RETRACTION OF SORTS FOR
SMITHSONIAN UFOS AND 4UFOS.COMby Robert Hughey
Smithsonian UFO Disclosure Retraction
Last year, one of the most successful pages on this blog was a quick report I did on an upcoming event I had read about briefly online. In honestly just a paragraph or two, I mentioned that the Smithsonian-affiliated Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, NV had an event planned where military officers and retired personnel would be revealing their personal experiences with UFOs. It was being called a "Revelation," and I wrote a bit about it, published it and went about my day as usual.
SMITHSONIAN UFO REVELATIONS WAS TRENDING
As is the case sometimes in blogging, I posted at just the right time to catch the Search Trend, and suddenly my site was flooded over the next several days with several thousands of people searching for information on the upcoming SMITHSONIAN UFO REVELATION, and the Google Algorithm decided my site should rank #1 for "Smithsonian UFO" for the next year.
I saw this as an opportunity and decided to create AN ENTIRE PAGE ABOUT THE EVENT, posting videos and eventually curating the local news story from the event after it finally happened and was revealed to be the interesting marketing ploy of a smart group of marketers to get attention to this "museum" that is actually on the Las Vegas Strip and one of the endless gaudy attractions available for tourists all around the world.
SMITHSONIAN UFO EMBEDDABLE PDF FILE
Later, I went ahead and created a PDF OF THAT PAGE to be easily distributed by AtContent (View my AC Publications in a new window), and I made it available on my blog.
And that's when things apparently went wrong.
Smithsonian UFO Disclaimer Missing
Looking back, I guess it never occurred to me to be sure to state that I wasn't affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute because I would never look at myself and think that I even could be. What I had not considered was that someone somewhere else would take a look at that PDF and assume it was being distributed by the Smithsonian Institute itself. Sure, it does say "by Robert Hughey" with the URL "www.4UFOs.com" right beneath my by-line, and it's nothing as awesome as the marketing materials the Smithsonian actually puts out, and I certainly didn't use their logo or anything copyrighted by them, but it only took one person taking half of my PDF and posting it to a forum (or four) to confuse a great number of people.
I do take fault for the mistake here, but I also stress that having my PDF cannibalized and posted around to different Internet forums and attributed incorrectly might also be the fault of whomever felt that was some kind of a smart idea.
(sigh)
So it wasn't until this past week when really digging through the backlinks for this site (trying to see if there are any I should disavow with Google) that I saw all the links to 4UFOs.com from several UFO-Sightings-as-Spirituality types of sites, and in following back I found that my PDF had been cut up and was being touted as being released from the Smithsonian itself.
So now I'm trying to ensure any materials I put out are clear in their allegiance to anything - or lack of allegiance - as I'm not affiliated or a member of any part of any State or Federal program, institution or group in any way....not that I'm not totally up for some sponsorship! But as of now, there's nothing like that planned for this blog. I'm honestly a little embarrassed that I inadvertently associated myself with so august an institution, as I wouldn't have dared to do so purposefully. I still don't fully understand why my little blog received such attention for that week in 2012, except that perhaps it was a combination of my SEO efforts with my social bookmarking across several sites were sufficient to boost me in the rankings, at least for this one issue.
So we're clear:
4UFOs.com Is In No Way Affiliated With The Smithsonian Institute Or The Atomic Testing Museum
Not a Smithsonian Affiliated Blog
But wait, do I need to disavow any of the other organizations I plan on mentioning in this blog post? If anyone reading this decides they'd like to take half of it and publish it on any internet forums with incorrect attribute, could you at least do me the kindness of "not including my name "with it? It occurs to me that whomever made that mistake with my PDF probably did include my name and website as an attempt to give appropriate credit, and I appreciate that, but it was the part where the poster (over four different forums, mind you) said that my PDF was being put out by the Smithsonian is where the failure occurred.
But I recognize that if I'd simply put in a disclaimer in my PDF that I'm not affiliated or any part of that Institution, then someone would have caught and corrected the issue even if the original poster did not.
Here's how the original PDF was presented:
As it is, the actual Smithsonian Institute probably didn't even bat an eye if they even knew of the association, as they're busy with their millions and millions of monthly page views. Still, I'm very happy with my own blog's growth. I've avoided "trend hopping" ever since then, but I guess I can see the merit in helping forward a new and growing story if it's relevant to my blog's content. This past week was the Citizen's Hearing on Disclosure in Washington D.C. and I only barely mentioned it, when I do feel I should have been more involved.
As I hate to say it, I do mean this respectfully, but looking at the faces of the people at the Hearing, it occurs to me how many of these people are no longer young men and women. They do need people of younger generations to step in and participate, and if Disclosure continues to be the fight it has been for these past decades, then some people will need to take up the fight as the older generation of "UFO Nuts" retire from public eye.
My Place In The Future Of The UFO Phenomenon
But I'm not sure what my role will be in the UFO Phenomenon as time progresses. I'm currently involved with testing out DR. STEVEN GREER'S CE-5 TECHNIQUES (to some seriously startling results, btw). I may want to get more involved with his organization in the near future if I continue to have results from his work that are slowly convincing me that there's merit in this "New Age mumbo-jumbo. "Basically, he teaches of using thought and consciousness as a way of communicating across the Void of space to make connection with ET life. I know it sounds absolutely preposterous, but upon following the instructions and allowing myself to believe in the possibility that it worked, well, I have had two experiences now that shook me to my core.
Time will tell, but I'm still writing that particular piece on my CE-5 experiences. I'm including it in a post to be published on The Pathfinder Project, but I'm still not entirely happy writing about my own purely subjective results, but I'll have to continue until I get stronger in the CE-5 techniques and can perhaps work with others so as to get objective data - even something as simple as photographic evidence. That will be upcoming.
As always, thanks for visiting my little corner of the Internet.
Robert Hughey
Atlanta, GA 5/9/13
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