And Simon, if nothing else positive comes from this, I would say that at the very least I have a newfound respect for your sticking with this project for so long. I don't know how long I would want to keep doing it, especially when it's completely voluntary and is subject to all kinds of trouble making and high school level drama. I'm not in any way trying to diminish the value of JWD. For me, JWR was what I found first and where I made friends. The differences between them were more of a "iPhone vs Android" choice of personal preference. I like that I had choices and options.
Posts by fugue
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123Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
I totally understand the need for personally moving on. I don't fault anyone who decides to put all of it, the religion and the recovery phase, in their rear view mirror. That's my ultimate goal, too.
What I'm hearing from those who dislike the situation isn't that Rifter, DS, Palimpsest or anyone else was wrong to decide to turn the page and move on. You all did an amazing job helping hundreds of people recover. No one should feel obligated to keep volunteering their time and effort; this isn't the borg where your "volunteer work" is mandatory and never ends.
But what I'm hearing here is that JWR was bigger than "Rifter's website" in the minds of the people who relied on it. On paper sure, it was and is his property to do with as he pleased. My thousands of posts were my intellectual property, but I trustingly (carelessly?) left them on his database on his servers. Oops, my bad.
But the bigger issue is a question of ethics: is it ethical to offer people a "recovery service," then with no warning just shut it down? What would have been wrong with saying something like: "I have decided that I need to move on. If anyone is interested in taking ownership, let me know ASAP. The current hosting plan runs out in X number of days, and after that if no one else wants this burden, the site will be closed."
Thats not difficult. And if you weren't in the mood to hear people clamoring about who should or shouldn't step up, then just send that message in a PM to maybe the top dozen most active people. Then walk away.
There were, are, and will be people whose only connection to a support group is JWR. Will they be able to find a continuum of the support they need? The message on the site right now would have left me feeling totally lost if it had happened when I needed a support network the most.
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Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
DS, Palimpsest, Rifter, et al:
Your personal journey may have been ending, but others on the site were just beginning.
You wanted to move on, that's fine. But you could have at least tried to ask others to take your places.
Shame on each of you for not trying to pass it on to people who would be willing to keep it going.
Shame on each of you for thinking that because your recovery was over, no one else mattered.
Shame on each one of you who decided to close jwr. Your years of selflessness and caring about others made you seem like you knew better than to do this.
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Welcome y'all from JWR - any questions?
by Simon ini just wanted to take a minute to say "hi" and welcome to the site for anyone who's come here from jwr.
i can imagine the site being shut down suddenly was shocking and unsettling for many who relied on it and sometimes you don't realize how much you do rely on something until it is gone.. hopefully you'll see some of the same familiar names appearing and be able to reconnect with people you knew via this site and continue your journey together.
i don't know what the posting policies on jwr were but know it as a moderated site so can't imagine them being hugely different to the ones here.
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fugue
Simon, thanks for the welcome mat. I wish the jwr mod would at least put a link to this forum, or directly to a thread like this, on the front page message. I'm thinking of how I felt when I first got up the nerve to post on JWR with questions about getting out... if I had seen the forum closed with no way of finding the people who had been giving me advice, it would have sucked.
Anyway, I'm glad JWD is still alive and kicking.
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JWR usernames list
by StarryNight9 ini created this thread so that jwr members can list their old jwr username with their username for whatever site they've moved to.
i apologize if this has already been created somewhere else.. jwr = starrynight.
jwd = starrynight9.
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fugue
Fugue here, Fugue there, Fugue everywhere.
I have no recollection of using a photo of my eye as an avatar here. I need my pic of King Ahazuwhozits or whatever his name is. Thinking it's on my PC.
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Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
Zeus, I hate to hear that you guys already offered to take it over he's not willing to at least sell the database.
It was his property and he has a right to do what he wants with it, but there is so much of me in the 4,000 or however many posts I'd made there over the last five years. From time to time I liked to just look at my older posts just to see how far I'd come. I hardly recognize the nervous person who sheepishly wrote my introductory post in 2011. JWR was like a blog of my personal journey out.
And I'd bet there are countless other people who feel the same way. Like your photo albums from a huge and difficult part of your life just vanished.
If he won't sell, he won't sell. But my offer is open. I wouldn't need him to write up instructions on how to import the data or set up the software, I already know. I'd just need a dump of the tables and authorization to initiate the domain transfer so that search engines, links and bookmarks, etc wouldn't all become broken.
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Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
And just to be clear: I'm not interested in forum drama or assigning blame or making myself look good or anything of that nature. I hadn't even been posting much on JWR lately and even if I helped get it back online I'd probably still not be as active as I once was. I just feel that jw's who are stuck in and want out need as many resources as we can provide.
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Message from Designer Stubble to the former JWR members
by Designer Stubble inmessage from designer stubble to the former jwr members.
first of all i am glad to see that many of you have found your way to this great forum, facilitated by simon.
i am sure that after the dust of the jwr shutdown has settled, you will find this to be a good new home.. i would like to apologize for the sudden closure of jwr.
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fugue
I haven't had time to read this entire thread, but if no one has offered already, I would like to offer to buy the jwr database, software license, and domain name. I'm a web developer and know all of the ins and outs of the technical end, plus I've got access to server space that could handle the traffic.
If anyone is in touch with Rifter and he's willing to sell it, please give him my email address (PM me here for it.)
What I would need would be moderating help and monetary help; I couldn't do either on my own. I've already reached out to one of my jwr friends offline and he said that he would be willing to help me.
All of the details could be worked out if the site owner is willing to sell.
My reason for offering this is: JWR was bigger than any individuals. It was a lifeline for countless people to get out of the cult and retain their sanity and dignity, even while losing their family, friends and identity.
I, too, have gotten to a point where I am feeling almost like an ex-ex-jw. But for 5 years and counting, I've felt an attachment to that community and I'd like to keep it alive.
Anyone who can put me in touch with Rifter, pm me please. Thanks.
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JW Grammar is...
by jw07 in*we are all from different cultural and educational backgrounds, we all experience different circumstances in life, and i don't mean to offend anyone on this forum in any way.*.
with that said here are my observations, and i want to know what you have observed.. in my experience i have noticed a trend: zealous witnessestend to exhibit the worst grammar when compared to non-witnesses!.
i want you to think back, or check it out for yourself if you haven't noticed it.. on social networks: compare comments on anything by jws (especially the uber-zealous ones) with those of your atheist or other religiously affiliated friends.
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fugue
but... but... we all know that reading Awake magazine gives one the equivalent of a college education!
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Info on publisher cards???
by OneDayillBeFree inso i moved to another hall to better help me fade.
so far it's been great although it is a very long and annoying process!
so i'm very good friends with the coordinating elder in the new hall since we've known each other for years and so instead of mailing them to the other hall he decided to pass them on to my dad so he could give them to me and for me to give them to the other hall.
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fugue
This is an older one (revised 2/82) but I don't think they've changed in any significant way since then.
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/experiences/personal-files-privacy-act-1988.php
(Click on the image that says "publisher report card.")
They're double sided; the back is just more blanks. As you can imagine, they fill up pretty quick. So each publisher ® has a small stack of cards, depending on how many years you've been in da troof.
I'd like to hear from any more current elders... I haven't been an elder for about 10 years now... but are they making some progress toward going paperless with this?