Links to analysis of the 2012 Service Year Report

by cedars 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  cedars

  Hi everyone

  I am amazed by the speed with which jwfacts has been able to update the graphs on his website.

  Please check out his statistics page on the link below...

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php

  I have also published an article with my own analysis of the 2012 report which you are welcome to read through...

  http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/2012-service-year-report-available-on-jw-org-but-what-do-the-numbers-really-show

  If anyone can think of how I can improve my article in any way, please let me know!

  Also, if there's any other objective analyses of the report floating around on the internet that I'm unaware of, please post a link here!

  Cedars
• 

  cobaltcupcake

  Thanks, Cedars!

  Wow, I got absorbed in those graphs! I notice that the Dubs never report the number who disassociate themselves. I suppose we're lumped in with the DFs.
• 

  truthlover

  Remember how the society says, if you were a member of a church prior to becoming a witness, you should write them a letter advising them you are now one of Jehovahs Witnesses....... sorry -- associates (remember - only JW's are of the anointed) we are not really JW's according to earlier statements years ago - we are Jonadabs, helpers or associates of the anointed. This letter would show we no longer believe in their false teachings so the question now is: if we find ourselves drifting away and fading to the point we are invisible, and if we wrote the society and told them we no longer believe in their teachings, would they truly deduct those members from the total worldwide average pub reports? No - as it would look defeatist and the mass would become dispondent if the truth is not growing, showing blessings being poured out.

  Also too - the harrassment would start to make sure you, your family, acquaintances would become df'd -- yet never count the number in their lack of growth figure.

  A little off topic but cobaltcupcake mentioned the disassociation..

  Again Cedars, good work
• 

  nugget

  Very interesting reading especially the dip in memorial attendance and the difference between the number baptised and publishers.

  I think it shows a religion treading water with an ineffective approach to recruitment and retainment.
• 

  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "I would notice if nearly two-and-a-half people in my country vanished"

  I think you mean to add "million" in there. But then you don't have all the proofreaders that WT does. I'm very surprised that the yearbook has an error in the Chile figures like that. How many bethelites have been cut from Writing?

  So the number of partakers has increased...?

  2011 11824
  2012 12604

  If I understand the numbers correctly from jwfacts (I've been drinking, so my math skills may be impaired), this is a 6.6% increase in the "Nibbling and Sipping Class". I wonder why the yearbook isn't boasting about that grand increase?
• 

  cedars

  Thanks everyone!

  Billy - yes, I noticed the "million" thing just before I went to bed and fixed it, stoopid me! Sometimes my brain types faster than my fingers.

  Cedars
• 

  AnnOMaly

  "When Charles Taze Russell first founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society, he did so in an era where the printed word was the only effective method of conveying information. If you wanted to take issue with something written by him in the Society's literature, you needed to physically travel to the Society's headquarters and cause a scene in front of a small crowd of his supporters, who would doubtless eject you onto the sidewalk in no time."

  What tended to happen back then was you'd write in to the Society. Some contentious letters and objections would be answered in the pages of ZWT. Or those who took issue would produce and circulate their own literature exposing Russell's teachings or shady business practices or whatever.
• 

  besty

  What tended to happen back then was you'd write in to the Society. Some contentious letters and objections would be answered in the pages of ZWT. Or those who took issue would produce and circulate their own literature exposing Russell's teachings or shady business practices or whatever

  leo's thread on Olin Moyle was a great case study of how the editors of the Watchtower used their power to squash internal dissent
• 

  Achille

  Hello Cedars.

  I have read your page http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/2012-service-year-report-available-on-jw-org-but-what-do-the-numbers-really-show and I have extracted some information that I have included here: www.infotdgeova.it/statistiche8.php Thank you very much for your interesting information. Best wishes for a good 2013 Achille
• 

  scotoma

  Cedars,

  As you point out in your blog the internet is a significant player in the decreased results of the Watchtower. When you look at a graph of internet use over time there is a strong correlation between witness productivity and people using the internet.

  One of the tests for authoritarian entrenchment is the efforts to squash the internet.

  The decision by the american congress to open the internet to private use and to make it practically free almost would make me believe in divine intervention. Of course it isn't. But it was the most enlightened decision to ever come out of the US congress. Other countries have done the same. It was an event right up there with the Magna Carta.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are now trying to flood the internet with their propaganda. The many new "schools" for indoctrination that they have set up will not accomplish what they need. The only other possible response would be to honestly answer the challenges that have appeared on this and other discussion boards. The only thing that a rational person can conclude is that they really are unable to rebut the thousands of arguments that have been raised against their dogma. If they could - they would. Now that the information playing field is even they have chosen to commit organizational suicide.