Posted By: abelajohnb

Hey All,

I've got a quick public post today that should interest most everybody.

This will be a 2 x 2 x 2 -- two updates to the website, two generalized questions, and two public notices.

Website Update #1

We have finished the process of migrating the website to a new server. You can track the ongoing details in this discussion thread.

The server migration is providing for us a faster website (increase of about 10-15% at this point, and shortly (we hope) an additional increase of 35% as we begin the process of implementing features available to us that have been installed on the new server.

Thank you to everybody that reported errors while we were undergoing the migration, and thanks to everybody for your understanding that things are not always at 100% when we are involved in these type of situations.

Website Update #2

We have decided we do not like the new home page.

Yes, it loads really fast.

Yes, it does not have a lot of graphics.

But...

We just do not like it.

Cosmetically it is just way to different from the rest of our website.

Feature-wise, it lacks a lot of features that our old home page had.

So, sometime in the next few days we hope to be reverting to our old home page. We will try to get it to load as fast as possible, retain as many features as possible, and have it back to it's pretty'ol self!

Generalized Question #1

We need ideas to generate revenue... and everybody here in my office are geeks - we just don't understand nor relate to the world of making lots of money. We prefer gadgets, cool new computer parts, and things like that. But things like 'how to raise money' isn't in our vocabulary.

Thankfully, I know a number of our members DO understand that whole lingo! And, we are at a point now here ChristianBlog.Com is consuming a great deal more then what it is generating, and we need some ideas to pump some financial life-blood back into our operation!

Here is what we cannot do: We cannot have Google/Yahoo advertisement on our website - for business reasons, this is just a fact of life for us. We cannot have pop-up advertisements. We cannot have non-controllable advertisement. We we prefer to not have our website littered with advertisements at all, for that fact.

Here is what we have tried: Targeted product advertisements (books releases go over well, but most authors cannot afford a good deal of money for book releases at a website like ours). We have tried Amazon product advertisements (this does not generate enough revenue to justify the time involved). We have tried ChristianBooks.Com product advertisement (sadly, their affiliate system is the worst we've ever seen, and it takes WAY to much work to get it implemented to a large enough degree to make it beneficial to us). We have tried "duration based reductions" in Subscription fees (the last time we did this, we offered it at 80% off, and it generated one new sign up -- sigh)

So, yeah, we need some ideas on how we might make some extra money to help bring ChristianBlog.Com out of the red and into the black.

Thankfully one or two of our faithful members each month honor us by sending us a donation! Without them, we would be running 100% in the red.

Generalized Question #2

A number of our members have been pushing me hard to either turn ChristianBlog.Com into a "paid only use" website, or start a new website that would be like ChristianBlog.Com, only be a paid website with additional features geared towards hard core bloggers.

In essence, the idea is a combination of ChristianBlog.Com, LiveJournal.Com and Blogger.Com -- only "john abela style". For starters, it would be much like ChristianBlog.Com is... it would be 100% focused on only blogging. It would NOT be a "community" like ChristianBlog.Com is - for the most part. Each member would have their own account, with their own interface, with their own blog, with their own profile page, and so forth. There would be no "master page" where everybody who is a member has their newest blog listed (i.e.: our "Activity Since Last Visit" page). It would have all of our existing blogging features, except much more for the blog authors. Things like "comments must be approved" (optional), Email Notifications, Custom Categories, Tagging, Archiving (much much better then the one here at christianblog.com) and anybody who wanted to reply to any of your blogs would have to sign up (a very simple form), which would be a global account across the entire website (sort of like a blogger.com account). There would be no chatroom, (probably) no private messages, a private gallery, so on and so forth. Again, the idea would be 100% centered around providing the Blogger (author) features, more features, and even more features.

I have even thought about making it so that anybody who uses this (possible) new website... anytime they post something in their account at the new website, and IF they had an account here at ChristianBlog.Com, it could also be displayed (displayed does not equal published) at ChristianBlog.Com -- kind of a cool idea.

Anyway the question in this is: If you like this idea, please voice up and let me know you like the idea, and how much you would be willing to pay for this type of a website.

Based on interest and pricing, I can then sit-down and decide if it will be worth it for me to venture into this or not.

Public Notice #1

Technical Support...

It seems we have had some "issues" concerning some of our Technical Support Team Members over the last few weeks.

