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  1. TERMS AND CONDITIONS Welcome to the JWTalk - the pro-JW online community! Here are a few guidelines that all our registered members and visitors must agree to observe… JWTalk.net is a privately operated online community that is visible to the public, yet is intended solely for use by registered members who are active Jehovah’s Witnesses with an approved JWTalk account. The site is strictly non-commercial and all work is done by a team of dedicated Community Managers, Team Members, and Assistants. None of the content in the community is affiliated with JW.org nor is sponsored by, nor authorized by the Governing Body nor by any legal entity used by the worldwide organization known as ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’. This discussion board reflects the opinions of the general public and we assume no liability based on information contained herein. Members must agree to, and abide by, our Community Membership Policy in order to post on JWTalk. We reserve the right to edit or delete posts, at our discretion, to meet with our code of conduct rules. By registering on this site you acknowledge you have read and agree with this Membership Policy. A. Membership Who Can Be a Registered Member at JWTalk.net? To post comments or create content on JWTalk, you must be an active publisher associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses, baptized or not. An active publisher has a share in the work of proclaiming Jehovah’s Kingdom every month and reports it, and is thus counted among us in the monthly and yearly reports. In other words, participation in this community is intended for Jehovah’s Witnesses only. If an extenuating circumstance causes you to go temporarily inactive, this does not mean you have to abstain from participating in our community. However, should you become “no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses” via disassociation or disfellowshipping, then you no longer qualify for membership and it would be appropriate for you to privately contact the Team to inform us that this is the case. Your account will be disabled, but not deleted. It can be reactivated at a later time when your circumstances have turned around and you have been reinstated. We reserve the right of controlling membership at our discretion. B. Registration How Can I Become a Participant in the Community? Registration is required to interact with others anywhere on JWTalk. All applicants must answer fill in the registration form completely and accurately. There are questions on the registration page that under normal circumstances, only active publishers would know the answers to. A valid email address is required, as you will have to respond to an email validation link that will get sent to you. A Community Manager must also approve your application. Once these two validations take place, you are able to make comments in the community. Please understand that when registering, there are required fields where you must provide identifying information such as your full real name, location, and congregation name, but these are only ever visible to the Team. There are other fields where you may enter less specific information relating to you that will be visible to other community members and the public. While you will be known by your choice of "display name", we are on a first name basis here. C. Publicity, Content Ownership, & Copyright All submitted posts become a permanent part of JWTalk Community. By sending posts or submitting content to the community, you, the Sender, acknowledge and agree that your contribution automatically becomes an intrinsic part of the JWTalk.net Community without any further obligation to you, and that you grant JWTalk.net the right to use, reproduce, display, perform, adapt, modify, distribute, have distributed, and promote the content in any form, anywhere and for any purpose; and warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content you submit and that the public posting and use of your content by JWTalk.net will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party. You acknowledge that your submitted content may not be removed, unpublished or changed once the content has been posted. While most areas of JWTalk are visible to the public, we are a private membership community. Whether you are a registered member or an unregistered guest, you agree that you will not copy and paste the contents of individual posts that you yourself did not author to another internet location outside of JWTalk.net, and that doing so will result in a copyright takedown notice initiated by the original content author or us as their agent. We do NOT delete accounts. However, you may request that we "deactivate" your account. You will no longer be able to log in to view members only content nor read or reply to Private Messages. You can reactivate your account at a later time by using the Contact Us form at the bottom of every page to send a message to the Community Managers. D. Speech & Conduct What is JWTalk’s Code of Conduct? The same behavior expected of you in the congregation is expected here in our online community. Our site is operated by and for true Christians. This is a site for real Jehovah's Witnesses to engage in peaceful discussion, and not a place for argumentative debates. Therefore, your goal in contributing to a topic should be to share something of interest that will build up your brothers and sisters. We seek to maintain an upbuilding, entertaining, safe, open, and intellectually stimulating environment, where mature Christians can exercise their God-given "freeness of speech." (2 Corinthians 3:12) A few principles can help us to do that: 1) Matters of Conscience: If there are no clear indications on a subject in the Bible or in the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, then we are obligated to show respectfulness towards the conscience decisions of others, both of those that are stricter than ours and those that are less strict. (Romans 14:3) Do not make rules where none exist. 2) Handling Disagreement: It can be very productive to discuss areas of disagreement, as long as this is done in a "spirit of mildness," avoiding mockery or belittlement. (Galatians 6:1) Keep in mind that this is a forum for discussion, and not a place for heated debate. Express yourself with love, and do not "pour fuel on the fire", as it were. While expressing disagreement, your goal should be to keep the conversation calm and cool, so "before the quarrel breaks out, take your leave.” (Proverbs 17:14) If you are seriously concerned about someone's motives in posting, please contact a Manager or Team Member privately, and do not assault another user publicly within the topic. 3) Personal Problems: The scriptures urge us to settle personal problems in private. (Matthew 18:15) Personal or private details of ongoing situations, whether those of your own or those of others, should not be shared on the board. This is true even if the problem is with someone who is not a member of the community. When dealing with past situations, discretion and good judgment are still needed. 4) Avoiding Offense: We all want to try to apply the counsel, "Do not be quick to take offense." (Ecclesiastes 7:9) However, it will be easier to do that if we watch for each other's areas of sensitivity, and avoid them. (Romans 14:15) 5) Acceptable Language: Jehovah's Witnesses on the web come from diverse social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds, which means that they will have different standards of acceptable language. Please endeavor be sensitive to these differences, both in your own word choice and in how you react to others. If you are seriously concerned about language that you feel is inappropriate, please contact a Community Team Member or Manager privately. Do not engage the other user publicly within the topic. 6) Freedom of Speech: The above principles definitely do not mean that matters of conscience and speculative questions cannot be discussed. The Watchtower of May 1, 2000 gives the following balanced perspective: "It is normal to discuss Bible accounts or wonder about aspects of the promised new world that have not as yet been revealed. And there is nothing wrong with exchanging ideas on personal matters, such as dress and grooming or choice of entertainment. However, if we become dogmatic about our ideas and take offense when others do no agree with us, the congregation may end up becoming divided over minor issues." (page 11, paragraph 14 - we recommend reading this whole subheading). 7) Avoiding Spoilers: It's unloving to post spoilers about information that others would rather hear 'at the proper time' at their own meeting. Therefore exercise caution and use the built in "spoiler" tag/function to hide such details when appropriate. Since Regional Conventions are typically held around the world spanning several months, we have one dedicated topic for discussing each years Regional Convention. Only those who have attended their convention should view the topic, which is clearly marked that the discussion may contain spoilers for those who haven't attended yet. Do not post about a current year's Regional Convention in any other topic than this designated one. Do not read the topic if you haven't attended your convention and don't wish to have it "spoiled" for you. 8 ) Cooperation with the Team: The Community Managers and Community Team Members are responsible to Jehovah and to their brothers for what occurs in the community. Please cooperate with their directions. (1 Corinthians 16:14) E. Commenting and Moderation JWTalk has a thriving user community. We are dedicated to maintaining a respectful, engaging and informative conversation. Towards that end, we have basic ground rules for commenting to maintain a civil atmosphere. These are supported by Community Team Members. If you wish to participate in the community, we ask that you follow the ground rules below and the spirit of the community they seek to create. Are Certain Things Not Permitted to be Posted on JWTalk? We will not tolerate anything against Biblical standards, including apostasy and unclean or obscene speech. (Eph 5:3,4; 2 Tim 2:16-18) Links to apostate sites (anti-witness sites) will get you banned, as will hateful speech and obscene language. The following guidelines should help demonstrate the quality of the content we expect from you, as well as the moderation efforts that take place on JWTalk. 