Internet Forums
Categories: Weekly Blog
Tags: DB Cooper forum Internet Geocaching
You know, I just don’t know what it is about posting on an internet forum that brings out the bad behavior in people.
Is it the anonymity, the separation distance (in most cases you are miles away from the people with whom you are communicating)? Could it be the “virtual aspect” (the feeling that the other parties aren’t real people, but rather their avatars)? Maybe it’s the lack of important social, aural, and visual cues, that leads to a dulling of one’s ability to know how someone feels about what you are saying.
At any rate, several times in the last few years, I have “sworn-off” posting to internet forums.
In 2001 I started posting to a forum for an outdoor activity called “geocaching.” At that time it was a new thing and everyone wanted to share information with each other. The regular (frequent) posters were always willing to help a “newbie” and shared the common desire to bring others into the fold. Then people began to carp at each other. Cliques formed. Senior posters were rude to newbies. Everyone seemed to have an “axe to grind” and didn’t care who got hurt while they ground it.
Finally, I gave up and quit posting there. There was nothing there for me.
Similarly, last January, I started posting to a popular skydiver’s forum that ran a particular interesting thread about NORJAK (DB Cooper). At first it was mostly serious posts about the NORJAK case and it was obvious that most of the regular posters had a common goal. That was, to try to make some sense of NORJAK.
But alas, it took a turn to the dark side. The posters abandoned spirited debate, for outright bullying. The discussions became circuitous and nothing was being accomplished. It was just too much time and energy expended with little or no payout.
So, today I abandoned it.
I made some good friends while I was there, some are probably reading this. If so, I would like to invite you to the “NORJAK Forum” (http://305forum.dbcoopersite.com/). I promise that it will be a place for open discussion about NORJAK, a place where you can discuss your ideas without ridicule or having to face the “cyber schoolyard bully.”
So, if you want to join me (us), come aboard, but don’t leave good manners behind.
Sluggo
The rancor and confrontation on dropzone.com DBC forum didn't get under my skin, but I was in the minority.
So will you be editing and controlling access here Sluggo? How do you plan to avoid a migration of the same players and the same atmosphere?
I hope it isn't too "nicey nice" here. That dz.com edge sometimes produced ineteresting debates and results.
Nice website Sluggo, really like the look, especially that lit up 727 stair shot.
377
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Thanks for the compliment 377.
Let me say this for everybody the hear (read):
The dropzone.com – History and Trivia Forum, D.B. Cooper thread has done a great service to the NORJAK investigative community in the last one and a half years. Nothing can take that away. They have provided that service free of charge and with little interference with the activities of the posters beyond maintaining decorum and demeanor. I have made acquaintances and friends there (and I lost a few along the way) and probably made some enemies as well.
The Norjak Forum will not be about friends and enemies. It will be about serious discussion/research.
I hope to maintain order by using “moderation of post” and karma. BTW: There will be no editing of posts, the moderator will just ensure that the NORJAK Forum doesn’t degenerate into a schoolyard brawl. Each post will meet the site’s standards or it won’t get published. The author can then re-posts in a way that is acceptable.
I don’t envision the NORJAK Forum as ever having the popularity of the DBC thread on DZ.com, and that is fine with me.
I don’t view this situation as an “either/or” system. Everyone who wants to post on the NORJACK forum with serious material will be allowed to do so, and should. Those who have a more casual interest in the “DB Cooper story” should post on DZ.com. Get your social fix at DZ.com and then help us assemble information about the case on the NORJAK Forum. That’s what I intend to do.
I think as long as there is a place for serious discussion, “the rancor and confrontation on dropzone.com DBC forum” won’t get under anybody’s skin.
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Trying to prove a negative...sort of.
According to law enforcement most criminals begin their nefarious enterprises near home then begin to expand in territory. Perhaps it's just coincidence that Cooper began and ended his adventure in the same general area.
Considerations I (as a neophyte) would have about jumping would be a nice big, soft, safe, obstacle clear, landing area with a beacon to mark it. The most pampered and predictable real estate to come to mind is a golf course. Since these are typically placed in a suburban setting surrounded by light pollution, the lack of lights in a golf course would act as a sort of inverse beacon. Both passively maintained which allows for one doing this deed solo.
On the west side of Portland Intl is a target rich environment of golf courses. Since Cooper may have planned upon emerging in a suburban environ he would dress accordingly. Using the airport light show (lights actually designed to point skyward) as an offset pointer to his desired target.
What could go wrong? Aiming for a suburban target would increase detectability and the odds of hitting a roof or street are very high. That river sure is wide there and would hide most traces if his chute simply failed to open.
What might catch him now? Possibly the FBI using their best weapon; taxes. Even if Cooper was 30 years old at the time he would be 68 or 69 now. Well past the eligibility age for medicare and social security benefits (yes, I'm assuming the criminal element has an eye for value) which is not remarkable if he applied for and is receiving these benefits. What would be remarkable is if someone did not apply for benefits and still had an open account.
If Cooper was semi-legit through life he would have paid into a social security account for 20 to 30 years and contributions would have stopped around the time of the hijacking or before. If he was killed, the account would not have been activated for benefits and with a non-standard demise there would be no death cert to reconcile or close the account. How many such accounts exist? (contributions made up to 1971 then stopped in the northwest) I have no idea, just figured a database query may produce some viable possibilities.
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