JWTalk Community Guidelines on AI Use

Our JWTalk Community thrives on authentic human connections, personal experiences, heartfelt reflections, and the genuine “interchange of encouragement” between us (Romans 1:11–12). To preserve the sincerity, depth, and unique perspectives that make our community special, we ask that all posts, replies, and comments be genuine, original, and personally written by the member.

Why We Discourage AI-Generated Content

Artificial intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Claude, or similar AI Systems) may seem helpful, but content produced or heavily influenced by AI often lacks the personal touch, emotional authenticity, and individual voice that our members value. The many AI programs are not Kingdom publishers and therefore have not been invited members to this forum. We only accept human members who are practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses.

We also recognize that the internet contains vast amounts of misinformation. Since AI tools draw from this pool, their results can be inaccurate. The old saying, “Well, I read it on the internet, so it must be true,” applies just as much to AI.

Misuse Concerns

Usurping spiritual responsibilities: Some members have used AI to produce biblical based brochures, videos, or outlines for distribution. This steps into responsibilities that Jehovah and Jesus have entrusted to the Faithful and Discreet Slave (Matthew 24:45–47).

Replacing personal study: Others have used AI to summarize or answer study material, such as the weekly Watchtower Study. The Our Kingdom Ministry (November 1999) reminds us: “Using another person’s research for a talk or [as a substitute for] meeting preparation really defeats the purpose of personal study.” The same applies if AI becomes that “other person.”

Relying on AI in these ways can leave us spiritually weaker, hungry, but not satisfied - similar to spiritual fast food. (Proverbs 26:15; Isaiah 65:13).

Overall Goal

It is not our goal to squash creativity or excitement about what these tools can do. That’s why we provide dedicated topics where members can showcase AI-generated images, art, or documents. But at its heart, JWTalk is a human discussion forum. Our expectation is that most posts and replies reflect your thoughts, your feelings, and your experiences. We love you and care deeply about what you think. What matters here are real voices, not artificial ones. By our keeping AI use very limited in the main discussion forums, we can preserve what makes these conversations special. YOU.

Expectations

All Topics, Posts, and Replies should reflect your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, written from the heart. Minor use of tools for spelling, grammar, or basic formatting is acceptable, but the core ideas, wording, and expression must be your own.

We encourage members to share personally and engage thoughtfully with others. This is the true meaning of an “interchange of encouragement.”

Exceptions

AI-generated images, art, music, or video should be posted in the dedicated AI Images and Art topic.

AI-generated text, articles, PDFs, or other documents should be posted in the dedicated AI Text and Documents topic.

It is acceptable to make a small reference to AI in a reply to another topic, as long as the AI portion is clearly marked, is on-topic, and does not outweigh your personal commentary.

Final Note

By participating in our forum, you agree to uphold these standards of authenticity. Repeated submission of AI-generated or AI-assisted content in the discussion forums, may result in post removal, warnings, or further moderation at the discretion of the moderators.

Thank you for helping us maintain a warm, human-centered community where real voices of Jehovah’s children matter most.

A large part of the way that the JWTalk Community is organized is by using a built in feature of the software called Member Groups. Various reading and posting permissions can be edited on a member by member basis, or they can be done by a much easier means by using Member Groups. The groups are given certain permissions and restrictions, and then members are assigned to that group. The use of Member Groups is one of the ways that helps the Team here on the Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community keep the community clean and safe for our brothers and sisters around the world. 

We get asked from time to time what these group names mean. You might see them under a members avatar when viewing a post on a PC, or on their profile if you click through to see it. Some of the Member Groups are highlighted in red or bold type and so are the members of that group when you see them in the list of Online Users. So the following is an explanation of the primary Member Groups we use for the majority of accounts here at JWTalk.

Guest - An unregistered person or search engine bot viewing the forum. Most of our visitors are guests.

Now, if a guest applies for membership, and that membership gets approved, then they become a Recent New User.

Recent New User - A brand new member. They are subject to content moderation. They can only post. Only key members only forums are available to them. Their Inbox can hold 25 messages.

After they've introduced themselves and made a few posts, they get automatically upgraded to a Level 1 of 2 Limited Access User.

Limited Access Users - These members are still subject to content moderation. They can use signatures and can upload a cover photo on their profile. They can also now post status updates and create photo albums in the Photo Gallery. They are able to read and participate in the Zoom forum. Their Inbox can hold 50 to 100 messages. 

