1@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU
.

Charlie Fort had to pore over tons of books in the public libraries of London and New York. Just think of the time he could have saved if journal articles were searchably indexed, and card catalogs became searchable databases. Well, many of the university libraries of this nation have put their contents in a searchable form on the Internet; and the Library of Congress, which is guaranteed to have everything (believe me, I've found some real obscure and out-of-print books there myself), is also accessbile through its LC MARVEL system. If you have a local library that has interlibrary loan ability, you're on your way! Believe me, if Fort knew how quickly you can now go through the journals he spent hours poring over, he would be rolling over in his grave. Hmm, maybe he is... anyone checked if he's even still there lately...?

NON-INTERNET

Commercial Services

The various commercial services serve two purposes: many of them are at least partial 'on-road' ramps to the Internet (at the least, they offer mail capability), and they have conferences of great interest. All of them charge one-time startup fees to get an account; and after that most charge for the amount of time they are accessed (anywhere from $2 to $20 an hour) and/or a monthly fee of $5 to $30. All of them provide 1-800 numbers, which can be found out easily by calling 1-800-555-1212 (bet you didn't know you could get directory assistance for 800 numbers!) I will not recommend any of these services. Each of them is designed for a slightly different kind of user in mind. I suggest you talk to all of theses service providers and find the one that you like best. All I will do hear is to point to some conferences of interest, on the ones that I have been on. If you're looking for things on Delphi, GEnie, Prodigy, BIX, etc. - all I can do is wish you luck! I don't know what's there: but most offer you a trial, no--commitment period of using them, so check them out!

Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes)

In calling BBSes, it's important to bear some things in mind. The majority are free (but if you want to be on for more than 30 minutes, you have to become a subscriber), but a good number are not. Where you will find your pocketbook diminishing is in the long-distance toll rates you pay for calling them. In general, you save a great deal by calling during nonprime hours (after 9 PM), but bear in mind that that's when everyone else will be calling long distance too. Another suggestion is to use a public data network such as SprintNet's PCPURSUIT. However, this PDN is soon to be shut down... but I have heard that there are others out there, such as the CRIS BBS Direct Service. When you call a BBS, many have great graphical "front-ends," but if you don't have the right software (First Class, TeleFinder, ANSI, RIP, or NAPLPS), all you'll see is boring text - or complete junk. If you want to download anything, make sure you've got Zmodem, or if your call is interrupted, you'll have to start over again.

The big daddy of Fortean BBS systems is, of course, ParaNet, which has 'nodes' all over the country which are supposed to, in theory, share files and messages. ParaNet is a subscription BBS, but it's not steep. The "headquarters node," managed by Michael Corbin, is in Denver, and its phone # is (303) 431-8797. The current node for DC appears to be Baron Carlos' castle, whose # is (202) 863-1493. (It used to be the AbySS, but no longer.) A good alternative to ParaNet is MUFONet, managed by the Mutual UFO Network - their main 'node' is in Memphis, TN. , phone # (901) 785-4943. MUFONet and ParaNet often carry firsthand UFO sighting reports, so they can be invaluable. MUFON, in addition, maintains a shortwave/ham radio 'net' for reporting sightings.

Many local BBSes (wherever you live) now carry FidoNet conferences. FidoNet is a distributed mail system, meaning that if you post a message on one board, it gets carried to boards all over the world. Some of the better FidoNet conferences are on such topics as UFOs, Skepticism, and Unusual Phenomena. Unfortunately, not every FidoNet node carries every conference, so it might take some looking to find the ones that do. There are other distributed mail systems with Fortean conferences, such as RIME, OneNet, Tabby, RelayNet, CyberNet, etc., but none of them are as widespread as FidoNet, which now reaches Australia and many parts of Asia. Many boards will carry a FidoNet node list for their area - it's worth looking for.

Here are some miscellaneous boards that I think are well worth calling. KeelyNet, in Dallas, TX., at (214) 324-3501, carries a lot of files about weird science, Tesla, free energy, etc. The Temple of the Screaming Electron, at (510) 935-5845, carries just about everything, with special emphasis on conspiracies and far-out theories. The Body Dharma Online, (510) 836-4717, carries files on Buddhism and consciousness. The Double Helix in NYC, (212) 956-8076, has a large "unorthodox" file section. In DC, I strongly recommend The Reality Check at (703) 941-8367 and Twilight Clone, at (301) 946-8677.

Here are a few others:

Are all these systems guaranteed to be up & running? No, I doubt it. Some may be down or just plain defunct. I haven't dialed up many of them in a while...

Other

There are databases out there such as DIALOG and Knowledge Index which are useful for miscellaneous scientific data, but they don't carry much other data. Accessing the LEXIS/NEXIS service can be useful, because they often carry "hot" Fortean stories off the newswire. The American Society of Psychical Research maintains a system called PsyLink, which allows you to search parapsychology journal articles online. I have heard that there are multimedia CD-ROMs out there dealing specifically with UFOs and alien abductions, but I haven't seen any of them. I can't offer pointers to these things, because I haven't been "there" myself yet.

INTERNET

So you want to get on the Internet?

