Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses/Archive 3

"Jehovah's Witnesses literature" recommendation
I recommend that 1971's "Aid to Bible Understanding" not be included since it was replaced by "Insight On the Scriptures" as the encyclopedic reference work used by Jehovah's Witnesses and does not appear in their Watchtower Library CD.

Also, six articles in the 1988 English-language edition of the Insight volumes - Destruction, Gomorrah, Judgment Day, Repentance, Resurrection, and Sodom - were written prior to the current view regarding the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. That view appears in "Questions From Readers" in The Watchtower of Jume 1, 1988, pages 30-31, and implies that those people are not to be resurrected.

This resulted in a 1989 revision of 1982's "You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth," in Chapter 21, pages 178-180 (paragraphs 8-11, including the picture on page 178). Although the Live Forever book was replaced in 1995 by "Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life," it still appears on the CD and is still readily available. Additionally, all foreign-language editions of the Insight volumes, which were written after 1988, reflect this view. For whatever reason, the English-language print and CD editions have *not* been revised. Please be aware of that when you compile your information.


 * Aid to Bible Understanding should definitely be highlighted as one of the Society's most important publications. Insight is based upon it, and its (very brief) article basically says as much. Insight is only notable as the version of Aid currently-in-use. All the pertinent information on the development of the text is in the Aid article. --PopeFauveXXIII 08:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Doctrines and Practices merger
A while ago a merged Doctrines and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses page was created. I recently nominated it for deletion, as it had had only a handful of edits since it had been made and normal editing had continued on the articles which were to be merged into it. The result was KEEP, so I think that all the relevant information should be merged into the single article, then the other pages should be redirected after the "what links here" for each of the two pages have been changed. BenC7 05:01, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I totally agree. (I'm a little biased though.) So, lets get to the hard work of merging it. I think I'll definitely work on tackling this very soon. And of course, if someone else gets to it before me, all the better. josh buddy, talk 08:52, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I have just noticed that there is an almost identical page, albeit with some extra sections: Beliefs and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is more detailed in some parts, although that is not necessarily a good thing (considering its length). I think we need to come to a decision about which one is going to be used. Personally I think 'beliefs' is better than 'doctrines' for an article title. BenC7 02:03, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I trust your best judgment. I agree that beliefs is better than doctrines. josh buddy, talk 02:47, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

The beliefs-and-practices one seems to be a bit more refined; we can use that one as a starting point. BenC7 01:16, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Religion
The group indicated above was recently revitalized for, among other things, the purpose of working on those articles whose content is such that the article does not fall within the scope of any particular denomination. To most effectively do this, however, we would benefit greatly if there were at least one member from this Project working on those articles. On that basis, I would encourage and welcome any member of this Project willing to work on those articles to join the Religion WikiProject. Thank you. Badbilltucker 14:49, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Jesus nominated for Article Improvement Drive
I recently found that our article on Jesus is the first page that appears when anyone does a Google search of the subject. It is currently, regrettably, only at GA status. On that basis, I would request any individuals who might be interested in helping to bring this article up to FA status to indicate their support for the article being chosen as the AID article at Article Creation and Improvement Drive. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 18:02, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses and Practices of Jehovah's Witnesses pages
The above pages have been redirected to Beliefs and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses. Archives of these pages are kept as sub-pages of the Wikiproject Jehovah's Witnesses page, and may be of use to some editors. They can be found at WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses/Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses and WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses/Practices of Jehovah's Witnesses. --BenC7 02:35, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Removing 279 reexamine.info links for copyright reasons
There are presently 279 reexamine.info links on the English language Wikipedia spread across a range of Jehovah's Witnesses-related articles. Perhaps 80 to 100 are in the Early Publications of Jehovah's Witnesses article which has now been nominated for deletion:
 * Articles for deletion/Early Publications of Jehovah's Witnesses.