1) No Spamming. Do not excessively communicate the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish, or make non-constructive posts. If a comment is solely promotional in nature, we will remove it from the site. 2) No Trolling. This would include creating threads or off-topic comments that cause unrest or disturbances among members or within discussions. This community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. We reserve the right to remove these types of comments if warranted. Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments may lose their ability to comment permanently. 3) No Misusing JW.org and its Services: The Terms of Use at JW.org makes the statement, "You may not: Misuse the website or its services, such as... accessing the website or its services using a method other than what is explicitly provided." Therefore, do not mine JW.org or it's affiliated services hunting for artwork, literature, or media that hasn't been officially released to the public yet. Spiritual food "is explicitly provided" at the proper time by the Faithful and Discreet Slave (Matthew 24:45) and not by individuals racing to be the ones to present it in place of them (Psalm 11:2). 4) No Personally Identifiable Information. For the privacy and protection of all members, we insist that you do not post publicly identifiable information, such as your email address, phone number, street address, etc, on any content that is visible to the public or even the community at large. Any comments that contain this information may be deleted. Your email address is kept private and we encourage communication using the discussion board and the private messaging system only. If you give out your contact information for other services, you are doing so at your own risk. 5) Limited Access and Moderation. To maintain a clean and civil community, we reserve the right to have our moderation team read comments before they are displayed on the site. Review time can vary depending on the availability of our Team Members, who are all volunteers, as well as the current queue, so please be patient. Please, do not resubmit the same comment or complain to the Team assuming it has been deleted. If we refuse to publish your comments, we will send you a private message explaining why. If we publish your comments, we reserve the right to edit them as necessary. 6) An Online Spiritual Paradise. We strongly believe that JWTalk Community should be a safe space for brothers and sisters from all around the globe to express their ideas. As such, purposefully insulting and hostile language or personal threats are not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental well-being of a member of this community, you may be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against another member, publicly or privately, not only may it be removed but we reserve the right to report the matter to your congregation elders and/or law enforcement agencies. F. File Uploads 1) Material for Meeting Preparation: The November 1999 Our Kingdom Ministry states "Using another person’s research for a talk or [as a substitute for] meeting preparation really defeats the purpose of personal study." Posts on spiritual matters should therefore contain the results of your own personal meditation, first-hand accounts of what you heard at meetings, and brief quotes from the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, along with appropriate references. If you want to share a meeting part that you worked hard on, please do not post transcripts or audio recordings of your assignment prior to their being delivered in congregations all over the world. 2) Audio Recordings of Talks: The Question Box in the April 2010 Our Kingdom Ministry discourages the circulation of recorded talks. Remember that JWTalk is about discussion, and is not for trading recordings of talks. With that said, we will not prohibit a user from occasionally sharing a recorded talk. However, we will not permit a user to make a habitual practice of this. Uploading a Circuit Assembly or Regional Convention program is strictly prohibited in accordance with the announcements we receive at each of these events. 3) JW Literature and Media: The Branch has repeatedly stated that we may share information from the organization’s official websites by sending a link, but according to the "Terms of Use" at JW.org and within the JW Library app, we should not post on the Internet any artwork, electronic publications, trademarks, music, photos, videos, or articles from our websites. This would include theocratic programs on jw.org or JW Stream, such as monthly broadcasts, congregation meetings, circuit assemblies, and conventions. Therefore, do not upload to our servers any literature or media that is available on JW.org and it's affiliated sites. Also, do not share links to unauthorized copies of content that has been uploaded to any file sharing, music sharing, or video sharing website. G. Unverified Experiences & Sensational Stories The October 1999 Our Kingdom Ministry says: “What if the experience you pass on is not accurate? Would this not be sharing in perpetuating an untruth?” - (Proverbs. 12:19; 21:28; 30:8; Colossians 3:9) Be mindful of sensational stories or experiences that you cannot verify. This becomes a problem from time to time. It’s a chore for the Team to read extremely long ones, and likely someone will point out what they feel is ridiculously sensational and unrealistic and publicly state why they find it too difficult to believe some facet of this incredulous story. It's important to protect the gullible for believing everything he or she reads. If the story or experience is legitimate, OR truly encouraging yet not overly far-fetched, we’ll probably let it go. Just remember that spamming us with such tall tales, email forwards, or similar content circulating social networks is not the purpose of our community. H: Ads and Posting Secondary Links Before linking to any page, please make sure that it does not have ads for pornography, comments by apostates or opposers, or prominent ads/links to apostate or other inappropriate sites. We would not want to be responsible for exposing our brothers to temptation or facilitate the efforts of those who want to draw our brothers away. (Matthew 18:6) I: Copyrighted Content 1) Ownership: Caution must be taken to respect the copyrights of others. All sites, whether public, commercial, social, personal or private--contain elements that are protected under copyright laws, whether they are original works, fixed works, works made for hire, commissioned works, or works that have been assigned. We reserve the right to edit or remove any post, image or other media that, in our opinion, constitutes a violation of the copyrights of any other individual or enterprise. 2) Fair Use: You agree to become familiar with typical "Fair Use" laws and to use good judgment when submitting content to the JWTalk community. It is usually both reasonable and acceptable to include a quotation from an article or other literary work, or to reference a single image or photograph, in order to start a topic or that is pertinent or necessary to further a current discussion in the community. However, do not post entire articles or large portions of them from our publications or upload them as attachments to the discussions or to our Files Library. Likewise, do not upload content containing multiple image attachments that you do not have copyright ownership or rights to. 3) DCMA Takedown: It is our policy to respond to all notices of alleged copyright infringement. To learn more about how to bring a copyright issue to our attention, please read our DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy. J. Disclaimer All comments posted to this community reflects the views and opinions expressed by the individual member and are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of JWTalk.net, our Team, nor that of the organization known as "Jehovah's Witnesses", the Governing Body, or any of its legal corporations. Your local congregation and its elders are part of Jehovah's channel for your spiritual care, not any member of JWTalk Community regardless of what their appointment may be in their own congregations. Any medical advice of any sort posted in the community by any member should be discussed with your local healthcare provider. Each member must come to their own conclusions, "carry their own load”, and "render an account for himself to God.” - Galatians 6:5, Romans 14:12 K. A few more points... * Remember, while every effort is made to ensure that only active publishers associated with Jehovah's people are granted membership here at JWTalk, there is no real way to verify the identity and congregational status of each registered account. The faithful slave cautions against associating with people whom you do not know over the internet, even when they claim to be your fellow brothers and sisters. Those cautionary statements are valid and apply to this JWTalk as well. * Do not use topics, replies, or your status updates to sound off on what you think the organization should do differently. It is discouraging, and quite frankly not up to you anyhow. * Do not bring issues to the community and post content about things that you ought to be speaking to your elders about first. * Since all members of this community are supposed to be active publishers of the good news and counted as Jehovah’s Witnesses in our monthly and annual reports, you must NOT count the time you spend participating here in your monthly field service reports, and you must NOT count links you post in this community as placements, etc. * We understand that people are shy. If you comment here at JWTalk, please be making an honest, sincere, prayerful effort to comment at your congregation meetings as well. * We reserve the right to update these Community Membership Policies and Terms of Service at any time, and it is your responsibility to check periodically for changes. When changes are made, a post will be created in the Announcements forum. * In all instances, we retain the right to trim, edit or remove content that violate the policies above * Failure to comply with the above membership policy may cause your account to be "Banned" - at the Team’s discretion.
