Thread: Semi-local website Board: Purgatory / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Nubinia (# 18733) on
:
I'm thinking of setting up a Web 2 site for our diocese, with Ship as a major influence (unconscious originally). The aim is to grow the church, under the "Bigger Church, Bigger Impact" banner. So one aim would be to help people find a snail church locally which suited their needs, but maybe board membership should count as biggerness? All advice gratefully received (probably)!
Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Nubinia:
I'm thinking of setting up a Web 2 site for our diocese, with Ship as a major influence (unconscious originally). The aim is to grow the church, under the "Bigger Church, Bigger Impact" banner. So one aim would be to help people find a snail church locally which suited their needs, but maybe board membership should count as biggerness? All advice gratefully received (probably)!
Stating the obvious but two major differences from the ship, are being connected with a denomination and an area.
On the negative side that means that the pool your drawing on is smaller, real life and virtual grudges and problems will spill over to the other.
On the plus side that also means you've got a massive real presence, automatic things in common, and space for real and virtual good things to work together.
So I'd hit the local connection hard, with what's happening. Consider what you can share with other groups. Be cautious of discussing personal issues or divisive issues (you probably can't set a safe space).
And get the right relationships with the appropriate people, and make sure they have a clear idea of the aims and limits.
Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on
:
Is your model something like:
- Churchgoers in the diocese would be encouraged to sign up for the site;
- The site would give them the opportunity to enjoy discussions with a wider range of people than in their own churches;
- Once it reached a certain critical mass, it would become big and prominent enough to attract people from outside the church who would be interested in becoming involved with a church in the diocese?
(No real comment to make, just making sure I understand the idea.)
Posted by Helen-Eva (# 15025) on
:
If you're able to it might be helpful to do a survey in advance of how many people would be likely to sign up for it as that'll give you some idea of how to pitch it.
I've noticed that some local sites work really well - there's a hugely successful website for a village some friends of mine live in and it really builds community, but I think it helps to have a fairly broad focus so maybe a listings page for freecycling (giving your old stuff to someone who needs it) and so forth and maybe small ads and extras as well in case you don't get enough discussion straight off to keep it fresh.
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on
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Does your ministry team use Twitter? Are you on Facebook, Snapchat? Do you have some young people who will guide you in reaching them?
Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on
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Welcome, Nubinia and I hope you enjoy the Ship.
You raise an interesting point. The thread can stay here meantimes, and folks are free to contribute, but I think it may be more suitable to another one of our discussions boards (possibly All Saints?). So I'm going to have a chat with other Hosts about that.
Barnabas62
Purgatory Host
Posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis (# 3886) on
:
At risk of stating the b***** obvious run everything past your diocesan communications officer and safeguarding teams make sure you are complying with all diocesan safeguarding and communications policies.
The diversity we have on the ship, which generates discussion is because we come from a number of different denominations, and indeed religions. I'd be surprised if many dioceses would want to sponsor such diversity under their own banner.
Posted by Nubinia (# 18733) on
:
Thanks for all the replies - I wish there was an option to watch the topic, so I got email notifications!
quote:
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
Is your model something like:
Be cautious of discussing personal issues or divisive issues (you probably can't set a safe space).
That's exactly how my subconscious brain lead me to the Ship, and I thought I had invented Heaven and Hell by myself ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Doesn't that work here to make a safe space, as that is one of the most important thing I want to do.
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
[QB] Is your model something like:
- Churchgoers in the diocese would be encouraged to sign up for the site;
- The site would give them the opportunity to enjoy discussions with a wider range of people than in their own churches;
- Once it reached a certain critical mass, it would become big and prominent enough to attract people from outside the church who would be interested in becoming involved with a church in the diocese?
(No real comment to make, just making sure I understand the idea.)
I also want to reach non churchgoers. So I know of people who have stopped going to church because of our attitudes to LGBT*, but we have several congregations who would accept them for who they were. If churchgoers knew who they were, we could pass the invite via them.
It would be great to grow enough to attract people from outside.