As most Limited Access Users are still relatively newer to the Community, we still need some time to get to know them. After some time has passed and they have made several meaningful contributions to the board, the Team will begin discussing if it's time to give them a Full Access account.

Full Access Users - These members are not subject to content moderation and we are trusting them to behave. They can create Clubs. They can manage file versions and also submit URL's in the Files Library. They can read and participate in Comfort & Support forum and the Forum Games forum. Their Inbox can hold 250 messages and they can upload attachments in private messages.

Those groups make up the bulk of memberships here at JWTalk. We also have groups called "Inactive Account", "Application Denied", and "Incomplete Registration" that are used solely for management purposes. 

This brings us to the Team which is made up of 3 groups in addition to the administrator. Team members appear in bold type in the Who's Online block.

Community Assistant - These are selected elders who help keep an eye on the community and who help address sensitive issues in Confidential Talk. They help alert the rest of the Team to issues and concerns they might see. However they don't have Moderator functions available to them.

Community Moderator - Moderators can Approve posts waiting in the queue, as well as Edit, Hide, Split, and Move them around. They can see all Clubs without joining. They participate in certain Team activities. Their Inbox can hold 500 messages.

Community Manager - These members are Moderators who take care of extra duties behind the scenes. Managers can add or remove Moderators as needed. They are the ones who make decisions on adding new features, hosting, spending donated funds, etc. They respond to messages sent through Contact Us form submissions or to the Support email, and address feedback from appointed men in the congregation. Their Inbox can also hold 500 messages.

Finally, we have groups for inactive members or members facing disciplinary action. There are very few of these, but we define them using Member Groups for very important reasons. They include the following.

Former Member - A deactivated account of a person who wants it to be clear to the members and any visiting guests that they have voluntarily left the community. They can no longer read or interact with anyone. Former Members can reactivate their account in the future if they change their mind.

Restricted User - A member who caused problems and would not abide by the Community Membership Policy even after repeated admonition. They are restricted from posting anywhere or interacting with anyone, therefore they cannot give Reactions, post Status Updates, or use the Private Messenger. They can still read some of the Member forums but not the Clubs, Comfort & Support, or the Zoom forum. Basically, a soft-ban and indefinite time-out.

BANNED USER - Accounts with this label we are convinced are apostates or opposers. We consider them dangerous. They cannot see or do anything at all within the community, and we strongly discourage you from interacting with them outside our community.

We appreciate all members who help keep their eyes on what goes on in the Community and who either use the Report button or the Confidential Talk forum to bring matters to our attention. In reality, we're community moderated, self moderated discussion forum, and each one of you play a valuable part in keeping JWTalk the safest online gathering place for Jehovah's Witnesses since 2006!

Our Copyright and Image Policy Explained

Our Community Membership Policy prohibits uploading copyrighted content to the community when you do not have a license or permission to do so. This is the member's responsibility, and senior members who have earned our trust are allowed to submit content without any oversight or approval process. Since we are on an "honor system", we generally assume that such uploaded attachment is either an original work, was taken from a site that offers the content for free, or the member has a license or permission to distribute it. However, there is one particular type of content that you might sometimes see here that obviously doesn't fit this description, and thus raises the following question:

QUESTION: "We sometimes see quotations from the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses, excerpts from the New World Translation, or artwork from the literature on topics/replies at JWTalk? Does the organization endorse this?"

This is a very good question. We should start by saying that that the Branch doesn’t “endorse” any website or service that it does not manage or operate directly. To “endorse” means “to recommend, or to publicly express support or approval of." So the Branch is not going to endorse Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even JWTalk. However, we have responded to indirect email requests from the Branch to remove content, and we have removed features and made policy changes after having direct discussions regarding the community with a Branch-assigned Circuit Overseer. None of this constitutes an “endorsement”, but we are confident that when they are concerned about some facet of JWTalk or it’s community, they won’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.

Quotations and Excerpts from Literature

Some individuals have the mistaken view that you cannot quote publications or the Bible itself because it’s copyrighted. This springs from a misunderstanding of copyright laws and what they are intended to do for the copyright owner, and maybe never having heard of “fair use” laws either. We’re not going to get deep into these here, as plenty of information is available for you to research on the internet. Plus, laws may vary from country to country. So here is the simplified version:

Copyright laws say it is not okay to completely copy someone’s work. These laws make it illegal for someone completely replicate someone else’s work and redistribute it. This means you cannot reproduce an entire book, chapter, or article and share it, whether you do so by means of a copy machine, by downloading and publicly redistributing an electronic version, by typing it out on a discussion board, or even by copying it all by hand. This likewise applies to copying music and video (bootleg), or even artwork (forgery).