I put one of our newer Team Members in charge of the Technical Support Team and he put out some requests to some of our members to see if they would like to join the Technical Support Team. He got a number of people willing to help out, he trained them, and we let them go at it.

Unfortunately, it seems as if a few of them got out of control rather quickly. I am not sure if they were staying up to late or what, but their ability to follow instructions (ours) and use our standard messages, they took it upon themselves to use whatever was on their mind at the given time - and in doing so, offended a number of our members.

I would first like to apologize to anybody who has been offended by anybody on our Technical Support Team over the last few weeks. I had hoped we could solve the issues internally by getting them to see "the bigger picture", however, they just were not willing to follow our basic operational methods, and we could no longer allow them to do so.

So, needless to say, the guy in charge of our Technical Support Team is in need of a few (more) people willing to step-up and join the ChristianBlog.Com Team. We need two people from the USA, two people from the UK region, and one person from the NZ/AU region. Your basic responsibilities would be to answer tech support questions. 99% of the time we have 'canned messages' that you can use to initiate or solve the problem at hand, so the work involved in not mind-blowingly hard.

I am pretty sure that the Prayer Team needs one more prayer-warrior. So if you are a prayer warrior and willing to invest into things here at ChristianBlog.Com, please let me know!

I also know that the Chatroom Team needs a half-dozen or so new members. Again, we need people from the USA, UK/Region, and NZ/AU region. If you like to spend time in the chatroom, don't have a problem with power going to your head, and want to be apart of the CB Team, drop a reply and let us know!

I also know that I could use one or two more people on the Moderator Team. This is probably the hardest team to be apart of, and the one that requires the most training and daily time involved.

Anyway, got off-topic there a little bit... sorry.

Back to our Technical Support Team... The guy in charge of the Technical Support Team would like to offer everybody his deepest apologize for anybody that has gotten offended, he wanted me to let everybody know that he himself made the decision to remove them, and that he is working very very hard to make sure it does not happen again under his watch.

Public Notice #2

We are working on a new draft of our policies (all of them) and hope to have them in place before the first of next month. Should we not get everybody approved by the first of July, we will try our best to get them out as soon as possible.

Technically we do not have to publicly notify our members of policy updates, but this is going to be our first major policy change since the website went online, that I felt the need to let the entire public know.

Now, I cannot say "for sure" what all of the changes will be - because they have not yet been approved - but here is what I have been pushing for, in our updated policies:

(1) Less of them! We have got waaaay to many policies and I have been pushing to get them streamlined and merged into a few less policies. I am hoping we will have the standard Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Privacy Policy, Members Code of Conduct, and then merge the rest into a single Publication Policy.

(2) Members Contact Policy. This is going to undergo a number of changes that will allow our members to provide additional information about themselves, however, we will not be reversing our "email/phone/address" policies from how they presently stand.

(3) Blog Licenses. We expect to be totally removing the "Blog Licenses" from any future published Blog Entries! This will mean the end of having to post under either the "ChristianBlog.Com License" or the "Creative Commons License". What we will be (probably) going to is an open publication when enforcement of DMCA and OCILLA. This will allow our members to post a broader range of content and at the same time allow ChristianBlog.Com a much better legal position to remove content and terminate accounts of repeat violators. One thing this change will mean is being able to post content from other websites you own, or posting snippets of newspapers, books, and such. In essence, the liability is removed from ChristianBlog.Com and put onto the shoulders of the Blog Publisher. Should anything illegal be published, the legality falls upon the Copyright holder to seek actions against the Publisher (the person who published the blog entry) rather then ChristianBlog.Com itself. Personally, I like this because it not only releases ChristianBlog.Com from huge liability, but it allows Blog Publishers to take responsibilities upon themselves, and also allow them to publish a greater variety of content. It is a win-win situation for everybody - except those who willing violate the law and get a DMCA filed against them.

(4) We will be relaxing our Gallery Policy. Like in the above explain situation, we will be falling back on the DMCA/OCILLA to enforce copyright violations. It is illogical of us to manage the legal side of this, and as such, we will be doing away with a good part of our present Gallery Policy.

(5) Members Code of Conduct. This policy will be getting a major revamp. It will be placing greater weight of responsibilities onto the members, rather then on ChristianBlog.Com.

The "hold up" at this point is I have been pushing for a way to combine a number of our policies into one or two, and at the same time cover more of the website. We needed to find a way to have a globalized policy that covered all published content at ChristianBlog.Com -- from blog entries, to shoutouts, to discussion threads.

