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.

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

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) Plagiarism: Please post your personal genuine human perspectives, experiences, and emotions. Impersonal and/or synthesized content can stifle and even erode meaningful conversation. We expect all Topics and Replies to contain your personal commentary. Do not spam the forums with A.I. generated content as doing so is contrary to purpose of our JWTalk Community. See the JWTalk Guidlines on A.I. Usage Policy for more details.

5) 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.

6) 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.

7) 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.