Fair Use laws says you can quote or take a small excerpt from a person’s work and comment on it. A quotation can be anywhere from a single sentence to a couple short paragraphs. Fair Use also allows someone to take a small portion of some other work and create something of your own based on that work. For example, a new song may momentarily use a sample from an older song or some movie dialogue. Or, while it is illegal to upload and redistribute someone else’s video, you can create an original video of yourself giving commentary or critique of the original video. Movie reviewers do this all the time.

What about uploaded images?

Images are copyrighted as well. A graphics designer could be hired to create unique logos, icons, charts and graphs just like an artist or photographer could be hired to create beautiful pictures. It would be wrong to copy these materials and redistribute them elsewhere. This is why images are included among the other products mentioned in the "Terms of Use" at JW.org and within the JW Library app, which says “You may not post on the Internet any artwork, electronic publications, trademarks, music, photos, videos, or articles from our websites.”

Because of this, we have a strict policy about not uploading any electronic publications, multimedia, or images from JW.org, JW Library, or it’s associated publications as downloadable file in our Files Library, or as an attachment to any Post or Reply within the community. We are serious about enforcing this, and if a member Reports a post to us containing such an uploaded attachment, we delete the attachment immediately and send a message to the member reminding him not to do that again.

However, we will occasionally allow screencaps or images that have been written on with a digital pen or marked up with arrows or other additional markings. A member might need such visual representation to explain something he doesn’t understand about an image, chart, or graph. Likewise, another member may find it necessary to make notes over an image or graph to help make his reply clear. Uploading screencaps or images that have been marked up in this manner falls under Fair Use and so there is no need for other members to report these to us.

What about embedded images?

Sometimes the image you see displayed is NOT actually copied and uploaded to JWTalk’s server, but has rather been embedded. Embedding is a common practice on websites, blogs, and forums. Most community software, including the software we use, has a built-in function to automatically display media when a member pastes the link into the post. For example, a user may paste a YouTube link, and it will automatically display the video’s title screen and can be played right from the post. Likewise, a user may paste an image link, and the image will automatically be embedded into the post.

Embedding images means that no copy is made on the post providing the link (the link is just HTML code pointing to the image or other material), therefore it does not give rise to liability for copyright infringement, unless your site deliberately creates the impression that you are somehow affiliated with or endorsed by the site to which you are linking. We, on the other hand, make every effort to make it clear that JWTalk.net is not an official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor are we endorsed, sponsored, or maintained by any legal entity used by Jehovah's Witnesses.

Our policy regarding the automatic embedding of images is that a member may embed ONE image only, and may only do so if embedding that image is absolutely necessary to the coherency of his post or reply. You can tell if an image has been automatically embedded or illegally uploaded to our server by either mousing over it on a PC, or by long-pressing on it with your mobile device. If a file location says it’s at “jwtalk.net/uploads” or “jwtalk.net/files” and it is infringing, then you should report it. If the file location says it’s at “jw.org” or “akamaihd.net/assets” (JW.org uses Akamai services for content distribution) then it’s not an illegal copy and you don’t have to report it to us.

Requesting Removal of your content

While the above explanation uses the example of copyrighted content from JW.org, the same principles apply to all copyrighted materials. If you are the copyright holder of content that has been submitted by a member without permission, we're pretty easygoing about addressing disputes. Please read our DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy for information about how to prepare and submit a takedown notice.

DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy

JWTalk - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community ("JWTalk") enables threaded discussions, social networking, and private messaging between registered users of the community. JWTalk is a "Service Provider" within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. § 512(k)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Accordingly, it is entitled to certain protections from claims of copyright infringement under the DMCA, commonly referred to as the “safe harbor” provisions. 

JWTalk respects the rights of copyright holders and abides by DMCA and similar regulations in other jurisdictions by responding to written notifications of alleged infringement by copyright holders. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material residing in our community. This Copyright Takedown Policy supplements, and is incorporated into, JWTalk’s Terms and Conditions, also called the “Community Membership Policy”.

What Is the DMCA?

In order to understand the DMCA and some of the policy lines it draws, it’s helpful to learn about the reasons the act was created.

