Heal Your Church WebSite

Author: meandean

  • Usability and Daylight Saving Time

    Let’s talk a little about the usability frustrations we put up with in the name of daylight saving time – and see if we can’t cobble together an object lesson for our web design.

    Okay, so in my best Andy Rooney imitation:

    Why is it we can put a man on the moon, yet somehow we still don’t have a “magical gadget” that with the press of a button, will set ALL of our clocks to daylight saving time.

    I’m talking about the remote that will not only set my BetaMax … I mean VCR … I mean TIVO… and the watch, and my microwave oven and even the clock in my car parked outside!

    Did I just hear an amen?! Yeah, I thought so … and well we should. daylight savings madnessAfter all, here’s a list of the clocks I had to reset manually – each employing its own rand of a ‘uniquely creative’ set of time-setting interface operations:

    • the stove
    • the microwave oven
    • the upstairs weather warning clock/radio
    • the downstairs weather warning clock/radio
    • the clock on my portable flashlight/weather warning clock radio
    • my digital camera
    • my digital movie camera
    • my wife’s digital camera
    • my daughter’s digital camera
    • my pickem-up truck
    • my wife’s car
    • a small number of my daughter’s toys

    I think that’s it … well not including the batteries on all 6 or 7 smoke alarms.

    So what usability can we take away from all this minute-setting of madness? How about doing away with what Frank da Cruz referred to in my networking class back in 1986 as “a wide variety of standards.”

    Think about it, the method for setting the time on each of the above devices varied, some greatly from the others, some not-so-much. Either way, if you’re not going to give me a “magical gadget” then at least give me a consistent interface to all the above!

    And I think the same applies to our software. From page to page of our programs, are we asking our users to do similar things employing “a wide variety of standards?” If so, imagine the learning curves and barriers to conversion we place in front of them.

    My point? Go through your entire site and figure out what’s the same and almost-the-same. Then pick a convenient way to do it – and stick with it – even if some better jQuery gizmo comes out next week.

    Your users will thank you.

  • 5 Things that heal your church website

    Last Friday I posed the question “what actually heals a church website?” Now it’s Tuesday and I’d like to talk about this in light of the many excellent comments received.5 remedies to heal your church website

    But first a BIG THANKS to all who participated in this dialog – this was both good and healthy and it is much appreciated.

    1. If it’s broke, please fix it

    “The medicine that heals depends on the illness — if you’ve got a spinning gold cross, removing it becomes job #1” – Mickey

    It’s such a simple point, yet a very salient one. There are some very obvious maladies that afflict our church websites. When we see them, we should fix them.

    For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I prescribe my post entitled:

    Even if you do know what I’m talking about, it’s a fun read … don’t worry, we’ll be here when you get back.

    2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

    “I fixed up my church’s website with WordPress and a user-friendly, inviting design. Within months they’d wrecked the colors, changed pictures of people to pictures of furniture, and otherwise mucked it up.” – Jeremy

    Okay, I’m not trying to be a wise-guy here, but I’ve seen this happen all to often. Usually this occurs when an individual has an agenda that it outside the scope of what the church website is trying to accomplish. Two that come to mind are:

    1. On the job training or skills advertising
    2. An ego that can’t share nice things

    Often, I find it’s a combination of the both. My post “Mr. Zeldman meet Mike Boyink, one of ‘The New Samaritans’” comes to mind.

    3. Content is King

    “Even if it has to be black Times New Roman on a stark white background, I’d say job one is relevant content. When, where, what, who, and how, and for good measure, don’t forget why.” – lemon

    I’m thinking ‘lemon’ pretty much summed it all up rather nicely with his/her enumeration of the basics that help us avoid the “Seven deadly sins of web writing.”

    4. Identify your target audience

    There are really (at least) two distinct audiences for a church website:

    1. People not part of your normal congregation, seeking information about your church …
    2. People in the congregation who want to know what’s on this week …

    Since the introduction of this  blog back on May 17, 2002 I’ve been preaching the importance of identifying the purpose and personality of your church website – and then aiming all content, controls and/or contrivances at seekers and members alike.