In Closing:

Well that is about all for now everybody. I hope I have been able to provide some good information for everybody, and help bring everybody up-to-speed at what is going on around ChristianBlog.Com!

I look forward to every bodies comments about the many issues I have addressed herein.

Thank you again to those who have sent us donations over the past month! Your continued support has really been helpful the last few weeks!

For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

permalink   Posted: 06/28/08 8:37am - Total Views: 947 - Category: Site News   View: Backlinks

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Blog Tags:   christianblog,  everybody,  policy,  team,  technical,  website, 

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blessings2you

Posted by:  blessings2you  (Posted: 06/28/08 8:58am) permalink

Excellent on every point that pertains to me personally. I am pleasantly surprised at many of these proposed changes and I think they will strengthen the site and make it a far better one in the long run. All I can say for the moment is thanks for pouring all this work into making this site the best possible vehicle for communicating thoughts, ideas and heart concerning God, His Word and his people.

You know I am 100% in favor of the idea of separating off a separate site for us "serious" bloggers. I would pay whatever you thought appropriate (within reason of course) for the ability and flexability to do things that way.

Much to ponder and I promise to get back with you ASAP as I think about some of the specific points you brought up. For now, let me express again my sincere thanksgiving for all these cool changes and potential changes and for you and your team's hard work to come up with them.
B2Y

blackrose65

Posted by:  blackrose65  (Posted: 06/28/08 1:28pm) permalink

Wow. You're a busy man, John. I'll be saying an extra prayer for you tonight! About the advartising... have you considered having other Ministries advertise here on CB? I'm not too savvy on advertising either... just a thought.

savedbyegrace

Posted by:  savedbyegrace  (Posted: 06/30/08 4:12am) permalink

Though I haven't published a blog lately, I prefer the community of CB and would not be interested in blogging only.

Thanks for all your hard work.

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 06/30/08 5:31am) permalink

Hello and thank you for taking the time to respond.

I will try to quickly address points made by each of you.



Yes, I was rather surprised to when I finally sat down and decided it was time to revamp things (especially loosening of the policies) and try to make some drastic changes to our operations. There is no doubt we have already had a good deal of "trials from within" over some of the changes, but I am confident that many of the changes I have tried to lay out will fall into place.

Thank you for voicing your vote for a possible new website. I've got your vote marked down, along with the others in this blog and a few who've PM'ed me.



Thanks blackrose65! Believe me when I say I can use all the prayer time you'all can spare! ChristianBlog.Com is growing by leaps and bounds, and it is "that time" to take it to the next level, and that means some changes are in place to help us accomplish that - and, like always, they take a boatload of money (that one usually does not have) and a shipload of time (which thankfully I do have a bit of).

I have considered having other Ministries advertise here at ChristianBlog.Com, however, no takers yet.



Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!

For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

kraftykatz

Posted by:  kraftykatz  (Posted: 06/30/08 7:24am) permalink

I have a question about a blogging only site.

If all the serious blog only people leave this site to join another, that would mean we could no longer read blogs by people like blesingstoyou.

Would we here at this CB site still be able to read their blogs or are these bloggers lost to us?

KraftyKatz
drinking tea

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 06/30/08 7:37am) permalink



First, let me be up front about the new website. IF (sizable "if" )... IF such a website were to every be started it would not be anytime soon (as in before the end of the year). I am slamming busy with two major projects right now and it would just not be wise for me to even start a third major project until I finish one or both of the other ones. So, please do not think this is going to be "overnight" or anything like it. Far far far from it. (unless of course an angel would come along and drop a very sizable check in my account lol)

Ok, in regards to your question, kraftykatz, I kind of mentioned that above... but only in passing.

I was thinking that if the person was a member of what this new website would be, and a member of ChristianBlog.Com, they could (at their own option) have it displayed here at ChristianBlog.Com - but as I said above, "displayed" does not mean "published". I think it would be more the kind of thing where we'd have a section of the right-side of this website that displayed blogs from the other website.

But, then again, I may just decide against that.... I really have no idea.... because all of this is just "in thought" at this point in time, and not even in blueprint yet, more or less started development.

Ok, hope that clarifies this issue.

John

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 07/01/08 12:45pm) permalink

Hello Everybody,

I have a bit of sad news to share with everybody.

On June 30th Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill Monday outlawing cyberbullying.

