Society CD ROM vs BOUND VOLUMES

ballistic

Several years prior to the release of the first edition of "The Watchtower Library" in England on CD ROM in 1994, the society made an announcement that back-issues of bound volumes of the Watchtower and Awake would be available (for sale) by ordering through the literature desk.
Many in the congregation had wanted a complete library of Watchtowers for years and there was a frenzy of orders placed. I, myself, ordered the complete collection.
However, upon receiving news of the CD ROM becoming available, I wondered just why the society had made so many old re-prints available when they must have known about the future release of the CD.
This also coincided with the rules changing in England for the charging / donating for literature and I distictly remember a talk by an elder saying how much we should donate for the CD through the new donation process... Something like "a comparible encylopedia on CD ROM would cost 30 to 40 £ in the shops - so how much do you think we should donate for this treasure of god-given knowledge".
It just struck me that the literature sell-off was a last ditch attempt at making money, for fear that the CD ROM combined with the new donation programme would spell disaster for the societys income.
Any thoughts?

P.S. I need a more recent copy of the CD ROM if anyone has one?

MrMoe 2

I think the CD rom's have been edited. Is that correct? I heard they removed a LOT of incriminating articles and reworded them - like the Oct. 8, 1975 article on the whole 1975 scam.

Yerusalyim

You're not suprised by the editing are you? They've read Orwell.

YERUSALYIM
"Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
[Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]

Patriot

Hey Ballistic,

I remember a cong. in Man. NYC that when the society switched to donations, had an increase of orders for cd's and videos. Anyway apparently the bro's were not contributing the "recommended" amount of $$ so believe it or not we got a letter from the society which said that basically we ordered so many cd's and videos and the total donations to the WWW (worlwide work) was such and such amount and get this. that WE OWED THEM A TOTAL OF 2 thousand some odd $$!!!

Gee talk about receiving free, giving free.
Maybe they should have stopped bulding the extra wing at Patterson (in those days).

Mav.-

ballistic

Sorry, the phrase "Society's Income" should read "Society's profit".

AlanF

Actually there's a very good reason to have the printed volumes in addition to the CDROM: the printed volumes contain lots of pictures, and the footnotes are much more comprehensible. The CDROM is mainly useful for searching.

As for massive editing of the CDROM to remove incriminating material -- that's ridiculous. I know of no instance where that was done. The Society is perfectly well aware that critics would have field day if they did. That doesn't mean that there aren't minor mistakes, but I have yet to see one.

AlanF

Kent

The CD roms ARE edited some places. Somewhere in the text on the cover the Watchtower indicates this possibility as well.

It's exactly the same as they have always done. New edition of a book, and the text is changed. No mentioning of the changes.

A Watchtower is changed when the bound volumes are ready. No mentioning of the changes there either.

Just another example of the dishonesty and swindle in the Witchpower Libel and Crap Society.

BTW: I STILL NEED THE FEW BOE LETTERS TO GET THE COLLECTION COMPLETE!

Yakki Da

Kent

I need more BOE letters, KMs and other material. Those who can send it to me - please do! The new section will be interesting!!

Daily News On The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses:
http://watchtower.observer.org

MacHislopp

Hello everyone,

thanks for the post.

This subject was discussed already few months ago.

I wish to add that Index have been " modified",

certain reserches are quite difficult because the

" reference to the publications is ...missing".

Research by key words are also a problem, because

not everything is given under a " specific reference"!

So unless you know - already- it is quite difficult to

retrieve a specific quote or article.

I'll give later some eveidence.

Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp

" One who has an accurate knowledge
of God's Word will have no problem
in refuting false religious ideas".

OhHappyDay

First of all I was told that there was a changement on the w89.01, page 12 where it states that preaching will be done until 2000. But I was told about the ENGLISH publications. GermanJW assured that the same thing did not happen in Germany and I know at least one other european language where there was no editing in the CD Rom, but I don't have the printed volume of 89 to check it out, too. But Kent is right: books were changed. Why should it be different with magazines?
Truth is: Orwell would be proud od the WTBTS! They fullfilled his '84 prediction some years earlier..
2nd: Ther is an interesting story wich took place a few years ago in Germany. We used to have that GREEN Bible, remember. Shortly after starting the presses in brandnew Selters the society released the same version of the bible with a BLACK cover...first time. And all bros and sis adored that!! Everybody EVERYBODY ordered that black bible (beautifull!!) for 10 DM. Suddenly you could only see the green bible in kids hands...
Well, exactly seven monyhs later Selters released a top secret version (nobody was told before that version was on his way) with REFERENCES, in black, too, of course. And almost everybody went out to order that new one. I remember that some publishers were not very happy to "recycle" their old edition that fast... Did something similar happened in other places??
(I ask myself until today: why didn't they print that reference bible in GREEN first. It would have been a "GREEN-BLACK-GREEN AGAIN BUT WITH REFERENCE-BLACK FINALLY BLACK!!!"-business. Big bucks, indeed. Should have asked me for advice before...:-)
............
Honorable words of Honorable Judge:
Advertise!Advertise!Advertise!
Well, that's what we're doing here...!

HappyDay

ballistic

Thanks for your points. Some of them have been raised in other threads.
However my point was about the fact the society set about a major reprint project before the CD ROM came out in order to profit from sales of old literature.

In fact, I'm suprised the society produced a CD ROM at all, after all, this LIFE GIVING knowledge is not given away on the internet is it?

Society CD ROM vs BOUND VOLUMES

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