Questions About the TOTJO Progress

Hello!

After a brief search of the forums, I was unable to find any information on what I am about to ask. Please forgive me though if I simply did not look hard enough.

Because the idea of the Jedi Order being such a real and living thing is still so new to me, I find myself wondering about its history. Not where it came from or how it was formed, but about how it has performed over the years. so I have a few questions:

1) How many active Jedi do you think there are, if you had to estimate?
2) Is this a number that has been and continues to be steadily increasing or decreasing?
3) Is there a graph of this information anywhere that I could look at?
4) Where could I find other statistics on the Temple of the Jedi Order, if they exist.

Axid wrote: 1) How many active Jedi do you think there are, if you had to estimate?

This one is hard to say, Jestor might have some actual statistics but keep in mind this temple isn't the only community out there, there are several others as well and we don't get information on how many numbers there are. If I had to guess I would say theres a few thousand easily probably into the 10's of thousands but not much higher then that. That is just a guess though.

Axid wrote: 2) Is this a number that has been and continues to be steadily increasing or decreasing?

With the recent influx of star wars movies, it has been on a steady increase, and thats just based on the number of members that sign up here on a regular basis.

Axid wrote: 3) Is there a graph of this information anywhere that I could look at?
4) Where could I find other statistics on the Temple of the Jedi Order, if they exist.

I don't think there are any charts or listed statistics that are publicly posted that I am aware of.

Australia and New Zealand had over 100,000 Jedi according to their respective national Censuses in 2001.

(I believe some other countries had similar situations...)


I'm quite sure no one would lie on such important statistical documents :laugh:


(I understand more recent accounts have dropped to around 60,000 in those two countries)

Axid wrote: 1) How many active Jedi do you think there are, if you had to estimate?
2) Is this a number that has been and continues to be steadily increasing or decreasing?
3) Is there a graph of this information anywhere that I could look at?
4) Where could I find other statistics on the Temple of the Jedi Order, if they exist.

1) At this Temple probably no more than 200 and probably around 150. Globally it would not be more than a couple of thousand sincere Jedi.

2) Increasing.

3) Not that I'm aware of.

4) We have year end reports .

If people who self identify as Jedi count then thousands or tens of thousands are reasonable numbers. If it's something more such as sincere dedication, actions and always learning and growing in The Force there's not many.

One organization claims a half million members. Anyone who's at least registered for an email newsletter is counted even if they never do anything and are never heard from again.

Then there are solitary self taught Jedi who belong to no organization at all.

Almost everyone who puts that on a Census is only doing it for fun. Those numbers are meaningless in my view.

If the question is relating to TOTJO specifically...well first of all it depends how one defines 'active'.

We have 36 Knights/Masters (including Councillors) currently deemed to be active. If we then look at all of their Apprentices I think we'd probably find somewhere in the region of 40-50 of them are active. The list of active Initiates awaiting a teaching master currently stands at 10.

So about 90 Masters/Knights/Apprentices/Initiates in total (and those are all rather generous figures, too) - then all of the Novices currently actively working on the IP, and all of the Temple Members & Guests who regularly engage in discussion.

As Akkarin says, we're probably looking at about 200 active Jedi at TOTJO? Maybe slightly more, but I certainly don't think we'd be over the 300 mark...

The figure was increasing rapidly a few years back (in my earlier days here it was quite exciting if there were as many as ten people online at once), but I'd say it's more of a gentle incline now (ignoring the surge from TFA, which didn't really seem to have had much of a long-term effect).

Numbers, as it were, may not be the best measure of "progress". Longevity - or duration - perhaps may indicate more ...

The TotJO is coming up on 11 years, which, for a community whose interactions is primarily over various forms of media, that has already been a pretty good run. Some members who do leave for extended periods of time do actually return. We probably have a better rate of return than customers given bad service by a business. Then again, we aren't a business ; we won't be boasting about how many millions we've served.

Another quality to examine regarding the "progress" of the Jedi movement as it is conducted in the TotJO is just how well it has been able to adapt the precepts, values and practices of everything that inspired it into something practical in our changing modern society (or perhaps into a method for aiding us - as a collective and as individuals - live through the changes coming about in society).

Here in the TotJO, our learning is pretty rigorous. Certainly we could have hundreds of Jedi Knights if all one needed to do was register with the website and say we want to be one. As it is now though, the title and recognition of a Jedi Knight has to be earned by confronting, to various degrees, the experience of being alive in the world against all the concepts that have been set over and against it. This is a much more perplexing ordeal than it sounds, for one truly must "un-learn what one has learnt."

Ergo, the "progress" of the TotJO would depend on how one tries to measure it.

I remember when it was amazing to see 4 or 5 members online at once in totjo (i'm in my 8th year here now)...the numbers are in constant Flux with online communities...i'm inclined to think the number of genuinely sincere active jedi to be quite low when compared to any census...

Only One, there can be!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqcLjcSloXs

You might find some Information here: http://justjedi.com/index.php/jedi-history/temple-of-the-jedi-order It can be found through TOTJO's Other Library Links. I believe it's hidden among many though XD