One of the things that attracted me here was the links to extra special threads listed on net soup and it got me thinking. There have been several excellent research worthy threads here and it might be excellent to gather together all the best individual posts (perhaps have a poll?) and then publish them in a book or yearly 'Best Of' publication. The quality of some of the research and thoughts posted is sometimes far too useful to disappear. If there were some locked FAQ threads that got updated with particularly outstanding posts then not only would lurkers be exposed to the real meat but this community may then also attract other researchers as a source. Anyway - I'd buy a book with the best posts about JWs in it..
JWD members why not write a book together?
by Qcmbr 15 Replies latest watchtower bible
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OUTLAW
The best posts of JWD..???..Not a bad idea...OUTLAW
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stevenyc
Qcmbr, an interesting idea.
I've been thinking of something similar. As a reply to recent pro-JW documentaries and public awareness videos I had an idea of producing a campaign of short videos for you-tube which would create and larger and faster audience.
steve -
Lady Lee
Well firstly, the section of the board The Best of... Books lists many of the books already published. And many of them already have lengthy dicussions using much of the material that has been posted. Gruss (not yet included in the The Best of... Books section) recently had 2 well documented books published concerning WT beliefs and the GB members and the evolution of their beliefs. We know a few people are working on books that will include much of what has been posted here and a lot more.
Secondly, my question would be why should someone buy the book when it is published here for free? If you really want certain info then just save it to your computer.
Thirdly, 2 e-cookbooks(Food at the Proper Time and Food in Due Season) have been published for JWD and are available on JWD. Proceeds from the first goes to help support the board and the second is free). The recipes were contributed by posters of JWD.
Fourthly, I have had an anthology published with a group of writers (15 of us) across Canada. Sorting out royalties has been a problem. In our case each person wrote one or two stories but regardless of how many contributions made each of the 15 authors got paid 1/15th. The publisher designated one author as reciever of the royalties and would forward each share to the individual authors. That worked well for the first year. The second year there were so few books sold we agreed to let him keep it. I think we each would have wound up with a check of $4.00.
Sorting out each contributed to a discussion and helped move it along and how much they should be rewarded would be a nightmare. Some of the posters paid to collect information. Others, like me, just asked more questions to send them off in another direction in their search for information. I may have contributed but the bulk of the work and the research was most definitely done by some truly remarkable researchers. The difficulties determining who gets how much would be extremely difficult.
Well there's my $0.04 worth
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carla
When talking to people about jw's they are very interested in the human interest stories, more so than doctrines. What jw's experienced growing up and in the org as adults. You could have that anybody who contributed to a book agree that all monies made would be donated to Freeminds or some other anti cult ministries or Doctors without Borders or something like that.
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Qcmbr
Sometimes I find the phrasing of an idea in some posts is absolutely spot on and captures an issue in a superb way. I could find such posts were I to wade through the threads but to be honest I mainly just stumble across them and never see them again. I like the collaborative approach to gathering well written knowledge. While I don't respond to many posts (time) sometimes I sit here nodding at the excellence of writing but its just not something I'd gather together myself. I think it might be another community builder to have a 'best post' nomination button so when we agree strongly with a post and think others would find it useful then you can add your recommendation to it (so then the site could be searched by most recommended post etc..). I was just sitting through a particularly 'riveting' Sunday School lesson today musing on the whimsy of lost posts (funny and factual) and how a more focused gathering of info could be achieved.
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serendipity
I think there's a way to weave the heavy-hitting research/doctrinal type posts in with actual experiences that would make this an interesting read.
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moggy lover
I think Stevie Nicks ...oops I mean Serendipity...has a point [Wha happined to your beautiful mermaid??? Anyway, thats neither here nor there is it?] It would be best to confine it to human interest, or largely autobiographical material, but since many left precisely because of certain doctrines such as Chronology, or the trinity, etc we can weave these into the narrative.
Money can be a sordid business. So I think this should be avoided. Either convert some interesting JWD threads into a downloadable PDF file, for free, or as Carla suggests, put a cost but reimburse somebody. Why not JWD?
Whatever, it will take up a lot of time for those involved, who must be willing, and able to do so.
Cheers
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Abandoned
I'd love to take part.
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Abandoned
Money can be a sordid business. So I think this should be avoided. Either convert some interesting JWD threads into a downloadable PDF file, for free, or as Carla suggests, put a cost but reimburse somebody. Why not JWD?
Why not use www.lulu.com. You can make it free for download and just cover the cost of materials for a hard copy. That way it would be affordable to a greater audience and I'm doing this aspect of my writing because it's in my heart, not to profit.