Before the DMCA, an Internet-based service providers could be liable for copyright infringement in the United States just for hosting its users’ pictures, music, videos or code. This was true even if it had no actual knowledge of any infringing content. This was a problem, since even a single claim of copyright infringement can carry statutory damages of up to $150,000. With potential damages that high multiplied across millions of users, cloud-computing and user-generated content sites like YouTube, Facebook or GitHub probably never would have existed (or at least not without passing some of that cost downstream to their users).

The DMCA attempted to fix this problem by creating a so-called copyright liability “safe harbor” for service providers hosting allegedly infringing user-generated content. (See U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 512.) Essentially, so long as a service provider follows the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown rules, it won’t be liable for copyright infringement based on user-generated content.

Two types of DMCA Notices

DMCA takedown notices are used by copyright owners to ask JWTalk to take down infringing content. If someone else is using your copyrighted content in an unauthorized manner on JWTalk, you can send us a DMCA takedown notice to request that the infringing content be changed or removed. 

On the other hand, counter notices can be used to correct mistakes. Maybe the person sending the takedown notice does not hold the copyright or did not realize that you have a license or made some other mistake in their takedown notice. Since JWTalk usually cannot know if there has been a mistake, the DMCA counter notice allows you to let us know and ask that we put the content back up.

A. How It Works

JWTalk acts as a middleman. The copyright owner gives JWTalk a complaint about a user, and we pass that complaint along to the user and remove the offending content. If the user disputes the complaint, JWTalk passes that dispute back to the copyright owner, and may restore the disputed content. It is up to the parties (and their lawyers) to evaluate the merit of their claims, bearing in mind that notices must be made under penalty of perjury.

These are the basic steps of the process:

1. Copyright Owner Investigates. A copyright owner should always conduct an initial investigation to confirm both (a) that they own the copyright to an original work and (b) that the content on JWTalk is unauthorized and infringing.

2. Copyright Owner Sends a Takedown Notice. After investigating, a copyright owner prepares and sends a takedown notice to JWTalk. Assuming the takedown notice is sufficiently detailed according to the statutory requirements (detailed below), we will disable the content and notify the affected user.

3. Copyright Owner Revises or Retracts the Notice. After making changes, the copyright owner must review them and renew or revise their takedown notice if the changes are insufficient. If the copyright owner is satisfied with the changes, they do not have to do anything. JWTalk will interpret silence longer than two weeks as an implied retraction of the takedown notice.

4. User/Member May Send a Counter Notice. We encourage users who have had content disabled to consult with a lawyer about their options. If a user believes that their content was disabled because of a mistake or misidentification, they may send us a counter notice. As with the original notice, the counter notice must be sufficiently detailed (see below). If it is, we will pass the notice back to the copyright owner. If a counter notice is submitted, the user may be able to restore or reupload the disputed content.

5. Copyright Owner May File a Legal Action. If a copyright owner wishes to keep the content disabled after receiving a counter notice, they will need to initiate a legal action seeking a court order to restrain the user from engaging in infringing activity relating to the content on JWTalk. In other words, you, the member/user might get sued by the copyright owner.

B. Transparency

We believe that transparency is a virtue. The public should know what content is being removed from JWTalk and why. We will post redacted copies of any legal notices we receive (including original notices, counter notices or retractions) in an area that is publicly visible. We will not publicly publish your personal contact information; we will remove personal information (except for usernames in URLs to your public profile) before publishing notices.

Please also note that, although we will not publicly publish unredacted notices, we may provide a complete unredacted copy of any notices we receive directly to any party whose rights would be affected by it.

C. Repeated Infringement

It is the policy of JWTalk, in appropriate circumstances and in its sole discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may infringe upon the copyrights of others. We may also and at our sole discretion limit and/or terminate access to the Services of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.

D. Submitting a Copyright Takedown Notice

Filing a DMCA complaint is the start of a pre-defined legal process. Your complaint will be reviewed for accuracy, validity, and completeness. If your complaint has satisfied these requirements, we will take action on your request - which includes forwarding a full copy of your notice (including your name, address, phone and email address) to the user(s) who posted the allegedly infringing material in question. We Will Only Act on Claims That…

1. Identify the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed. The specificity of your identification will depend on the nature of the work you believe has been infringed. If you have published your work, you might be able to just link back to a web page where it lives. If it is proprietary and not published, you might describe it and explain that it is proprietary. If you have registered it with the Copyright Office, you should include the registration number. If you are alleging that the hosted content is a direct, literal copy of your work, you can also just explain that fact.

