How Many Subscribers Does "Mormon Interpreter" Have?

[Guest]

i recall DCP saying somewhere that subscriptions should not be considered donations, as the cost of the publishing was carefully calculated to determine the $50 charge.

This seems to hold as the Interpreter's 2016 line item: "Lightning Source - Subscription Printing" adds up to $6742.35 across their four expense statements, while the 990 "subscriptions and royalties" line is $6798.

(source: https://interpreterfoundation.org/foundation/expenses/ )

The reason I bring it up is that while there is no 2018 document 990 uploaded yet, the 2018 expenses are posted on the website.



The Interpreter's 2018 line item: "Lightning Source - Subscription Printing" adds up to $4291.76, which would indicate an even further drop in 2018 of subscriptions.

[_honorentheos]

Does a subscription provide access to any content you can't access by visiting the website? The downward trend in subscription services that have internet counterparts or competitors is universal so this may be little more than fewer people feeling the need to pay for something they can get for free some other way.

[_Lemmie]

Does a subscription provide access to any content you can't access by visiting the website? The downward trend in subscription services that have internet counterparts or competitors is universal so this may be little more than fewer people feeling the need to pay for something they can get for free some other way.

I don't see how it does, so why would he continue to mention "thousands"? Just call them on-line readers and be done with it.

[_moksha]

The Interpreter of the Saints Fan Club comes in four tiers depending on both the awareness that the Interpreter of the Saints exists and financial contributions of the Fan Club members.

1. Backers - This group does not contribute financially and does not explicitly know that the Interpreter of the Saints exists, but they are presumed to be favorable towards such apologetics if they knew about these valiant efforts. This is by far the largest group.

2. Boosters - No contributions, but they know that Interpreter apologetics exist and they approve of it.

3. Booster-Backers - May or may not financially contribute, but they know about Interpreter apologetic efforts and have even visited the Interpreter of the Saints website, read posts on the ever popular Mormon D&D board, and followed Dr. Peterson's column in the Deseret News.

4. Presidential Booster-Backers - Moderate to large financial donations. This group is conversant with cutting-edge apologetics for Even the Church of Jesus Christ. They have books by treasured authors, such as Dr. Peterson and others on their bookshelves. Many receive thank you letters from FAIRMormon and the Interpreter of the Saints. A select number are on Dr. Peterson's Christmas card list. This group receives the full blessings and benefits that come with being a Presidential Booster-Backer in the Interpreter of the Saints Fan Club. They are entitled to free valet parking at the annual FAIRMormon Conference held at the Higbee-Lee Ford Dealership Showroom in Springville, Utah each August.

Hope that helps.

[_I have a question]

Does a subscription provide access to any content you can't access by visiting the website? The downward trend in subscription services that have internet counterparts or competitors is universal so this may be little more than fewer people feeling the need to pay for something they can get for free some other way.

I don't see how it does, so why would he continue to mention "thousands"? Just call them on-line readers and be done with it.

Maybe he's oversold it to donors.

[_Physics Guy]

I'm really not sure how well subscription numbers measure impact of an online journal. It would in principle be feasible for Interpreter to support itself entirely from publication fees paid to authors, like all the predatory scam journals but also like many reputable real open-access online journals, thus having no subscribers at all. Other metrics for impact might mean more.

Academic journals are almost certainly too heavily evaluated these days; numerically assessing everything probably makes it harder for the most important work to get noticed. There is some point in trying to measure impact, however, and it's hard to see how to do that better than what journals do, which is to count how many later papers cite any given paper that they have published.

There probably aren't too many other journals that will cite Interpreter, but as a minimal measure of significance one could ask how many other Interpreter articles will cite the average Interpreter article. This would give some indication of whether Interpreter is a forum for an active research community whose members value each others' insights, or a vanity outlet for crackpots to whom not even other crackpots ever listen.

Since most Interpreter authors probably know that academic papers are supposed to cite other papers, the average paper probably cites a number of references that is closer to ten than to one or one hundred. How many of those are to Interpreter articles, though, and how many are to external sources that even Interpreter authors themselves consider more authoritative? And among citations of Interpreter in Interpreter papers, how many are of recent articles on hot topics, as opposed to being reverential citations of a small number of papers that everyone cites?