  2. TERMS AND CONDITIONS Welcome to the JWTalk - the pro-JW online community! Here are a few guidelines that all our registered members and visitors must agree to observe… JWTalk.net is a privately operated online community that is visible to the public, yet is intended solely for use by registered members who are active Jehovah’s Witnesses with an approved JWTalk account. The site is strictly non-commercial and all work is done by a team of dedicated Community Managers, Team Members, and Assistants. None of the content in the community is affiliated with JW.org nor is sponsored by, nor authorized by the Governing Body nor by any legal entity used by the worldwide organization known as ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’. This discussion board reflects the opinions of the general public and we assume no liability based on information contained herein. Members must agree to, and abide by, our Community Membership Policy in order to post on JWTalk. We reserve the right to edit or delete posts, at our discretion, to meet with our code of conduct rules. By registering on this site you acknowledge you have read and agree with this Membership Policy. A. Membership Who Can Be a Registered Member at JWTalk.net? To post comments or create content on JWTalk, you must be an active publisher associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses, baptized or not. An active publisher has a share in the work of proclaiming Jehovah’s Kingdom every month and reports it, and is thus counted among us in the monthly and yearly reports. In other words, participation in this community is intended for Jehovah’s Witnesses only. If an extenuating circumstance causes you to go temporarily inactive, this does not mean you have to abstain from participating in our community. However, should you become “no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses” via disassociation or disfellowshipping, then you no longer qualify for membership and it would be appropriate for you to privately contact the Team to inform us that this is the case. Your account will be disabled, but not deleted. It can be reactivated at a later time when your circumstances have turned around and you have been reinstated. We reserve the right of controlling membership at our discretion. B. Registration How Can I Become a Participant in the Community? Registration is required to interact with others anywhere on JWTalk. All applicants must answer fill in the registration form completely and accurately. There are questions on the registration page that under normal circumstances, only active publishers would know the answers to. A valid email address is required, as you will have to respond to an email validation link that will get sent to you. A Community Manager must also approve your application. Once these two validations take place, you are able to make comments in the community. Please understand that when registering, there are required fields where you must provide identifying information such as your full real name, location, and congregation name, but these are only ever visible to the Team. There are other fields where you may enter less specific information relating to you that will be visible to other community members and the public. While you will be known by your choice of "display name", we are on a first name basis here. C. Publicity, Content Ownership, & Copyright All submitted posts become a permanent part of JWTalk Community. By sending posts or submitting content to the community, you, the Sender, acknowledge and agree that your contribution automatically becomes an intrinsic part of the JWTalk.net Community without any further obligation to you, and that you grant JWTalk.net the right to use, reproduce, display, perform, adapt, modify, distribute, have distributed, and promote the content in any form, anywhere and for any purpose; and warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content you submit and that the public posting and use of your content by JWTalk.net will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party. You acknowledge that your submitted content may not be removed, unpublished or changed once the content has been posted. While most areas of JWTalk are visible to the public, we are a private membership community. Whether you are a registered member or an unregistered guest, you agree that you will not copy and paste the contents of individual posts that you yourself did not author to another internet location outside of JWTalk.net, and that doing so will result in a copyright takedown notice initiated by the original content author or us as their agent. We do NOT delete accounts. However, you may request that we "deactivate" your account. You will no longer be able to log in to view members only content nor read or reply to Private Messages. You can reactivate your account at a later time by using the Contact Us form at the bottom of every page to send a message to the Community Managers. D. Speech & Conduct What is JWTalk’s Code of Conduct? The same behavior expected of you in the congregation is expected here in our online community. Our site is operated by and for true Christians. This is a site for real Jehovah's Witnesses to engage in peaceful discussion, and not a place for argumentative debates. Therefore, your goal in contributing to a topic should be to share something of interest that will build up your brothers and sisters. We seek to maintain an upbuilding, entertaining, safe, open, and intellectually stimulating environment, where mature Christians can exercise their God-given "freeness of speech." (2 Corinthians 3:12) A few principles can help us to do that: 1) Matters of Conscience: If there are no clear indications on a subject in the Bible or in the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, then we are obligated to show respectfulness towards the conscience decisions of others, both of those that are stricter than ours and those that are less strict. (Romans 14:3) Do not make rules where none exist. 2) Handling Disagreement: It can be very productive to discuss areas of disagreement, as long as this is done in a "spirit of mildness," avoiding mockery or belittlement. (Galatians 6:1) Keep in mind that this is a forum for discussion, and not a place for heated debate. Express yourself with love, and do not "pour fuel on the fire", as it were. While expressing disagreement, your goal should be to keep the conversation calm and cool, so "before the quarrel breaks out, take your leave.” (Proverbs 17:14) If you are seriously concerned about someone's motives in posting, please contact a Manager or Team Member privately, and do not assault another user publicly within the topic. 3) Personal Problems: The scriptures urge us to settle personal problems in private. (Matthew 18:15) Personal or private details of ongoing situations, whether those of your own or those of others, should not be shared on the board. This is true even if the problem is with someone who is not a member of the community. When dealing with past situations, discretion and good judgment are still needed. 4) Avoiding Offense: We all want to try to apply the counsel, "Do not be quick to take offense." (Ecclesiastes 7:9) However, it will be easier to do that if we watch for each other's areas of sensitivity, and avoid them. (Romans 14:15) 5) Acceptable Language: Jehovah's Witnesses on the web come from diverse social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds, which means that they will have different standards of acceptable language. Please endeavor be sensitive to these differences, both in your own word choice and in how you react to others. If you are seriously concerned about language that you feel is inappropriate, please contact a Community Team Member or Manager privately. Do not engage the other user publicly within the topic. 6) Freedom of Speech: The above principles definitely do not mean that matters of conscience and speculative questions cannot be discussed. The Watchtower of May 1, 2000 gives the following balanced perspective: "It is normal to discuss Bible accounts or wonder about aspects of the promised new world that have not as yet been revealed. And there is nothing wrong with exchanging ideas on personal matters, such as dress and grooming or choice of entertainment. However, if we become dogmatic about our ideas and take offense when others do no agree with us, the congregation may end up becoming divided over minor issues." (page 11, paragraph 14 - we recommend reading this whole subheading). 7) Avoiding Spoilers: It's unloving to post spoilers about information that others would rather hear 'at the proper time' at their own meeting. Therefore exercise caution and use the built in "spoiler" tag/function to hide such details when appropriate. Since Regional Conventions are typically held around the world spanning several months, we have one dedicated topic for discussing each years Regional Convention. Only those who have attended their convention should view the topic, which is clearly marked that the discussion may contain spoilers for those who haven't attended yet. Do not post about a current year's Regional Convention in any other topic than this designated one. Do not read the topic if you haven't attended your convention and don't wish to have it "spoiled" for you. 8 ) Cooperation with the Team: The Community Managers and Community Team Members are responsible to Jehovah and to their brothers for what occurs in the community. Please cooperate with their directions. (1 Corinthians 16:14) E. Commenting and Moderation JWTalk has a thriving user community. We are dedicated to maintaining a respectful, engaging and informative conversation. Towards that end, we have basic ground rules for commenting to maintain a civil atmosphere. These are supported by Community Team Members. If you wish to participate in the community, we ask that you follow the ground rules below and the spirit of the community they seek to create. Are Certain Things Not Permitted to be Posted on JWTalk? We will not tolerate anything against Biblical standards, including apostasy and unclean or obscene speech. (Eph 5:3,4; 2 Tim 2:16-18) Links to apostate sites (anti-witness sites) will get you banned, as will hateful speech and obscene language. The following guidelines should help demonstrate the quality of the content we expect from you, as well as the moderation efforts that take place on JWTalk. 1) No Spamming. Do not excessively communicate the same phrase, similar phrases, or pure gibberish, or make non-constructive posts. If a comment is solely promotional in nature, we will remove it from the site. 2) No Trolling. This would include creating threads or off-topic comments that cause unrest or disturbances among members or within discussions. This community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. We reserve the right to remove these types of comments if warranted. Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments may lose their ability to comment permanently. 3) No Misusing JW.org and its Services: The Terms of Use at JW.org makes the statement, "You may not: Misuse the website or its services, such as... accessing the website or its services using a method other than what is explicitly provided." Therefore, do not mine JW.org or it's affiliated services hunting for artwork, literature, or media that hasn't been officially released to the public yet. Spiritual food "is explicitly provided" at the proper time by the Faithful and Discreet Slave (Matthew 24:45) and not by individuals racing to be the ones to present it in place of them (Psalm 11:2). 