Backing up, and searching, UFO blogs - e.g. blogs of Larry Bryant and Dan Smith

UFO blogs and websites come and go. While the disappearance of a UFO website sometimes prompts speculation on some forums about government censorship, often the cause is simply that the relevant researcher has lost interest in ufology. It is fairly common for someone to develop an interest (sometimes a fairly intense interest) in ufology that eventually wanes, resulting in that person simply walking away from this subject.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine website is a very useful resource for accessing some defunct webpages, but it is not entirely comprehensive. Also, some UFO blogs are not very easy to search.

As a result, in the last few years I've sometimes found it beneficial to create a backup of some UFO websites and blogs. For ease of fast off-line searches and access, I've converted some of these website and blog backups into PDF documents.

With the permission of the relevant researchers (Larry W Bryant and Dan Smith), I'll post details below of backups of two relevant sample blogs with a few images of relevant searches.

I know that some other members of ATS have previously expressed an interest in creating backups of some UFO websites. Perhaps this is an issue that should be addressed in a co-ordinated and systematic way.

Section A : Larry Bryant's "UFOview" blog

While doing a bit of research into various Freedom Of Information Act issues relating to UFOs (particularly in the context of UFO documentation held the CIA and NSA), I came across Larry W Bryant's "UFOview" blog.
As some of you will know, Larry Bryant has a long history of seeking the release of official UFO documents - as can be seen from the couple of sample documents below:



Larry can be seen in the Paranormal TV video at the link below:
www.dailymotion.com...


Larry has a blog entitled "UFOview" at the link below, which is (as Larry would be the first to say) not the most user-friendly:
ufoview.tumblr.com...

Due to some problems I had searching that blog on tumblr, I created a 300 page searchable PDF version of it with all Larry W Bryant's posts from 2008 to the end of 2013.


Larry has kindly given his permission for me to share that PDF archive:
app.box.com...

That PDF can be quickly and easily searched. For example, I used the PDF document today to search for information on a controversial ufologist (Todd Zechel):




I invited Larry to provide any covering message he wanted included and he provided the following:

A UFOric Manifesto

Having been a UFO researcher for 57 years of my current lifetime on planet Earth, I never thought I'd spend so much time and resources on what began as a quest to satisfy my curiosity about UFOtruth and to focus my efforts on advancing UFOIA (UFO Freedom of Information and
Accountability).

The encroachment (and needs) of old age now bearing upon me, I've lost some degree of stamina and commitment to the cause of UFOglasnost. So, I find it encouraging to see that Isaac Kol of England has volunteered to cybernetically preserve the contents of my blog ufoview.tumblr.com... in pdf format, namely at:
app.box.com...

How utterly gracious of him to perform that public-service task!

I hope that my investment in UFO research will pay off by enticing more young people to pick up where I and any number of deceased UFOlogists have left off. -- Larry W. Bryant (22 May 14) -- Author of "UFO Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy
Carter's Promise" (Galde Press, Inc.)

Section B : Dan Smith's Best Possible world

Dan Smith has had quite a bit of contact with various members of the s0-called Aviary over the years. (Those not familiar with the Aviary may find interesting.

Ryan Dube wrote a concise article about Dan Smith at the link below:
www.topsecretwriters.com...


Dan Smith can be seen discussing various issues with Jack Sarfartti in a series of videos on Youtube, starting with the one below:


Dan's articles can be rather long and, with respect, not always entirely focused on concisely stating relevant facts. I therefore found it desirable to be able to search through his material quickly and easily.

To enable more efficient and effective searching of the material on Dan Smith's [url=http://www.bestpossibleworld.com/]Best Possible World website, I've created PDF copies of that website as at 2001 and 2013.

With Dan Smith's permission, I've uploaded the 2013 version to the link below:
app.box.com...

It is then possible to run EXTREMELY fast searches of the material on Dan's website (and, if you like, also at the same time search PDF copies of specified other websites, forums and official documents) for, say, Ron/Pandolfi/P/Catfish/CF/Mr P or Kit/Green/BJ.

Using various pieces of software (including the free PDF-XChange Viewer software I discussed in my post at the link below) it is then possible to see the context of each search hit and click on each hit to see the relevant text. Using that free PDF, it is possible to run through a hundred relevant results in a couple of minutes.

a reply to: IsaacKoi

I am keeping my own backup of personal selected videos and documents of UFO nature

Keeping the backup more then one place is the key

I am using military grade USB disk seal and buried on undisclosed locations in the woods.
I am also using a external encrypted server
Also a SSD hard dive encrypted with true-crypt
And some CD´s

So I am against having one site that store this kind of material

originally posted by: Spacespider
a reply to: IsaacKoi
I am using military grade USB disk seal and buried on undisclosed locations in the woods.

Er, okay - but keeping the material buried in the woods may make it less conducive to efficient and effective searches.

Most people interested in ufology have rather limited time, so having to go into the woods to dig up a relevant USB stick is probably a bit more time consuming than is desirable.

My efforts in producing (and sharing) material in PDF format (e.g. UFO magazines/newsletters such as those by the newsletter of Phil Klass and also official documents released by the FBI, the US Air Force and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland etc) and writing about efficient ways of searching collections of such documents in my item FAST searching of major free online collections of UFO journals (or just browse/download them)) are focused on making it quicker and easier to find relevant information in the hope (possibly unduly optimistic...) that this _may_ improve the quality of discussion about issues arising from "UFO" reports.

a reply to: IsaacKoi

the USB disk serve as a backup if some of the other backups disappear

Sure you can have a site that presents the material, but the site itself will never work as a backup..
because its to easy to clean out.

But I would never call a website a backup.. a better word would be "easy target"