The Great Watchtower Internet Retreat

by DT 29 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  DT

  There has been a lot of talk about the new Watchtower Internet strategy. It appears that the Watchtower is trying to improve their Internet presence. This could be true, but I think there are good reasons to think that the opposite might be the case.

  I suspect that this new Internet announcement was primarily designed to draw attention away from the announcement that they are cutting down on the printing of the magazines again.

  They are basically dropping two of their websites and redesigning a website on a url that has the lowest rating of the three. This will probably result in less traffic and fewer search results listings. (Google usually allows a website to have one or two results per search. With three websites, they could really dominate the first page of search results for some terms. With only one site, their presence will be greatly reduced. They will also likely lose their number one rankings for some search terms, at least for a while.)

  They are also going to lose their media site, which means that reporters doing research are likely to spend more time on sites that are critical of the Watchtower Society. They are also losing brand recognition for their Watchtower.org site.

  Why would they make a change with so many disadvantages for their Internet presence? I think that they may be afraid. They may want to avoid the confusion of having multiple websites. If they can just have people type in a few characters (jw.org), they can reduce the chances that people will actually do a search for their websites and see links to apostate sites.

  It will be interesting to see if they prominently advertise their new website on their new thinner magazines. If so, it would be an indication that I'm wrong and that they are interested in using the web as a way to get converts. However, I suspect that they don't really want people to use the Internet to do research about them.

  It may be that their websites have done them more harm than good. They do get a small number of Bible study requests from their site, but they probably have greater losses from those who stumble on apostate sites while trying to find their websites. They have discovered that they can cut costs by offering downloads, but other than that, it appears that their Internet experiment has been a failure which could be a reason for reducing the number of their websites.
• 

  Think About It

  I think it's awesome. The WTS previously demonized the internet and now they will be going against all the BS false counsel they gave JW's all these years. The GB fools are bringing the Trojan horse right inside the gates of WTS HQ. This will speed up the demise of the JW religion.

  Think About It
• 

  ziddina

  I agree with your thoughtful comments...

  Let's face it, the Watchtower has NEVER been notable for brilliant management of their resources. According to much of what we've heard about the way Bethel was/is being run, it's a morass of infighting, politicking and inefficiencies...

  So it doesn't surprise me that Watchtower has again made decisions that will probably turn around and bite them in their collective arses...
• 

  pontoon

  DT, what you say sounds possible. One thing to remember, the Org doesn't tell the truth, when they make changes they always "spin" as to the reason why. The main objective of the Org is a balancing act of staying different from the world but not so different they appear crazy. Nothing to do with truth or spiritual enlightenment. An example is their stand on blood. If the Org were being praised for a rock solid stand on no blood, that would still be the policy. As it is now, the Org looks a little more acceptable with their easing on blood issues, but still different. Don't expect any changes on tolerating any who voice any opinions of their own, they are to scared of being torn down from the inside out. It's a church survival tactic, appeal to enough people to stay in business without losing their own identify, not unlike Catholics dropping their fish Fridays and turning a blind eye to birth control. Don't know their reasoning, but whatever decisions they are making are being made for their future survival, nothing to do with spreading the word or saving lives. Just my opinion.
• 

  breakfast of champions

  I think you have nailed it, DT. Not only is the Internet move just a cover for lackluster magazine sales, the consolidation of three sites to one is sure to draw more search engine attention to apostate sites.
• 

  oppostate

  The lack of emphasis on watchtower.org and

  the elevation of jw.org to an all inclusive portal

  serves the WTS's purpose of distinguising the

  corporation from the JW religion.

  This is something similar to having the name

  "Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses"

  for most all congregation directives. And having

  the WTB&TS name brand used for corporate

  holdings.

  The old domains will be kept, have no doubt

  about that, they may bounce a visitor to the

  soon to be official web site, but they would

  never dream of letting Watchtower.org and

  several other Watchtower branded domains

  go back to public registration.

  Try these and see how they bounce:

  http://www.watchtower.com

  http://www.watchtower.net

  they lead to the official site:

  http://www.watchtower.org

  The also have domains in other

  languages: French, Spanish, etc.

  http://www.temoinsdejehovah.org/

  http://www.testigosdejehova.es

  http://www.jehovaszeugen.de/

  What I think is hilarious is the

  JW.com goofy web site for a lawyer's

  firm, especially Vytas Petrulis photo.

  What a happy risk management barrister!
• 

  DT

  It's almost like they are giving up. They let an apostate in Australia dictate their policy on background checks. They're laying off workers and selling factory buildings. They're even going to shut down their main website. If they were a company, I would think they are going out of business.
• 

  pontoon

  But I think if you saw the construction going on in Wallkill, proposed construction for Patterson, future development in Walden, and had a look at their bank accounts you wouldn't think they were going out of business. They got money to burn, what's different is they are burning more of it on themselves (headquarters).
• 

  oppostate

  For a possible hint at how the new JW portal

  might look take a gander at the German site.

  http://www.jehovaszeugen.de/

  It's reminiscent of the jw-media.org web site.

  But it uses the word "portal".

  Quite a long time ago on the Spanish exjw forum

  at ExTJ.com one of our "opposed" brothers from

  Ajalvir let it be known that the Euro-Witnesses

  were contracted with a German public relations

  firm that was giving advice on developing and

  re-branding the public image of the WTS.

  Some things that came out of that experiment

  were the Public vs. Study versions, and the look

  of the Witness only publications, KM's and Study

  versions of the WT.

  Time will tell, but there has to be some trial

  web address that is now being tested. If it is

  internal only we'll have to wait a few months.

  But if "Johnny the Closeted Bethelite" does

  work in the IT Dept. maybe he can spill the

  address of the trial/beta web portal.

  Heck, even a screen cap would be nice!
• 

  jwfacts

  The won't loose too much search engine ranking, as they will do 401 redirects on the other sites. However, you are correct about loosing some valueable realestate on the first page of google.

  There is an upside for the Watchtower with JW.org, as there are no apostate sites that rank well when a person does a search on jw. A lot of people search on a url rather than type in the url. (ie, people coming to jwfacts often type jwfacts.com into google rather then their browser) When a Witness searches on watchtower a whole lot of apostate sites appear. If they search on jw, there is nothing else regarding JWs. NOTE TO SITES - start optimising your sites for the term JW.

  What I think is hilarious is the JW.com goofy web site for a lawyer's firm, especially Vytas Petrulis photo.

  Great point. A lot of JWs with go there rather than the watchtower's .org url. JW.com will love the traffic spike. Maybe we should warn them to set up a legal service for Witnesses, or exJWs.