4) No Personally Identifiable Information. For the privacy and protection of all members, we insist that you do not post publicly identifiable information, such as your email address, phone number, street address, etc, on any content that is visible to the public or even the community at large. Any comments that contain this information may be deleted. Your email address is kept private and we encourage communication using the discussion board and the private messaging system only. If you give out your contact information for other services, you are doing so at your own risk. 5) Limited Access and Moderation. To maintain a clean and civil community, we reserve the right to have our moderation team read comments before they are displayed on the site. Review time can vary depending on the availability of our Team Members, who are all volunteers, as well as the current queue, so please be patient. Please, do not resubmit the same comment or complain to the Team assuming it has been deleted. If we refuse to publish your comments, we will send you a private message explaining why. If we publish your comments, we reserve the right to edit them as necessary. 6) An Online Spiritual Paradise. We strongly believe that JWTalk Community should be a safe space for brothers and sisters from all around the globe to express their ideas. As such, purposefully insulting and hostile language or personal threats are not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental well-being of a member of this community, you may be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against another member, publicly or privately, not only may it be removed but we reserve the right to report the matter to your congregation elders and/or law enforcement agencies. F. File Uploads 1) Material for Meeting Preparation: The November 1999 Our Kingdom Ministry states "Using another person’s research for a talk or [as a substitute for] meeting preparation really defeats the purpose of personal study." Posts on spiritual matters should therefore contain the results of your own personal meditation, first-hand accounts of what you heard at meetings, and brief quotes from the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, along with appropriate references. If you want to share a meeting part that you worked hard on, please do not post transcripts or audio recordings of your assignment prior to their being delivered in congregations all over the world. 2) Audio Recordings of Talks: The Question Box in the April 2010 Our Kingdom Ministry discourages the circulation of recorded talks. Remember that JWTalk is about discussion, and is not for trading recordings of talks. With that said, we will not prohibit a user from occasionally sharing a recorded talk. However, we will not permit a user to make a habitual practice of this. Uploading a Circuit Assembly or Regional Convention program is strictly prohibited in accordance with the announcements we receive at each of these events. 3) JW Literature and Media: The Branch has repeatedly stated that we may share information from the organization’s official websites by sending a link, but according to the "Terms of Use" at JW.org and within the JW Library app, we should not post on the Internet any artwork, electronic publications, trademarks, music, photos, videos, or articles from our websites. This would include theocratic programs on jw.org or JW Stream, such as monthly broadcasts, congregation meetings, circuit assemblies, and conventions. Therefore, do not upload to our servers any literature or media that is available on JW.org and it's affiliated sites. Also, do not share links to unauthorized copies of content that has been uploaded to any file sharing, music sharing, or video sharing website. G. Unverified Experiences & Sensational Stories The October 1999 Our Kingdom Ministry says: “What if the experience you pass on is not accurate? Would this not be sharing in perpetuating an untruth?” - (Proverbs. 12:19; 21:28; 30:8; Colossians 3:9) Be mindful of sensational stories or experiences that you cannot verify. This becomes a problem from time to time. It’s a chore for the Team to read extremely long ones, and likely someone will point out what they feel is ridiculously sensational and unrealistic and publicly state why they find it too difficult to believe some facet of this incredulous story. It's important to protect the gullible for believing everything he or she reads. If the story or experience is legitimate, OR truly encouraging yet not overly far-fetched, we’ll probably let it go. Just remember that spamming us with such tall tales, email forwards, or similar content circulating social networks is not the purpose of our community. H: Ads and Posting Secondary Links Before linking to any page, please make sure that it does not have ads for pornography, comments by apostates or opposers, or prominent ads/links to apostate or other inappropriate sites. We would not want to be responsible for exposing our brothers to temptation or facilitate the efforts of those who want to draw our brothers away. (Matthew 18:6) I: Copyrighted Content 1) Ownership: Caution must be taken to respect the copyrights of others. All sites, whether public, commercial, social, personal or private--contain elements that are protected under copyright laws, whether they are original works, fixed works, works made for hire, commissioned works, or works that have been assigned. We reserve the right to edit or remove any post, image or other media that, in our opinion, constitutes a violation of the copyrights of any other individual or enterprise. 2) Fair Use: You agree to become familiar with typical "Fair Use" laws and to use good judgment when submitting content to the JWTalk community. It is usually both reasonable and acceptable to include a quotation from an article or other literary work, or to reference a single image or photograph, in order to start a topic or that is pertinent or necessary to further a current discussion in the community. However, do not post entire articles or large portions of them from our publications or upload them as attachments to the discussions or to our Files Library. Likewise, do not upload content containing multiple image attachments that you do not have copyright ownership or rights to. 3) DCMA Takedown: It is our policy to respond to all notices of alleged copyright infringement. To learn more about how to bring a copyright issue to our attention, please read our DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy. J. Disclaimer All comments posted to this community reflects the views and opinions expressed by the individual member and are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of JWTalk.net, our Team, nor that of the organization known as "Jehovah's Witnesses", the Governing Body, or any of its legal corporations. Your local congregation and its elders are part of Jehovah's channel for your spiritual care, not any member of JWTalk Community regardless of what their appointment may be in their own congregations. Any medical advice of any sort posted in the community by any member should be discussed with your local healthcare provider. Each member must come to their own conclusions, "carry their own load”, and "render an account for himself to God.” - Galatians 6:5, Romans 14:12 K. A few more points... * Remember, while every effort is made to ensure that only active publishers associated with Jehovah's people are granted membership here at JWTalk, there is no real way to verify the identity and congregational status of each registered account. The faithful slave cautions against associating with people whom you do not know over the internet, even when they claim to be your fellow brothers and sisters. Those cautionary statements are valid and apply to this JWTalk as well. * Do not use topics, replies, or your status updates to sound off on what you think the organization should do differently. It is discouraging, and quite frankly not up to you anyhow. * Do not bring issues to the community and post content about things that you ought to be speaking to your elders about first. * Since all members of this community are supposed to be active publishers of the good news and counted as Jehovah’s Witnesses in our monthly and annual reports, you must NOT count the time you spend participating here in your monthly field service reports, and you must NOT count links you post in this community as placements, etc. * We understand that people are shy. If you comment here at JWTalk, please be making an honest, sincere, prayerful effort to comment at your congregation meetings as well. * We reserve the right to update these Community Membership Policies and Terms of Service at any time, and it is your responsibility to check periodically for changes. When changes are made, a post will be created in the Announcements forum. * In all instances, we retain the right to trim, edit or remove content that violate the policies above * Failure to comply with the above membership policy may cause your account to be "Banned" - at the Team’s discretion. View full article
  3. JWTalk 16.11.12 Large number of bugs fixes. Performance improvements in: profile view, sitemap generator, posting replies, and Activity Streams When a member changes their email or password they now get an email confirmation You can now press ctrl/cmd+enter in any editor window to submit the reply There is now logic to prevent double-posting when the initial post encounters an error on submit Moderators can now remove all followers from an item Contact Us is now configurable with various options Announcements can now be restricted by member group Admins now have a setting to have members automatically follow content they start or reply to. Members can optionally override this. The editor will now show a message if a link that can be embedded (image, video, etc.) failed to embed for some reason. Admins get more detailed error reasons. When a member is banned/suspended the system now shows a more friendly page with information on their ban. Previously it showed a permission denied page. Security Questions for account security JWTalk 16.10.10 Fixed security flaw that allowed unapproved members to send PM's via Tapatalk JWTalk 16.10.8 Fixed security flaw that allowed unapproved members to bypass validation by using Tapatalk JWTalk 16.9.21 Remember me cookie is now 90 days rather than 7 days Performance improvements on activity streams Performance improvement to online list widgets CKEditor updated Apache upgrade PHP upgraded IPS upgraded JWTalk 16.9.13 Fixed several Tapatalk formatting, autofollow, and attachment handling issues Added @mention support to Tapatalk Unapproved topics no longer appear to Tapatalk users Bug fixes in Auto-Welcome scripts. Upgraded some moderator scripts. JWTalk 16.9.11 Fixed a potential security issue JWTalk 16.8.25 Fix URL issues. Added code to capture errors with 3rd party plugins. CKEditor has been updated 4.5.10. CodeMirror has been updated to 5.17. Plupload has been updated to 2.1.9. buzz.js has been updated to 1.2. HTMLPurifier has been updated to 4.8.0. JWTalk 16.8.21 New per-group setting to highlight posts made by certain groups. Personal conversation management improvements: Can now filter personal conversations to just read/unread. Can now move multiple personal conversations into a different folder at once. Can search by recipient/sender name. Notifications about Calendar events now include the