JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  A question about the Patreon numbers, my inner accountant suddenly got interested after the thread about his month-end total. I think we are missing some information, or I can't find it on the website.

  Are the end of month numbers we see every month just a report of the number of contributors he has at that point in time? Or can we see the additions and subtractions? In any business these are critical pieces of information, usually referred to as customer retention. Let's say you have 500 customers and 499 of them terminate their subscription. If you sign up 499 new subscribers your total is still at 500, so the lost customers don't show up in the numbers. But these are all new customers, lacking any history or commitment to you.

  Cycling customers like this is a sign of a business in trouble. You want repeat business, if you can't keep customers coming back, your problems will eventually sink your business.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  Derek, here you go:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6300463796846592/observation
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  but I think the subscriber model for direct support of a content creator will still exist. However, it requires a steady stream of content produced on a regular schedule, and Evans seems to be struggling with this at present.

  His problem is that he hitched his wagon to a dying horse. Take a look at Pontoon's thread about the decline he's noticed in the WTBS. Lloyd built his initial following based on refuting WTBS propaganda. The Watchtower is not producing new material at anything like its old output. Therefore there is nothing to comment on.
  
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  14

  Observation

  by pontoon in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  haven't been to a meeting in 13 years.

  family that lives 1300 miles away doesn't know.

  just visited them and here is what i observed.

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  JeffT

  My wife and I left in 1988, and we have noticed the decline of the org since then. We were both converts, brought in during the build-up to '75. For me, the main attraction was emphasis on what seemed to be deep Bible Study. When we left, I thought the organization was running out of things to say. I remember thinking that I had not seen or heard "new light" in years.

  Today's Watchtower Society would bore me to tears in about five minutes.
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  Let’s make it go beyond epic!!

  New motto for the board: "Ad Epicus et Ultra"
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  I'll just leave these here, results of a quick google search.

  https://www.michaelnugent.com/atheism/atheist-songs/

  https://reductioadabsalom.com/top-40-atheist-songs/

  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxOhszLWkHH80xAgpxk3amdVwKqfjGDl
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  1

  Fun with numbers

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i thought of posting this in the 1914 thread, but the apologists are already hijacking that.

  when i was writing "armageddon's disciples" i wanted to set it within an apocalyptic religion struggling with failed prophecy.

  as the books evolved i kept updating the dates for that failed prophecy.. one early version went this way: .

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  JeffT

  I thought of posting this in the 1914 thread, but the apologists are already hijacking that.

  When I was writing "Armageddon's Disciples" I wanted to set it within an apocalyptic religion struggling with failed prophecy. As the books evolved I kept updating the dates for that failed prophecy.

  One early version went this way:

  The trampling of the nations began in 617 BCE when Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon. That started the 1260 days (or years) which ended in 643 CE, this year being marked by construction of the Dome of the Rock. That started the 1290 day (or years) which ended in 1933 which was supposed to be the end of the world but turned out to be the year the Disciple religion started.

  Over the years I tinkered with the numbers and eventually decided you could make anything sound prophetic.

  Then I ran up against this quote from Mark Twain: “The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.” A member of my writers group told me in dead seriousness, that readers simply would not believe people were dumb enough to follow a religion that predicted the end of the world thirty years ago. As published, I left out the calculation and just noted that the failed prophecy took place "a few years ago."
  
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  JeffT

  That's what I mean though - it's not really self-sustaining. It relies on both donations and donated effort from others. No one will do these things unless he keeps acting like a performing monkey.

  Lloyd's little empire is also dependent on a constant stream of "new light" from the Watchtower. If they don't come out with something new, he can't come out with something new; and the GB can go months, maybe years, without publishing a new thought.

  So the WTBS recycles some old crap and Lloyd recycles his commentary on the recycled crap. Clearly,he did not consider this when he put together his business plan (such as it is.)

  P S Simon Cowell had an established name in the music industry when he broke into the big time. I don't think of Croatia as the kind of place where that happens.
  
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  22

  Official WT 800-page Shunning Manual ??

  by Chevelle in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does anyone have a pdf copy of the 800-page book (or reference manual?

  ) "jehovah's witnesses and disfellowshipping"?.

  https://youtu.be/fxpdodqlut8.

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  JeffT

  Just did some fast number crunching. The New Testament in the 1984 hardcover version of the New World Translation is only 318 pages. Comparing book lengths is difficult if you can't do word counts, but I did an analysis of characters per page. This publication has a total of about four million characters, the new testament has a little over a million.

  Says something about where the GB has its priorities.

  Late note: one source I looked at said the whole Bible is a little over three million characters.
  
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  77

  Biden running in 2024 🤣

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  i've filed this under news and world events, although i could've posted it under entertainment, lol.

  apparently, joe biden will be seeking re-election for another term in the white house.. this, despite a recent poll showing that 70% of people don't want him to run again.. biden just has to be the worst president i've seen.

  his gaffes, over-relience on a prompter, and, more than any other president, his refusal to answer journalists' questions, all go to make him top of the list in terms of bad presidents.. it will certainly provide entertainment, if nothing else..

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  JeffT

  I think we're coming up on something unique in American history: the battle of the vice-presidential candidates. Biden and Trump are both too old to be President, and we need new ideas, and we need candidates who will cool the fires, not van therm. I'm concerned (and I really hope I'm wrong about this) that the state of the union is starting to look like the run up to a second civil war combined with the political climate in the Weimar Republic.
  

  My 2 penneth........Politicians are all extreme filth and frauds. We are led by donkeys.

  That's grossly unfair to donkeys. I've known one or two and they are wonderful animals. All they really want is piece of carrot, and somebody to pet them.
  

  PS (Shameless self-promotion.) I have an alternate history trilogy about a second civil war for sale on Amazon.