See the news article, "Missouri governor signs Internet harassment bill" for basic details.

This is, sadly, going to affect our ability to push out our planned updated policies, mentioned above.

As I hinted at, we were not 100% sure they would get pushed out on the first of the month... most of us here had a feeling this new bill was going to pass, and alas, it did.

So, until we are able to see exactly what Gov. Blunt has done (on paper) we are not going to be able to update our Global Policies.

As everybody knows, we here at ChristianBlog.Com try VERY hard to stay out of "politics" but sometimes we've just gotta say what we feel, and this is one of those times, if you will allow me to do so...

Personally, I feel this is a major setback for open internet laws! Our government, and governments around the world today, are starting to face the consequences of "having too many laws" and become a nation of laws, rather then a nation of freedom, like our founding fathers intended. The further that internet laws are developed, the further the internet will be hurt. Yes, there is a place for prosecuting those who do harm, but for the "internet" to begin to be micro-managed by laws, is a dangerous, dangerous, thing! Yes, I feel we should protect those who need protecting - but does this not ultimately lie on the shoulders of those responsible? And, is that not the person who is using the computer - or in the case of children, the parents are thus responsible. Throughout our USA legal system (minus these new internet laws popping up all over the darn place), when a minor commits a non-felony crime, the parent becomes responsible for the actions of the child. So, why then does the internet have to be out here on it's own, with it's own set of rules and laws? I really wish somebody could answer this for me, because, frankly, it makes no darn sense. Two sets of standards, two sets of rules.... under a united nation of constitutions. Hmm... something is just not right in that...

John B. Abela

blessings2you

Posted by:  blessings2you  (Posted: 07/01/08 8:34pm) permalink

The case which prompted this bill continues to astound me, and believe me, living in Missouri we have heard every person in the world it seems cry out for this new law along with much tougher ones. As you say, whatever happened to parental responsibility? Whatever happened to parents period?

Sorry my state's caused you guys unintended problems. Certainly not unusual with the current politics as they are in this state.
B2Y

everfaithful

Posted by:  everfaithful  (Posted: 07/02/08 9:09am) permalink

I will be happy to have my old homepage back....since I am not a huge blogger...I only blog when nudged by the Holy Spirit, I will miss my Christian family here. I came here needing Christian friends who would chat and pray with me. I will miss that!

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 07/15/08 4:28am) permalink

Hey all,

After three weeks of trying to figure out why our websites "spell checker" was not working (all it would do is return a 'no errors found' message), I have finally figured out why it has not been working.

I spent at least 4 hours last night trying to figure it out (even installed a new version of the spell checker software) and another 2 or so hours this morning.... I think I finally figure out why.

And, as luck would have it... I would almost rather have not figured it out, because it seems that the changes to our new server has broken the ability for us to use the specific software we were using for spell checking.

I spent probably 45 minutes trying to find a way to fix this, and it is just not going to happen at this time.

I am going to talk it over with the guys in my office and see if we can find a solution to this... but from what I've already researched, it is not going to look too good.

Sooooo, for now, my only suggestion to those of you who have difficulties spelling corectly... err, I mean "correctly"... would be to use Firefox, which is a free internet browser, much like Internet Exporer.

Why do I recommend you use Firefox to solve this?

Well, because Firefox has a built-in spell checker. As you type, it underlines tyos... err, typos... and thus our spell checker that has now died on us, isn't even really necessary.

Of course, I realize not everybody likes, or wants to use Firefox, but there is very little I can offer at this time. If you've just GOTTA use IE, then perhaps ieSpell might be a viable option for you. I use to use it before I started using Firefox. And, if you are an Opera user, you should be the same as Firefox... as it has a built-in spell checker too. And, if you are one of those rare few who visit ChristianBlog.Com with Safari, I really have no idea what your options are... I am not a MAC user and thus don't have Safari installed

I have removed the spell checker from the "add a blog", "private messages" and "blog" page.... if anybody sees any I missed, please let me know!

John B. Abela

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:03am) permalink

Hey John! You and all your work is so VERY appreciated here! Sometimes I think your position is something like a sound tech in church. It is the most unrecognized ministry there unless something goes wrong!:-p) Then it is the Most recognized!
I for one usually try to do all my post first in Microsoft Word which does my checking for me then paste it here.
It usually takes me time to do my post so I don't like dealing with the time out thingy!
Blessings to you John!!!
Tia

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:08am) permalink

Does the spell checker in Comments count as one to let you knw?