event date. When viewing a log in the Administration Center, it will now show you on which page the log occurred and by which member. When the search index is being rebuilt, a message is now shown on the search results page to indicate why results may not be complete. Major performance improvements to Activity Streams JWTalk 16.6.25 Fixed broken @mention links. Merging members could cause follow records to be lost. - fixed Email digests. - fixed Bulk mails may send duplicates - fixed JWTalk 16.5.28 When you mouseover the badge showing who liked a post, you will now see a larger list of who liked that post. You can still click to get the full list. Ratings now show half-stars for the average (for example, if one user votes 3 stars and another 4, it will show 3 and a half stars) and there is now an indication if you have rated something. A "Preview" button has been added to the post editor which shows how the post will appear after BBCode processing. Tabs show how the post will appear on desktop, tablet and mobile. Users can now choose to ignore notifications for being mentioned in posts by particular users. You can now filter searches by specific forums/categories. The filter dropdowns in the Activity Stream now have an "Apply" button for better usability (previously you had to click outside the dropdown). The "Expanded/Collapsed" toggles are now clearer in the Activity Stream. Hitting back from a clicked item in any activity stream now remembers your position and loaded results. Better indication of files pending approval in Downloads. A logged in member without a valid timezone set will trigger exceptions any time another members age is checked. - Fixed Using very high limits for the number of questions per poll may cause errors. - Fixed Uploading animated gifs was broken in some areas - Fixed Orphaned comments trigger an exception when search index is rebuilding. - Fixed Possible XSS Security flaw in the "hovercard" system. - Fixed CKEditor has been updated to 4.5.9. FontAwesome has been updated to 4.6.0. jQuery has been updated to 1.12.3. CodeMirror has been updated to 5.14.2. XRegExp has been updated to 3.1.0. JWTalk 16.5.4 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.11 If you receive a browser notification your notification menu will now reload to get the latest notification. The "All Activity" activity stream now has an RSS feed. The filter bar at the top of the activity stream no longer sticks to the stop of the screen when scrolling. More consistent visual feedback when a post submit or edit is processing to reduce duplicates. Instant notifications are now dismissible. The sidebar has been added back to the stream pages. You can now sort by most downloaded in Downloads app. When your link auto-embeds in a post such as with an image, YouTube video, Twitter link, etc. an option will now display to revert the embed back to a plain text link if you do not want the embed. Placing a link to a Facebook status will embed when possible. If Gravatar is enabled, and a user has not defined an profile photo, then their email address will be used to fetch from Gravatar unless explicitly set not to. Inline notifications can now be dismissed Efficiency improvements to the search index You can now close a poll independently of the topic Some BBCode does not parse correctly in version 4 and we have applied some fixes for this. In general BBCode is deprecated so we only provide basic support. Certain URLs from IPB 3 were not redirecting properly to the new IPS 4 format. Multiple fixes for tag searching JWTalk 16.2.21 Removed "Sign up with [Social Media]" option on registration page. Increased inactivity period in Chat Room to kick you out in 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes. Linked footer to Change Log JWTalk 16.2.8 Fixed Tapatalk compatibility issues. Revamped Member Ranks System because I was bored. Integrated Forums with Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/JWTalkForums JWTalk 16.2.4 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.8.1 - small patch to address bug fixes JWTalk 16.2.3 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.8 - maintenance release addressing bug fixes Made site compatible with IPS 4.1.8 Fixed "Auto Welcome Members" plugin Upgraded Apache and PHP on the server to close vulnerabilities. Added PHP extensions for better forum performance. JWTalk 16.1.31 Added a function to number each post within a topic. JWTalk 16.1.30 Concurrent posts made within 1 minute are now automatically merged Changed Language "Member Title" to "Member Rank" so users stop putting their Real Name in there. Organized Profile Fields to indicate which ones are visible only to Staff. Added "Who's Chatting?" to bottom of posts pages (Sidebar on Index and Topic List pages) Moved Quoted Content block 7 pixels to the rights so it's easier to differentiate quotes from comments. Restored missing "Baptized y/n?" profile fields from a previous backup - Thanks Carlos! Changed Sidebar Color to stand out from Main Area JWTalk 16.1.29 Added nag screen for missing required profile fields Added some space between post content and "Edited by" info pane Changed {Enter} Key behavior from "New Paragraph" to "New Line" Added a button to erase everything in the Large Editor Added a button to remove formatting within the Large Editor. Added a button to allow highlighting within the Large Editor Added "Spoiler" button to the Large Editor JWTalk 16.1.28 Fixed issue that allowed guests to report posts JWTalk 16.1.27 Added "change author" function. JWTalk 16.1.26 Published Revised Forum Membership Policy JWTalk 16.1.24 Fixed major bug in security tools added the day before. JWTalk 16.1.23 Added security tools beneficial for Moderators and Admins Created "Publicy Visible Images" Category in Photo Gallery JWTalk 16.1.22 Fix critical issue preventing loading of theme in certain situations JWTalk 16.1.21 Changed language to "Leave a PUBLICLY VISIBLE message on [members]'s feed" for Status Updates Made the Status Update entry field gray on the sidebar block JWTalk 16.1.19 Breadcrumb height weirdness resolved Made JWTalk Theme compatible with IPS 4.1.7 Fixed notification counts have bad positioning in footer navigation block Logged out view - “Sign Up” user nav button has weird vertical alignment fixed. Login bar responsiveness messed up in tablet portrait views fixed Finally fixed locked toggle switches in Notification settings that were causing excessive emails. Changed text color in posts to solid black after some feedback. JWTalk 16.1.18 Added some under the hood webmaster only plugins Changed "Reply to this topic" area to grey because it was hard to see. Installed Tapatalk for IPS 4.x on the server. JWTalk 16.1.17 Officially released JWTalk 2016 to the community and public Increased Private Message Storage Limits (varies by member group) JWTalk 16.1.16 Disabled social media icons for breaking breadcrumb on long post titles Finished final site design and visible manipulation of new skin. JWTalk 16.1.14 Added template code to hide sensitive profile information for now Changed language "Edit Post" to "Save Edits" JWTalk 16.1.13 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.7 A cross-site-scripting (XSS) issue was discovered and patched Add custom sidebar blocks Started design work on new skin. JWTalk 16.1.12 Purchased and applied skin that will serve as basis of our new redesign JWTalk 16.1.7 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.6 Fixed YouTube embedding in the editor so links no longer need to be on their own line JWTalk 16.1.2 Increase Photo Size Limits Switch from square avatars to rounded avatars. JWTalk 16.1.1 Initial restructuring of things that are appearing where they shouldn't. Fix issue where Full Access Members are listed as Moderators Fix emails issues of not sending correctly or sending to the wrong person JWTalk 15.12.31 Upgraded to IPS 4.1.5 for testing
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/us/politics/bob-dole-humor.html?name=styln-bob-dole&region=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=0_Control&is_new=false R.I.P Bob Dole In his first campaign for the presidency, in 1980, Mr. Dole joined the pile-on against President Jimmy Carter. “I once called Carter a chicken-fried McGovern,” Mr. Dole said, referring to the former Democratic nominee George McGovern. “And I take that back because I’ve come to respect McGovern.” Much like Mr. McGovern’s 1972 general election campaign, Mr. Dole’s 1980 primary campaign crashed and burned. He won just 607 votes in New Hampshire. The next day, he “slept like a baby,” Mr. Dole said afterward. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk2gTC9_Fd4 After Mr. Leno mentioned research showing that Viagra might cause blindness in rare cases, Mr. Dole emerged to roars of laughter from the audience. “That’s a lot of rubbish, Jay,” he said. “I hate to see this misinformation being spread. I know a little about Viagra, Bob Dole knows a little about Viagra, and my vision is perfect. It’s 20/20. “And,” he said, pointing to Mr. Leno’s band leader, “you ought to know better, Jay Leno.”
  5. For a little bit of history, the domain name www.jwtalk.net was registered on September 4th, 2006, which was 15 years ago this month. We started as a members only forum for local friends in local congregations using a freeware script called MyBB. Not before long, it lost it's initial traction. Then, a previous JW Forum was taken offline and so we made the effort to invite those abandoned forum refugees to join over here instead. We eventually switched to a freeware script called Phorum and couldn't migrate the MyBB database. Once Facebook became available to the public in general, activity in the Phorum suffered tremendously, and so we decided to abandon the referral-only approach and go Public, allowing search engines like Google to find us and index our content and promoting the forum in various JW Facebook groups. This worked out well, and membership in the JWTalk Online Community of Jehovah's Witnesses began to grow. As other JW Forums, MSN Email Lists, and Yahoo Groups, were discontinued, their members found their way here. Today, JWTalk.net is known to be the largest and busiest, and for many the one and only pro-JW community on the internet. We rigorously vet new member applications and work diligently to keep unqualified, apostate, and opposed individuals out and our boards clean of their harmful propaganda. With the help of our loving brothers and sisters here in the community, we've seen publishers dedicated themselves to Jehovah through water baptism. We've seen members who were struggling emotionally encouraged and strengthened by the Christian love they've received from brothers and sisters who may be on the opposite sides of the globe. We've seen members struggling spiritually grow and now they are the ones encouraging others by their fine comments. Many of us have travelled and met other members face to face and sat next to them at their Kingdom Halls. The community has been a blessing during the pandemic as we have been able to enjoy good association with one another any time of day. “Look! How good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1 Of course, none of this would work if it wasn't for your love for Jehovah and for your brothers and sisters. Let us continue to "have love for the whole association of brothers (and sisters!)" - 1 Peter 2:17 YOU are what makes this community wonderful, because YOU love Jehovah, YOU love your spiritual family (his organization), and YOU have his blessing.
