Possible New Recruits - their Blogs and Sites

[Que]

Episode # 2

RW's Google ad still shows on the HistoryKids page. Sorry I don't know if it has been reported.

This is the latest email exchange :-
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Hello
We are sorry to write again so soon, and are hoping you could possibly reconsider based on the experience we have with this destructive cult.
Please have a look at this page of depressing information about children in their 'church' :-
http://weinlandwatch.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/children-and-the-church-and-the-culture-of-death/

This sentence is particularly relevant, "The majority of new recruits to the church in recent months seem to be coming directly via the Internet, thanks in no small part to Weinland spending money to keep his book ads ranked the highest in Google ad searches."
and this one :-
"Combine all of this with the fact that Weinland believes ... that he’s going to die in 3.5 years, and please, please, if you or your loved ones are members in this church, ... or if you suspect your child has joined this church over the Internet please consider the following: [list of bullet points]"
"When you think about it objectively though, are any of the above quotes things that should be drilled into the heads of children?"

(Perhaps there are quite a lot of visitors to your site who aren't subscribers, and who see all the advertisements.)

Also this page :-
http://weinlandwatch.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/this-just-in-your-march-22-sermon-summary/
"There are too many children in this church. Too many by far!"

We are hoping that a complaint to Google would be effective.  They might be able to adjust their system so that the advertisements for the cult don't appear on your site.
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I'm sorry, but here at Kidipede we don't judge other people's faiths;  we try to treat them all equally. In my experience, books are not dangerous, but banning them is.
Karen Carr
Kidipede - History for Kids
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Who else noticed that I didn't say anything about books being banned ?!  It's the advert we don't like being on a site for children !
Surely it's up to adults to protect children from influences that they aren't ready for yet, and probably won't understand.

Does anybody know if the Google company can be approached directly about inappropriate ad placements?  If so, is there an address or contact details?  Thanks.
[/list]

[PurpleHymnal]

Other people's faiths??

Are you sure HistoryKids is a reputable site? It might very well be a shell for the church, given the respondent's attitude.......Yeah, that bit about "banning books" is very very very iffy --- that is not what any of us are suggesting at all (I can remember a few SF books I read on the sly when I was a kid in the church, that WOULD have been banned, for sure, if they had had the first clue what I was reading!)

You want to be absolutely certain about HistoryKids provenance, check what it says about Assyria. That will tell you for certain.

[Mike (Ekimks)]

Does anybody know if the Google company can be approached directly about inappropriate ad placements?

If you installed Adsense on your site, you'll get what ever ads are served up by the robot according to your content and the advertiser's Ad Words.  However, you are not without options,  providing you're the webmaster.

Competitive Ad Filter

Google AdSense provides the functionality to block specific ads from appearing on your pages. Although Google ads are highly targeted to the content of your page, there may be situations in which you don't want to display particular advertisements -­ for example, you may wish to block ads leading to competitors' sites

Try this link for more information.

[Slother30]

To Slother29
It is good to hear from you 
Hopefully you weren't too concerned about your personal details being repeated in a public forum.
We are glad to see that you are no longer a follower of RW. We have lots of evidence in these forums and websites that he is a false prophet.
[To other readers -- Slother29 has a list of links to the other forums and sites.]

About the idea that there will be a prophet among us, this is what I wrote in another thread in the forum :-
-------------------------
"Maybe I am naive, but I have always thought that a true prophet and his flock would behave much like Jesus was reported to behave.  For example: calm, patient, understanding, very forgiving, very quick to help the poor and injured, and assertive when necessary - but not aggressive."
-------------------------
I guess another excellent indication of a true prophet would be that all the predictions come true !!

The way to spot a false prophet, according to Matthew 7:15-20, is "You will know them by their 'fruits'." Meaning that actions or comments would conflict with what is written in the Bible (especially the NT), and they would do things like threaten their critics and mockers with very slow deaths (like RW did!).
-------------------------
"...It seems to me that those threats cannot be inspired by a place like Heaven."
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About the 'CT' thing, I'm not an expert, but I think it might stand for clinical therapy.
[Could somebody correct me if I'm wrong, thanks!]
You might already know but therapy is nothing to be afraid of -- the sessions can be very helpful.
For example, they can help with any issues that might be concerning you;
...and also help with further developing your relationship skills.

