Web Site

Comments to blog posts and forum topics can be displayed in different ways. Logged in members can choose which format easily at the bottom of each thread, article or blog post. You can change your default display mode among the other configuration choices under "my account'.

I've changed the default display of comments from 'flat' to 'threaded' to make better sense of conversations when there are many comments. Threaded comments offset or indent 'replies' under the comment to which the reply refers, while 'comments' to the original post are shifted back to the left margin. Because we have the option of 'replying' to a comment, with this software system, readers can easily tell whether any given comment is directed at the general topic or toward one particular comment. This is different from most bulletin board systems that merely list all comments in a flat manner, and I've left the default here at FC in the 'flat' setting all these months so as not to confuse too much, people who are more familiar with BBS systems and their flat comments. However, 'threaded' comments are really a great tool for written conversation because they allow for multi-dimensional conversation instead of just a stream of comments.

continue reading "Threaded comment display"

Adding the TinyMCE editor and its drag & drop capability made interacting with the site easier but it created some problems. Images, fonts and other formatting markup tags that work well in an editor or on another site from which a piece of text is copied and pasted into FC, can wreak havok on this site. I've spent much of my keyboard time these past several months resizing images and fonts. However, I don't want the site to boring with no room for expression.

continue reading "Blog and Comment Format Filtering"

I've just been updating some of the FAQs and was hoping to get some feedback and help from other readers. 

The most important page may be the About page. This page get's loads of traffic. Many people want to know just what in the world this site is About. The first writing was more of an idea of what the site should become. Now it should describe what the site is as well as what we hope it to become. With that in mind, I would very much appreciate your feedback regarding what this site is, whether what I wrote fits it, and even what you hope the site might become. Here's what I've got so far:

continue reading "Any Ideas For Updated Site FAQs and Other Information?"

In an attempt to make writing and commenting easier, I have installed Moxiecode's TinyMCE editor for testing. It is currently available for blogs posts, forum threads, weblinks, book reviews, comments and user profiles. It is only for logged in users for now. If and when if proves useful, then we'll turn it on for all visitors.

continue reading "WYSIWYG editor"

A new forum module will be installed today which I hope will make for better discussion. The old forum threads will be available at Old Forum in the navigation menu, just under the faitCommons logo.

Please let me know what you think about these changes. If they aren't for the better, then they should be removed. If you have ideas of ways or changes to make the site easier to use, please bring it up.

continue reading "New forum installation"

I'm not sure how I got to the Great Story website, but I thought you guys might find it interesting. The story they relate, and relate to, is a familiar one:

“[It] is a way of telling the history of everyone and everything that honors and embraces all religious traditions and creation stories. It is the sacred narrative of an evolving Universe of emergent complexity and breathtaking creativity and cooperation — a story that offers each of us the opportunity to find meaning and purpose in our lives and our time in history.”

continue reading "The Great Story"

Please be patient as the menus and their contents change. I don't like making changes like these on a live system but I hope the changes will be minimal and quickly settled.

Your comments about menus and general navigation is greatly appreciated. The goal here is make most everything a visitor could want easily found with a minimum of clicks. And experimentation is the only way I've found to do it. I've struggled with this for several week, and the lack of a complete solution is standing in the way of other changes.

continue reading "Changing Menus"

It seems that many people may be more comfortable starting threads and discussing topics within a forum than they are posting comments to a typical blog post. Forums are usually less formal and usually not posted to the front page of a web site. Responses may be shorter and less formal.

Also, forum topics are usually less wordy and less complicated

continue reading "A Switch in Focus and a Shift in Gears"

Yesterday I received email from the webmaster of a legal services advertising group asking that faithCommons link to his website. He had picked out just the right page—among several thousand currently published here—and proposed putting a link to his site on that page. The page he thought best suited to advertise his client's legal services is a chapter in Reido's Church Without Walls. Why he found that page suitable, I have no clue. But cluelessness didn't start with me in this matter.

Below is an edited version of the email—edited to avoid giving search engine page rank—I received and below that is my reply.

continue reading "Web Link Spamming and Sharing the Commons"

We've had some great discussions at faithCommons over the past twenty months or so. Speaking for myself at least, I'll say that I've grown quite a bit from the discussion and through the insight of others here. Now seems a good time to reflect and remember some of those threads.

There are many new readers that have come our way recently. Thousands of first time visitors found faithCommons over the past several weeks. So, for these new readers, and for nostalgia's sake, I thought I'd list some of my favorite discussion threads from the past.

continue reading "Some of My Favorite Discussions From the Past"