    Put another way, “A church website that fails to convey the purpose and personality of the congregation and staff will also fail to bring new members into the door.” – Empty Parking Lot Tabernacle

    5. Identify your process & work-flow

    “Unfortunately I think its a people problem, the site is just a symptom. People need to see it as a communication medium and commit to its use. I’m surprised at how poorly email is used by churches, let alone websites.” – David J

    Unfortunately, I think the master of the B2Blog has offered a diagnosis that is as incisive as it it accurate. David accurately points out that unless we understand the work-flow that defines how we:

    • identify things that need fixed;
    • identify things that work;
    • identify what makes compelling content; and
    • identify the target audience of your church’s purpose and personality …

    … then a church website is likely never to get healed no matter what content management system it employs, …

    … no matter how much Flash animation the site does or does not have, …

    … no matter how many social networks the church-geek API’s into the site.

    In short, unless church doesn’t have well defined processes for how to effectively get the right information out to your target audiences, then you’re efforts are like the person Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 as aimlessly batting at the air.

    At least that’s my take. What about you?

  • The real reason Twitter beat the snot out of Pownce

    Twitter gives our mundane lives meaning, that’s why it beat the snot out of a more ‘feature-rich’ Pownce.

    To prove my point, let’s rewind about a year and a half ago to Tamar Weinberg’s comparison entitled ‘Twitter vs. Pownce: Who Pwns?‘ Dutifully she does what many of us do while shopping for software, cars, and food processors – she compares and scores the features of one product against another to a conclusion that reads:

    Pownce 5, Twitter 3. Pownce wins!

    There’s only one problem with that approach, while features may sell a product, it is ultimately functionality that sustains a product; software or otherwise.

    Which is why I think Scoble succinctly hits the nail on the head while unwittingly predicting Pownce’s demise in his Twitter vs. Pownce post also from early July 2007:

    “But, anyway, I still like Twitter the best. Why? No complications. It does only one thing. I find that on my cell phone I go back to Twitter before I go back to any of the others. It’s lightweight.”

    Put another way, when it comes to microblogging, Twitter has it all over Pownce because it makes it easy to do the one thing we all want from microblogging – making the mundane instances of our lives meaningful, while learning new things about our friends without coming off like a stalker.

    Disagree as some “new media marketeers” might, the reason we like Twitter is the same reason we fell in love with Blogger, it got out of the way and let us opine reflectively about how our cats would join us in contemplating the lint in our navels.

    For example, why anyone would follow my own Twitter page is beyond me, yet some find the fact that I fertilize my lawn in December and enjoy smash-mouth football entertaining and interesting.

    And like blogging, Twitter easily allows our friends and relatives to quickly comment at their convenience – only with the excellent 140 character excuse for not engaging in exposition and detailed explanations.

    All this while providing others context about ourselves that may not come out in our blogs, lectures, books and top-rated podcasts. This latter point is nicely explained in this 2:25 YouTube video from the good folks at the CommonCraft Show aptly entitled ‘Twitter in Plain English.’

    Pownce unfortunately lost sight of these primal purposes for microblogging, and in the process ‘featured-creeped‘ their product to death. Not an uncommon instance for software in any era. Especially when said offering described its services with a church-speak-like mission statements:

    “… Pownce is a lightweight productivity app, built on top of the stream, and it has all the pluses and minuses of a productivity app (including that you can use it to share music with friends!)”  – Pownce is competing with 37Signals, not Twitter!

    Any wonder we all stopped using Pownce around 160 days ago?

    So what has this got to do with your church and/or charity website? Glad you asked.

    Remember, software features are only relevant to the primary activities you’re trying to accomplish with the assistance of automation.

    Put another way, when you’re picking or designing a program to get something done – ignore all the fluff-n-stuff that has little or no bearing on what you want to get done.

    For example, if all you want to do is post 1-up snips of your daily life, then Twitter is just enough software to get it done. No need to worry about file storage, groups, rooms, etc …

    … which is also why I’m thinking Twitter is also likely to eventually beat the snot out of FriendFeed; but I digress … so more on that topic latter.

    For now, here are some related links on this topic:

    Your mileage may vary on this one, but deep in your heart, you know I’m right about making the mundane meaningful vs. marketing appeal of Twitter.

    Now please, if you don’t mind, link this post in your next tweet, add it to all your social network links so I can be proven wrong about the marketing thingie. A simple @deanpeters reply is all it takes!-)

    Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. – 1 Corinthians 9:24-26

  • 5 things we can learn from my 7:40 AM Thanksgiving wake-up call

    I believe it was the slam of a large piece of plywood falling 2 some-odd stories onto other lumber that rudely awoke me at 7:40 AM this Thanksgiving morning.  An no, I couldn’t go back to sleep as the hum of a noisy air compressor placed precisely next to the property line driving the pneumatic hammers were equally annoying. That was the scene at my home this holiday.

    trash next door
    trash heap at 5244 levering mill rd, apex, nc

    D&G Builders of Fuquay Varina proceeded to work on a new house.

