What is a top-tier researcher?

Written by D.W. "Darkwing" Lee

The ongoing debate continues on what constitutes a Top-Tier researcher, with many trying to make their claim to fame based on trying to proclaim that they are the epitome of being Top-Tier.

With the advent and introduction of Facebook into the Bigfoot Community, anyone can proclaim themselves as a leading Bigfoot researcher/expert/authority and there are many gullible people out there that tends to follow those proclamations with die-hard exuberance.

Let's look at truly what makes a Top-Tier Researcher, in the eyes of many of the old timers in the Bigfoot Community.

1. A Top-Tier Researcher must know their Bigfoot History.  The well-known historical events, the major players in the game, and the research that has been done in the past.
2. A Top-Tier Researcher must know who the hoaxers and the hoaxes are.  Not just the current ones, but the ones in the past too.  I continuously see people regurgitating the same old hoaxes over and over again.
3. A Top-Tier Researcher also knows how to conduct no-nonsense research, using scientific and verifiable methods, that allows evidence to be brought in.
4. A Top-Tier Researcher does not spend all their time, every day, promoting themselves on radio shows or on Television.
5. A Top-Tier Researcher always puts their time in the field to productive use, the don't do like many of the woo crowd does, by taking drugs or alcohol and claiming that they can see invisible Bigfoot when no one else can.
6. And the most important, a Top-Tier Researcher is always skeptical of all evidence, including their own.

Now I know this will undoubtedly chaff many butts in the Bigfoot Community, especially those who are trying to make themselves into the leading Bigfoot researcher/expert/authority out there on Facebook, and there will be some finger pointing at me, screaming that I am proclaiming myself a Top-Tier Researcher.  I don't consider myself a Top-Tier Researcher, and truthfully, I don't think anyone can make that claim, since most of us don't have the time to put the effort into all this.  But this is what I strive to obtain in my research, to be able to do all 6 points listed here.