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
Does your ministry team use Twitter? Are you on Facebook, Snapchat? Do you have some young people who will guide you in reaching them?
We are a small church, and maintaining a content-driven internet presence seems too much for us. So getting young people involved is vital!
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
At risk of stating the b***** obvious run everything past your diocesan communications officer and safeguarding teams make sure you are complying with all diocesan safeguarding and communications policies.
The diversity we have on the ship, which generates discussion is because we come from a number of different denominations, and indeed religions. I'd be surprised if many dioceses would want to sponsor such diversity under their own banner.
Bishop Paul Bayes supports diversity on his Facebook account, so we'll see...
Posted by Nubinia (# 18733) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Helen-Eva:
If you're able to it might be helpful to do a survey in advance of how many people would be likely to sign up for it as that'll give you some idea of how to pitch it.
I've noticed that some local sites work really well - there's a hugely successful website for a village some friends of mine live in and it really builds community, but I think it helps to have a fairly broad focus so maybe a listings page for freecycling (giving your old stuff to someone who needs it) and so forth and maybe small ads and extras as well in case you don't get enough discussion straight off to keep it fresh.
Excellent points. Nextdoor, which took over from Streetlife, seems to be dying due to people not wanting their name to appear publicly. So I am trying to get a free site going for our more immediate neighbourhood.
Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Nubinia:
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
At risk of stating the b***** obvious run everything past your diocesan communications officer and safeguarding teams make sure you are complying with all diocesan safeguarding and communications policies.
The diversity we have on the ship, which generates discussion is because we come from a number of different denominations, and indeed religions. I'd be surprised if many dioceses would want to sponsor such diversity under their own banner.
Bishop Paul Bayes supports diversity on his Facebook account, so we'll see...
IME the Diocese of Liverpool encompasses a wide spectrum of theological opinions - on the other hand, the diocese might be wary of the risk of headlines appearing in the Echo saying TORRENTS OF RACIST ABUSE ON DIOCESAN WEBSITE or GROOMED BY STRANGER SHE MET ON DIOCESAN WEBSITE ...
Posted by Martin60 (# 368) on
:
I've only used Streetlife for tradesmen. Didn't know it had been swallowed up by Nextdoor which is failing too!
I'm astounded at how utterly moribund church websites and their Facebook spinoffs are.
Why would that change? The church isn't a community because we're not communal, church or not.
Islam is of course.
Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Nubinia:
quote:
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
Be cautious of discussing personal issues or divisive issues (you probably can't set a safe space).
That's exactly how my subconscious brain lead me to the Ship, and I thought I had invented Heaven and Hell by myself Doesn't that work here to make a safe space, as that is one of the most important thing I want to do.
It helps, but it also has advantage that the hosts have the freedom of it being theirs, and much more anonymity.
Liverpool contains 257 anglican churches. By the time you've gone High/Middle/Low, Small/Medium/Big, Rural/Urban/City it's down to around 20*, of which you know what's going on at 5**. At that point you can pretty much narrow someone down quickly.
Compare with just the 42 CoE dioceses, where you now know 10 out of around the 100. You don't have that same expectation.
*doubled to reflect some correlation.
**as they are most like you
And also the ship is independent.
Posted by Nubinia (# 18733) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Nubinia:
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
At risk of stating the b***** obvious run everything past your diocesan communications officer and safeguarding teams make sure you are complying with all diocesan safeguarding and communications policies.
The diversity we have on the ship, which generates discussion is because we come from a number of different denominations, and indeed religions. I'd be surprised if many dioceses would want to sponsor such diversity under their own banner.
Bishop Paul Bayes supports diversity on his Facebook account, so we'll see...
IME the Diocese of Liverpool encompasses a wide spectrum of theological opinions - on the other hand, the diocese might be wary of the risk of headlines appearing in the Echo saying TORRENTS OF RACIST ABUSE ON DIOCESAN WEBSITE or GROOMED BY STRANGER SHE MET ON DIOCESAN WEBSITE ...
Absolutely. Should I send passwords by snail mail to verify addresses? And read every post, or have a trusted team to do so?
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