Well, Philo, there's a lot that can be said about the development of JW criticism on the Internet. I can tell you about some things from my own view, but that's only a small part of the whole. As with every new technology and communication medium, things have rapidly evolved.
I got my start on the Net back in 1992, when the Web was only a gleam in the eye of a CERN physicist. Back then the discussion forums were on Usenet News, which still exists today and is massive. At that time most Usenet forums were read with linear readers based on Unix systems, so when you read "News" you had to be prepared to save material you were interested in. Once read, a news item could be reread only if you saved its identifier. Since then a lot of graphics-based user interfaces have made reading Usenet much easier.
About the middle of 1992 I had finished up a couple of large essays on the Society's wrong views about Noah's Flood and Creation/Evolution (see http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/index2.htm for the latest) and was sitting at my desk at work wondering what to do next, when a co-worker came by and told me about some interesting news items on Usenet. I hadn't used this medium before, so it was all new to me. He told me about some discussions going on about JWs (we had discussed JW issues before) and said that it was very entertaining. Seems that on the newsgroup talk.origins, the Society's 1985 Creation book was being dissected. Having just completed such a dissection myself, I became involved in the discussions. I got acquainted with various JW defenders and with critics. Of course, the JW defenders were just as ineffective at defending their teachings as they are today. It was particularly entertaining to see an accredited scientist bring various facts to bear that the JWs could only end up sputtering about and then ignoring.
I also got on other Usenet groups, such as talk.religion.misc, sci.skeptic, soc.religion.christian and a few others. Often topics bearing on JWs or JW false ideas would come up. But talk.origins taught me more than any other group. I gradually realized that virtually everything I had been taught as a JW about creation/evolution, and much that they taught about science, was tainted. Until you learn a topic thoroughly, you have no idea how much you didn't know. Eventually I wrote many posts, short and long, for this group. Some are still in the talk.origins archives.
One of the more influential groups on today's JW-critical websites, I think, was talk.religion.misc. This was a free-for-all forum where all kinds of religious discussions took place. A loose group of JW defenders and another of JW critics was usually present, whacking away at each other. By late 1993 I had posted many, many long dissections of JW teachings and become familiar (and actually somewhat friendly) with some of the JW defenders. About that time I met the lady who is now my wife, on the Net.
A few months into 1994 a critic posted some information about a newly released Canadian video called "Children of Jehovah". It showed the massive hurt that disfellowshipping did to young people, and simply by presenting the robotic responses of a few JW children, showed how deeply the cult mentality affected even young children. Discussions about this video led to a number of JW critics becoming very friendly offline as well as online.
Around the beginning of 1994 JanH was still a JW and he was a vocal defender. We got involved in many online and offline discussions. I sent him massive emails containing discussions of JW history and the infamous Creation book. By the fall of 1994 he realized the truth about "the Truth" and, to my astonishment, told me that he was quitting the JWs. That later led to his and his wife's being forcibly disassociated. Jan got in touch with the vocal and well-known Norwegian critics Kent Steinhaug and Norman Hovland. Jan started his own JW-critical webpage and so did Kent, sometime in 1995 I believe. It was somewhere around this time, too, that Randy Watters started a website.
During this time we had discussions with another man who was among the most reasonable JW defenders. By early 1995 he realized that something was very wrong in La-La-Land, and he tried to get some hard questions about JW chronology answered through his elders. They wrote the Society, but it became painfully evident that the answers given were nonsense. About this time the man, partly for fun, partly to get web experience, started up a discussion board called "Associated Jehovah's Witnesses for Reform" (AJWR). This lasted about a year, and attracted many JWs. I didn't have the appropriate computer facilities at home or work, and never took part in that board. Some of these JWs took a cue from this and started up H2O in early 1996, largely modeled on the "reform" theme.
During these years I participated heavily in an email-based discussion group called "Jesus-Witnesses". This was something of a misnomer because it was basically a JW-critical email list, but once named, it stuck. The ideas was "Jesus' " as opposed to "Jehovah's" witnesses. There were a lot of heavy discussions on this list, and I feel that it honed my debating skills, especially with the Fundies who eventually overwhelmed the list by sheer numbers.
About the end of summer 1996, I was contacted by a woman who had been a JW and who, because of discussions on the fledgling H2O, had quit the religion. She told me about the board, and so I joined and began posting. At that point I dropped out of the Jesus-Witnesses list and ceased participating in the Usenet discussions. It became evident that web-based discussion groups were the way to go. Many current JW-critical websites were started around this time.
Most JW critics realize that trying to reform the JW religion is as useless as trying to reform a child molester -- they like doing what they do and without outside force they ain't gonna change. Some JWs have realized that something is very wrong with their religion, but for very understandable reasons want to stick with it. So they've held out the hope of reform. I think that many still do, but others have realized that without outside intervention nothing will change.
Many JW critics, including myself, have a hard time explaining just why we still spend so much time dealing with JW issues. I can only say that for me, it's a combination of concern for the abused JW community, and moral outrage that ignorant, unethical men such as lead the Watchtower religion continue to do so with impunity. However, I have every reason to believe that that is about to change. The adverse publicity from the public exposure of the failure of JW leaders in the area of child molestation will force big changes, I think. It is that kind of publicity that most critics have been working towards, and so I certainly think that our efforts have been well worth the effort.
Each person who contributes builds on that which has gone before. After I did my own independent research and found out how badly the Society has misrepresented science-related things, I accumulated books from various critics and I got in touch personally with many of the authors. In further writings I've used some of their material and contributed my own research. Hundreds of critical website owners have done the same, continually building on the research of earlier writers. A solid body of criticisms have emerged, which JWs are completely unable refute.
I think that some of the best contributors to understanding Jehovah's Witness failings over the years have been William Cetnar, Edmund Gruss, Duane Magnani, Raymond Franz, James Penton, Carl Olof Jonsson, Gary & Heather Botting, and Randy Watters. These people have contributed more to my understanding of how JWs work and how much of a cult they really are than anyone else I can think of. Their writings have been the foundation for much of what appears on today's websites. Of course, hundreds of others have contributed, and I continue to learn from books and online presentations.
I hope this thumbnail personal sketch gives you a little insight into the things you inquired about.
AlanF
