It's still a while before the scheduled monthly Alexa check of COG Web rankings (due mid-January) but one interim result already stands out. LCG is slip-sliding away. In fact, the most popular LCG website, number 12 on the list AW monitors, isn't even an official site. It's Bob Thiel.
Yes, Bob's “COGWriter” site is burning off the other Meredith minions. Here's the breakdown as it affects LCG only (as of today):
12. COGWriter (331,093)
13. Tomorrow's World (349,263)
22. LCG (903,452)
**. COGL member site (1,010,071)
Despite the squatzillions LCG throws at their websites (and if they don't, they need to try it!) Bob is outstripping the sect's best web designers and agencies. It must be an embarrassment of good fortune for Bob, who boasts how effective his church's tithe-funded media ministry is. If you click across to lcg.org, and place your ear close to the speaker, you may even hear the sound of teeth gnashing in Charlotte. Rod may want to bring Bob to HQ to head up his Philadelphian Web Work.
13 comments:
I can think of two possible explanations for such statistics. One would be that Thiel's site is a bit more controversial than the official LCG sites. Regardless of what we might think of the man, he seems to get out a bit more than the leaders of the LCG, and often mixes it up with the people who no longer attend any of the ACOGs.
The other explanation is not quite as flattering: Thiel dumbs everything down for greater mass appeal.
It would be very nice if interest in all of the ACOG sites waned significantly in the new year!
BB
Does anyone know what Doctor Bob Thiel is a doctor of? I hope it isn't anything nuclear or physical. Please, oh please, let it be theology. My sleep is unsound as it is.
You're very close. He's a naturopath:
http://www.healthresearch.com/thiel.htm
Whoops -- Sorry Gavin, didn't link it before I hit "Publish":
http://www.healthresearch.com/thiel.htm
I really should use that "Preview" button...
I visit Dr. Thiel's site for the same reason I visit this one, to see what's happening in the COG world.....not with any malintentions, just curiosity....
I almost never visit LCG's site because I'm not interested in their teachings....I think RM is way off base in a lot of areas and have never been a "man follower" (I don't, and never did, hold HWA any higher up than any other member of the Church, which causes raised eyebrows from time to time, because, sadly, so many in the COG movement did, and still do)
Gavin,
To give Rod more encouragement you should invert the chart.
We cannot have Living start off the New Year on the left foot.Could it be said Living is a "left-footer" church??
Jorgheinz
"Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ogwyn have arrived in Charlotte and Mr. Ogwyn has already assumed his new duties working with the Internet program."
The problem has been recognised and is being dealt with. The above from LCG's own weekly newsletter.
So sorry, but if you invert the chart by turning it upside down, it still is a downhill ride. Yet, you could have the chart start low and go high with a little re-labelling: Make the chart show the rate of drop-off!
As a technologist, I am very certain I do not want Bob Thiel to work on my autos. As for being a naturopath, I'm not certain that I'd want to take the herbs he recommends without first checking the Internet for myself to guarantee the toxicity levels -- particularly if he is as apt to error in that realm as he is in the religious one. I'm with our good friend Mark Lax: Nothing, please nothing, that affects the public at large, particularly anything having to do with technology which demands attention to detail and excruciatingly painfully accurately engaged proficient competent logic.
It's so hard to get good webmasters these days. Those of us who are really good at it have had a swipe taken at us in the last year by a psychopathic cult leader. What's left are mediocre lackeys willing to prostitute themselves for a worthless cause for a few pieces of useless mammon. No, if LCG really wants their hits to skyrocket, they should post information about their complicity in the murders in Milwaukee, news of the bad weather in the US and how it is *GOD'S PUNISHMENT* and finally, how to get saved from the Wrath to Come by having their place assured in the Place of Safety. Throwing mud at other cult of gods would also be effective. No. Wait. Then it would be no different than Pack's RCG site and that wouldn't differentiate them enough!
LCG simply has nothing to offer non-members. Worse yet, it has nothing to offer the members! Since John Ogwyn died and Charles Bryce was fired, there is not one speaker or writer worth hearing from. I think the web site only serves as a followup to the telecast.
“Robert Thiel, Ph.D., N.H.D. is not a medical doctor, nor does he portray himself as one.”
Yet.
“In 1999, he was named Physician of the Year by the American Naturopathic Medical Association.”
Not to cast a jaded eye, but this strikes me as some kind of a claim:
“Thiel's clinical success rates have been nothing short of phenomenal. A summary of eight published studies (involving 700 plus subjects and multiple ailments) revealed that an astonishing 98.42% of those who followed his natural health recommendations reported at least some improvement within 1-90 days!”
Beyond this, Non Medical Doctor Physician of The Year for 1999, further contributed to the weal of the Universe with:
“In 2003, he successfully foiled an attempt for pharmaceutical industry to take control of vitamins and herbs.”
Do they all have to be dangerous fantasy land snake oil salesmen? Can’t they stick to just being weirdos?
Sigh.
Mark Lax
Who wishes he hadn’t read that. Really, really…
According to Bob's own website, he received a Ph.D. from "Union Institute and University". A google search reveals this is just another on-line "school" where "adult learners" can earn a "degree" primarily through on-line correspondence. (www.tui.edu)
Anyone who works in either academia or the corporate world knows such a "degree" has about as much credibility as a piece of used toilet paper.
Bob's poor command of the English language (as well as his poor command of spell-check software) would alone knock him out of the admissions process for any reputable doctoral program.
P.S. On a completely different subject, check out the pictures of his wife and family while in Jamaica.
http://www.cogwriter.com/pictures.jpg
The crotch shot elicited an audible laugh from me. ;-)
And what an attractive family.
It proves once again how far you can get by on your good looks....
Anonymous sounded off and wrote,
"LCG simply has nothing to offer non-members. Worse yet, it has nothing to offer the members!"
When I read that I thought of those thirty-two persons who were part of our Auckland congregation today. These thirty-two were never part of WCG but were present as the result of responding to LCG's work. They are now attending because they are able to see, and they desire, what Christ is offering them through LCG.
As a result of attending today's service they were offered a reminder of their purpose for drawing breath, a chance to worship their Creator in peace with others of like minds and an opportunity for hearty, edifying fellowship.
Kinnear
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