  6. PRIVACY POLICY What personal information do we receive from you? When you register for an account, you voluntarily provide us with personal information necessary to be able to communicate with you in connection with your membership and activity at JWTalk. This personal information includes your name, email address, location, gender, and congregation details. How and why we use your personal information? We use your personal information to respond to you when you contact us, or to update you about the services we provide or changes to our policies. We also use your personal information to verify that you qualify for membership in the JWTalk community. How long do we keep your personal information for? We keep your personal information for the entire duration of your membership at JWTalk. If you want to temporarily stop using JWTalk, we will deactivate your account, and your personal information will continue to be retained so that you may return to the community at any time. You cannot delete your account, but you may request that your personal information be deleted from your account, at which point you will not have access to the services provided to members of JWTalk. Who do we share your personal information with? We do not sell or share your information to other websites or to advertisers. We may share information about you with your local congregation elders or with other responsible individuals within Jehovah’s organization. Your information is visible to all our Team members, listed here. Who can see the content I submit? Only you and Community Team members can see your personal information that is connected to your account, such as your full name, email address, location, and congregation. Only your first name and other information you choose to share is visible to others. When you start a New Topic or post a Reply to an existing topic in a Forum, Club, or Blog, this content becomes public. Even if you post it in one of the members only areas, threads containing your posts may be moved to a publicly visible area at our discretion. Private Messages are only visible between you and the other participants, unless you or the other participants make a request to the Community Managers to review the content of a Private Message. You can control who can view albums you create in the Photo Gallery. Files you submit to our Files Library are available for downloading to the general public. How can I manage or delete information about me? You can manage the personal information you share when you use JWTalk in your Account Settings. Some of your information can only be edited by the Staff at your request. You cannot delete your posts, as this would break the flow of conversation in topics you participated in. JWTalk is a public community for Jehovah's Witnesses, and when you voluntarily participate in discussions with other members, the content you submit to the JWTalk community becomes the property of JWTalk as stated in our Community Membership Policy. You can delete your Status Updates, Albums in the Photo Gallery, and your Private Messages at any time. What other data do you collect about my visits? When you visit JWTalk, we receive data from your Internet Service Provider as well as data about the type of device you have and the browser you are using. Do we use Cookies to collect personal information on you? No. However, to provide better service to you on JWTalk, we use cookies when you are browsing our community. If you disable cookies in your browser, the features and services provided to registered members of JWTalk may no longer work properly for you. For more details about our use of cookies, click here. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm? We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. We also may retain information from accounts disabled for violations of our terms to prevent repeat abuse or other violations of our terms. Where do you store my personal information? Your information is stored on our secure server in the United States of America. How will we notify you of changes to this policy? Changes to this policy will be posted in the community so as to give you the opportunity to review and comment on the revised policy. When it the new policy becomes effective, you will have to accept it before continuing to use your membership privileges. How will we contact you? We may contact you by private message, email, or social media. If you prefer a particular contact means over another please just let us know. How can you contact us? If you have further questions on the processing of your personal information, please use the Contact Us form at the bottom or send an email. Registered members may also post a new topic in the Confidential Talk forum. or Private Message one of the Community Managers.
  7. PRIVACY POLICY What personal information do we receive from you? When you register for an account, you voluntarily provide us with personal information necessary to be able to communicate with you in connection with your membership and activity at JWTalk. This personal information includes your name, email address, location, gender, and congregation details. How and why we use your personal information? We use your personal information to respond to you when you contact us, or to update you about the services we provide or changes to our policies. We also use your personal information to verify that you qualify for membership in the JWTalk community. How long do we keep your personal information for? We keep your personal information for the entire duration of your membership at JWTalk. If you want to temporarily stop using JWTalk, we will deactivate your account, and your personal information will continue to be retained so that you may return to the community at any time. You cannot delete your account, but you may request that your personal information be deleted from your account, at which point you will not have access to the services provided to members of JWTalk. Who do we share your personal information with? We do not sell or share your information to other websites or to advertisers. We may share information about you with your local congregation elders or with other responsible individuals within Jehovah’s organization. Your information is visible to all our Team members, listed here. Who can see the content I submit? Only you and Community Team members can see your personal information that is connected to your account, such as your full name, email address, location, and congregation. Only your first name and other information you choose to share is visible to others. When you start a New Topic or post a Reply to an existing topic in a Forum, Club, or Blog, this content becomes public. Even if you post it in one of the members only areas, threads containing your posts may be moved to a publicly visible area at our discretion. Private Messages are only visible between you and the other participants, unless you or the other participants make a request to the Community Managers to review the content of a Private Message. You can control who can view albums you create in the Photo Gallery. Files you submit to our Files Library are available for downloading to the general public. How can I manage or delete information about me? You can manage the personal information you share when you use JWTalk in your Account Settings. Some of your information can only be edited by the Staff at your request. You cannot delete your posts, as this would break the flow of conversation in topics you participated in. JWTalk is a public community for Jehovah's Witnesses, and when you voluntarily participate in discussions with other members, the content you submit to the JWTalk community becomes the property of JWTalk as stated in our Community Membership Policy. You can delete your Status Updates, Albums in the Photo Gallery, and your Private Messages at any time. What other data do you collect about my visits? When you visit JWTalk, we receive data from your Internet Service Provider as well as data about the type of device you have and the browser you are using. Do we use Cookies to collect personal information on you? No. However, to provide better service to you on JWTalk, we use cookies when you are browsing our community. If you disable cookies in your browser, the features and services provided to registered members of JWTalk may no longer work properly for you. For more details about our use of cookies, click here. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm? We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. We also may retain information from accounts disabled for violations of our terms to prevent repeat abuse or other violations of our terms. Where do you store my personal information? Your information is stored on our secure server in the United States of America. How will we notify you of changes to this policy? Changes to this policy will be posted in the community so as to give you the opportunity to review and comment on the revised policy. When it the new policy becomes effective, you will have to accept it before continuing to use your membership privileges. How will we contact you? We may contact you by private message, email, or social media. If you prefer a particular contact means over another please just let us know. How can you contact us? If you have further questions on the processing of your personal information, please use the Contact Us form at the bottom or send an email. Registered members may also post a new topic in the Confidential Talk forum. or Private Message one of the Community Managers. View full article
  8. FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions From time to time questions are raised about this our online community of Jehovah's Witnesses, and this page addresses some of the most common ones. The current questions that have answers on this page include the following… 1. Is this an official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses? 2. When did this site get started? 3. Why did this site go from being a rather private and secret site to a quite public one? 4. Who can participate in the discussion forum? 6. Who can sign up to receive the daily bible text? 7. Is the Branch, a Branch, or the religions leadership aware of this site? 8. Are the elder’s in your congregation aware of this site? 9. Have you ever been contacted by the Branch regarding this site? 10. Do you think the Branch approves of this site? 11. What happened to the recorded talks that forum members were able to download? 12. Is there prepared study material available for meetings on this site that I can download and use? 13. If you were contacted by the Branch to stop the daily text emails, what would you do? 14. What if the Branch started doing Daily Text emails themselves? 15. If you were contacted by the Branch to take down this site, what would you do? 16. Your answers to questions 13 and 15 bother me, what should I do? 1. Is this an official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses? No it is not. JWTalk is not endorsed by the Faithful and Discreet Slave nor is it maintained by any Branch Office nor any legal entity in use by Jehovah's Witnesses. The official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses is JW.org and you can find accurate information about our beliefs and practices there. JWTalk is an online community for real Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is independently run by a team of brothers and sisters from around the world. 2. When did this site get started? JWTalk started as a mere hobby site by a small group of brothers and sisters back in the fall of 2006, being perceived as a continuation of a previous Jehovah's Witnesses discussion forum that had been taken down by it's webmaster. Initially, JWTalk was originally a private, referral only discussion forum for the first couple years but now considered a public community. All registered members have to be Jehovah's Witnesses. There are only a few discussion forums or social networks out there on the internet that are “safe”, positive, and upbuilding for Jehovah's people, and they are difficult to find. While there are a some email mailing lists for Witnesses, apostates or opposers can also join the list, sit back, and harvest email addresses so they can send out there misleading garbage to you ‘at more convenient time’. The JWTalk community is primarily a discussion board for real Jehovah's Witnesses only. Your email address and other personal information are NEVER shown to anyone unless you choose to share that information, and even then we require that you do so through the one-on-one private messaging system and not within the public areas of the community. Anyone abusing the private message system to send harmful information to a single individual will be banned. Anyone posting harmful material within the community will also be banned. 