Hi Celtic,
I am an outsider who looks in, but not in a professional capacity. Never the less, your questions are ones that I have thought of, and why this site fascinates me so. To try to give my personal insite:
1.The stories of the many posters here are initially shocking! Most of us outsiders only see the surface "goody goody" side to JWs. You think they are kind of weird and know it is a cult, but you don't know much about it AT ALL. The ordinary person is really almost ignorant of what JWs believe ...which in itself shows how ineffectual the door to door stuff is. So you look at this site, yup, the JWS are weird all right, and they aren't even nice! In fact, those surface so nice people are vicious to those who no longer agree with them, and gee, they really don't like us worldly people either. At first you feel a bit skeptical, and you lurk and read, then over and over you hear the same sort of stuff, and it all fits in with what you read elsewhere and BANG! It's like there is this secret, mean, scary world you didn't know existed.
I have to say, it would be nice to have a neutral feeling reference site, that a professional could look up information on without to wade through posts and understand the emotion behind the posters in order to get the facts.
2. The initial feel to this site varies from week to week. Shortly after christmas there was so much bickering and people leaving, that I think someone taking a single look would have been discouraged. If someone takes the time to "lurk" over a couple of weeks, you hear interesting stories, people going through really tough stuff and you see the warmth and support of the posters for each other. You see bickering and most importantly, you see others working hard to get along, mend the hurt feelings, apologies for harsh words, see someone elses point of view. That part was what I found really impressive.
It is definately helpful to read over time to figure out the individual posters. I know that as an outsider sometimes I have trouble trying to decide if a poster is happy JW, pushed out and wishes to be back in JW, furious JW who wants to stay in and change things, ex JW to is furious and wants to change things, happy JW who left on their own with family, happy ex JW who left on their own but misses family who shun them, ignorant outsider(like me)... and so on, so that you can undertand the person behind the post. Certainly some are more scholarly, some more intersted in social issues, others personal issues, others jokes and sex. The very variety of posters makes me feel that it is a more realistic cross section of real society. Overall, there is outstanding honesty in the posters and their candor and how expressively they are able to make their points and tell their stories.
I have to say, (I am putting on my fire retardant suit), there does seem to be some posters whose opinions are valued more than others, and who others reply to more. Perhaps it is based on longevity and insite, and maybe cleverness and wit? I really have no idea, and couldn't put the names to it. I do think sometimes I feel scared to post something because I didn't live "the life".
The posters,I have talked to in chat or have e mailed me, seem like wonderful people who I would love to have as real life friends. I really respect their courage.
The #1 reason for the excellent rating for this website is Simon. He has a light hand, but it is there, and appears to be pretty balanced.
Simon and Angharad deserve a huge thank you for this forum.