    A house next door being constructed on behalf of PenfieldHomes.com.

    And after a few emails and phone calls to a project manager of construction who informed me that “Mexicans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving like us …”

    So after telling said project manger that I didn’t want a feud, I apologized if anything we said or did offended (though I’m truly hard pressed to think of any such word or deed) – and he in turn called off the work squad – and I began to think of how similar situations can impact the peaceful operation of our church and charity websites.

    In other words, just as noisy neighbors and/or construction are a nuisance in the real world, so too can the virtual home of our organization’s web presence can be disrupted by inconsiderate acts.  Here are some analogies that come to mind:

    1. Noise
    I had an experience lately where some blogs I run on a shared server were inaccessible due to the incoming noise from a bunch of spammers and ‘bots. This was because a neighboring domain sharing the same IP had put up a BBS in an unsecured fashion.
    2. Obstructions
    It’s only happened once, but a truck was recently parked that partially blocked our driveway. In the same way, access to your site can be obstructed in part and/or in whole when those working on and/ror running the website ‘next door’ with an improperly parked modules and/or run-away program that consumes all the server’s memory and ports.
    3. Trash
    Nobody like’s picking up someone else’s garbage. My wife is no exception, as she recently found herself picking up unsecured McDonald’s bags that had blown into our yard. In the same way, neighboring website projects can also leave rubbish in the form of temporary files, no-longer used compiler settings and the like.
    4. Boundaries
    The Wake County, NC ‘UDO‘  defines a minimum number of feet in which a new home structure can be built next to another, how much noise is acceptable and other fun stuff like that. However, just because these rules are on the books doesn’t mean they’re going to be enforced. Meaning, it is going to be up to me to look out for instances of encroachment. In the same way, don’t expect or assume the host of your shared server is going to have your best interest in mind. They don’t and won’t. It is up to you to be diligent be on guard for those times neighboring websites and/or webmasters wander into your domain – and to work within the boundaries of good citizenship and the rules to resolve such issues.
    5. Communications
    If possible, establish one point of contact and a protocol for those situations where you feel you’re on the receiving end of some inconsiderate instances or situations. For example, know the correct channels of communications for your web host, and if feasible, for your IP Neighbor. Similarly, understand that email, though convenient, can lead to a breakdown that leads to unnecessary and unfortunate bad blood. Especially true when individuals on the other side are already having a bad day due to some other unrelated inconsideration. In all cases, keep track and logs of all such communiqués as you never know when you’ll need them.

    Anyway, those are my thoughts this Thanksgiving morning as I ignore the slam of pneumatic hammer guns and the humming whir of the air compressor and set my thoughts onto some delicious Greek Chopped Meat Stuffing and football.

    Well that and all the wonderful ways in which I’ve been blessed, including my family, my friends, my job, my church, and also the hundreds of visitors to this site – many of whom have sent me private messages of best wishes. Thank you all. I’m very grateful for every remembrance of you (Philippians 1:3).

    And with that, here are some links to some other related articles I’ve posted in the past. These include some practical advice on “how-to” implement some of the safeguards, countermeasures and logging I’ve mentioned above:

    Now if you don’t mind me, I’m off to E-Bay and/or Craigslist to find an affordable ANSI S1. 2-1962 sound level meter to leverage. I’m hoping I don’t need it but one never knows.

  • 5 things more things about Christian spam email bombing runs

    Ever get that annoying email from a church, friend, and/or family member who ‘accidentally‘ sent a rant to everyone in their address book and/or a group-related email directory? With the recent election, my wife and I have been getting more than our fair share.