3. Why did this site go from being a rather private and secret site to a quite public one? For a number of reasons. In time, the link to the private members only discussion forum, which had remained a secret for several years, somehow got indexed in Google and Bing. Also, some members would continually lose the secret link to the members only area. As social networking started to rise in popularity, many individuals would turn to social networks to search out brothers and sisters of like faith, only to constantly run into opposers. We decided to make the JWTalk community open to others without a referral from a current member, and to make it the go-to social site for real Jehovah's Witnesses on the web. 4. Who can participate in the discussion forum? Any active publisher whose JWTalk membership is approved by the Staff. All applicants must fill out the registration form completely and honestly. We reserve the right to control membership as we deem fit. 6. Who can sign up to receive the daily bible text via email? Anybody. God’s Word is public. The accompanying comments are not entire articles, but snippets that, as far as it seems to us, should fall within Fair Use Laws. We've been sending the days text to your email inbox for several years. However, it is worth noting that the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses now also posts the daily text at http://wol.jw.org 7. Is the Branch, a Branch, or the religions leadership aware of this site? Yes. 8. Are the elder’s in your congregation aware of this site? JWTalk is no longer maintained by just one individual, but rather by a team of brothers and sisters, which include those serving as pioneers, ministerial servants, and elders. 9. Have you ever been contacted by the Branch regarding this site? We have been indirectly asked to remove certain topics for discussion before. 10. Do you think the Branch approves of this site? The organization makes it very clear that they can only approve and endorse sites that they themselves maintain. This does not mean that they disapprove either. Notice this reference… Let’s break this down… “There is no need for any individual, committee, or congregation to prepare a Web page about Jehovah’s Witnesses.” This is not a web page about the organization known as Jehovah’s Witnesses nor about their beliefs and practices. JWTalk is an independently run online community for Jehovah's Witnesses. You can think of our site as a niche community, discussion forum, or social network for people who are really Jehovah's Witnesses. The views and opinions expressed by community members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the JWTalk Staff nor Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole. “Some have posted the contents of our publications with all scriptures and references given in full and have even offered copies of convention material on a donation basis.” We do not host the contents of Watchtower publications here on JWTalk, nor do we share recordings of conventions or assemblies. While some members may choose to donate financially to assist with the costs of software licensing and web hosting, there is no incentive or reward to do so, other than knowing "God loves a cheerful giver" - 2 Corinthians 9:7 Whether profit is involved or not, the practice of reproducing and distributing publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses in an electronic document is a violation of copyright laws. And again, we do not upload entire publications nor do we allow members to copy and paste entire articles on our Jehovah's Witnesses online community. If you are looking for publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, then please visit the official site at http://www.jw.org which has several publications available to download for free. But what about the warnings such as those mentioned in the km 7/07 p. 3 Question Box article entitled What are the dangers of using the Internet to associate with someone we do not know? Such cautionary statements published by the faithful and discreet slave are valid and necessary, and each person needs to meditate on the contents of those articles and make their own conscience decision. While every effort is made to ensure our JWTalk community remains a safe place to for Jehovah's people to associate with one another online, there can be no guarantees that individuals will not post offensive material from time to time, nor can we in any manner that we can completely ensure that registered members are in good standing in their congregations or remain in such good standing beyond the time they registered on this site. We can, however, control content, and take seriously our responsibility to do so. All registered members have the ability to participate in keeping the forum clean. 11. What happened to the recorded talks that forum members were able to download? Please see the Question Box in the April 2010 Our Kingdom Ministry and read the article Should Jehovah's Witnesses circulate recordings or transcripts of talks?. The library index of recorded talks is no longer visible to members, and the forum that used to be dedicated to exchanging recorded talks has been deleted. 12. Is there prepared study material for meetings available on this site that I can download and use? We do not prepare and upload study material nor make the answers to meeting parts available as a download. Naturally, as Jehovah's people we like to discuss meeting parts and how to apply them in our lives and you will find such discussions taking place in the community. 13. If you were contacted by the Branch to stop the daily text emails, what would you do? Although we do not see the likelihood of this happening, we would happily discontinue using material from Examining the Scriptures Daily as part of the Daily Text email list. 14. What if the organization started doing daily text emails themselves? That would be fantastic! Imagine being able to subscribe to it in whatever language you speak, and have it emailed to you at the appropriate time in your time zone wherever you are in the world. With some planning and some programming, they could make it happen. They should! In the meantime, Jehovah's Witnesses do make Examining the Scriptures Daily available for download in PDF format at http://www.jw.org - as well as in the JW Library app for Windows, iOS, and Android, as well as on the Watchtower Online Library's landing page at http://wol.jw.org,, not to mention there are other 3rd party Daily Text apps for iPhone's, Android phones and tablets, etc. So we doubt we'll hear anything about our mailing list. 15. If you were contacted by the Branch to take down this site, what would you do? We moved to this domain in 2006 and they are well aware of our community here. This is not a realistic scenario. There have been Witness only discussion forums, mailing lists, and message boards, since the mid-90′s, some of which still exist to this day. Brothers and sisters are going to search out other brothers and sisters online and socialize with them, because that is just the way it is. JWTalk and it’s predecessor has been a safe place to do so for several years. If the discussion forum was taken down, it’s members would just start up another one, and perhaps try to be a little more secretive. What would be the point? The Branch has gone after sites that individuals put up about our beliefs and practices, or those dedicated to distributing study material, publications, and maintaining large libraries of recorded talks. None of this takes place here at JWTalk. The Staff works hard to keep the community in harmony with any and all direction received from the Branch. 16. Your answers to these questions bother me, what should I do? Stop using the Contact form at the bottom of the page to present us with silly “What if...?” scenarios. If you're not sure about the validity of our Jehovah's Witnesses community, please feel free to look around as a guest. Most areas of JWTalk are visible to the public. If the existence of our JWTalk community bothers your conscience, just navigate away. We perceive our organization’s leadership as loving, friendly, and above all, the most reasonable people on the face of the planet.
  9. FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions From time to time questions are raised about this our online community of Jehovah's Witnesses, and this page addresses some of the most common ones. The current questions that have answers on this page include the following… 1. Is this an official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses? 2. When did this site get started? 3. Why did this site go from being a rather private and secret site to a quite public one? 4. Who can participate in the discussion forum? 6. Who can sign up to receive the daily bible text? 7. Is the Branch, a Branch, or the religions leadership aware of this site? 8. Are the elder’s in your congregation aware of this site? 9. Have you ever been contacted by the Branch regarding this site? 10. Do you think the Branch approves of this site? 11. What happened to the recorded talks that forum members were able to download? 12. Is there prepared study material available for meetings on this site that I can download and use? 13. If you were contacted by the Branch to stop the daily text emails, what would you do? 14. What if the Branch started doing Daily Text emails themselves? 15. If you were contacted by the Branch to take down this site, what would you do? 16. Your answers to questions 13 and 15 bother me, what should I do? 1. Is this an official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses? No it is not. JWTalk is not endorsed by the Faithful and Discreet Slave nor is it maintained by any Branch Office nor any legal entity in use by Jehovah's Witnesses. The official website for Jehovah’s Witnesses is JW.org and you can find accurate information about our beliefs and practices there. JWTalk is an online community for real Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is independently run by a team of brothers and sisters from around the world. 2. When did this site get started? JWTalk started as a mere hobby site by a small group of brothers and sisters back in the fall of 2006, being perceived as a continuation of a previous Jehovah's Witnesses discussion forum that had been taken down by it's webmaster. Initially, JWTalk was originally a private, referral only discussion forum for the first couple years but now considered a public community. All registered members have to be Jehovah's Witnesses. There are only a few discussion forums or social networks out there on the internet that are “safe”, positive, and upbuilding for Jehovah's people, and they are difficult to find. While there are a some email mailing lists for Witnesses, apostates or opposers can also join the list, sit back, and harvest email addresses so they can send out there misleading garbage to you ‘at more convenient time’. The JWTalk community is primarily a discussion board for real Jehovah's Witnesses only. Your email address and other personal information are NEVER shown to anyone unless you choose to share that information, and even then we require that you do so through the one-on-one private messaging system and not within the public areas of the community. Anyone abusing the private message system to send harmful information to a single individual will be banned. Anyone posting harmful material within the community will also be banned. 