jw.org - My reasons why WTBTS are moving over to the internet (page 2)

bigmac

"They've entered their twilight years with maybe another short boom ahead of them before the see a major collapse in membership."

i hope i live long enough to "witness" that.

amen

With regard to the second point made by the OP, I'm afraid that is totally incorrect. Most people, myself included, do not have a static IP. One day my IP address can be somewhere 50 miles NW of where I live, the next day it can be 100 miles E of where I live. Although IP addresses can indicate my general location, the area is so broad that it (for me) covers at least 20 congregations.

Although it is possible to be more accurate, you would have to be in a very senior government department to gain access to such information. You would also have to have a very good reason for doing so. I don't think trying to monitor to actions of religious adherents would cut it!

falseprophet

You wouldn't need legions of people to track IP addresses, just an IP database and a good programmer. Google and FaceBook track locations of their visitors. In fact, your location is being tracked by Google on this website - it uses Google Analytics.

The locations are not always 100% accurate. There is a reason for this - some IP blocks are allocated to large areas, rather than small. Brooklyn NY has lots of IP addresses and if you have one of them, you are 99.9% likely to be in Brooklyn. Some IP blocks are simply allocated to the State of New York. That is a large area and many websites try to guess where you are. Double07, your internet provider probably has several blocks of IP addresses they can assign you and might give you a more general IP address on occassion, sometimes to share the load. Websites may try to guess your location more accurately but they cannot be guaranteed to be right. Some do it off the longtitude and latitude which can be anywhere in the State! There is one IP block that is allocated the the area of the 'EU' - not much help!

I just see the Society working out how many views compared to the number of publishers in the area. For example, if North Carolina has a 42% download rate, Texas 44%, Detroit 41% but Chicago is only 6%, then surely they will inform the COs serving the Chicago areas?

Digital downloads are same as printed versions, so even if they edit the future edition...

I understand that there will be articles on the site that will not be put in print. You have got me thinking on that one though, they will have to print the study edition and I suppose that one will have the most important information in it.

NomadSoul

Falseprophet is right. You're IP only gives the location of your ISP provider, so it wouldn't work to track congregations. Only authorities can get more specifics from your ISP.

Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

Cheaper, more cost effective, doesn't require so many slaves (beth-hell-ites), doesn't require so much real estate and can be changed at will (I mean easier directed by holy-speared-shit).

diamondiiz

I can't imagine the ip addresses being of much importance to them that they would want to pass to a CO. They could have been doing so at present since their sites have been up for a while already and they can compare their ip addresses between watchtower.org and jw.org to see what correlation there is between those who dl and those who may be simply curious about wts. For any ip relevance they would need a public and dub sections where the stats could better reflect closer percantage of who visits their site and why.

I honestly believe the only reason they mentioned an updated dub site in the letter which announced reduction in printed material was to take the focus off the negative news and emphasize the appeal of their site. Consolidating two sites may also be cheaper to update. Any articles that will be there will be vague, appealing to the public and to the government's eyes - nothing more controversial than it's already up there now. I don't see them making any statements that "only dubs, faithful to GB will make it through the Armageddon which is imminent. " I also don't see them encourage dubs to use internet more as they continue to warn them about the evils of internet. Since they know they can't stop the information progress they will try to fight it by directing witnesses to their site which may have more QFR or reasoning how to explain some of their BS teaching but nothing too controversial.

steve2

Over-active imaginations are preferable to under-active ones, but sometimes over-activity produces more heat than light. I think this is an instance of the latter with the current thread.

It's one thing to see the move to the internet as being an effective one from a business-management point of view (highly plausible), but another entirely to see it as a reflection of its need to more closely monitor congregations (highly paranoid). Hell, they already have their finger on the pulse of congregations (magazines, books, hours of door-knocking, who is active, who isn't, who is marked for reproof and who isn't, who is disfellowshipped, who is a re-instatement prospect and who isn't, who pioneered this month, but didn't this month last year - phew! Oh and who is conducting home Bible Studies and doing return visitsand then there are the elders reports to headquarters about what's happening in the congregation at a more ïnterpersonal level, to say nothing on the COs formulaic but data-rich reports about each congregation they inspect visit).

I think we unjustifiably credit the Watchtower with too much Orwellian-aggression and hype, when they are doing their organizational control in the present very well thank you. As for comparing downloads in one congregation with another, that's not a terribly accurate indicator of utilization of the literature because witnesses may download one copy for their family and photo-copy very cheaply - and double-sided - on home printers copies for spouses and adoring children.

jw.org - My reasons why WTBTS are moving over to the internet