    And while I’ve written about how to address ‘Christian SPAM‘ in the recent past, I wanted to share with you my most recent response to what I sub-categorize as Christian SPAM email bombing runs (CSEBRs):

    – – – § – – –

    Hi {name withheld to protect the guilty};

    Next time we get together, make sure I spend about 5 minutes on my laptop showing you 5 cool — and free — things about the web that don’t rock like it’s 1995. For example:

    • Twitter – a “microblog” mechanism that lets you post 140 characters on any topic you want as often as you want. This is especially great as you’re standing around bored, upset, amused, and/or excited about things while equipped with nothing more than your cell phone. For an example, check mine out at http://twitter.com/deanpeters – no great shakes, but I’ve got enough subscribers whom seem interested.
    • Facebook – a social networking service where friends and families can subscribe where you can post thoughts like the ones below and then engage people in dialog and/or banter as they can post comments, etc .. It’s also a nice place to throw out some family pix. If you’d like, I can also show you how to “plug-in” a Facebook app that update to your “wall” every time you post on Twitter (synchronization is an amazing thing). Here’s a link to my profie http://is.gd/6MgW … note how I used the http://is.gd mechanism to shorten the URL.
    • Blogger.com – now I know Twitter and FaceBook have obviated bloggery to some degree, but I still love it as it allows me to venture deep into topics I enjoy such as healing church websites and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Moreover, less constraints on what I can post – and if you like, you can make some buck$ via instruments like Google’s adsense. Oh BTW, I’ve got my WordPress-driven blogs set up with the ‘twitter tools plugin‘ to update my Twitter and Facebook pages when I post. Best thing, again, people can subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed to keep up to date.
    • Google Reader – note I’ve mentioned subscribe 3 times now. All of the above allow individuals to subscribe either through the site’s syndication feed (RSS) and/or through email alerts with links to the juicy and compelling content. And not just from annoying friends like me, but any blog, news wire, newspaper, microblog and/or social network to which you’re inclined to observe.
    • BCC – finally … and I can’t stress this enough … if you must use email, that’s cool. But please, do me and others on your distribution one favor – use the BCC mechanism to distribute the email. Blind Carbon Copy is cool in that it’ll protect your friends, family and loved ones from nasty spammers and idiots like me from exposing their email addresses “into the wild.“Oh, and if you use a free email service like gMail, you can create categories for both incoming and outgoing email addresses – which is really handy when you quickly send out email broadcats to select groups of your address book (using BCC of course).

    Anyway, have a great Sunday – and give  {spouse name withheld to protect the innocent} a hug from us.

    Your (annoying) friend;

    Dean

    – – – § – – –

    Feel free to use any portion of this email to respond to Christian SPAM email bombing runs aimed in your direction. Or better yet, just send them a link here.

    I’ll be glad to respond to their rationalizations and excuses by explaining how the are endangering the tax exempt status of their church by dumping a political kvetch on the Sunday school rolls.

  • Politically active on your church website? Kiss your tax exemption goodbye!

    In case you didn’t know, since 1954 there has been a federal ban on political activity for tax exempt, 501(c)(3) organizations such as charities and churches.

    A lesson Atlah World Ministries may be learning the hard way when this past February, pastor James David Manning stood in the pulpit of his little church on 123rd Street in Harlem and denounced Senator Barack Obama as a … well it doesn’t matter.

    What matters is that said event soon afterward went viral on YouTube. The result, according to the NY Times, was a formal complaint to the IRS by a watchdog group focused on 501(c)(3) violating rules regarding political activity.

    Another example on the other end of the ideological aisle was a case concerning the United Church of Christ (UCC) . Back in 2006 they invited then Senator Barack Obama to its annual Synod in Hartford Connecticut in 2007.  And despite the Synod making it clear that this shouldn’t be a campaign event – it none-the-less it got politicized  – inspiring yet another investigation by the IRS.

    There are other such stories, but my point here is not to aggregate such instances, but rather to remind congregational leaders,  web masters, and even Sunday school teachers that they need to take a moment and make sure everyone is aware of the July 28, 2008 memorandum from the Director, Exempt Organizations Examinations, describing how the IRS will analyze political campaign activity issues involving websites of section 501(c)(3) organizations.

    In it you’ll see that it’s not just overt acts like the reckless and financially suicidal ‘die by the sword‘ Pulpit Initiative launched by the Alliance Defense Fund, but things that can occur in the normal operation of your church and/or charity website such as:

    • podcasting a sermon that favors a candidate
    • posting a Sunday school lesson that opposes a candidate
    • distributing emails that props up one candidate over another
    • links to another website that endorses a candidate
    • fails to monitor a link that subsequently endorses a candidate

    At least that’s this layperson’s, non-legal, untrained understanding of the IRS Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations and what they communicate on their websites.