See this discussion on the talk page for the WikiMedia Foundation's spam blacklist:
 * m:Talk:Spam blacklist
 * That page is frequently archived; so here's a permanent link if the discussion above has been archived

The Foundation has apparently received a complaint that we are linking to a site that infringes others' copyrights. Our External Links Guideline and our Copyright Policy spell out that we want to avoid such links. With good reason, Wikipedia is extremely sensitive to copyright issues -- Wikipedia has very shallow pockets and the legal costs of a few big lawsuits could really damage it financially even if the Wikimedia Foundation eventually won.

reexamine.info links have been proposed for blacklisting. (Note: it's called the "spam blacklist" but links are added to it for other reasons as well: personal attack sites, copyright issues, etc.) Once blacklisted, pages containing that link can no longer be edited until the link is removed. Blacklisting normally occurs within a few days of a request, so reexamine.info could be blacklisted any time.

Link removal is about copyright in this case and should not be construed as Wikipedia taking sides in any controversy between the parties involved.

I'm not an admin just a volunteer (among others) who monitors spam blacklist discussions and then cleans up blacklisted links. Since link deletions are always touchy when they involve matters of faith, I wanted to post this note here. I'm just the messenger and not in charge.

I expect that some of these links are not important while others may be important citations for some articles, so this is not just a copyright issue -- it also raises 200+ separate editorial decisions to make as to whether and how to replace these links.

I suggest that WP:WPJW volunteers begin acting on these links now before blacklisting. Should the links be blacklisted before then and you find a page impossible to edit, just delete the link and then you can save the page.

If you want me to help with link removal, let me know. --A. B. (talk) 18:49, 1 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I second the above. The links need to be removed as a matter of some urgency.  I have some AWB regular expressions which will allow me to do that if that would help.  Guy (Help!) 19:39, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
 * At the moment the site is "Closed for Maintenance" and none of the links work. DGG 00:14, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for explaining what is going on and I understand the need to remove the links. Is there any way to find out who lodged the complaint? Dtbrown 01:59, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The owner of one of the copyright works linked. Not, I think, the editorial staff of Watchtower, although it could be one acting under their own private identity.  Sorry, I can't give the name, for obvious reasons. Guy (Help!) 22:20, 2 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I've removed quite a few of the links. Is there a way to get an updated list of links needing to be removed? Dtbrown 03:37, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Click this link to get the current list:
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Linksearch&target=www.reexamine.info&limit=500&offset=0
 * I've had some major stuff come up off-Wikipedia, so I'm sorry I'm not available to help. --A. B. (talk) 19:51, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Article "Jehovah" revived
Hi, I have revived the article "Jehovah" which had been redirected to Tetragrammaton. I suggest it be made part of wikiproject Jehovahs witnesses. Ice9Tea 00:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
 * done. PopeFauveXXIII 21:51, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

New project proposal
There is a new WikiProject task force proposal at WikiProject Council/Proposals that is being proposed to deal specifically with articles whose content relates to several religious traditions. Any editors interested in joining such a group would be more than welcome to indicate their interest there. John Carter 15:09, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Userbox and Link to Religious Wikipedians Category
I have created a userbox for people who wish to identify themselves as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. I have also linked it into the Wikipedians by Religion category, for decent indexing and to aid in finding users with the same belief, as it now lists 'Jehovah's Witness Wikipedians' in Category:Wikipedians by religion:

You can see what it look like Here.

I have since noticed a different userbox using the Tetragrammaton. No competition was intended. I had not realized there was one in circulation until I found this WikiProject page! (after creating my userbox) ~ Joseph C 19:10, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Psalm 83:18 for deletion
Psalm 83:18 is nominated for deletion. This is an important psalm to Jehovah's Witnesses, so maybe you may be interested in saving it. A bbo tt 7 5 ☺ 23:16, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

What "stories" of the Bible qualify for separate articles?
There has recently been some discussion regarding which "stories" or portions of the Bible merit having their own articles. For the purposes of centralized discussion, please make any comments at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Bible. Thank you. John Carter 13:43, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Legal instruments of Jehovah's Witnesses AfD
Legal instruments of Jehovah's Witnesses has been nominated for deletion on the grounds of its directory and promotional nature. Go to Articles for deletion/Legal instruments of Jehovah's Witnesses if you are interested in taking part in this debate.KTo288 09:52, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Jehovah's Witnesses and governments
I have proposed a merger of Jehovah's Witnesses and governments with Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses or Jehovah's Witnesses and civil liberties. Please express your opinions at Talk:Jehovah's Witnesses and governments. --Richard 19:06, 29 October 2007 (UTC)