Read on Twitter
For your Sunday reading, a thread version of the most interesting anecdote from my presentation yesterday: The surprisingly dramatic details behind how the official Latter-day Saint website acquired its current domain name—from another Joseph Smith-descended church. 1/x https://twitter.com/CGUMoStStudents/status/1386049099305086977
In August 2018, when the new emphasis on the Church's full name is announced, it's obvious that changes need to be made but also pretty clear that Salt Lake doesn't exactly know how those changes are going to happen, including changes to its online presence. 2/x
The Church has owned http://lds.org since 1996, but acronyms have to go. http://churchofjesuschrist.org eventually replaces, but that might not be 1st choice. As @KHaglund1 noted yesterday, Nelson puts theological value in the "The" (which is capitalized in style guide) 3/x
Since ~2003, though, http://thechurchofjesuschrist.org has been owned by the Monongahela, Pennsylvania-based Church of Jesus Christ, third-largest denomination in the "Smith-Ridgon" religious movement (re: name, see https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/joseph-smith-and-sidney-rigdon-co-founders-of-a-movement/). 4/x
Monongahela not likely to sell domain name to SLC, given that they have right to the name—and that in 2001, Oaks explains to NYT that "Church of Jesus Christ" is appropriate abbreviation for SLC because "no other major Christian body in the United States had laid claim to it" 5/x
(This is *technically* true given the relatively small size of the Pennsylvania-based Church, but it still bulldozes right over the fact that a denominational cousin has been using that name since the 19th century, and I can't imagine this earns SLC any points in Monongahela) 6/x
So, w/presumed 1st choice off the table, http://churchofjesuschrist.org is a solid 2nd place. Since ~1999, though, it's been owned by an allegedly-polygamist, allegedly-abusive, very small Mormon group in Independence, MO—the kind Salt Lake is usually eager to avoid association with 7/x
This is further complicated by the fact that this group is led by a technically-savvy man who doesn't have warm feelings toward SLC, accusing them of a smear campaign when his fairly popular online learning platform(!!!) gets flak in 2020 for sexist/racist content 8/x
This could lead this church in Independence to refuse to sell, but given that it eventually sold, it seems to me more likely they held out for a really good deal, which is, unfortunately, not a matter of public record. 9/x
It is interesting to wonder how much SLC paid, though—and how much teeth gritting there was about doing business with another Smith-Rigdon denomination (not to mention the kind of controversial, fundamentalist Mormon group they would like to pretend doesn't exist). 10/x
(Note also that history of domain name pre March 2019—when SLC started using—recently disappeared from Internet Archive, erasing the pre-Latter-day Saint history of the domain name, presumably at the request of the domain name's current holder). 11/x
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is by far the largest Smith-Rigdon denomination out there, but the internet changes things, and it's interesting to see how it was at much smaller denominations' mercy to accomplish specific goals Salt Lake was very keen on /fin