    That said, and with my likely ignorance of some aspect of the law in mind, I’ll list below some links to sites that seem smarter than me on this tricky topic:

    And from the blogosphere … these thoughts:

    Remember, regardless of your political leanings, violating this ban may result in denial or revocation of your organization’s tax-exempt status and the imposition of an excise tax on the amount of money spent on the activity …

    … that and the loss of the many freebies and discounts your church currently enjoys with its 501(c)(3) status (think Google Apps for starts).

  • 5 simple steps to stronger passwords

    Just as good fences make good neighbors, strong passwords make secure users. Put another way, if your pastor is using his first name as a login, and his last name as a password, it won’t be long before your website and/or email system begins spewing spam for various online services not usually associated with a church … or worse.

    What do I mean by worse? Glad you asked.

    All a hacker need do is to figure out the login and password to one privileged  account and that’s usually enough for them to then quietly get into the rest of your system and begin discovering sensitive information about your organization and/or its members.

    I mean imagine the emotional impact and legal/political ramifications that could arise by the publication of private data and/or identity theft resulting from a system compromised by weak password practices.

    Okay I’m freaking out, so now what? Glad you asked.

    Here are five things you can teach your users to do in creating and using stronger passwords:

    1. Avoid passwords based on repetition, dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, or biographical information like names or dates;
    2. Include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in passwords;
    3. Password length should be around 12 to 14 characters;
    4. Don’t write down passwords where prying eyes can see them, like a PostIt note taped to the underside of one’s keyboard; and
    5. Avoid using the same password when registering with other online services.

    Easier said than done Dean. Yes, I know but …

    Unfortunately, getting laypersons and staff to use strong passwords is indeed easier said than done because by their nature, such passwords are harder to remember and guess.

    That said, one technique I’ve seen used with success is employing passwords based on easy-to-remember mnemonic phrases such as:

    • mYd0gh@sFleaz – or My Dog Has Fleas
    • @0ne4all2C – at 1 for all to see

    There are also a number of free online services that will generate a strong password if you’re having trouble thinking up one of your own, here are just a few:

    Along with that, here’s a link to a rather nice free online service that will rate your password’s strength against a number of the criteria mentioned above and then some:

    And if you’re too chicken to tell your church secretary that the name of her prize poodle isn’t going to cut it, just send him a link to this article. I can take it from there.

  • Pastors and Lay Persons and BlackBerrys, Oh My!

    With the debut of the now consolidated Google Mobile Apps for BlackBerry also arrives yet another reason why your church and/or charity should consider moving off the desktop and onto the web space.

    This is because yesterday Google has officially launched its Google Mobile Apps for BlackBerry, which integrates all those separate applications on your handy handset into a single interface that provides single-sign, single-click access to:

    • Google Mail,
    • Google Maps,
    • Google Sync,
    • Google News,
    • Google Reader,
    • Google Calendar,
    • Google Docs,
    • Picasa Web albums, and
    • Google notebook.

    So what has this got to do with running your church and/or charity website? Glad you asked …

    Think of it in these terms: you get an idea for a sermon, study, budget, and/or praise song while standing in the line at the grocery store. You start your outline document on your trusty BlackBerry – then email your wife, your co-teacher, your committee chair that you’re now sharing this new document with them and that you’ll be able to work on it in about an hour.

    You get home, fire up your browser, and now your great outline is on its way to becoming a great presentation that you’ll also post on your blog-driven church website, without you having to worry about floppy disks, USB keys, FTP depots and other vestiges of the ‘sneakernet‘ technology that desktop applications have used to chain us to our desks.

    And for those of you asking, but I’ve already got the individuals apps on my BlackBerry, why upgrade? Glad you asked, here’s why …

    • Fast Google search – enter queries without waiting for a browser to load
    • Search history – easily access and amend your previous queries
    • Google Suggest – complete queries with less typing
    • Easy access to Google products for your phone – click once to download and install our applications for BlackBerry, and get immediate access to our web-based services
    • Google Apps support – get direct links to your Google Apps Calendar and Documents/Spreadsheets (select Menu, Options, Use Google Apps Domain: yes, and then enter your domain name)
    • Update alerts – learn about new versions of downloadable Google mobile applications and upgrade with just one click (Google Mobile App replaces Google Updater for BlackBerry)

    If you’re a BlackBerry owner, go to m.google.com to download the conoslidated office ‘sweet’ …

    … as I will this weekend, hopefully reporting nothing but good news later next week.