TOH - the main link I gave shows global data. There was indeed a spike in August, but it came entirely from the 3rd world. If you click on a country on the map below, you'll see data for only that country. That's where you'll see that interest in jw.org has plateaued in "western" countries.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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18
JW.org statistics and the decline in first world countries.
by OneEyedJoe incross posting from another thread.
it seems that i might not be the only nerd here that's interested in statistics like this so maybe it deserves it's own topic.. so i was playing around with google.com/trends with some jw related search terms.
i found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so i figured i'd share.. first off, the link to what i tried.. one of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest.
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poll, why would you hide it your buisness/job
by sowhatnow inhow many people on here who were or are jws, owned or ran a buisness who would not willingly let people at the k hall know, maybe to avoid feeling like you had to give your fellow brothers and sisters a discount, or free help, or out of fear of being judged.
did you only help out the pioneers?
and not the poor ones?
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OneEyedJoe
Simon - I always try to make it out like what I do is just so different from normal IT stuff that I wouldn't possibly be any help to them.
Seriously, these people expect me to make house calls? I guess to be fair, most of them are so destitute from placing all their trust in a cult's predictions that they couldn't hope to afford my services if I were to charge them...
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" Do not ask permission, just play the video--" service meeting instructions.
by prologos inthis statement startled me out of the pleasant mental absence during this week's "service" meeting.. pushing the org.
explanation: "the listener has time to interrupt, if they want--" .
together with an incredible boring "study" of an hand held device, or it's stored content, i will be a totally new crop of orgies at the halls,.
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OneEyedJoe
That's strange, everyone I'm wingmanning it at a door and a conversation stopper gets thrown out, my partner adeptly "counters" it. My partner is also somehow blissfully unaware that the house holder's demeanor changes to that of an exasperated, but polite person, who just wants to go back to their usual (cult free) Saturday morning activities.
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JW.org statistics and the decline in first world countries.
by OneEyedJoe incross posting from another thread.
it seems that i might not be the only nerd here that's interested in statistics like this so maybe it deserves it's own topic.. so i was playing around with google.com/trends with some jw related search terms.
i found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so i figured i'd share.. first off, the link to what i tried.. one of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest.
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OneEyedJoe
FF-
The sad thing is I would bet that most of the R/F in the merged congregation think there's been a huge increase since their meetings probably went from being 40%full to being 80% full.
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JW.org statistics and the decline in first world countries.
by OneEyedJoe incross posting from another thread.
it seems that i might not be the only nerd here that's interested in statistics like this so maybe it deserves it's own topic.. so i was playing around with google.com/trends with some jw related search terms.
i found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so i figured i'd share.. first off, the link to what i tried.. one of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest.
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OneEyedJoe
Thinking about this more, I think the most telling thing is that there was essentially no bump for august 2014 in the US. There's over a million active JWs in the US, and a significant number "pioneered" at 30 hours for the month. Even if you assume abysmal support for FS with an average of 5 hours per publisher, you'd still have 5 million hours spent passing out leaflets. Again, assuming a low 10 tracts per hour, that leaves you with 50 million leaflets passed out. That's roughly 1 for every 6 people in the US. if only a tiny fraction of those googled jw.org, there would've been a HUGE spike in august. There was a tiny spike, but it was barely more than the spike caused by the AGM and release of the new bible, and less than the spike at the beginning of 2013. Both of those spikes were probably caused almost exclusively by JWs themselves, so it stands to reason that the august numbers probably included effectively zero interested non-believers.
Just another data point to show the true ineffectiveness of field service.
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Fudging the Numbers: Is the WTBTS in decline?
by Coded Logic init's no secret that the wtbts has a cash flow problem.
over the past three years they have closed 20 of their 116 branches.
they have sold off most of their properties in and around ny (including some kingdom halls), drastically reduced the # of printed pages for the watchtower and awake magazines, reduced the printing of books and other materials, increased the number of single page tract campagnes, installed cc machines at their assembly halls, and are now seizing of controll of property assets from local kingdom halls using renovation projects.
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OneEyedJoe
I feel like your post should probably be in a new thread just to draw more people's attention to it.
Done:
I almost started a new thread, but wasn't sure if it deserved to be on its own, but since you seconded the idea...
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JW.org statistics and the decline in first world countries.
by OneEyedJoe incross posting from another thread.
it seems that i might not be the only nerd here that's interested in statistics like this so maybe it deserves it's own topic.. so i was playing around with google.com/trends with some jw related search terms.
i found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so i figured i'd share.. first off, the link to what i tried.. one of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest.
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OneEyedJoe
Cross posting from another thread. It seems that I might not be the only nerd here that's interested in statistics like this so maybe it deserves it's own topic.
So I was playing around with google.com/trends with some JW related search terms. I found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so I figured I'd share.
First off, the link to what I tried.
One of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest. The top 3 countries for both "jw.org" and "Jehovah's witnesses" searches are Angola, Zambia and Congo, and the entire top 10 of both lists is dominated entirely by the 3rd world. Now, I think google scales these based on the total search volume from the regions in question, so it's perhaps a little less shocking, but it does show that the per capita interest in JWism is much higher in 3rd world countries than it is in the more educated/secular places. On a scale from 1 to 100 the US ranks a 6 for interest in JWs, and the UK comes in at 3. Pretty dismal, I'd say.