Hope all that helps...
-- Peter (aka Stones).

it may be my illness talking but i have been making predictions that all have been coming true. and i can only make them when i am ill. it is scary. but when i was 17, i asked God for a sign that he existed and he moved the clouds above my head into a face that looked like a picture of jesus. the idea that Ronald W is a prophet was a comfort at first because i promised god that if i did not find the Two witnesses i would take on the job for him myself all i needed was to find the other wittness and then i started my 1260 day countdown, on september 1 2005.  i then at the time was seeing some serious **** happen. i know now it was my illness making things happen.  but i made a prediction in the previous month that Gas prices in canada would go up to 2.25 a liter in a short time. (just one of the predictions) and now they are saying that that will happen by 2012. to make a long story short, i felt before the 17th of April, that Ronald W, would point me out as the other witness. i lost faith in him when he said it was his wife.

if you want to learn more about my "delusions of being a witness" please look at part 1 of my red blog
http://ryanharrison.blogspot.com/2007/01/my-past-part-1.html (Url re-added by Slother29 after deleting it)
i wrote it when i was between medications, after a med change. the other parts i wrote when i was gradually becoming more stable.

i did not mind that you wrote about my other obsession. (the one that you deleted from your orignal post and my quote) it is just that i needed some one to care and listen when i make predictions about such matters. 

sorry to get off topic, but i just needed someone to listen, because i felt and predicted that nobody would listen as well.

[Que]

To Slother29 :
Thanks for your reply. We have all been listening ...    I will be sending an email in a day or two.

To PurpleHymnal & Ekimks (Mike) :
I have had a look at the Assyrian pages:  http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/assyrians.htm
and they look like straight history to me without any religious spin.
But I could be wrong! It has been known to happen occasionally ...
The 'About' pages look to be very honest as well:  http://www.historyforkids.org/abouth4k.htm

It seems we might have found a problem with the Google's Adsense system. Whenever you use one of RW's keywords on an Adsense enabled site the Google robot will eventually find it, and one of his ads will then be inserted on the page -- even if there is a chance that the ad will be inappropriate given the intended audience of the site.  It is up to the site owner or programmer/webmaster to install Google's Ad Filter which will allow them to block any offending ads. (Convincing the site owner that there is a problem would seem to be a bigger problem!)  It makes me wonder how many other sites have similar issues with Adsense.  Also, if new content is added to a site, it would have to be checked again to make sure that there aren't any new words that the advertisers like more than we do.

[PurpleHymnal]

Hmmm OK but that suggests the HistoryKids site does NOT have the AdSense filter installed --- you would think they would, given that it's a children's site!

Any chance you could persuade Karen Carr of that, or does she still think you're pushing for censorship?

I'll bet you any money "Karen Carr" is a member of a closed high-demand group too. Thus her immediate overreaction to your suggestion being censorship and "book banning". Just something to keep in mind.

Is there anybody higher-up at the HistoryKids site you can contact? President of the company, VP, etc? If push comes to shove, take it to the ISP, if you can't get any satisfaction from the admins of the site.

[Que]

Episode # 3

GOOD NEWS !!  I believe we/I have had some success!
The offending RW advert is no longer showing on this page: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/religion/christians/constantine.htm
or this page: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/religion/christians/christianity.htm

Our thanks must go to the dewahost.com web hosting company.

Here is the latest website/email exchange :-
--------------------
Hello
I am writing on behalf of the users at an Internet forum. We are very concerned that one of your clients, Kidipede, is allowing inappropriate Google adverts. to be displayed on pages intended for children.

In particular, this is one page we have found :-
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/religion/christians/constantine.htm
The advert. is for "2008: God's Final Witness". The text reads, "Unprecedented destruction will come in 2008, leading to America's fall". The site shown allows the user to download a free book which is likely to be damaging and upsetting to children. The writer has been proved (many times) to be a false prophet, and he is ruining the lives of his followers.

We are aware that Kidipede could install Google software called Ad Filter which will allow them to block any offending Google adverts.

Is there any possibility that you could help us with our concerns? So far, the site owner has not been helpful. Thank you very much for any assistance.
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Peter,
I cannot see any such advertisement from the site. I have loaded an advertisement for car insurance (inappropriate for children I might add, not not offensive).

In the event that we can repeat the scenario you are concerned about, you'll still have to give us some time to get back to you on the issue. I can assure you that if the problem was some adult material or blatantly offensive material (that is against the dewahost policy) being displayed on a children's site, I would take immediate action. However, [in this case] we might have to defer to the rights of the site owners.

Thank you for your patience in this matter. If you're interested, here are our Terms of Service, for all sites (children or not):
http://dewahost.com/terms.html

Sincerely,
Gavin Rogers

http://www.dewahost.com
Business Class Web Hosting
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[PurpleHymnal]

Excellent news! I wonder if Kidipede finally set the AdFilter, or if dewahost had a word with them?

[Que]

There still appears to be some new people reading RW's books. Probably via the Google ads. However, other people are advising them not to follow RW.
Here is one example from Answerway.com :-

Question Details                 Asked By          Asked On
2008 - God's Final Witness    Ch.Petrus.82    05/30/08

      What's this Ronald Weinland guy all about then?

      I have read his books and would value your opinions.

