Sharing techie things with our brotherhood.
Web site and all contents copyright © 2002-2008
Answers to some questions we have received regarding our site.
We have received a few — not many — negative messages with certain questions about various aspects of our site; such as who we are, why are hosting this site, etc. Since our time is limited for answering personal messages, this page will serve as our answers. Any messages received of a like nature will be redirected to this page without comment.
1) Our site is not a business. Everything available from our download center is free. Our Illustrations Library does rely on a commercial program, much like Microsoft Word is needed to open and edit a document created using that particular software program. Other than that, there's no necessity to spend money for our materials. Nor do we solicit or accept monies for the costs of keeping the site open. If it becomes too expensive we will simply shut down.
2) Our privacy. We have very deliberately chosen not to post our names, congregation names and other personal information about us on this site. Also, we do not answer email messages asking for this information. We have taken steps to ensure that the domain name does not have any personal data associated with it. One or two visitors have taken offense at this and have written messages attacking our decision using demeaning language. We are not offended at their attitude but remain adamant that our privacy is a personal choice. If it bothers someone that we are unwilling to respond to their questions, then they should not use our site. It's really that simple.
3) Theocratic guidelines. We have received a couple of messages from visitors who evidently felt it their duty to admonish and/or counsel us that our site is operated beyond theocratic guidelines. If we felt that such was true, we would not have started this site, much less keep it open for as long as we have.
We have read and closely analyzed everything published about individual Jehovah's Witnesses creating and operating web sites. We feel that we are not violating any counsel or admonition that has been put in writing for all of Jehovah's Witnesses to read.
We believe that operating a site such as this one is a personal decision well within the framework of Bible trained consciences.
A few negative opinions will not cause us to close the site. Neither do our opinions govern our visitors' decisions about our site. Each visitor is free to judge the site based on its contents and either avail themselves of our materials or not, as they see fit. We harbor no ill will toward anyone who decides not to use what we make available.
Counsel has been published that there is "no need" for individual Jehovah's Witnesses to prepare and manage web sites with content discussing what Jehovah's Witnesses teach and believe. The Watchtower Society's primary site (and other sites) are sufficient for those in the public who want to learn what Jehovah's Witnesses believe.
We concur with that position and do not discuss doctrine nor newsworthy happenings among God's people. We also will not post links to sites that do. Some sites that do have materials regarding such matters have linked to us. We are not responsible for the content of other sites, not do we solicit such links.
4) Objectionable content: If you find a link that is objectionable, please let us know. Sometimes brothers use free services that "push" advertisements onto their page. Occasionally, we have removed links due to the contents of such advertisements. We try hard to keep our site free of any controversy.
5) Popularity. Having said all the above, our site remains one of the most popular of all web sites in existence and continues to climb in the ratings. In the past 18 months, our site has served up approximately 450,000 downloads consuming hundreds of gigabytes of disk space. We have received numerous compliments and thank you messages. Based on the positive results, we plan to continue operations. We have more projects planned and we think the vast majority of our visitors will be pleased.
— Your brothers at Theoshare.Com
Sharing techie things with our brotherhood.
Web site and all contents copyright © 2002-2008
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The Download Center a full-featured downloading system, provides a centralized location for obtaining our materials. It also offers the capability of leaving comments and/or recommending files to a friend.
