Will Embracing the Internet lead to Increased Growth for the Watchtower?

by jwfacts 74 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  00DAD

  I can't see this as being anything but bad for them overall. They're just giving away their publications on the net. Few that are new are likely to contribute.

  And it will just result in more people, both those currently "in" and any "just-looking", seeing the anti-JW websites.

  The internet is where I started looking when I had doubts about many JW teachings back in 2002/3. There was no where near the amount of well-documented, well researched exposés proving what a scam the WTBTS is as there are now. Your jwfacts site being one of them. In fact, your site is so much different than it was 10 years ago.
• 

  ziddina

  "...However, I cannot help but worry that the huge marketing potential at their fingertips will potentially lead to increase. ..." jwfacts

  I don't think you have as much to worry about, as you may think...

  Most people who own computers are in the middle class or upper-middle classes, and are much less likely to take things at 'face' value, or to swallow a religious tale hook, line & sinker without looking into it first...

  I suspect that they will continue to draw in a preponderance of the "walking wounded" - especially with all the "conspiracy theorists" who seem to be so fond of being online to blog their fears to the world...

  THEY'LL fit in just fine with the concept of an "Armageddon"...

  Zid
• 

  edmond dantes

  The thing is their literature and reasoning can be very appealing to some people and if they transfer that persuasivness to the internet and someone asks for a bible study they will recieve a knock on the door quicker than you can say I'm your new friend and bingo they are hooked.

  I suspect that a certain amount of people just want to believe and it's the numbers game some will swallow the bait and live the fantasy because that's what it is a comforting fantasy to some who do not see the other side of the coin.
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  00DAD

  No doubt some will convert as a result but I predict the net effect (nice pun, eh!) will be an overall decrease as more see the fatal flaws of the WTBTS as a religion.
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  popcorn_eater

  The one thing the Internet won't be able to do is draw people in, out of a sense of guilt or obligation like the door to door work does. A lot of people who were found in the door to door work didn't really buy into what they were hearing at first but were drawn in by a sense of obligation to those nice well meaning people who kept coming back and who they just couldn't say no to.

  Absolutely exwhyzee. I am an outsider and I can tell you that I have only accepted magazines due to just feeling kind of sorry for the people at the door, or personally feeling like they were nice and not wanting to turn them away completely. My atheist sister got snared in a couple of return visits for the same reason -- the people were a sweet older couple and she felt guilty about saying no. No one feels guilty about saying no to a website.

  Also -- Their websites are totally not user friendly and are pretty off-putting. Terrible content aside, the sites are lackluster and not easy to find things. And they are full of totally corny suspicious looking pictures. A person who was interested in learning about the JW's would naturally want to visit the source, their own official website, but the information on the site is so clearly biased toward their own beliefs and so, for lack of a better word, "cultish" in wording and appearance, that that person would not take it completely seriously. That person will then turn around and visit the other sites the google search turned up, like JWN, JW Recovery and JW Facts.

  Sites generally have to pay Google, don't they, to make their results come up first on the search? Or like "sponsored results". I wonder if they will make this arrangement.
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  ziddina

  "WT is late to the Internet game. Do they really think they're going to become the Wikipedia of Internet religions?..." Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Yeah, Billy....

  And as inefficient and inept as the Watchtower Corporation is, gauging by the information that many, many ex-Bethelites have given us about the brown-nosing, political in-fighting, favoritism and backwards mentality that operates in their headquarters, that they probably won't be any more effective at on-line witnessing than they are at door-to-door witnessing...

  Zid
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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  It looks like that there is one way that the Internet has been extremely successful for Watchtower...

  Their website gets those "confidential" letters for the BOE out to all of us faster than ever!

  Now we can print the original PDFs! All thanks to the Watchtower website!

  Hurray for exclamation points!
• 

  dontplaceliterature

  Most people who would even be inclined to learn about JWs are already looking online. I don't see how this will change anything.
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  Juan Viejo2

  popcorn_eater asked: " Sites generally have to pay Google, don't they, to make their results come up first on the search? Or like "sponsored results". I wonder if they will make this arrangement."

  Actually no, sites don't have to pay Google for high positions in the search engines. They can get some advantage by buying Adwords space, but that can be a very expensive proposition for a company or corporation that is non-profit.

  Most websites get on the first page of Google search by providing a well laid out website with lot of content (text and graphics). If a site has a well chosen domain name that describes its content and is recognizable to the general public, it will almost always end up on near the top of the list.

  If you type in "Jehovah's Witnesses" you will get the Watchtower's three websites, a couple of others, and this site (jehovahs-witness.net) all on the first page.

  If you type in "ex-jehovah's witnesses" you'll find the Yuku forum, Freeminds.com, this site, and my own site (ex-jw.com) all appearing on the first page. I'm sure none of those sites have paid Google anything for those search results. The reason they appear on the first page is that they are full of information about Jehovah's Witnesses and are kept up to date.

  By combining the three sites it already has into one, the Watchtower will possibly shoot itself in the foot. Not only that, but when people search for information about Jehovah's Witnesses they will not only find the Watchtower's official website, but also this one, Freeminds, JWfacts, and ex-Jw.com lurking nearby. This is like setting up a new bookstore and then having Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Borders, and Powells all moving next door and across the street. Not only that, but readers will soon discover that the other stores offer information that is cheaper, more up-to-date, and a lot more fun to read.

  The Watchtower will lose their competitive edge on the Internet. They may lose some of their own readers and followers by moving to the Internet because what they have to offer is mundane, stale, and boring. Those of us who have the stores next door (on the search engines) will offer the latest scandals, better documentation, and logic to our readers. Even faithful JWs will have to check us out to see what we know that they don't.

  I really think that this move on the Watchtower's part will hurt them and help the rest of us..

  JV
• 

  breakfast of champions

  By combining the three sites it already has into one, the Watchtower will possibly shoot itself in the foot.

  Was thinking the same thing, and kind of surprised no one at the society thought this through. Three sites takes up more space on a google search page. One site just moves the exJW sites up higher.