Back in September of last year I wrote an article while at the Internet Ministry Conference called Taking Evangelism Explosion to the Web. In it I was really excited about the future of Evangelism Explosion through the new tool they are developing called What's My Story?. The things that excited me was the ability to create and build a testimony using the wisdom of EE with the flexibility of the web. What does it matter if you have a good testimony, if others aren't finding it. It sounded like EE was very interested in help getting the testimony out and wanted to build a website that could connect into facebook, forums, social networks, twitter, blogs and things like that. It was supposed to be released on Jan. 24th this year. I'd like to share with you how this is progressing.
It did come online Jan. 24th and it does have the ability to build a testimony. It even walks you through the process by answering questions that lead to a good story-like testimony that will be engaging.
I'm pretty disappointed though. First, I've been signed up for a notification since September, but haven't received a notification that the site came online. The site also seemed very primitive from both a design and a code perspective. I signed up for an account and filled out the form. There were links around the site that just simply didn't work or led to places that didn't really answer my questions. In order for my testimony to be shared, it has to be manually approved by some sort of internal review process. This was a concern mentioned at the Internet Ministry Conference. Web designers know that attention on the Internet is fleeting. By making someone wait in order to share, there is a very serious risk of losing their interest. My suggestion at the time was to include a "report" feature where the community around the site would report bad/vulgar content in much the same way that flickr and other community sites work. This is the sort of things that is proven to work on the Internet.
Another issue occurred in the sign-up process. In order to confirm you are human and that you've used a valid email address or something like that, an email is sent to you before you can actually use the site. This email contains a link you have to click on to activate your account. This email was of very poor quality. The subject, from and body of the message all contained what I assume is text that was supposed to be replaced when sent, but it wasn't. In fact, the only reference to What's My Story was in the URL and if I hadn't been looking for it I may have dismissed it as spam.
Subject: SITE_FORM_SUBJECT_PREFIXactivate your account
From: SITE_ACTIVATION_EMAIL_FROM_ADDRThank you for signing up for access to SITE_DOMAIN_NAME_FOR_DISPLAY
In order to be able to log in, you will need to visit the following URL:
http://whatsmystory.org/a/k=29z97c2p599h&u=13
Later, I tried to comment on some of these things using the "Contact Us" form they provide. After filling it out and submitting, I received an error that led me to believe the form was broken and they wouldn't hear what I had to say because it wouldn't make it to them.
Looking at the "Read Stories" page, I see that there hasn't been a new story/testimony approved since January 22nd, before the release date. I filled out the form on the 25th. My mother also filled out the testimony a few days ago also so I know they have at least 2 new ones and both aren't up today (the 28th).
On design, most of the pages, except the shell around the pages (that green stuff) is simply black and white, sometimes in columns. It is very blah and boring. I'm listening right now to Kent Shaffer's session Design is Credibility also from the IMC in which the importance of this is discussed.
I could go on, but that isn't my point. I talked this up and shared with others about this a lot. I figure I owe a follow-up to those who heard about it from me and I'd also like to see this post encourage improvement. I really want to see the vision for this site come to fruition. I really hope it will improve. I really hope they can fix it up and not only reach their goal of one million testimonies by the end of the year, but also be used by God to share the power of Christ with a lost world. They have a long way to go though.
In my efforts to help churches, mostly Southern Baptist, I have found they are wholly unprepared for the Web. They want it, they like it, but can't be bothered to understand how it works. It's rare a church stumbles across a trained web designer, it seems. Then again, we probably agree most "web designers" aren't. At any rate, it seems odd most of the successful websites are from liberal churches. This is what I've come to expect.
Then again, many sites have no idea just who the target audience is. My own website is not attractive to surfers, but my content is aimed at thoughtful readers. I know my calling and ministry; my "Applied Bible" site is not for outreach, but for information and education of those already convinced. My outreach stuff is cloaked in places more likely to draw the random passer-by.
:-) yep, the conservative church is in rough shape as that goes. My own church search as a result of this move has sent me to a lot of church websites. It is amazing how absolutely horrible some of them are and I'm finding that a disorganized and scattered website means a disorganized and scattered church. I tried not to let the condition of the website affect my opinion of the church, but the coorelation is too obvious.