I'm not phased as much about the credit card terminals. 97% of American currency only exists in digital form. Employers began refusing to issue paychecks a few years ago, only paying you on a debit card or direct deposit. People have now grown up having never written or handled a check. It was inevitable. I predict they will start accepting Paypal and Bitcoin next.
I personally wouldn't have been phased by the credit card machines at assemblies and conventions IF I hadn't heard hundreds of times how greedy the churches of christendom were, and the presence of ATMs in some of their churches was presented as primary evidence of this. Actually, as a kid, I remember thinking to myself "is that really that bad? They're not forcing anyone to contribute, just making it more convenient for those that will anyway." But, no, again and again it was stressed that putting those machines in the church was akin to having the money changers in the temple. It put the emphasis on money, not on god and was often the very first thing that you see when you walk in.
What's the first thing you see when you walk into a convention/assembly hall now? A sister gaurding over a credit card machine. It's not so much the credit card machines, it's the hypocricy behind it. That was a big part of my resolving never to donate again, even while still asleep to TTATT.
Now, back on the main topic of the thread -
Since the WTS seems to be primarily emulating the Mormons these days (especially with jw.org clearly being inspired by lds.org) are there any meaningful growth stats to show how lds.org may have helped/hurt the mormons? Since they're a few years ahead with all that, that might provide some indication as to what effect jw.org will have. I did a couple searches, but wasn't able to find much information and don't have time to dive in too deep right now.
Personally, I think JW.org is primarily a tool to keep the R/F busy and keep up the facade of progress. There's constant mention that JW.org may be the fullfillment of Jesus' words that the good news will be preached in the entire inhabitted earth before the end. Obviously there's some significant holes in that logic, but since it's clearly designed to appeal to the 1st world, those in the 1st world take the internet foregranted and assume that it's available everywhere.
The statistics generated from the website are also great for their boasting of "Jehovah certainly is speeding up the work!" but comparing statistics generated from a website with real-world preaching stats is clearly flawed. I suspect a fair portion of the bible study requests are fake, or they'll lose interest by the time someone actually comes by. Of the ones that are 'real' I suspect a number are from ones that have some familiarity with the JWs, and are just looking for some basic information about the cult and will eventually lose interest. Many are probably immigrants looking for an easy way to learn the local language, and will drop the study once they've gotten what they need. Of those that are actually brought in by the web site, I suspect most will be of poor "quality" - poor, mentally unstable folks who will contribute only to the further dumbing-down of the cult, which will continue to help push thinking people out of the cult.
All in all, I'd bet jw.org will be a wash as far as generating growth, but it may be temporarily successful in distracting from the fact that it's 2014 and the WTS has yet to have a single prediction come true.