2. Identify the infringing material. It is important to be as specific as possible in your identification. This identification needs to be reasonably sufficient to permit JWTalk to locate the material on our website. At a minimum, this means that you should include the URL to the material allegedly infringing your copyright.

3. Provide your contact information. Include your email address, name, telephone number and physical address.

4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law.”

5. Also include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”

6. Include your signature. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.

You may send your Copyright Takedown Notice to support@jwtalk.net and we will respond promptly.

E. Requesting a Retraction

If you believe that the materials reported in the copyright complaints were misidentified or removed in error, you may send us a counter-notification(s). A counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and it has legal consequences. Alternatively, you may be able to contact the reporter directly and ask for a retraction of the copyright complaint from. The reporter can send retractions to support@jwtalk.net and should include identification of the material that was disabled, and a statement that the reporter would like to retract their DMCA notice. This is the fastest and most efficient means of resolving an unresolved copyright complaint. A retraction is at the sole discretion of the original reporter.

F. Submitting a Counter-Notice

You may file a counter-notice if you believe that this material was misidentified, or you have a good faith belief that the material should not have been removed.  If you’re unsure whether or not you should file a counter-notice, you may want to consult with an attorney, because a counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and is the start of a legal process that has legal consequences.  Submitting a counter notice indicates that you consent to the jurisdiction of a U.S. Federal court and that you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to the reporter, who may use this information to sue you for copyright infringement in a court of law.

If you receive a DMCA Takedown Notice for a copyright violation, we will send you a Private Message (PM) and an email detailing how to exercise these options if you disagree with us disabling the disputed content.

Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed the original notice. This means that the contact information that is submitted in your counter-notice will be shared to the person who filed the original notice. 

If the copyright owner disagrees that the content was removed in error or misidentification, they may pursue legal action against you.  If we do not receive notice within 10-14 business days that the original reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material at issue, we may replace or cease disabling access to the material that was removed.

We cannot offer any legal advice. Should you have questions, please consult an attorney.

JWTalk Community Forums - How Do We Stay Organized?

JWTalk is an internet forum, commonly called a discussion board. We're an online community where brothers and sisters can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Discussion boards differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are permanently archived and available for reading.

A discussion board like JWTalk has a tree-like structure of forums and sub-forums that are designed to categorize various topics of discussion. Simply stated, a topic is a single conversation also referred to as a thread, and a forum is a folder or container for similar topics that fall within a certain category. Each new discussion someone starts is called a topic/thread and can be replied to by as many people as so wish. Participant have to register with JWTalk and subsequently log in to post messages. However, on most of our forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages. Most of our forums are publicly visible, while just a few of them are members only.

Forums predate modern Social Media by decades. Modern social media is like micro-blogging, focusing on the individual, making small, usually impulsive comments, with no regard for or method to categorize the comments. Social Media also affords less privacy. It only takes a few clicks to discover your interests and leanings, which area you live in and more. Forums on the other hand allow you to be relatively anonymous. Forums are much better suited for richer, long form discussions. A typical forum thread it will include a number of participants and often incorporates rich media (e.g. videos, pictures, polls, and more), and has tools better suited for responding and replying to people.

The popularity of Social Media has impacted discussion boards in that new members to internet forums often don't think about how the various forums in the community act as categorizations for discussion topics. So in this post and the ones that follow, we hope to give some helpful explanation as to how we categorize threads here at JWTalk, so that when you decide to start a new topic for discussion, you will have a better understanding as to which forum you should post your topic.

Please continue reading to get a better idea of which topics belong in which forums...

Encouragement for the Worldwide Brotherhood

This forum description reads: "A public forum for items of interest to all of Jehovah's people who visit our site as guests, such as new audio & video content on JW.org, poetry, illustrations, and non-firsthand experiences that you feel compelled to share. (Publicly Visible)"

It's called "Encouragement for the Worldwide Brotherhood" for several reasons. This forum is publicly visible to unregistered guests visiting our community, so it is literally available to the whole association of brothers around the world. Therefore, it can be used to start topics of discussion when new audio and video material become available to the public on JW.org. In addition, some members like to share encouraging poetry and experiences that have been passed to them from other sources, and they in turn would like to share it here with their brothers and sisters.

What shouldn't be posted in Worldwide Brotherhood? If a field ministry experience is a personal one, then it should be shared to the Our Meetings, Our Ministry, and Our Life as a Christian forum which is visible to members only. Likewise, discussions about literature that we are currently considering at our meetings, such as the Watchtower lesson for the week, the weekly Bible reading, and the book we're considering at the Congregation Book Study should also go in the "Our Meetings" forum. Don't post news journalism from JW.org here, as we have a separate forum for JW News. Please check if another forum is a better fit for your topic of discussion.