      Pete

Answered By    Answered On
arcura               05/31/08
Ronald Weinland is a self claimed prophet with a numerous following.
However, he left the World Church of God to form his own break away sect in doing so.
The WCOG believes that he is a false prophet.
I have not read any of his works.
But, most of not all, self claimed prophets of today sects, I believe, ARE false prophets.
Jesus, who all of his prophesies have come true so far, predicted there will be many false prophets till the end of this age.
I believe what Jesus predicted.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

Rated By    Rating                                                 Comments

Ch.Petrus.82   Excellent or Above Average Answer    Thanks for that Fred.
Hwood           Excellent or Above Average Answer    
paraclete     Excellent or Above Average Answer     The WCOG is really into this end times stuff so we shall see what unfolds
server            Excellent or Above Average Answer      He is a false prophet like Joseph Smith.
Toms777         Excellent or Above Average Answer    Yep, for once you nailed it!
Stones          Excellent or Above Average Answer      Writer has been proved many times to be a false prophet. Don't follow him!

[Que]

Episode #4 and #4A

In case you were wondering, 'HistoryForKids' (Kidipede) hasn't been the only kids' site that has been suffering from the RW-Google-ad disease.
This is one of them :-

Bible Study With a Kid's Heart :-
http://akidsheart.com/bible/bible.htm

Negotiations are underway! I won't bore you with the details this time. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ad sometimes appears at this site, about half way down the page :-

Children's Bible Lessons :-
http://gardenofpraise.com/bibleles.htm

I am waiting to see if the ad returns.

[Que]

Episode # 5

I have received this great response from the site owner at 'Bible Study With a Kid's Heart' :-
"Unfortunately, there are and will be many Christian Internet sites that have doctrine, discourse, and methods which I do not believe to be true or ethical. (I found selling Christian material and resources very offensive. Nonetheless, I do allow them to advertise for various reasons- some things are not my call nor subjected to my judgement.) However, he is a bit extreme. I'll block his sites. I think he has three or four.
Thanks for the heads up, Peter. If you find any other offensive ads, please feel free to notify me."


By the way, did you notice the sentence, "However, he is a bit extreme" ?!
Do you think that just might be biggest understatement of the year ?!
(Hints: 1/3 of USA destroyed, WW3, billions dead.)

The other site (Children's Bible Lessons) is still being monitored.

[PurpleHymnal]

Congratulations Peter! You are a prime example of someone who is actually making a concrete difference!

[Que]

Thanks PH !!
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:: time passes ::
:::::::::::::::::::
Sorry about the delay, but I can't find an emoticon for "shucks", "blush", or "modesty" !!
Oh, perhaps "embarrassed" will do instead ...     

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This might be a long-shot request, but is anybody here a member of "forums.bible-truths.com"?
One of their members has just discovered RW's book :-

"Anyone read this guys' book? He thinks he is one of the two prophesized "two witnesses".
There are similarities to what is taught on Bible-Truths, with the notable exception of Universal Reconciliation, and the fact that he thinks himself a prophet."

"I did some reading elsewhere and found out he runs the Church of God."

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,7445.msg59097.html#msg59097

I had a look at the rules that you have to agree to before you can register (and before you can give answers to a number of questions they send to you).
They are amazingly strict ... I wouldn't last 2 minutes. They would kick me out! ... There is no comparison with the Ironwolf forum!
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=tb536832e4c06ljringv6fro07&action=register

Is anybody brave enough to register ... and give all the "correct" answers to their questions?
By the way, who is "L. Ray Smith"?
The main page is fantastic (in a manner of speaking) :-
http://www.bible-truths.com/

Hello!! -- "Tithing is Unscriptual Under the New Testament Parts 1 and 2" -- Is somebody actually adding things to the NT?
Edit: No! There are two parts in the article about tithing! Punctuation (maybe a " - ") between "Testament" and "Parts" would have been good.

BEWARE of L. Ray Smith
More info here :- http://herbertwarmstrongliveson.blogspot.com/
Thanks to "Mantayo" for the link.

[PurpleHymnal]

LOL ol' "Hell Ray" sounds like a micro-splinter leader to me. Mind you his disfellowshipped "anti" seems a few sandwiches shy of a picnic himself......

[Que]

Here is a very quick debunking of RW and his predictions! -- found on a Christian forum.
http://www.worthyboards.com/index.php?showtopic=88801

"Serving God" :-  "We have certainly come to the times the Bible foretold would signify the end-times; the wars, famine, increase of knowledge and the list goes on. How can we best be prepared for the rapture which will take place at any moment. The bible says it clearly that we do not know the hour or the day, how then can anyone say that they know the year when the rapture will take place. Has anyone read the book by Ronald Weinland (God's final witness)? because this gentleman claims that he knows when all these events will take place, did I misunderstand him or is he right?"

"Morning Glory" :-  "If memory serves, not even Jesus knew the time or the hour.....this book and it's author are, therefore, bogus."

"Akabu" :-  "Only God the Father knows when the time will be. Not Jesus, the angels in heaven, satan, and surely not any human on earth. If anybody wishes to make a noise that he/she knows the date it will happen it will show just how much of a fool that person is. The two most foolish statements connected to end times studies are "I know what the date of the second coming is", and "I know who the antichrist is". The answer to both issues will be resolved by God Himself at the time He decides."