The Alien Archives Guide to Reading a UFO Case File

A record in this archive is meant to be read, not just scrolled. This is what each part of a sighting page is telling you, and how to use them together.

The date, location, source triple

Every record rests on three facts: when it was reported to have happened, where, and where the footage came from. A record with a precise date, a named location, and a traceable source is a different animal from one with an approximate date and no clear origin. The first thing to read is not the title; it is the triple underneath it. If any of the three is missing or vague, the rest of the record carries correspondingly less weight.

Status versus credibility

Two numbers are attached to each record, and they measure different things.

Status is a category: Verified, Unclassified, Pending, or Debunked. A Verified record is one confirmed by official or multiple independent sources; a Debunked record is one for which a conventional explanation has been established; Unclassified means reviewed and entered but not confirmable either way; Pending means not yet reviewed.

Credibility is a score from 0 to 100, initially assigned by the archive's enrichment process and adjustable by community vote on the page. It reflects source type, corroboration, and footage characteristics.

A record can be Unclassified and high-credibility — well-sourced but unexplained — or Verified and mid-credibility, if the source is official but the footage itself is weak. Read the two together; neither one alone is the verdict.

What the tags tell you

Tags are descriptive, not interpretive. "Lights," "craft," "triangle," "daylight" describe what was reported, not what it was. A record tagged "lights" and "night" is a different kind of report from one tagged "craft" and "daylight," and the archive's filtering lets you separate them. Tags are not conclusions.

Source and provenance

Each record retains its source link. The footage is embedded in place so it can be watched on the page, and the original is kept for verification. The archive records what the source documents; it does not assert the nature of what was filmed. If the source is a citizen upload, a news clip, or a government release, that changes the context — and the page tells you which.

The case file, when present

Major records carry an extended case file below the primary information: overview, origin of the account, reported appearance and behavior, chronology, alternative explanations, and sources. These sections appear only when content exists; the archive never shows empty headings. When a case file is present, the record is meant to be read as an encyclopedia entry, not a clip.

Related research

Where a sighting connects to a documented case the research desk has written up, a Related Research section links the two. A sighting near Rendlesham may link to the Rendlesham case file; a record of nocturnal lights over the capital may link to the 1952 Washington, D.C. incident. The links are real — built on shared evidence — not generated to fill space.

How to use it

Read the triple first, the status and credibility together, the tags as description, the source as context, and the case file as the long form. A reader who does that gets from the archive what it is built to give: the record, with its weight visible, and the speculation left out.