Our Meetings, Our Ministry, and Our Life as a Christian

This forum description reads: "A private forum for registered members only to discuss anything related to our lives as Jehovah's people, including our meetings, the field ministry, personal achievements and experiences. (Members Only)"

The title of this forum is clear. Anything that has to do with our gatherings, whether it is at the local congregation or at an assembly, most likely should be discussed in this forum. Also anything related to our ministry, such as personal field ministry experiences, help with how to answer a Bible student's questions, pioneering, etc. Organizational arrangements, such as supporting the LDC, making donations, and theocratic appointments, are topics that would belong in this forum. Discussions about maintaining our integrity regarding medical challenges, political neutrality, and peace and unity in the congregation are also fitting for this forum.

What shouldn't be posted in Our Meetings & Ministry? Non-firsthand experiences that you cannot verify but are encouraging nonetheless should go in the "Encouragement for the Worldwide Brotherhood" forum. Personal struggles that are impacting your emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental health and well-being should get posted in "Comfort, Consolation, Support, & Recovery". Technical questions on how to use JW Library or Watchtower Library on your device should go in "Computers, Tablets, Mobile Devices, & Apps".

Bible Research, Personal Study, and Scriptural Discussion

This forum description reads: "A private forum for discussing the Bible, our literature and current understandings, and gems from your personal study and research. This is a theocratic forum for building faith in God's Word and trust in his faithful and discreet slave. (Members Only)"

This forum is for those who like to dig into the scriptures and share the fruits of their personal study or family worship with their brothers and sisters. It is also okay to ask for assistance in understanding difficult passages, Bible prophecy, or our current understandings and teachings. Your topic should start with the valuable information you have already covered, and not be just a means of asking silly questions or having other community members do your homework for you. Your purpose in starting a topic in this forum should be to share the results of your personal in-depth bible study and why you think it was beneficial to dig into that topic and why you think it's of value to others on JWTalk, or to request assistance on getting a satisfying answer to something you have been studying deeply but are still having difficulty in understanding fully.

What should not go in Deep Research? Do not post curious questions and elementary musings in Deep Research, especially regarding questions that the bible doesn't answer or speculations that we cannot prove scripturally. Please don't ask for help answering a question without FIRST visiting JW.org and the Watchtower Online Library and trying to find the answer yourself. Instead, start a discussion using what you've already learned, and then together we can appreciate and expand on that.

Comfort, Consolation, Support & Recovery

This forum description reads: "A private forum for discussing personal health issues. Talking about your problems can help you deal with your feelings. You are not alone. Discuss personal spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental health issues in here. (Members Only)"

This forum is where we can discuss issues that we are struggling with that is negatively impacting our personal health and well-being. This could be a physical or mental condition, sickness, or disease. Personal health and well-being can also relate to how you are feeling emotionally over a situation that is perhaps taxing your spirituality, your meeting attendance, and the quality of your prayers. Since we discuss very personal sensitive issues in this forum, we only allow Full Access members to view these discussions, as well as an occasional Limited Access User if we see fit.

What should not go in Comfort & Support? Generally speaking, issues that are not your own, such as a difficulty your Bible student is having, which would be better suited for "Our Ministry, Our Meetings, and Life as a Christian", as would struggling to grasp a Bible teaching or Witness stance on matter. Any poetry should go in "Encouragement for the Worldwide Brotherhood". Remember that the Staff will move posts to the appropriate forum.

Introduce Yourself and Welcome One Another

The forum description reads: "A members only forum where you can introduce yourself to the rest of the community, as well as get to know your brothers and sisters from all around the world here on JWTalk Forums. (Members Only)"

This is fairly obvious. We love to get to know our brothers and sisters from all around the world, so when you join JWTalk, or shortly thereafter, take the time to introduce yourself to the community. We're eager to learn about you and why you have made the truth your own.

JW.org Press Releases & Other JW Related Articles

The forum description reads: "A public forum for sharing news about Jehovah's Witnesses from JW.org as well as other media sources who report POSITIVE information that we all love to hear and share with our brothers and sisters. (Publicly Visible)"

That should be descriptive enough. This forum is for sharing positive news reports from secular sources about Jehovah's organization and his people worldwide, especially those that give a good witness. Articles from the newsroom at JW.org should be shared and discussed here.

