for me it fits the same way as any conversation or messageboard – you get to know the people and base your take on their opinion or discovery on their body of work. if someone’s a kook and suddenly has "evidence" i don’t take it seriously, however if someone who has a track record of getting foia requests, building deciphering programs, traveling to locations to pull documents, etc discovers something or has a theory i definitely take it seriously. i also see my role as more of an optimistic skeptic than a researcher. i certainly parse all of the data we have, and i have a personal wiki where i keep track of police reports and quotes so that i can refer to it when someone has an idea or theory, but i tend to look at things through the lense of "why can’t this be true" or "what are we missing". hopefully it serves a useful purpose.

Interesting topic.

I won’t name any names, but there have been some researchers over the years that have been instrumental in discovering things about the case, clues, etc, bringing things to people’s attention, and sharing stuff with the online Z community which is all appreciated of course, and admirable. I know they have spent time, money, etc getting this stuff. The issue for me is, that many of these people spin it towards their own personal Suspect, as opposed to lay it out there for discussion and debate. Some people are simply so locked on their Suspect, I honestly don’t know how neutral or open minded they still are about the case. Maybe that’s human nature, I don’t know, and I can not speak for them. I myself, admittedly, feel lately that I am more and more convinced that Ross Sullivan was Zodiac, so my attention has been focused on him more. But I have always tried to stay neutral, and obtain information, reports, materials, etc, and lay it out there for examination and debate. I have looked at lots of different Suspects and helped people research potential suspects & persons of interest, and I have a few favorites of my own. Again, it’s sad, but if the SFPD, VALLEJO PD, and NAPA PD all held a joint press conference today stating the Z case was solved and they named a Suspect, there would be lots of people in this case that would still think the police got it wrong, and that their personal Suspect was Z.

I admire people on this site and others, that spend hours upon hours of examining the case, and the evidence, all in an effort to see it solved. Sites like this one and others, whether Tom’s site, Rich’s site, Dave’s site, Butterfield’s site, etc, all bring the case to the public’s attention and keep it out there so it doesn’t simply vanish. The odds are against it I know, but you never know if one of these forums will post a clue or piece of info that leads to a Suspect or somebody coming forward with crucial info. For that reasons, all of these web sites, although operating with different missions or end goals, are actually allies in solving this mystery.

People like Tom V, who admittedly is not well off financially, always has managed to bring new things to the case, present lots of reports, etc, and people like him are to be commended in my opinion. It’s because of his site and years of effort, that sites like this one exist

By the flip side, I despise the ‘leaches’ that have tried to capitalize on this case, and on the Zodiac’s senseless murders, people like Deb Perez, Dennis Kaufman, Gary Stewart etc. Their cause is all too apparent, whether it be financial gain, fame, attention etc, it’s the ugly side of this case.

In the beginning, when I was less knowledgeable, I tended to believe a lot of what I read and considered the people who were "nice" to be more honest and decent.

Since I started to look at things more objectively, and came to the realization that isn’t always true, I no longer let those who seem more knowledgeable influence my personal view of the case.

I came to discover that while information shared is appreciated, it is how the one who shares interprets that information, and the way they share it that becomes (sometimes) distorted by their own views. What they say is not always a fact of the case. Especially when someone perceives things differently.