Posts by 88JM

62

25 YEARS of compiled yearbook statistics

by 88JM in

jw
friends

hello again folks - as promised in my last thread here, i've been working on turning yearbook statistics into excel spreadsheets.. coincidentally, today is my 25th birthday (spare a thought for a fader).. i've now updated the spreadsheet with yearbook data all the way back to 1988 (the year i was born), therefore it now contains 25 years of statistics.. there were a lot of countries changing around and for some it was possible to create a continuation of data.

some are a simple change of name like south-west africa to namibia.

others, for example - in 1993 with czechoslovakia splitting into two countries (czech republic and slovakia) i have added an extra row that provides a continuation of the data, combining czech republic and slovakia back together as if they were still one country.

88JM

I've now updated the spreadsheet with the new 2013 Yearbook data, therefore it now contains 26 years of statistics.

As before, there are two files for download, the second being the more useful one to most of you.

Yearbook Stats 1988 - 2013:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_bzL2A4XRioU2tSLWlXODBmOW8

MIRROR #1: http://dfiles.eu/files/8gmowa0u9

MIRROR #2: http://www.fileflyer.com/view/MSqBQAs

MIRROR #3: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/dz0k38QrjR/

MIRROR #4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qgngj0

As before, the second .xls file has each statistic field in a separate tab with each year in a column, and is far more useful for year-by-year graphs etc. I've also included the additional sheets on the end, giving examples of the sorts of calculations that are possible with the data (e.g. Bible Studies per Publisher).

Yearbook Stats by Field 1988 - 2013:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_bzL2A4XRiodUs1bmQyNlJVZG8

MIRROR #1: http://dfiles.eu/files/1nqmvzpfh

MIRROR #2: http://www.fileflyer.com/view/MSqBQAs

MIRROR #3: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/OaJKghTz7x/

MIRROR #4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6409gg

17

The new light changes from the draw close to Jehovah printed form vs online form.

by EndofMysteries in

the changes are in paragraph 7 and 8 in the first chapter of draw close to jehovah book, and i fail to see any doctrine change, only the gb trying to cover up possible mistakes they've made and potential embarrassment of worldly sources knowing what jehovah's name means while they were wrong.

let's examine this new light they quote with this letter.

let's see a word for word comparison on what many will be talking about in meetings about the wonderful new light and evidence that they are the faithful slave...... .

88JM

At the meeting here last night, this all went a bit balls-up. The elders here are all a bit slow, and they must have only seen the letter online sometime earlier this week. I think they maybe phoned up one or two, but certainly not everyone.

So when it came to the meeting last night, most people were sat there with the old book and nothing else. The conductor had printed out paragaphs 7 and 8 for the reader, and mentioned there were some "updates online" at the start of the study. When it came to those paragraphs, there were some very confused looks, as people sat there with the old version were having trouble following along and it made the differences really apparent. Even funnier, when it came to the question about God's name, the conductor still asked question from the old version: "What does God's name literally mean?"

I guess it wasn't all that grievous as the changes were pretty minor, but it was an interesting view into the future perhaps, where those who haven't got their latest "online new-light update" are left behind in the dust with "old light". There are quite a few in the congregation here who don't have internet access at all. And if an entire congregation misses out, there can effectively be congregations going apostate without even realising it!

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

Sorry - I'm a perfectionist

What will (hopefully) happen is that the document gets used as a resource, and I don't want to be accused of misleading anyone.

Start missing out stuff and fudging the figures and you become no better than the Borg.

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

likeabird - Burma to Myanmar is a pretty simple name change, but sometimes you get countries that split away from another country but one country still keeps the old name, e.g. recently Sudan and South Sudan. You can't really just carry on the numbers for "Sudan" as it's not really the same "country" exactly as it represents a smaller number of people. (I probably made this mistake actually, thinking about it...)

What I'd tend to do would be to have three rows in that case: Sudan, South Sudan and "Sudan + South Sudan" for when they actually were one country

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

88JM, perhaps you could post your spreadsheets as public documents on Google Docs? This should work well to keep them in the same location but update as necessary.

Yes, making the document more open and available was on my to-do list as it was suggested on that thread. I think jwfacts also put it on his site somewhere.

Scanning and OCR'ing the tables isn't that difficult, but it's the country changes that mess it up - countries changing their names and/or merging, splitting in two are a bit of a headache. I'm not looking forward to the working back through the troublesome 80s :(

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

100 years is a little ambitious I suspect - I don't think yearbooks go back that far! And (accurate) death rates probably aren't available for all countries that far back either.

50 years might be do-able - I guess I'm over half way there.

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

Sure - will do.

31

2013 Report - difference in av. pubs compared to % of baptisms

by likeabird in

i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.

first column: 2013 av.

pubs minus 2012 av.

88JM

I'll be updating my 25+ year spreadsheet today or tomorrow that will allow you to make such a calculation

(yes, I know the download links are broken) http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/250532/1/25-YEARS-of-compiled-yearbook-statistics

31

next week's bible reading (Gen. 1-5) stumpers.for your "in" family conversations & sly comments.

by prologos in

you may add many, but here are two:.

1) vegetation made on day 3, animals formed day 5,6, but- then.

in gen 2, man seems to be the primary creation, and vegetation and then animals were formed from the dust and brought to him to name them.

88JM

One line that I've heard trotted out is something like: "although evolutionists may not agree with how things started in Genesis, they do agree with the order things came about". This is incorrect of course - evolutionists do not agree with the order of things in Genesis either.

1

RNWT bible "large print" version due out?

by 88JM in

jw
friends

i'd totally forgotten about it, but the literature department at the local congregation here was taking orders for "large print" versions of the new bible.. has anyone seen one in the wild?.

why isn't it on jw.org yet - i'm sure they said it would be in january?.

is it really just a "large print" version, or is it a "reference" version with extra bits?.

88JM

I'd totally forgotten about it, but the literature department at the local congregation here was taking orders for "large print" versions of the new bible.

Has anyone seen one in the wild?

Why isn't it on JW.org yet - I'm sure they said it would be in January?

Is it really just a "large print" version, or is it a "reference" version with extra bits?

Do you think it will have the "Numbers 35" misprint?