What should not be posted to JW News? We will not entertain apostate propaganda in the news media here, so negative journalism regarding Jehovah's people should not be shared.

Secular News in the Mainstream Media

The forum description reads: "A public forum for discussing secular news from around the world, whether the mainstream media is in the form of articles or videos. Please remember to link to the source. (Publicly Visible)"

This forum is for discussion current news and events from around the world that you obtained from reliable mainstream news outlets. Remember that our News forums are public, and so we want to be giving a good witness and maintaining our nuetrality in our comments in such topics.

What doesn't belong in Secular News? News from alternative sources, such as heavily biases outlets and not-so-trustworthy sources, "fake news" etc. Watch out for op-ed pieces and independent blogs that pass themselves off as news as well.

Alternative News from Offbeat Sources & Sensitive Topics

The forum description reads: "A private forum for unsubstantiated 'news' stories and opinion pieces from alternative journalistic-like articles and videos produced by bloggers and commentators that they promote on their 'alternative' media and 'independent' news sites. This is also where we might move more sensitive subjects. (Members Only)"

This forum is for discussing news topics that are not reported in mainstream outlets but can only be found at alternative "news" sources, and if you don't trust the mainstream media then you'll probably want to post your news here. This forum is private, and so in addition to having a place available for those who are disposed towards a conspiracy-theorist mentality, whether slightly or embarrassingly, we sometimes move topics for discussion that are very sensitive in nature here as well.

What does not go in the Alt.News forum? Mainstream news, or JW News that would be encouraging to a larger, worldwide audience. These other news categories have their own dedicated forums.

The following Hobbies & Special Interest forums are VERY self-explanatory (Publicly Visible):

Computers, Tablets, Mobile Devices, & Apps is a publicly visible forum for discussing computers and mobile technology of all sorts, including how to use our official JW apps & software.

Book, Movies, TV, YouTube, Music, & Theater is a forum for discussing Arts & Entertainment.

A Banquet of Well-Oiled Dishes is a forum for discussing food, beverages, diets, recipes, dining in, and dining out.

Forum Games, Riddles, & Trivia (Publicly Visible)

Forum Games, Riddles, & Trivia is for turn based forum games. Moderated Users cannot participate here because most of these games are turn-based games and played in real time, and by the time a Staff member gets around to approving a Limited Access Users post, several other Full Access Users may have already taken a turn.

What should not be posted in Forum Games? Jokes or anything that isn't a game/riddle/puzzle that is time sensitive or depends on players taking turns.

General Discussion & Everyday Chit Chat (Publicly Visible)

General Discussion & Everyday Chit Chat is a forum for anything that doesn't already have a forum. The forum description reads "The "everything else" hangout lounge - A public forum for discussing personal interests, ask questions, post jokes & silly stuff, or anything else that doesn't fit have a dedicated forum. This is our off-topic general discussion area here at JWTalk. (Publicly Visible)" 

What shouldn't go in the General Discussion forum? Anything theocratic. All theocratic topics will be well suited for one of our Jehovah's Witness Discussion Forums. Also, don't flood this forum with several posts about the same subject matter. You may want to consider forming and moderating your own club if you have a particular passion for a certain topic.

Clubs

(Deprecated )

The Clubs feature has been removed, and previous clubs have been converted into subforums.

Community Organization & Site Development

Member Support & Community Feedback (Members Only) is for discussion site suggestions, ideas for new features, or to report bugs and other technical issues with using the site.

Confidential Talk with the Moderators (Private) is a forum where only you and the moderators can see the topic you start. We encourage you to use this to discuss concerns you have about the community that you want to bring to our attention. This is also where you would request account deactivation or reactivation if you should decide to return.

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.

Uploading a profile photo (also known as an avatar on forums and social media) is actually quite simple using your PC. At the top right hand corner of any page on JWTalk you will see your current photo and Display Name. Click that photo and you will be taken to your public profile page. In fact, you can click on anyone's photo, including your own, to visit a person's public profile page.

When you get to your profile page, your current photo will be displayed towards the left of the cover image, and there will be a little grey icon on the bottom left hand side of your profile photo. Click that icon and you will see a pop-up window with several options for setting your photo.

The following video explains how to add a picture/avatar to your JWTalk account. You have your choice of 1) uploading a photo, 2) grabbing one off the web using a URL, or 3) using your Gravatar account*. Watch the tutorial now...

