Wednesday, July 20, 2016

When Ichabod Had Only 7,000 Posts. From 2011.


I found it interesting that Ichabod reached 7,000 posts  (4+ years) at the same time that the page-reads totaled 700,000 since June, 2010. Google created a statistics gathering device for June, 2010, so that is my starting point for current page-reads.

At first there were about 100 page-reads a day in 2007, with 50 people returning each day. That slowly grew. I only wrote for a few friends, so I never expected a wider audience.

The daily average of page-reads has been 1500 since June of 2010. The monthly total averages 46,000 page-reads. The Ichabod effect is obvious. Apostate heads explode. Information disappears. Denials abound.

Retail likes to use the term comps. In other words, how does last month compare to the same period one year before? One recent month's comps were 25% higher than the total for that month one year earlier.

I appreciate all the efforts to ban Ichabod, to keep people from reading it and posting to it. The last thing WELS wants is an open discussion of its myriad doctrinal errors. That is quite a gig, to suppress the truth, contradict the facts, pull down a princely salary, and enjoy world travel. I would like to be Synod President some day - any synod. They are all the same now.

But here is the rub. As soon as an authority figure makes something dangerous, it becomes that much more attractive. Nothing is more repellent than required reading. Ask any college student. If they made Ichabod required reading at the Olde Synodical Conference schools, the page-reads would drop back to 100.

Alas, they have made it exciting to open the laptop quietly, lest the roommate notice and report it to the commissar, read a post, and--even more deliciously--send a comment with an appropriately obscure screen name.

The sources continue to develop. They have given up on:
1. Write a letter.
2. Meet with the person.
Those are the first two steps in excommunication in WELS.

The true nature of the false teachers is revealed in their nasty, dishonest, brutal, unethical treatment of their own members. A corrupt tree bears evil fruit.

KJV Matthew 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.



rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Four Years of Ichabod - 7,000 Posts - 700,000 Page...":

Pastor Jackson,

I cannot say that I have been here from the very beginning. I found Ichabod via Google search because I read some of your books, articles on CN, and other material and was wondering if you had a web site. I had been reading a lot articles opposing the Church Growth for many years. Many of these were from a Reformed perspective.

There have been many recent developments in the WELS that I found disturbing. In the three years or more that I have been following Ichabod, I have learned that it was not just me who has many misgivings. I have observed some of the bad behavior from WELS leaders that is often reported on Ichabod. Last Sunday, I was treated to the latest installment of the WELS Connection video. President Schroeder talked, but did not say much. The daily reading of Ichabod has more substance.

Thank you for your effort in keeping us current.