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:09am) permalink

oooppps sorry John that wasnt enough info - that one only shows up after clicking submit your comment and then it is in the edit section.

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:10am) permalink

oooppps sorry John that wasnt enough info - that one only shows up after clicking submit your comment and then it is in the edit section.

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:12am) permalink

oooppps sorry John that wasnt enough info - that one only shows up after clicking submit your comment and then it is in the edit section.

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:14am) permalink

oooppps sorry John that wasnt enough info - that one only shows up after clicking submit your comment and then it is in the edit section.

blessings2you

Posted by:  blessings2you  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:17am) permalink

Thanks for trying to fix the thing John. If a person has downloaded the Google tool bar, it has a spell checker right there on it (and it works great). I am sure others must have one too like Yahoo.
B2Y

kraftykatz

Posted by:  kraftykatz  (Posted: 07/15/08 9:56am) permalink

Questions from one not knowledgeable about computer programs.

1. Can I have FoxFire and IE installed on my computer at the same time?
2. Would one interfer with the other?

I was told by someone else I could not have both.

Right now, I log on to aol then open IE. I do this for many things other than just CB.
3. How would my logging into CB be different?

KraftyKatz


P.S. spell check showed up on the update button.

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 07/15/08 5:40pm) permalink

@ All, I removed the one on the blog comment preview page.

@prasnhym, the "time out thingie" should be resolved if you are using Firefox or IE. We increased the "time out" from 5 minutes to 2-hours

@blessings2you, yes, the toolbar one will work well, however, I usually tend to shy away from browser toolbars. I don't like how much room they take up in my browser screen.

@KraftyKatz, Yes, you can have Firefox and IE installed at the same time. In fact, I almsot always have both IE and Firefox open / running at the same time (I have them both open right now). They do not interfer with each other in any way. The process would be the same for you.... open aol, log into your aol account, once you are connected, open Firefox (rather then IE) and surf away. It would be no different then using IE, except for the fact that Firefox is a little bit more secure, and has a lot more built-in features - such as the automatic spell checker.

: - )

blessings2you

Posted by:  blessings2you  (Posted: 07/17/08 6:18am) permalink

John,

I just wanted to let you and anyone else know that I invested the time last night to download Firefox and I am super abundantly blessed!!!!

The last time I tried Firefox was a few years ago and things got, well let us say complicated. It took some time to get the cookies transferred, but for the first time in months my computer is running smoothly AND QUICKLY. And to think, it didn't cost me anything!!

Hey, if you have not tried to the new and improved Firefox, try it. I never realized how many issues Explorer had until last night. And besides, now I have a really cool spell check built right in!! I was even able to remove the Google tool bar. Best of all, I can now get to this site and get logged on within seconds, it used to take me minutes at times. Firefox has my vote for the best free thing I have ever seen on the Internet.

Thanks for the heads up about Firefox!!!

B2Y

kraftykatz

Posted by:  kraftykatz  (Posted: 07/17/08 6:58am) permalink

I have downloaded foxfire also. I like it so far. Have found other web site also easier to navigate. Don't understand the add-on thingy byt will figure it out.
Thanks John.
KraftyKatz
drinking tea

prasnhym

Posted by:  prasnhym  (Posted: 07/17/08 9:11am) permalink

Hey John!
Another convert here! I just switched over to Firefox... i seriously like the spell checker! Gotta figure out some things on it like the favorite/bookmark thingy... but so far so good!
P.S.
I sent a report on all of the duplicated comments i have above, asking for there removal and explaining what happened to cause them... uh they are still here...
Blessings to you John
Tia

abelajohnb

Posted by:  abelajohnb  (Posted: 07/17/08 10:13am) permalink

Good to hear you guys are liking the features of Firefox... I very much like it.... although I am not sure I like how it deals with bookmarks.

@tia, don't worry about all the duplicate comments... I don't mind them :D

John

kreynolds

Posted by:  kreynolds  (Posted: 07/19/08 4:02pm) permalink

As one of those Mac users I use Firefox and really like it a lot.

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Raised in a private Christian school until his senior year, Mr. Abela has been around the Christian Faith nearly his entire life. Shortly after entering High School he became involved in researching his Native American heritage and soon found himself deeply involved in the Native American religion. Shortly before his... view more