* Gravatar support has been removed. Also, while we've changed the appearance of our community, the basic functions are the same.

On mobile, the process is very similar. You will click the Menu on the upper right hand corner, then choose Account, and then choose Profile. The little gray icon will be to the left of the cover photo even though your current picture is centered. Click that icon to upload a photo, and then choose the appropriate app on your mobile device to do so.

This is where some mobile users have some difficulty, as not all apps on your device will be user-friendly or cooperative. I know on Android, Files by Google works the best. I'm not sure about Apple devices. If you are having touble, a Staff member will be happy to help you. 

The community feels closer and more enjoyable when we can put a face to the name, and so we look forward to you uploading your profile picture here in our Jehovah's Witnesses online community

Can everybody see my real name and email address on my profile page?

No, absolutely not. Rest assured that only you as well as the JWTalk Staff can see that information. Even though we can see it when we look at our own profile pages, your real name, location, email address, as well as the congregation you attend is hidden from the rest of the community members as well as from guests and search engines that may also visit your profile. Your personally identifiable information is safe and secure, unless you choose to share such personally identifiable information with others on your own.

What if I want to display my actual full name to everyone?

Then you may type out your full name in the first-name-only field of your profile. Whatever you type in the first-name-only field will show not only in your public profile, but also on every post you make in the community.

Of course, we provide this first-name-only field for those interested in protecting their privacy online. While other social networks require you to display your full legal name, we won't. Here on JWTalk we have usernames and are on a first name basis only.

Can I share my email address with others?

You may share your email address through private messages with other forum members, but you may not display your email address in your profile, nor may you publish your email address on a post or status update.

Please remember that we discourage the exchange of personal contact information because while we work diligently to try and make sure that only real active Jehovah's Witnesses join our Jehovah's Witnesses community, non-witnesses still manage to get past our registration hurdles from time to time. Using the internal private messaging system (which does send an email to the recipient) is much much safer. If you are harassed by another member via the internal private messaging system, we can investigate the matter and perhaps take action to keep the JWTalk community clean.

Welcome to the JWTalk online community for Jehovah's Witnesses

JWTalk is an independent online community for Jehovah’s Witnesses managed by a number of brothers and sisters from all around the world. Since 2006, the goal of JWTalk has been to provide a place online where Jehovah’s Witnesses could have quality discussions among themselves without the nuisance of those opposed to our organization or Bible truths. 

We have a wonderful team of administrators, moderators, and assistants who diligently strive to keep unqualified individuals out, as well as keep the peace within the discussion topics. An approved membership is required to participate in any of the topics for discussion. We understand that there can be some apprehension about filling out the registration form and not really knowing who is inside or what is being discussed, but you can get a general idea by visiting the publicly visible areas of the community. The Encouragement forum, the JW News forums, and all of the Leisure Activities & Special Interests forums can be read and enjoyed without being a member. JWTalk is the real deal - the oldest and largest online community of Jehovah's Witnesses on the internet.

Please understand we are an unofficial website and not endorsed by the Faithful and Discreet Slave. They encourage you to use caution when registering and reading discussions on any website or social network. We agree with this, so please take the time to read the following pages as well…

• Question Box – What are the dangers of using the internet to socialize with people we do not know?
• JWTalk Frequently Asked Questions
• JWTalk Community Membership Policy

New member registrations are held in queue until approved by an administrator – meaning that even after you register you will not have immediate access to the community. Upon approval, if you look around and decide that it is not for you, there is a method to deactivate your account and ensure you no longer receive any email notifications from the site. New users who have never posted and have not returned or logged in for over 6 months are periodically removed.

There are very few discussion boards on the internet that cater to Jehovah’s people, and all of them are quite secretive and are referral only. Brothers and sisters regularly go online looking for others in Jehovah's organization to meet and enjoy good association with, and quite often stumble upon apostate sites and opposers of Bible truth. The presence of such individuals online is enormous. The Staff at JWTalk firmly believe that our dear brothers and sisters should be able to find a favorable place online that is safe and enjoyable, and we strive to be just that site.

- Your brothers and sisters at JWTalk

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…
 

Quote

(Sept 2002 KM)
Internet Web Sites: We have an official Internet Web site: www.watchtower.org. This site is adequate to make information available to the public. There is no need for any individual, committee, or congregation to prepare a Web page about Jehovah’s Witnesses. 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. 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. While some may view this as a service to the brothers, it is not approved and should be discontinued.

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.