Another thing that I found interesting was the related searches section. The top 2 related searches for jw.org (once you skip the obvious "jw") are both clearly made by spanish speakers (and jw.org/es - the spanish site - also made the top 10). Also, several of the top 10 related searches for "Jehovah's Wittness" are clearly not english. It seems that the bulk of the interest in JWism is from latin america(since spain is significantly more secular than latin america, i think we can assume spaniards are contributing very little to the spanish JW related searches) or from immigrants originating in latin america. This supports what I've seen in the US, where it seems the only congregations that are growing are foreign language groups, and especially the spanish congregations (though they seem to be plateauing).
The JW.org campaign of august does seem to have had a little success with a peak in interest in august. However, I suspect the roughly 50% increase from July to August was less than what the typical R/F JW would expect. Where was that success, though? Not in the US or UK! If you filter by region, interest in JW.org peaked in January of 2013 in the US and October of 2013 (the app/bible release) in the UK.
I think by itself this is essentially irrefutable evidence that the JWs are experiencing decline in the US, UK and western europe.
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Do the Governing Body believe their own teachings or know it's a lie? Are they atheists?
by BucketShopBill inthe new young blood gb member, you think he really thinks this is the truth or is he protecting his financial interest like all the older gb members who enjoy basking in glory of men?
do you think they believe in the "over-lapping generation" or was that a mistake done by barr?.
how much of the watchtower and the bible do the governing body know, ray franz jr. said he was not impressed with their bible knowledge and their lack of knowledge of the watchtower cannon.
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OneEyedJoe
Apognophos - I think you are largely right on the money. I think another element to it is in how much you have invested in the organization when you learn particular bits of TTATT. If you're extremely reliant or invested in the org then you're more likely to try to rationalize away anything you learn. That's one reason why the org wants everyone to pioneer or go to bethel or be an elder. The more time you invest into the org, the more traumatic it would be if you learned it was all a sham, so you're more likely to rationalize away anything you do learn.
That's also why they have secret elder's books, and secret elder's training and they keep the goings-on at bethel secret. By the time you get to the level where you are allowed to know the secrets, you've already invested so much in the org that you'll find a way to rationalize it. If someone is studying and was handed a fully annotated elder's manual to read, they'd almost certainly leave the organization, but if you take that same study, wait a few years, get them to pioneer for a while, then hand them the elder's manual and have them annotate it themselves, they're almost sure to stay on board.
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BORG running low on $$$??
by fader77 indear brothers:.
re: personal literature supply.
reducing existing stock at the branch office before the revisions are released.
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OneEyedJoe
So, should present copies be marked: What DID the Bible Really Teach?
Yesterday I was hanging out with a couple of JW friends when one of them brought up this announcement. At one point I threw berrygerry's joke out there, and let's just say it wasn't well recieved
It's kinda hillarious (in a really depressing way) to watch a JW friend's reaction when you poke fun (especially if it raises a legitimate point) at the JW leadership. They seemed kinda shocked and one of them had a split second change in their demeaner and said "No! and you'd better not go writing that on there!"
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Fudging the Numbers: Is the WTBTS in decline?
by Coded Logic init's no secret that the wtbts has a cash flow problem.
over the past three years they have closed 20 of their 116 branches.
they have sold off most of their properties in and around ny (including some kingdom halls), drastically reduced the # of printed pages for the watchtower and awake magazines, reduced the printing of books and other materials, increased the number of single page tract campagnes, installed cc machines at their assembly halls, and are now seizing of controll of property assets from local kingdom halls using renovation projects.
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OneEyedJoe
So I was playing around with google.com/trends with some JW related search terms. I found the results a bit surprising, and certainly interesting, so I figured I'd share.
First off, the link to what I tried: https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F0dtdq%2C%20jw.org&cmpt=q
One of the most surprising things that stood out was the regional interest. The top 3 countries for both "jw.org" and "Jehovah's witnesses" searches are Angola, Zambia and Congo, and the entire top 10 of both lists is dominated entirely by the 3rd world. Now, I think google scales these based on the total search volume from the regions in question, so it's perhaps a little less shocking, but it does show that the per capita interest in JWism is much higher in 3rd world countries than it is in the more educated/secular places. On a scale from 1 to 100 the US ranks a 6 for interest in JWs, and the UK comes in at 3. Pretty dismal, I'd say.
Another thing that I found interesting was the related searches section. The top 2 related searches for jw.org (once you skip the obvious "jw") are both clearly made by spanish speakers (and jw.org/es - the spanish site - also made the top 10). Also, several of the top 10 related searches for "Jehovah's Wittness" are clearly not english. It seems that the bulk of the interest in JWism is from latin america(since spain is significantly more secular than latin america, i think we can assume spaniards are contributing very little to the spanish JW related searches) or from immigrants originating in latin america. This supports what I've seen in the US, where it seems the only congregations that are growing are foreign language groups, and especially the spanish congregations (though they seem to be plateauing).
The JW.org campaign of august does seem to have had a little success with a peak in interest in august. However, I suspect the roughly 50% increase from July to August was less than what the typical R/F JW would expect. Where was that success, though? Not in the US or UK! If you filter by region, interest in JW.org peaked in January of 2013 in the US and October of 2013 (the app/bible release) in the UK.
I think by itself this is essentially irrefutable evidence that the JWs are experiencing decline in the US, UK and western europe.