Brandon

I’m pretty sure all the bethel commuters have some kind of contact app because I’ve seen them use it. They can search for any bethelite in the whole world, I think. I assume they can send messages through it.

Telegram has the ability to set a password that must be entered every time a new device is added to the account, or when switching to a new phone. Does WA have anything similar?

Wow. Really eh

WhatsApp is making phone numbers optional, and users will be able to make their phone number hidden to everyone they message. They are replacing the phone number with a username (telegram and signal already did this a while ago). i’m not sure if it will help or hurt in the situation you just mentioned

I remember in late 2019/early 2020, most congregations in my country had their boundaries changed. A google map link with QR code was posted on the bulletin board. Anyone could save this link and easily share it. Some KHs had as many as 10 different congregation QR maps posted on the bulletin board. The links continued to work for a year or two before they all went offline. It would be nice to have more official info on our website, both for publishers and for the public. Currently, if someone (even a non witness) wants to know which cong a specific address belongs to, they can call bethel, but why need to bother the bethel workers there for something that be done easily and automatically with technologies we’re already using?

it seems strange, the trend over the years has been more and more info available to everyone. Example: at one time only witnesses were allowed to have copies (even digital ones) of the study watchtower, then later it was just online for everyone. Same with Kingdom Ministry later, and now even the Organized book is available to read online at WOL. at one time meetings times were not public, now they are. and also assemblies. Yet with this, congregation boundaries, it seems many KHs no longer display the cong map, even though the direction from 2000 says to. and considering everything is digital now, why not make such a map available to all publishers, or even the general public (since the public would be able to see the wall map inside the KH anyways and could easily copy it by taking a photo) many publishers probably have no access to their own cong map, even though years ago anyone who visited the KH could see it!

We have some direction here, but it’s 26 years old: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/202000289 is this still relevant? Has anything changed? has there been anything new, perhaps about providing a digital map?

Why?

Why respect theocratic arrangements?

It’s one of our old audio dramas. Maybe the one about Gideon (why respect theocratic arrangements) I think

I had also heard that rampant misinformation was going viral on social media. Many people online love chaos and think actions have no repercussions (or they just don’t care). imho the people spreading this type of misinformation— which has serious real-world implications, in this case multiple deaths I believe — are twisted and sick in the head.

archive.is can bypass nearly every paywall. Here’s your article! https://archive.is/efscR

All the convention dates, version 0.3 (thanks @ijsvogel) June 2026 Douala, Cameroon — June 19–21 Bucharest, Romania — June 19–21 Curitiba, Brazil — June 26–28 July 2026 St. John’s, Canada — July 3–5 Warsaw, Poland — July 3–5 Stockholm, Sweden — July 3–5 Kaohsiung, Taiwan — July 3–5 Porto, Portugal — July 10–12 Panama City, Panama — July 10–12 Calgary, Canada — July 31 – August 2 August 2026 Vilnius, Lithuania — August 7–9 Quito, Ecuador — August 7–9 Utrecht, Netherlands — August 14-16 Hamburg, Germany — August 14–16 Milwaukee, USA — August 28–30 Johannesburg, South Africa — August 28–30 November 2026 Manila, Philippines — November 6–8 San Diego, USA — November 27–29 December 2026 Bangkok, Thailand — December 11–13

Calgary convention got covered by Canada’s largest private news network. Short video here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/video/2026/08/01/23000-attend-jehovahs-witness-convention-in-calgary/

We are not partial to “the west” — we know Jehovah permits lands to sometimes be captured, or attempted to be captured (look at Ukraine right now), but we must stay separate and no part of the society we happen to live among. Even if our heads of state were literally captured by a foreign enemy, we still have to put up no fight, we must respect whoever the new Caesar is.