Convincing UFOs.?

Technically speaking, I've seen several UFOs: they were flying and I didn't know what they were - but I had no reason to think they were of extraterrestrial origin.  They were just aircraft or whatever.

The thing about extraterrestrial reports is that we have no good evidence for them: all we have are grainy (and sometimes known faked) images or footage, and anecdotes.  You would think that if we were being visited as much as people claim, some artifact would turn up somewhere - the alien equivalent of a wrench or coffee cup for instance - including materials not known on Earth.  That would be convincing.  Also you'd think that with everyone carrying cell phones nowadays, the quantity and quality of claimed UFO footage would have increased dramatically in recent years, yet it hasn't.

A UFO must be unconvincing.  If it was convincing then it would not be a UFO.  It would be an IFO ... Identified Flying Object. 

The term UFO means unidentified. So it can not be convincing, by definition. Many sighting still remain unknown. But no sighting has ever been convincingly identified as an extraterrestrial spacecraft. 

reported as chat

UFO does not mean "flying saucers" or aliens from another planet, it simply means "unidentified flying object". Be safe.

"UFO" simply means "unidentified flying object".  That would be anything in the skies that you observe but can't explain. 

I have seen three of those. 

Now, I do not think they were "alien spacecraft" nor "ET technology", just things in the sky I can't explain. 

So, "convincing"?  What are you trying to convince people of? 

I look at "aliens" in both psychological & economic terms. 

Economics:  Why in the hell would some civilization expend the massive amount of money & labor to construct an interstellar craft capable of traveling across the vast reaches of space with a living (organic) crew merely to arrive at an alien civilization to peer into the windows of little old ladies, hover over teenagers as they make-out in remote & dark spots, and dissect cows?  It just seems like a very low return on an astronomical investment. 

Psych:  I believe that people are responding to actual stimuli, but misinterpreting what they are seeing and (heavily influenced by popular-culture) end-up calling it "aliens" & "ETs".  Most "UFO" sightings have occurred after the 1940s & 1950s "flying saucer" craze & all the books & comicbooks & Hollywood movies & TV shows that sensationalized it. 

That's my take on it. 

I have seen a number of things that I could not identify, but that does not mean that they were 'flying saucers from Mars'

Mine sure was

I am a keen Astronomer and I was out Stargazing on a clear frosty Moonless Night out in the Country side

I tell you , nothing can beat it !!

Anyway I was scouring the Milky way that was clear that night

All of a sudden a bright light steadily crossed the sky from the west

I raised my Binoculars, thinking it could be the ISS, but it was round and shiny

Anyhow when it reached half way across. it didn't even pause, but changed direction in to the South and sped off like Ligtning

That was no ISS !!

And my only companion was my Goat !!

There was no other reports of it

But I believe !!

Yes.  It turned out to be a secret Soviet helicopter but I didn't find out until about thirty years later.

I saw a shiny diamond shape over Burbank California.  It was hovering there...

and then it turned, revealing itself to be a NOTAR helicopter with a reflective finish.