What Brought You to Free Jinger?

[Soldier of the One 1]

I'm an all-round religion geek, so I tend to read all sorts of random online about religion (and politics).

I suppose if I go far back enough, my fascination started when I met a Mormon family at my high school. I had never met Mormons before. Years later, when 'Big Love' hit the airwaves, I got hooked on that show (partly inspired by my high school Mormon fascination). I started googling polygamy online and reading up on the FLDS. Somehow, somewhere, I stumbled onto the weird and wacky world of 'Christian Polygamy' and had a good ole wacky time exploring that.

I don't quite remember how or when but for some reason I googled up 'ladies' and 'feminism' and I discovered LAF (Ladies Against Feminism). They were my gateway fundie website. I was blown away. Through LAF, I discovered individual blogs like 'Striving to Serve at Home', which I actually quite enjoyed and respected. Through some more googling, I discovered the Yuku board and it was like crack cocaine. I lurked mostly. When the board got raptured, I registered and oscillate between obsessive posting and lurking :)

Through FJ, I've come to understand how the different fundamentalist subgroups work together. It's absolutely fascinating to me as well as quite disturbing and scary. And it's taken my religion geekery to astronomical levels :)

[iloveevolution 0]

After watching one of the duggar episodes where they went to the Creation Museum I couldn't believe that a museum dedicated to young earth creationism could possibly exist so I started Googling which led me down a fascinating fundy wormhole and to FJ where I have been a long time lurker

[Soldier of the One 1]

Ah yes, the wormhole...

[rbella627 0]

I came to this forum when I was looking for dirt on the Duggars. I knew they couldn't possibly be as perfect as they portray in 19KaC, so I wanted to know if there were ever any scandals or inside dirt. That started my FJ lurking, where I discovered many more of the fascinating fundies that are snarked on here. :D

[catmom12 0]

I found FJ while researching the Duggars. I lurked on TLC, TWOP, and DWOP.

I began reading here regularly, because here is SO MUCH more than just the Duggars.

I grew up in a Pentecostal church where I was not allowed to ask questions because that was "questioning God".

I wish I had Fj back in the day.

[rene76 0]

I found FJ after reading Razing Ruth's blog. I found her blog from NLQ. I started lurking in the Yuku days. I only started posting a few months ago. The fundie lifestyle has become my secret obsession. My husband doesn't understand at all!

"Carri thread is how I found it. And Kristina is what brought me out of lurkdom"

I don't remember the Carri thread. I'll have to check it out!

[Savoring Samsara 8]

The Carri [link=http://freejinger.yuku.com/topic/664/t/Carri-is-having-twins.html#.URQHx_KAuCk]thread[/link] on Yuku brought me here but I didn't start posting until last year.

Same here. Before I found FJ I thought I was the only non-Christian person in the world who read fundie blogs for fun!

[Lulu 0]

I found FJ a while back by googling tips about large families (I have 6 childrens) and discovered about the Duggars, the anti-feminsts, quiverful and the rest of the crazies. I mostly like the discussions here and enjoy having my horizons expanded.

[Blahblah 11,330]

Sparkling Lauren brought me here. I heard the story on the news about Elijah's death and was randomly googling for background info.

Lurked for ages but wasn't brave enough to pop my head out of the foxhole until recently after all the changes happened.

[lilith 9,289]

Sparkling Lauren brought me here. I heard the story on the news about Elijah's death and was randomly googling for background info.

Lurked for ages but wasn't brave enough to pop my head out of the foxhole until recently after all the changes happened.

Yay, I'm glad someone found us through Sparkling Lauren. As you've probably noticed, that's my pet thread.

[OkToBeTakei 1,144]

Yay, I'm glad someone found us through Sparkling Lauren. As you've probably noticed, that's my pet thread.

:lol: I never noticed :P It is one of my favourite threads to read. I really like the Aussie perspective and despite the actual reason for the thread, has taught me a lot about Australian culture I would probably never have come across.

[Blahblah 11,330]

:lol: Really _lilith? Colour me surprised (not).

I spend most of my time in that thread because I simply don't know anything about most of the families in the other threads. I was quite surprised to find so many other Aussies here.

[lilith 9,289]

:lol: I never noticed :P It is one of my favourite threads to read. I really like the Aussie perspective and despite the actual reason for the thread, has taught me a lot about Australian culture I would probably never have come across.

Oh god, don't think that thread is representative of Australia. I know Lauren often seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that she's writing for Lonely Planet, but there's far more to Australia than the hippie highlights (and the East Coast that gypsy Lauren doesn't like to venture too far from, intrepid world traveller that she is).

[lilith 9,289]

:lol: Really _lilith? Colour me surprised (not).

I spend most of my time in that thread because I simply don't know anything about most of the families in the other threads. I was quite surprised to find so many other Aussies here.

There are actually quite a few Australians here, but we all seem to be on at different times.

On the subject of Lauren, hers is the only blog I've ever been banned from. And it was after I mentioned an email I sent her here, an email politely asking her about where she was on her "spiritual journey" and if she still considers herself Christian. She emailed me saying that she no longer considered herself Christian and that she was preparing a post on that subject, signing it "love Lauren", but as soon as I mentioned the email over here I was banned from her blog and she's never published the post on her current religious beliefs. I suspect that David will be very unhappy if she and the girls move away from Christianity.

But yeah, we know she reads here (hi Lauren) and now I have to switch off my home wifi to read.