3. Why did this site go from being a rather private and secret site to a quite public one? For a number of reasons. In time, the link to the private members only discussion forum, which had remained a secret for several years, somehow got indexed in Google and Bing. Also, some members would continually lose the secret link to the members only area. As social networking started to rise in popularity, many individuals would turn to social networks to search out brothers and sisters of like faith, only to constantly run into opposers. We decided to make the JWTalk community open to others without a referral from a current member, and to make it the go-to social site for real Jehovah's Witnesses on the web. 4. Who can participate in the discussion forum? Any active publisher whose JWTalk membership is approved by the Staff. All applicants must fill out the registration form completely and honestly. We reserve the right to control membership as we deem fit. 6. Who can sign up to receive the daily bible text via email? Anybody. God’s Word is public. The accompanying comments are not entire articles, but snippets that, as far as it seems to us, should fall within Fair Use Laws. We've been sending the days text to your email inbox for several years. However, it is worth noting that the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses now also posts the daily text at http://wol.jw.org 7. Is the Branch, a Branch, or the religions leadership aware of this site? Yes. 8. Are the elder’s in your congregation aware of this site? JWTalk is no longer maintained by just one individual, but rather by a team of brothers and sisters, which include those serving as pioneers, ministerial servants, and elders. 9. Have you ever been contacted by the Branch regarding this site? We have been indirectly asked to remove certain topics for discussion before. 10. Do you think the Branch approves of this site? The organization makes it very clear that they can only approve and endorse sites that they themselves maintain. This does not mean that they disapprove either. Notice this reference… Let’s break this down… “There is no need for any individual, committee, or congregation to prepare a Web page about Jehovah’s Witnesses.” This is not a web page about the organization known as Jehovah’s Witnesses nor about their beliefs and practices. JWTalk is an independently run online community for Jehovah's Witnesses. You can think of our site as a niche community, discussion forum, or social network for people who are really Jehovah's Witnesses. The views and opinions expressed by community members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the JWTalk Staff nor Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole. “Some have posted the contents of our publications with all scriptures and references given in full and have even offered copies of convention material on a donation basis.” We do not host the contents of Watchtower publications here on JWTalk, nor do we share recordings of conventions or assemblies. While some members may choose to donate financially to assist with the costs of software licensing and web hosting, there is no incentive or reward to do so, other than knowing "God loves a cheerful giver" - 2 Corinthians 9:7 Whether profit is involved or not, the practice of reproducing and distributing publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses in an electronic document is a violation of copyright laws. And again, we do not upload entire publications nor do we allow members to copy and paste entire articles on our Jehovah's Witnesses online community. If you are looking for publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, then please visit the official site at http://www.jw.org which has several publications available to download for free. But what about the warnings such as those mentioned in the km 7/07 p. 3 Question Box article entitled What are the dangers of using the Internet to associate with someone we do not know? Such cautionary statements published by the faithful and discreet slave are valid and necessary, and each person needs to meditate on the contents of those articles and make their own conscience decision. While every effort is made to ensure our JWTalk community remains a safe place to for Jehovah's people to associate with one another online, there can be no guarantees that individuals will not post offensive material from time to time, nor can we in any manner that we can completely ensure that registered members are in good standing in their congregations or remain in such good standing beyond the time they registered on this site. We can, however, control content, and take seriously our responsibility to do so. All registered members have the ability to participate in keeping the forum clean. 11. What happened to the recorded talks that forum members were able to download? Please see the Question Box in the April 2010 Our Kingdom Ministry and read the article Should Jehovah's Witnesses circulate recordings or transcripts of talks?. The library index of recorded talks is no longer visible to members, and the forum that used to be dedicated to exchanging recorded talks has been deleted. 12. Is there prepared study material for meetings available on this site that I can download and use? We do not prepare and upload study material nor make the answers to meeting parts available as a download. Naturally, as Jehovah's people we like to discuss meeting parts and how to apply them in our lives and you will find such discussions taking place in the community. 13. If you were contacted by the Branch to stop the daily text emails, what would you do? Although we do not see the likelihood of this happening, we would happily discontinue using material from Examining the Scriptures Daily as part of the Daily Text email list. 14. What if the organization started doing daily text emails themselves? That would be fantastic! Imagine being able to subscribe to it in whatever language you speak, and have it emailed to you at the appropriate time in your time zone wherever you are in the world. With some planning and some programming, they could make it happen. They should! In the meantime, Jehovah's Witnesses do make Examining the Scriptures Daily available for download in PDF format at http://www.jw.org - as well as in the JW Library app for Windows, iOS, and Android, as well as on the Watchtower Online Library's landing page at http://wol.jw.org,, not to mention there are other 3rd party Daily Text apps for iPhone's, Android phones and tablets, etc. So we doubt we'll hear anything about our mailing list. 15. If you were contacted by the Branch to take down this site, what would you do? We moved to this domain in 2006 and they are well aware of our community here. This is not a realistic scenario. There have been Witness only discussion forums, mailing lists, and message boards, since the mid-90′s, some of which still exist to this day. Brothers and sisters are going to search out other brothers and sisters online and socialize with them, because that is just the way it is. JWTalk and it’s predecessor has been a safe place to do so for several years. If the discussion forum was taken down, it’s members would just start up another one, and perhaps try to be a little more secretive. What would be the point? The Branch has gone after sites that individuals put up about our beliefs and practices, or those dedicated to distributing study material, publications, and maintaining large libraries of recorded talks. None of this takes place here at JWTalk. The Staff works hard to keep the community in harmony with any and all direction received from the Branch. 16. Your answers to these questions bother me, what should I do? Stop using the Contact form at the bottom of the page to present us with silly “What if...?” scenarios. If you're not sure about the validity of our Jehovah's Witnesses community, please feel free to look around as a guest. Most areas of JWTalk are visible to the public. If the existence of our JWTalk community bothers your conscience, just navigate away. We perceive our organization’s leadership as loving, friendly, and above all, the most reasonable people on the face of the planet. View full article
  10. From the album: JWTalk - Through the years

    JWTalk started off as "The Interchange" in September 2006 using free software called MyBB. A year later we started fresh with Phorum. We had a single forum that was displayed in the old threaded format. In time, we rebooted again with the linear display format, went public, and as users joined JWTalk, more forums were created to categorize various topics like we have today.
  11. From the album: JWTalk - Through the years

    In early 2013, we started having severe issues with Phorum and HostGator, our hosting provider at the time. Development of the open source Phorum software had come to a halt and was essentially abandoned, and HostGator kept shutting us down because we were too busy, taxing the resources of the shared server we were on. So we got our own server in New York, but when we tried to move our Phorum over to the new server, it turned out that much of the technology powering our server was new, and the old Phorum software was not compatible. So, thanks to a well supported donation drive, we purchased new software from Invision Power Services and converted everything to it. It was a wild ride but we ironed things out and JWTalk had regular updates over the years.
  12. From the album: JWTalk - Through the years

    In 2008, we started collecting news stories from around the web and sharing them on JWTalk on a section powered by Wordpress. This helps us get indexed by search engines so that other brothers and sisters could find us since we dropped our Referral Only policy after going public. After awhile, the desire to maintain this waned and we figured such articles could just be posted and commented on in the Forums, so we ditched this in mid 2010.
  13. This video explains how you can reduce the amount of forum generated emails that get sent to your email Inbox, by toggling notifications for certain actions on or off, as well as subscribing to single emails vs. a daily or weekly digest. Watch the tutorial.
  14. Here is a video explaining what "Responsive Design" is. No more is there a separate mobile and PC template. Now the same page data gets served to you regardless of the device you are on, and your device will draw the page according to the size of your screen. Watch the video to see a demonstration....
  15. This video explains how to log in and log out of JWTalk regardless of what device you are using.
  16. I've only been here a few weeks, but not a work-day goes by when I don't thank Jehovah for this site, in all honesty. I'm a very social person, and at work I tend to get too "jokey" and social with workmates. Not that I consider them friends, but I was toeing the line and it made me feel guilty at times. Also, I would often get distracted throughout the day and my thinking pattern wouldn't be the best. It's very easy to be side-tracked by worldly thinking when you spend all week with worldly ones, in a worldly atmosphere (our meetings aren't until Friday and Sunday, so most of the week is spent in Worldly Land). With this site, however, I've been so focused on spiritual things in addition to work. When I feel myself get side-tracked with worldly thinking, or if I'm feeling down and out, I'll come on here and immediately get picked up again and upbuilt. I'd like to thank all of you for this great blessing, and Jehovah as well, of course. Slowly but surely you're becoming a part of my extended spiritual family, and I'm just very grateful. Okay, emotional rant over. Let the debate over beards and meat in the NW continue!

About JWTalk.net - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community

Since 2006, JWTalk has proved to be a well-moderated online community for real Jehovah's Witnesses on the web. However, our community is not an official website of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is not endorsed, sponsored, or maintained by any legal entity used by Jehovah's Witnesses. We are a pro-JW community maintained by brothers and sisters around the world. We expect all community members to be active publishers in their congregations, therefore, please do not apply for membership if you are not currently one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

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JWTalk 23.8.11 (changelog)