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Taylor Burton-Edwards
tburtonedwards@gbod.org
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| Posted: |
2/13/2007 9:31:44 AM |
Number of Reads: |
118343 |
| Last Reply: |
2/25/2007 9:50:51 AM |
Number of Replies: |
0 |
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Over the past several years, the Worship Discussion Room on the GBOD website has been a place where folks from across the UMC and indeed across the world could ask questions, share ideas, rejoice in successes, lament losses, and point each other to resources. The conversation has always been more "multi-way" (among several folks) than two way (between "us" in Nashville and "y'all" out there or vice versa), though we have offered some questions and answers along the way.
There are advantages in letting anyone and everyone post. There's great freedom in that. But there are also disadvantages. Spam can easily be posted, as can commercial messages. Some of you may have noticed that messages for a variety of prescription drugs have been appearing as new posts or even as replies to existing posts.
You may also have noticed that the kinds of editing tools that have been common in blogs for the past several years, including the ability easily to add live hyperlinks, multiple print sizes and styles, RSS syndication, and other "standard" elements have not been part of this forum.
And you may have noticed that some messages on the overall board seem to last for years, and recur near the top seemingly randomly (that happens when someone posts a new reply-- and lately those "new replies" to "old messages" have nearly all been spam advertisements), while others seem to disappear quickly.
That's all about to change.
A new Worship Discussion Room is now available starting today (2/13/2007).
The new Worship Discussion Room will be able to handle the "spam" issues we've had lately right up front. While anyone can read, only registered users (registration is free, of course!) will be able to post. Each post must be submitted with a text code derived from an image (so it's harder for spambots to read). And all messages to the board will be moderated as an extra, hands-on way to ensure that our conversations here are as constructive and free from extraneous materials as possible.
We've added security on your end as well. Currently, it's possible for web-bots to harvest your email addresses posted to the WDR and thereby add to your personal spam. Your email addresses will no longer be posted-- so web-bots can't read them right off the page. Instead, if you want to contact an individual directly through the list, a new tool internal to the system (not viewable by web-bots) will help you make that connection directly and securely.
And we're making your use experience fuller with a much wider array of editing tools and RSS syndication-- like you'd experience on most blogs and other online forums today.
And from now on, posts will be kept "alive" for a shorter, defined period of time, and ordered both in terms of time and relevance. And you'll have tools to allow you to monitor or “subscribe” to either conversations or the whole forum. That way you can see, up front, the conversations that are most active and relevant to you, and you’ll know when they've been updated.
We think you'll find the NEW Worship Discussion Room to be a much more user-friendly and user-centered experience.
While the current/former Worship discussion room will still be available for posting through this Friday (2/16/2007), at that time it will become read-only for a short time until we take in down entirely. So keep looking at the old board if you like, but feel free to go ahead and start posting on the new board now.
To get started now, follow the link that says "Get Started Now" at the top of this board.
Let the conversations and sharing continue… and flourish!
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