Posts by DT

4

Google Candace Conti

by DT in

"google candace conti".

could this be the new ex-jw catch phrase, something like "remember the alamo"?.

i have been seeing it used in response to apologists on the net.

My Local Congregation are Idiots

by simon17 in

jw
friends

had my semi-annual jw visit and it was the local congregation giving the invitations to the upcoming dc.

the presentation was the standard 3 second "all the information is inside--goodbye" wastes which this work has become.. .

just one problem.... the congregation i guess didn't realize that they had to put on the time, date and address themselves!!!!

I can see why they would deliver invitations in the actual city of the convention, but they would also waste time delivering them in places that were several hours away. Who is going to drive for hours because a Witness gave them an invitation? When I was in I finally refused to do this work because it was a waste of time and made the Witnesses look insane. When I went to the convention, I saw the signs in the bathroom that said that you should only take one paper towl. I thought it was crazy that they would invite people to drive for hours so that they could be told to only take one paper towl and listen to talks about how you should shun your family. I only went to one day of that convention. A few days later I started to look for answers to my questions on the Internet. A few weeks later I sent in my letter of resignation.

Nobody wastes paper like the Watchtower Society, but they don't want you to take more than one paper towl when you use the restroom.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

I wanted to mention that Anonymous has been shutting down a lot of child porn sites in a completely legal way by working with hosting providers to help them identify sites that may be in violation of their terms of service. This is less dramatic than their more aggressive actions, but it is still highly effective. Are these hosting providers breaking the law or promoting illegal activity by actually working with Anonymous? I think that what they are doing is both legal and moral.

Anonymous is a very broad movement with no formal structure. It is unrealistic to stereotype them as all being either lawless vigilantes or heroic fighters for justice. It is also incorrect to claim that any positive mention of them is the same as promoting illegal activity.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

I remember, with shame, feeling glad when when bad things happened and observing the same thing in other Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm so glad that I left that way of thinking behind.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

I'm considering retracting my suggestion that we try to prevent pro JW discussion forums from being attacked, but I'm concerned that may also be viewed as promoting illegal activity.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

Thanks Outlaw, that may end up being the best strategy.

King Solomon,

Here is a link to the coverage by an important news site about #OpPedoChat by Anonymous.

http://www.webpronews.com/is-anonymous-using-oppedochat-to-improve-their-image-2012-07

This report is surprisingly favorable towards this operation by Anonymous. Here are some quotes.

"#OpPedoChat is a good idea and one that Anonymous should fully embrace."

"They work best as a sort of vigilante Internet Batman that targets the worst parts of the Internet and society as a whole."

"That's the beauty of Anonymous though - people can find some form of identity within the group without having to be involved in everything that flies under the Anonymous banner."

I think that article is more favorable than this thread, and I don't think it crossed any legal boundaries.

I appreciate the concern about advocating any illegal activity, but I think we should also try to avoid stifling free debate until it becomes meaningless.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

King Solomon,

You raise some important concerns. I would be happy to discuss ways to ensure that we don't cross the line legally or ethically.

I don't think it is wrong to discuss ways to discourage a group like Anonymous from attacking a certain kind of website. I think it is appropriate to focus on this type of website because there is actually a chance that they would listen. However, I can see how this discussion could be seen as promoting illegal actions against the other sites. I really don't think that is the case and it is not my intention, but it is important to consider how this could appear.

There could be a lot of tough questions like this if Anonymous continues to do illegal or questionable things in pursuit of a goal that most of us would agree with.

Once again, I would appreciate comments on how to deal with these issues.

188

About Anonymous they are working on things as we speak!

by life is to short in

soldier 77 just posted this about two hours ago but i think his post got lost is the great debate and straw mans that another posters was throwing around.. anyway i hope soldier 77 does not mind if i make a thread from his insight.

soldier 77 "this seems to have missed in the tangent argument going on: http://pastebin.com/3nitctlf.

anonymous are needing some more people on the inside to help.

DT

"The Bill Bowen and Silent Lambs is wrong in the pastebin right? If soo, i will get it fixed later on...

Get in touch with the dude.

he is trusted right? One of the good guys?"

Most of us are deeply upset by the accusations against Silent Lambs. There is the concern that this could be the result of disinformation. I think it should be removed from the pastebin. If evidence is later released, we will consider it carefully, but for now it is a distraction from other important issues.

33

Anonymous And Pro JW Discussion Forums

by DT in

regardless of your opinions of anonymous, they have been busy working against the watchtower society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

anonymous has a very different culture than the xjw community.

they should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.. anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group.

DT

Regardless of your opinions of Anonymous, they have been busy working against the Watchtower Society and may end up inflicting some serious damage soon.

Anonymous has a very different culture than the XJW community. They should not be seen as in alliance with us, even though we share some common goals.

Anonymous tends to resent being viewed as a personal army for another person or group. They have their own motivations and standards of success. We can't control their actions and shouldn't try. However, it appears that they have been willing to accept some input and suggestions that have been offered by the XJW community when they coincide with their own goals.

Anonymous has been collecting data (a huge amount according to some reports) and may be releasing it to the public in the near future. Eventually, they may move on to taking down or defacing official Watchtower sites. I certainly wouldn't want to stand in their way, even if I could. They may also move on to taking similar action against nonofficial pro JW sites.

I would like to discuss Pro JW discussion forums. I wont lose any sleep if they get taken down by Anonymous. However, there might be a better way. I want to point out that the Watchtower Society doesn't approve of these websites and their existence makes them uncomfortable. In the event of significant news coverage about the Watchtower Society, they could be an important tool for spreading this news among the Witness community who may be told not to listen to news coverage of these events.

I know that many in our community have joined these forums to keep an eye on them and occasionally post a comment designed to help them think. This could be even more helpful if they start talking about Anonymous or leaked documents.

I would like to get your comments. Should we suggest that these sites should not be taken down by Anonymous? Should we try to infiltrate them ourselves (using legal methods)? Should we be worried that our personal information could be compromised if the databases of these sites are hacked by Anonymous? Are the members of these sites talking about Anonymous yet?

I suspect that this may soon become a hot topic, so it might be a good idea to discuss this now.

114

Watchtower and Anonymous Links, Updates, News, etc.

by DT in

i wanted to consolidate a lot of the information about the attack of anonymous against the watchtower society.

if you disagree with the tactics of anonymous, that's fine.

this information may still be useful as the public is made more aware of the the dangerous policies of the watchtower society.

DT

"What did they do to Scientology?"

Their action against Scientology resulted in Worldwide protests and a great awakening to the dangers and scandals of Scientology. Anonymous didn't bring them down, but they weekened them greatly.

"I am going to again play my broken record - we should be VERY CAREFUL about aligning ourselves with this group."

I certainly don't think XJWs should align themselves with Anonymous. We are very different groups with different cultures and philosophies. However, our goals do overlap. We can provide information to help them avoid certain mistakes and be more effective. We can also use this as an opportunity to bring more attention to the dangerous policies of the Watchtower Society that need to be changed.

Anonymous action may result in the release of a huge amount of information that could be used for both good and bad purposes. I think it will be largely up to the XJW community to try to use that information responsibly and prevent some of the damage that might otherwise happen.