[OkToBeTakei 1,144]

Oh god, don't think that thread is representative of Australia. I know Lauren often seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that she's writing for Lonely Planet, but there's far more to Australia than the hippie highlights (and the East Coast that gypsy Lauren doesn't like to venture too far from, intrepid world traveller that she is).

Don't worry. I realise that. But other than as a tourist or through media there are aspects to a country that I probably would not discover or really even be interested in. So to read about the Child protection, benefits system, schooling etc is interesting. Same with the other countries represented on FJ. One of my favourite parts.

[Blahblah 11,330]

Well feel free to ask questions. I'm happy to answer anything about my particular version of being an Aussie. And I am sure that any of the other Aussies here will have different perspectives to offer you. We're a fairly diverse bunch down here.

[Blahblah 11,330]

And _lilith, I guess being banned by the Sparkling One is a badge of honour really.

[Booklady85 0]

A couple of years ago, I was using Crystal Paine's blog for couponing tips, got curious about her, googled her, and wound up on FJ viewing her wedding pictures. Lurking ever since, first time to post!

[Ms_Florence 0]

I've been reading the free jinger message board for a long time, and I made an account so that I continue to do so. I read fundie blogs sometimes, but I prefer to troll vicariously through the wit and hilariously spot on posts I find here.

[public_school_moron 0]

Back when my first child was born I stumbled upon Crystal Paine's Biblical Womanhood blog and was appalled. But, for some reason I kept reading (and letting my blood boil) instead of allowing the blog to disappear back into the great big internet. I've watched as she's transformed herself from a completely legalistic obnoxious early twenties new mom (dishes out advice to women at least ten years older and with far more children) to the mega-marketer she is today. But, I wondered, what happened to Crystal? It seems her beliefs went underground. I googled, and here I am :D

[Curious 39,661]

:lol: Really _lilith? Colour me surprised (not).

I spend most of my time in that thread because I simply don't know anything about most of the families in the other threads. I was quite surprised to find so many other Aussies here.

Check out the Who's Who for some great summaries on other families (more being added all the time). They are great primers to get you up to speed on other families

[Curious 39,661]

Yay, I'm glad someone found us through Sparkling Lauren. As you've probably noticed, that's my pet thread.

Thanks to you, I got NOTHING I had planned for tonight done. It's all your fault so when I'm behind this week, we will all know who to blame :naughty:

I thought "oh I'll go look at the stats for lilith and tell her how sparkling adventures does in the search." I just clawed my way out of that rabbit hole, 2 hours later :P

It's a fairly popular search actually :) The highest ranking one that I saw was 86 (out of 12k+), but there are quite a few variations. I quit looking after the first 1000 or so search terms and there must have been 8 or 10 different search terms. Possibly more that I'm not aware are related to that topic.

But just for fun, the number 86 result looks like this. I did a comparison of Dec and Jan because I was curious what having the forum closed for a while did to our google rankings.

sparkling adventures

Jan 1, 2013 - Jan 31, 2013 600

Dec 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012 12

So for the query sparkling adventures in December there were 12 impressions of our URL in search results pages. In Jan, we jumped to 600 impressions.

What is their last name? I keep seeing a few last names I don't recognize coming up in searches, but I haven't bothered to try and figure out who they are yet.

[Mom2teacher 0]

I hate to admit it, but I used to think the Duggars were a nice family, even though their show was boring. I know... I was fooled like so many others out there! Last spring when they announced their support of Frothy, I had to do more research since I thought he was the biggest asshole of all the candidates. That's when I learned about the Quiverful movement, Bill Gothard, ATI, patriarchy,etc. I've always had a strange fascination of anything cult-related so once I started reading about their true colors, I couldn't stop. My research eventually led me to Free Jinger, where I have lurked ever since and finally joined.

[Blahblah 11,330]

Thanks to you, I got NOTHING I had planned for tonight done. It's all your fault so when I'm behind this week, we will all know who to blame :naughty:

I thought "oh I'll go look at the stats for lilith and tell her how sparkling adventures does in the search." I just clawed my way out of that rabbit hole, 2 hours later :P

It's a fairly popular search actually :) The highest ranking one that I saw was 86 (out of 12k+), but there are quite a few variations. I quit looking after the first 1000 or so search terms and there must have been 8 or 10 different search terms. Possibly more that I'm not aware are related to that topic.

But just for fun, the number 86 result looks like this. I did a comparison of Dec and Jan because I was curious what having the forum closed for a while did to our google rankings.

sparkling adventures

Jan 1, 2013 - Jan 31, 2013 600

Dec 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012 12

So for the query sparkling adventures in December there were 12 impressions of our URL in search results pages. In Jan, we jumped to 600 impressions.

What is their last name? I keep seeing a few last names I don't recognize coming up in searches, but I haven't bothered to try and figure out who they are yet.

Yes, Lauren's babblings are like quicksand.

Their surname is Fisher. Lauren's maiden name is Bissett so you will sometimes see her called Lauren Bissett Fisher (eg on Twitter). Hubby is David Fisher. Kids are Aisha, Brioni, Calista, Delaney (all girls) and poor little Elijah.

[Curious 39,661]

Yes, Lauren's babblings are like quicksand.

Their surname is Fisher. Lauren's maiden name is Bissett so you will sometimes see her called Lauren Bissett Fisher (eg on Twitter). Hubby is David Fisher. Kids are Aisha, Brioni, Calista, Delaney (all girls) and poor little Elijah.

I was looking for something else early this morning in the Feb stats and noticed sparking adventures is moved up to 14 in our search queries.