History Magazine / ForteanTimes

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: they've toned it down a bit recently and hopefully listened to reader criticism. Experimenting with different styles of font and background colour is all very well and in the eyes of a keen designer, probably a lot more fulfilling than that boring unimaginative black-type-on-white-page, but what got lost in the enthusiasm was that it still has to be ''readable''. Combinations like yellow type on black background could make the pages horribly hard to read. FT went trough a phase of things like this.

* ScoobyDooHoax: Paranormal investigators and parapsychologists are, after long experience, open to the possibility that in some cases they might be manipulated for financial ends. One British ghost-hunter, called to investigate an alleged haunting at a country hotel, spent a month looking and mounting vigil, on and off over the course of a year. When he finally said to the owner that he was almost absolutely certain nothing was there, the hotel owner begged him to make something up and fabricate a ghost, as it would be so good for business to be able to advertise his business as a haunted hotel. The same ghost hunter noted, some time later, the hotel was advertising itself as "having repeatedly been investigated by psychic detectives and ghost-hunters".... The Scooby-Doo Hoax is a whole interesting Fortean area on its own and regularly covered for what it has to tell concerning greed and gullibility.

* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: the Alien Big Cats suspected to be resident in Great Britain, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, which are frequently glimpsed but never definitively proven.

* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: the Alien Big Cats suspected to be resident in Great Britain, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, which are frequently glimpsed but never definitivelty proven.

* WorldOfWeirdness: We live in one.

* ScienceIsWrong: Not necessarily. But FT might take the view that science as we have it is ''incomplete'' and anamolous phenomena are a clear sign of things going on that we haven't even begun to properly investigate yet.

The magazine takes a careful non-judgemental middle line, avoiding the worst excesses of either New Age credulity or James Randi-style skepticism.

* AliensStealCattle; a perennial favourite.
* AuraVision: the whole field of auras, from mysticism, psychic claims, through Kirlian photography and medical conditions such as HSD migraines.
* {{Chupacabra}}: the magazine has a fascination with this example of cryptozoology.
* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: the rare, but well-attested, occasions where the skies rain with fish, sometimes Flying French Food Specials of frogs and toads.

* JustBeforeTheEnd; Doomsday cults and eschatology in general.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: No two tales of haunting and apparitions are completely alike, and theories abound. FT collects and catalogues.

* TheReptilians: a favourite topic. Creator/DavidIcke and his beliefs have been covered, discussed and debunked. But as always the reasons ''why'' people like Icke believe what they believe is far more fascinating.

* ScoobyDooHoax: Paranormal investigators and parapsychics are, after long experience, open to the possibility that in some cases they might be manipulated for financial ends.One British ghost-hunter, called to investigate an alleged haunting at a country hotel, spent a month looking and mounting vigil, on and off over the course of a year. When he finally said to the owner that he was almost absolutely certain nothing was there, the hotel owner begged him to make something up and fabricate a ghost, as it would be so good for business to be able to advertise his business as a haunted hotel. The same ghost hunter noted, some time later, the hotel was advertising itself as "having repeatedly been investigated by psychic detectives and ghost-hunters".... The Scooby-Doo Hoax is a whole interesting Fortean area on its own and regularly covered for what it has to tell concerning greed and gullibility.
* ScullySyndrome: frequently lampshaded and questioned.

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: the lurid and sensationalist imitator ''Bizarre'', that focused on the sexual, violent or generally sensationalist aspects of Forteana with lots of pictures and less words. Embarrasingly, it was released by the same publisher.
* SignsOfTheEndTimes: panics and concerns about the end of the world from evangelical religion through Martian scares to global warming.

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: either via "normal" synchronicity or because [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories some people are messing with our minds]]

* WalkingTechbane: people who can fritz electrics just by being in the same room. FT broke the story of Jaqueline Priestman, who says she's gone through dozens of various appliances, and causes TV sets to change channels just by passing near. She was found to have ten times the usual amount of electricity in her body. The magazine also speculated on how some people can cause street lights to blow just by walking underneath them.
* WeirdnessMagnet: some people and places are naturally strange. Like the one corner of the north of England that has seen as many UFO sightings as the rest of the country put together.
* WorldOfWeirdness: we live on one.

* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Being a British mag, a lot of space is given over to cryptozoology in the British Isles. But it neglects nothing of interest regardless of source.

* PhonyPsychic: Many have been covered, both historic and contemporary. The issue of why people beleive in psychic powers is as interesting as the methods used to deceive and debunk and of course wiggle-room is allowed for in those truly perplexing cases that indicate just now and again, something truly weird is going on.

* CargoShip: the strange cases of people who prefer to fuck pavements, cars, bikes, bridges, letterboxes....

* ScoobyDooHoax: Paranormal investigators and parapsychics are, after long experience, open to the possibility that in some cases they might be manipulated for financial ends.One British ghost-hunter, called to investigate an alleged haunting at a country hotel, spent a month looking and mounting vigil, on and off over the course of a year. When he finally said to the owner that he was almost absolutely certain nothing was there, the hotel owner begged him to makes something up and fabricate a ghost, as it would be so good for business to be able to advertise his business as a haunted hotel. The same ghost hunter noted, some time later, the hotel was advertising itself as "having repeatedly been investigated by psychic detectives and ghost-hunters".... The Scooby-Doo Hoax is a whole interesting Fortean area on its own and regularly covered for what it has to tell concerning greed and gullibility.

* ScoobyDooHoax: Paranormal investigators and parapsychics are, after long experience, open to the possibility that in some cases they might be manipulated for financial ends.One British ghost-hunter, called to investigate an alleged haunting at a country hotel, spent a month looking and mounting vigil, on and off over the course of a year. When he finally said to the owner that he was almost absolutely certain nothing was there, the hotel owner begged him to makes something up and fabricate a ghost, as it would be so good for business to be able to advertise his business as a haunted hotel. The same ghost hunter noted, some time later, the hotel was advertising itself as "having repeatedly been investigated by psychic detectives and ghost-hunters".... The Scooby-doo Hoax to be a whole interesting Fortean area on its own and regularly covered for what it has to tell concerning greed and gullibility.

* UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories; (''{{Illuminatus}}'' creator Creator/RobertAntonWilson was a frequent contributor)

* PhonyPsychic: Many have been covered, both historic and contemporary. The issue of why people beleive in psychic powers is as interesting as the methods used ot deceive and debunk and of course wiggle-room is allowed for in those truly perplexing cases that indicate just now and again, something truly weird is going on.

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: the lurid and sensationalist imitator ''Bizarre'', that focused on the sexual, violent or generally sensatinalist aspects of Forteana with lots of pictures and less words. Embarrasingly it was released by the same publisher.

* Cryptozoology;

* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Being a British mag, a lot of space is given over to cryptozoology in the British Isles. But it neglects nothing of interest regardless of source.

* UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories; (''{{Illuminatus}}'' creator RobertAntonWilson was a frequent contributor)