The two most reliable and affordable Internet service providers are universities and large corportations. If you don't belong to one or the other, fortunately, you have options. Many of the commerical services are offering full Internet access. Apparently, the WELL, BIX, and Delphi appear to be taking the lead in this area. Some BBSes (like Twilight Clone) are starting to offer partial Internet access, by at least carrying some Usenet newsfeeds and mailing lists. But your best bet for getting onto the Matrix is a Public-Access UNIX system. Almost all of these offer news and mail; many offer ftp, telnet, etc. Some of the best out there are PANIX in New York, UUNet, Nyx, The World, and Portal. Another option is to try and find a Freenet, such as the Cleveland or Austin Freenets. (Apparently there is one 'under construction' in DC.) There is a list of these systems available, called nixpub.txt - look for it. In Washington, DC, there is the Grebyn system - (703) 281-7997. It's $30 for 25 hrs. of use/month, with a $1.25/hr. additional hours of use charge.

USENET newsgroups

There are tons of USENET newsgroups out there to read. My top recommendations to Forteans:

Internet/BitNet Mailing Lists

My top recommendations: (tell 'em ya wanna subscribe)
Many of these lists have files sections also - send an INDEX request to the LISTSERV to see if they do. At the least, they will have logs of previous discussions.

Other Stuff

Some neato ftp sites:

**UFO Pictures** (GIFs)

can be found at:

Some Internet BBSes with Fortean forums to telnet to:

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels:

These go up and down, so don't expect to find them all the time -
In general, on IRC, you never know what the heck you're going to find. Most of the 'people' on are generally 'bots anyway.

Email addresses worth knowing:

Electronic Journals and 'Zines:

There are many good electronic publications that deal with the zany and weird. Some of the best places to find them: ftp.eff.org, etext.archive.umich.edu, ftp.cic.net, ftp.msen.com, ftp.halcyon.com, and world.std.com. Some of my favorites are Blink, Drum, EMail Without Tears, Scream Baby, Liminal, and Albert Hoffman's Astonishing Mistake.

Gopher holes and Web sites.

Some important sites for Forteans:
Click here to go to the weirdness section of my hotlist.

There are undoubtedly net sites that I haven't mentioned. There are a few systems that you can telnet to which might have some Fortean stuff tucked away in some nook or crannie. I really don't know... the key with the Matrix, invariably, is to get on it. Then you'll find the signposts telling you where to go.

PROPOSAL: The FORTBASE Project

If I won the Lottery tomorrow, this is what I would set up. The FORTBASET would be a Bulletin Board System that would serve numerous functions. It would have either an (800) number or an agreement with some Public Data Network (PDN) so Forteans all over the U.S. could call affordably. It would carry distributed mail conferences (hopefully Fido) on all kinds of Fortean topics so researchers could discuss with each other all over the world. There would be a chat area and good local mail so users could share information rapidly. There would be an extensive file archive of all kinds of Fortean files - hopefully including newspaper and journal clippings, images (GIFs), sounds (such as Electronic Voice Phenomena/EVPs), and digitized video of Fortean events recorded on tape. And there would be bulletins on Fortean meetings and symposia all over the world, as well as listings of active Fortean organizations, publications, and other BBSes. Maybe (if copyrights and all that could be worked out) some publications (such as Pebbles or the Sourcebook Project) could be put online for searching.

But the most important use for Fortbase that I see would be the collection of Fortean event witness reports. These reports would include descriptions of the event, time, place, and information about the percipient(s). People could either call Fortbase or Fortean investigators could collect their reports and "modem them in" themselves. Fortbase would store all this information in a searchable archive, so that investigators could then call and ask Fortbase, "Show me a plot of all Fortean events on June 24th, 1993 in the U.S.," or "Show me a list of all MIB encounters from May 2nd to 29th in 1992," or "Show all Fortean events that have happened in Lafayette from 1890 to 1990." Perhaps then some of the elusive patterns Fortean investigators have been searching for might start to emerge... the key is to having a central collection point for all our data and a means for categorizing, sorting, and searching it. Yes, to many Forteans it sounds like heresy, I know. But to me it does seem worth doing.

What would be needed to set up FortBase? A pretty powerful PC (maybe one of those new Intel machines) or even UNIX workstation, capable of doing many operations per second. Several phone lines (maybe 10-12) to allow multiple callers, hopefully one being for 800 callers. Thus, also, 10-12 high speed (14.4 or faster) modems. A decent graphical-interface Bulletin Board System program. Lots of optical storage and CD-ROM drives. An ISDN or sattelite connection for getting newsfeeds and maybe allowing telnet access. And a team of sysops to keep the system up and running and avoid crashes. Like I said, when I hit the lottery, maybe this could be a reality. In the meantime, I am open to suggestions for how something like this could be set up affordably. Perhaps we can work within the framework of some existing service? I really don't know. But if any Forteans out there are interested in creating FORTBASE, let me know. I'd love to provide the service with no subscription fee, but that seems unlikely.

"Netography"

The sources for this document are:
For general refence:
FYI: If for no other reason, get on the Matrix so you can receive email. It is one of the most affordable ways I know of to get information from all over the planet.

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