Just ran across this interesting article on the Oh No Ross and Carrie! podcast Facebook page posted by fan Mike Thomson. For the few of you out there who don't already know Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy and their very popular podcast, they visit paranormal venues "so you don't have to" then report back on the adventure to their listening audience. One two-part story line chronicled their experiences with joining the Mormon church and actually going through the Baptism process, very eye-opening for us voyeurs.
Reading through this article I discovered that the Mormon Church is loosing its members, mainly because people are able to read all about the history of the church and its beliefs on the Internet. Carrie mentioned that the young men in the missionary stage of their training are not allowed to be distracted by the Internet, they can visit the library for an hour once in awhile, but are not supposed to spend that time looking up doctrines or reading about the Church.
Elder Jensen who is the Official Church Historian is quoted as saying that all the leaders of the Church are aware of the problem of defections, and has a plan to counter the membership loss. "Among other steps, it has hired an expert in search-engine optimization to raise the profile of the church's own views in a web search."
Humm very interesting. Something all bloggers and webmasters are interesting in doing. I'm wondering how is this working out for the Mormons? So I propose to do a bit of Google searches for some key Mormon words, I want to see what are the top search sites. I will report the answers as I discover them myself. My question is ...Where does the Wikipedia page hit in comparison to the official LDS site hit? A follow-up question might be ...How many people are hitting these Wikipedia pages (obviously I don't know how many are hitting the LDS pages). Then I'm going to take a general look at what the average reader might see on the Wikipedia pages.
Because of Mitt Romney's bid for the Presidency, I would think that interest in Mormonism would be at a all-time high. And the Internet would be the place to discover the answer to their questions.
I'm really curious what we will find, but we are about to discover the answer together.
-First hit is a paid ad by mormon.org bi line is "Learn More About the Church of Jesus Christ. Chat with a Mormon!" which leads you to a very inviting page with a slideshow about various members. The first story I was presented with was from a biker. (riding without a helmet BTW)
-mormon.org - answers general questions about Mormonism (official LDS site)
-Wikipedia page
-(Book of Mormon) Wikipedia page
-exmormon.org
Stats
January 2012 - Mormon was the ranked 2,340 of top hit page on Wikipedia with 78,971 total views. There was a major hit on one day of 12,479 around January 27, 2012. Wonder what happened that day? An average day usually is 1,500 hits.
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Its a very beautiful page, lots of images and very carefully written prose throughout the article. There is no criticism of Mormonism anywhere I can find. But it does seem to lay out the history and doctrines in a readable format. I see no mention of South Park's parody of the religion, or the Broadway play. Interesting. I would not suggest anyone try and edit the page to include those, any change you might want to leave on the page should be written on the "talk" page. I assume that anyone with little knowledge of Mormonism would be left with a positive feeling of the religion.
Just noticed the section of the way the Church has treated black people in the past. Apparently according to the Wikipedia article once the Church allowed ordaining men of African descent in the Priesthood it was met with "joy and relief".
I think it is safe to say that the page on Mormonism on Wikipedia carefully monitored by the Mormon Church.
Google Search
-First is an ad from mormon.org asking the question Multiple Wives - Do Mormons Practice Polygamy?
-Wikipedia site
-www.polygamy.org (general site discussing polygamy)
Stats
Ranked 3,383 in top hits for January 2012 the page had 111,343 hits in January 2012. No major spikes, about 3,000 views a day.
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Another well-written page that focuses on polygamy in many cultures with lots of history. There are 4 good sized paragraphs devoted to polygamy in the Mormon church.
-First is the same advertisement we keep seeing from mormon.org their bi-line is "Discover the facts and myths of Mormonism".
-Second is www.josephsmith.net which is a pro-Mormon site
-Wikipedia is third
-Images of Joseph Smith
The Stats
January 2012 the page had 81,577 hits
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Nice looking image of Smith, another really well written page. Again, nothing I noticed that could be considered critical of Smith, no mention of South Park or the Broadway play about Mormonism. Another carefully watched page by the Church in my opinon.
The conclusion
Well it looks like the LDS Church has done a great marketing job, the first hit is always a paid advertisement for the church inviting people to visit and ask questions. When a Wikipedia page is presented the content is neutral but leans to the positive. I'm not condoning changing the Wikipedia pages as I doubt you would get anything to stick and it would become an edit war. I'm just saying, these pages are carefully written, and the Mormon Church is doing a great job of appearing to give information and answer the hard questions.
