Personal opinion and experiences do have their place through indirect reference, but in a wikipedia-type page they would not be in the "voice" of the webpage's author. One could have a page or suite of pages on "Criticism of the Watchtower Society", and personal experiences can be referenced through third-party mention or weblinks, but the main thing is that the viewpoint of the site itself remains neutral. I personally feel that a "just the facts ma'am" approach is more powerful than one that is rhetorically sophisticated. As for personal experiences, these can be valid sources of information if cited as references, one could have pages on "Personal Experiences of Children Raised JW" or "Personal Experiences of Abuse Survivors" or "Personal Experiences of Bethelites", etc. That would be pretty amazing to have a page that puts together an encyclopedia-type article on a particular kind of experiences, highlighting different aspects of them, and loaded with links and references for further reading.
Attention all Ex-JW Researchers, New Wiki Project Needs you....
by drew sagan 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Terry
I've toyed with the idea of a website primer with a series of portals or doors the user has to go through gradually.
There would be just one provocative question per page and a multi-choice set of possible answers.
The __next__page would give the answer.
I thought it might be a Jehovah's Witness Trivia Test challenging the user's intelligence.
There would be no necessity of injecting rhetoric or criticism into it whatsoever.
Niggling details would emerge verifiable by exact quotes and photo-copies of the exact page of the WTS publication in view.
Absolutely no editorial pot-shots.
The purpose of the "TEST" portals would be to give the most complete view (historically) of the entire Watchtower Society mindset and doctrinal evolution.
Most curious Jehovah's Witnesses I've spoken to always stop at websites and look for something they can find fault with--any small thing--which is not exactly correct in order to dismiss everything else.
This website (I've proposed) would not have anything but actual Watchtower information.
The usual ANTI-JW site has so many levels of rhetoric, carping, half-truths, opinions and pro-Christendom flavors you never get an honest JW to go very far without being able to dismiss it all as Apostate Lies.
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drew sagan
Terry, you said:
The usual ANTI-JW site has so many levels of rhetoric, carping, half-truths, opinions and pro-Christendom flavors you never get an honest JW to go very far without being able to dismiss it all as Apostate Lies.
That's why there would be moderators! like you hopefully ;) Also, as you mentioned the adverage JW will find fault with anything. I used to think that there should be more web pages about JWs that took a litte softer approach, but then I realized that I kept looking at the ones that where up despite all my JW fears! I don't think they style and content are going to make somebody more accessable when dealing with a cult like JWs. Something has to spark inside the person for them to open up and start digging in.
Leolaia,
I'll send you a PM. I was hoping you would be interested, you write such great stuff!
-Drew -
jgnat
THERE IS a poster who did this, I forget his name. His avatar was HOT. I contributed quite a bit to his site. Now the site is back "under construction". I think it got hacked.
http://www.watchtowerwiki.org/
Consider also that JW apologists no longer contribute to the Wikipedia articles, so it is more likely that our contributions will hold up. The JW apologists have all been instructed by "mother" to stop participating. I believe the scholarly types, on both sides of the fence, were getting close to consensus. As we know, the WTBTS can't have THAT.
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Borgia
JGNAT,
today, that website was not available. It is said to be back soon.....
Drew, yes, I think it would be a good idea to have a website with facts about the WBTS and co, although I would not dismiss personal experience. I suppose there would be a way of validating an experience.
If I can be of help, let me know.
Cheers
Borgia
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drew sagan
Just wanted to bump this thread up for those who missed it.
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drew sagan
I also had the idea that the contributors could be on an 'invitation only' basis in order to prevent abuse. Since the purpose is not to create a wikipedia type website but simply to use the wikipedia technology to build a good site using a community of members.
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Terry
Perhaps we could narrow the focus down to a mission statement?
Who is the site intended for? Anyone, everyone, someone, no one?
What would constitute success?
How could we measure it?
How can the identity of responders be clarified?
Will there be any real time features? Q&A possibilities?
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sf
It all sounds constructive and productive.
All is printable and easy to 'distribute' offline, as well as places online where "religious" ones congregate.
Great site Chass!
Nice to see you posting.
sKally
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Lady Lee
Whoa. Hang on. Slam on the breaks!!!
I have read article after article of information written by people on this board that would make for an amazing collection of informtion. We also could make available many of the public domain publications as well.
Taking posts from this website to repost somewhere else could be a copyright infringement.
I have articles on my website that I have posted here. They are copyright protected.
In my work on this site with the Best of series I have simply posted links to the original posts - to respect the copyright of the person who posted it as well as the person.
In the section on personal exp[eriences I have taken that a step forward and requested permission to add their personal experience to the series. It may be one thing for a poster to tell his or her story and have it quitely sink into the archives. It is another matter to have arrows pointed at it saying ->READ THIS. Some have said no and that needs to be respected.
I think the idea is a great one but reposting other people's info may not be such a good idea especially if you do not ask them first. One way around that is to ask them to post it themselves.
But a problem will arise there. Many of the things that should go into a project like this will be hampered because the poster is no longer here. And if you can't contact them, you can't ask their permission
Just my thoughts