Comments on: The Ten Commandments of Church Web Sites

By: Mike Baker

Mike Baker — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:22:07 +0000

I can’t imagine very many people actually sit through the little ditty playing on your website. I would be willing to bet that the MIDI music causes one of two reactions in the majority of people:

1. They mute their PC and continue to navigate your site in silence. So… why have the music at all?

2. They are so offended by the cheezy sound of MIDI keyboard and just leave your site without giving you a chance. So… why have the music at all?

The slim minority of people who will actually sit through a computerized version of “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed” will not miss it if it is not there.

By: ptmccain

ptmccain — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:26:23 +0000

Lutheran congregations, if they must inflict a MIDI recording on site visitors, could at least use a Lutheran hymn. I think it is a bad idea to have auto-start media of any kind on a web site.

By: Earl Janssen

Earl Janssen — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:41:42 +0000

Quick question: Are you saying that music is not appropriate, or that “Amazing Grace” is too generic, or that since it’s author was not Lutheran that it should not figure prominently on a Lutheran website, or that “Amazing Grace” is theologically suspect, or what exactly?

Earl

By: Rev. Allen Bergstrazer

Rev. Allen Bergstrazer — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:25:54 +0000

I would ammend only commandment I to include “…and thou shalt keep said information current.” I recently was helping my stepson find a congregation in his area, and looking at a website for a congregation in his city found a (farwell) letter from the Pastor posted in 2006; the congregation has been vacant since then. That did not leave a very good impression.

These not only apply to congregational websites, but Districts too, I’ve seen some that rather proudly have broken #VII in the area of 1990′s design.

By: Mike Baker

Mike Baker — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:36:46 +0000

Ditto, Richard. @Richard

By: ptmccain

ptmccain — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:39:58 +0000

Richard, I must confess that I too have formed immediately negative opinions when I hear MIDI music, particularly when it is playing some non-Lutheran hymn like “Rock of Ages” or “Amazing Grace” and when the experience is compounded by what are clearly bit-mapped graphics, and the use of four typefaces in, sometimes, a single headline. Hard to get over first impressions, good or bad.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:11:05 +0000

IX is a deal breaker for me. I hear Midi, I don’t go there. Period.

By: Mike Baker

Mike Baker — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:01:29 +0000

XII Thou shalt not spurn thy neighbor’s navigation through means of massive web pages nor through huge files. Thou must consider the poor sinner who has the lesser bandwidth by making pages easy to load. Also provide downloadable files rather than exclusively streaming content.

By: Elephantschild

Elephantschild — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:06:31 +0000

Our church’s current website is a single page appended to the school website, with the contact info in yellow on a white background and all the body text centered. All of it.

We will be, thankfully, actually PAYING someone (thank goodness!) to do a redesign over the summer, despite several people saying that the site looks “good.” Huh? Guess they don’t get around (the web) much.

It’s better to have a super-simple clean one-page site than to have a fancy site that’s ugly and dorky and hard to use.

By: Dan at Necessary Roughness

Dan at Necessary Roughness — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:09:41 +0000

Covered similar info at NR: What to Present in Church Web Sites.

Definitely design with non-members in mind first: there are simply much more of them.