Looks like the LDS understands the We Got Your Wiki Back! project better than the skeptic community does. With over 200K hits to these three Wikipedia pages each month I think they understand how important Wikipedia is. Can we say the same?
Reading through this article I discovered that the Mormon Church is loosing its members, mainly because people are able to read all about the history of the church and its beliefs on the Internet. Carrie mentioned that the young men in the missionary stage of their training are not allowed to be distracted by the Internet, they can visit the library for an hour once in awhile, but are not supposed to spend that time looking up doctrines or reading about the Church.
Elder Jensen who is the Official Church Historian is quoted as saying that all the leaders of the Church are aware of the problem of defections, and has a plan to counter the membership loss. "Among other steps, it has hired an expert in search-engine optimization to raise the profile of the church's own views in a web search."
Humm very interesting. Something all bloggers and webmasters are interesting in doing. I'm wondering how is this working out for the Mormons? So I propose to do a bit of Google searches for some key Mormon words, I want to see what are the top search sites. I will report the answers as I discover them myself. My question is ...Where does the Wikipedia page hit in comparison to the official LDS site hit? A follow-up question might be ...How many people are hitting these Wikipedia pages (obviously I don't know how many are hitting the LDS pages). Then I'm going to take a general look at what the average reader might see on the Wikipedia pages.
Because of Mitt Romney's bid for the Presidency, I would think that interest in Mormonism would be at a all-time high. And the Internet would be the place to discover the answer to their questions.
I'm really curious what we will find, but we are about to discover the answer together.
"Mormon"
Google Search -First hit is a paid ad by mormon.org bi line is "Learn More About the Church of Jesus Christ. Chat with a Mormon!" which leads you to a very inviting page with a slideshow about various members. The first story I was presented with was from a biker. (riding without a helmet BTW)
-mormon.org - answers general questions about Mormonism (official LDS site)
-Wikipedia page
-(Book of Mormon) Wikipedia page
-exmormon.org
Stats
January 2012 - Mormon was the ranked 2,340 of top hit page on Wikipedia with 78,971 total views. There was a major hit on one day of 12,479 around January 27, 2012. Wonder what happened that day? An average day usually is 1,500 hits.
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Its a very beautiful page, lots of images and very carefully written prose throughout the article. There is no criticism of Mormonism anywhere I can find. But it does seem to lay out the history and doctrines in a readable format. I see no mention of South Park's parody of the religion, or the Broadway play. Interesting. I would not suggest anyone try and edit the page to include those, any change you might want to leave on the page should be written on the "talk" page. I assume that anyone with little knowledge of Mormonism would be left with a positive feeling of the religion.
Just noticed the section of the way the Church has treated black people in the past. Apparently according to the Wikipedia article once the Church allowed ordaining men of African descent in the Priesthood it was met with "joy and relief".
I think it is safe to say that the page on Mormonism on Wikipedia carefully monitored by the Mormon Church.
Google Search
-First is an ad from mormon.org asking the question Multiple Wives - Do Mormons Practice Polygamy?
-Wikipedia site
-www.polygamy.org (general site discussing polygamy)
Stats
Ranked 3,383 in top hits for January 2012 the page had 111,343 hits in January 2012. No major spikes, about 3,000 views a day.
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Another well-written page that focuses on polygamy in many cultures with lots of history. There are 4 good sized paragraphs devoted to polygamy in the Mormon church.
Google Search
-First is the same advertisement we keep seeing from mormon.org their bi-line is "Discover the facts and myths of Mormonism".
-Second is www.josephsmith.net which is a pro-Mormon site
-Wikipedia is third
-Images of Joseph Smith
The Stats
January 2012 the page had 81,577 hits
Wikipedia Content (a general look)
Nice looking image of Smith, another really well written page. Again, nothing I noticed that could be considered critical of Smith, no mention of South Park or the Broadway play about Mormonism. Another carefully watched page by the Church in my opinon.
The conclusion
Well it looks like the LDS Church has done a great marketing job, the first hit is always a paid advertisement for the church inviting people to visit and ask questions. When a Wikipedia page is presented the content is neutral but leans to the positive. I'm not condoning changing the Wikipedia pages as I doubt you would get anything to stick and it would become an edit war. I'm just saying, these pages are carefully written, and the Mormon Church is doing a great job of appearing to give information and answer the hard questions.
Looks like the LDS understands the We Got Your Wiki Back! project better than the skeptic community does. With over 200K hits to these three Wikipedia pages each month I think they understand how important Wikipedia is. Can we say the same?
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