[_Gadianton]

There probably aren't too many other journals that will cite Interpreter, but as a minimal measure of significance one could ask how many other Interpreter articles will cite the average Interpreter article

yep, and i've gone down this path before also. a related point i used to make is that there are no real conversations going on in the Interpreter. It's a bunch of random stuff. Nobody is progressing any idea. they had something with the Limited Geography Theory sixty years ago, but the present Bayes article is the closest thing to that in a while. The book review format is nice because it lowers expectations. Somebody writes a book and you respond, and there's no point to keeping the ball going.

[_Gadianton]

and my limited attic space is full

It's a fair point concerning print subscriptions. But, are you saying that the average person's attic space has decreased by 55% since 2014?

[_Doctor Scratch]

There are a number of great points being made in this thread. First, Lemmie: my hat is off to you for reminding us of the data. Yes, you're right that Tom, as always, is the stalwart in his reporting. Of course these numbers have been a matter of the public record for a long time, which makes Peterson's comment all the more baffling.

Ben and Physics Guy also make important points: namely, how should we measure Mormon Interpreter's success? How should we assess its reach? 50 or so non-affiliated, paying subscribers is, I think we can all admit, quite an embarrassment, no matter how you slice it. So perhaps the better measure is simply readers? In that case, I believe Physics Guy already posted data showing that the web traffic to Interpreter is dwarfed by the traffic to, e.g., MormonDiscussions.com: far more people are interested in visiting this site than Interpreter's. And Lemmie has posted numbers showing that the organization seems to be in a state of economic decline.

And then there is the matter of influence. As Simon pointed out on the Heartlanders thread, Sorenson didn't seem to give two squats about what Gardner had published, and yet, as we know, Gardner is arguably *the* scholar of the LGT today. (Of course, this is just yet another reminder that these guys--the Mopologists--are not ultimately united behind a scholarly cause. They are united in their desire to go to war with the critics. Some, like Gardner, perhaps have other ideas, though, and have simply gotten swept up in all of it.)

Apologetics is supposed to be about "defending the faith," but in this case, I think the Mopologists probably need to do a better job of defending their own existence. To date, their primary measure of success has been that they have managed to publish *some*thing, regardless of quality, every Friday for however many years. That's it. They can't point to readership figures. They can't point to economic growth. Nor can they point to scholarly influence. Merely going through the motions and tossing something up is all they've got.

[_Philo Sofee]

Dr. Scratch
And then there is the matter of influence. As Simon pointed out on the Heartlanders thread, Sorenson didn't seem to give two squats about what Gardner had published, and yet, as we know, Gardner is arguably *the* scholar of the LGT today. (Of course, this is just yet another reminder that these guys--the Mopologists--are not ultimately united behind a scholarly cause. They are united in their desire to go to war with the critics. Some, like Gardner, perhaps have other ideas, though, and have simply gotten swept up in all of it.)

The essence of religion, which leads the the tragic end of hollow war for utterly inane nothing. Boyd K. Packer was big on presenting himself as a General of Authoritah in the Righteous War of Righteousness for Souls, and he would lead the charge! Oh what glory awaits the humble servant of the war mongering, filthy, murderous God they worship all the while assauging doubts and fears by presenting that bastard as a loving father figure. They get so holy righteous in theirselves their owns panties never smell, though the worlds does, as they testify they stick their nose in other peoples underwear to get whiffs of the wickedness of everyone else, whilst their own garments remain spotless (on their own authoritah and say so mind you, NOT because it is actually the truth). So the Mopologists glory in it and that is what leads their enthusiasm to conflate and inflate literally everything about their dismal enterprise and hapless success. If just one person reads their offerings, it is seen as a glorious celestial moment and soon the floods of righteousness is going to sweep the world off its feet! Their image is so warped, and yet they are so very blind to the reality of the uselessness of their thinking, their knowledge, and their efforts.