The Future for the Christogenea Forum?

[wmfinck]

My dear kinsmen,

As many of you already know, John844.org is a project of mine. It was originally developed so that people who frequent the Christogenea chat server could have a place to post and share things, and also have those things available to the public and visible to the search engines. Participation at that site is by invitation only, and because the members are trusted, it is virtually unmoderated. However the people who participated originally have all, ostensibly, been led away by more pressing matters. So participation has dropped considerably.

Participation here too, is down considerably from what it once was. I imagine that may be at least partially attributed to my own lack of participation, as I have been far too busy to post regularly either here or at John844.org. But I never wanted either site, or the Christogenea Chat Server, for that matter, to be about me or require my participation. Rather, I would rather see a small and healthy community of fellow Christians (who at least generally agree with the positions espoused at the main website) have a place to fellowship, learn, teach, and discuss the issues at hand without the hassles of hostile opposition and the trolls that are found in public forums. I do eventually see most of the posts here, whether I ever respond or not.

I like the model at John844.org. It offers far more functionality than what can be achieved here through phpBB. It is built on powerful software and it is very easy for site members to create Wiki pages, upload videos and audios, group related content into meaningful topics and so forth.

Therefore for the last year I have been kicking around developing such a model for the Christogenea forum. It would look just like the Christogenea website, using the same software, but site members would be able to create their own groups and post content under those groups, just like at John844.org. All groups could be closed, invite-only, or public, and are under the control of their creator. So it would be far more flexible than what is seen here.

This old forum would remain active (perhaps under a slightly different name) but I would leave the membership as it is, and not update or add anything new (but I would not prohibit new posts).

I am not going to force this on the community here, thereby alienating anyone. Rather, I am going to invite opinions, take a poll, and see what the members here think about the whole thing. So please vote on the poll below, and feel free to comment.

If anyone registered here would like to join John844.org to check its capabilities out, leave me a PM and I will add you to that site.

Praise Yahweh!
Bill

[Gallowglass]

I guess everyone was more active in the past and maybe some of it's current inactivity it's due to some members going offline for months (like Ice) which btw, I know absolutely nothing about him, at least nothing of news the last couple of months. I enjoyed his historical postings.

I really don't know about transforming it into something like John844.org, last time I visited there was nothing recently posted there. I think this format is fine but maybe some changes would be good. I'm not saying a format like the John844 site has is bad, just that for that in order to work properly there must be activity.

But you are the boss Bill, it's your website so you can test it and if it doesn't goes that well, then we have this one like you said.

[wmfinck]

I am not trying to dictate anything, I am only trying to get a consensus. I would make no changes without the approbation of at least most (perhaps two-thirds) of the active users of this forum. While phpBB is reliable it has a lot of limitations which make it difficult for users to share things such as images and media, or to integrate those things into their posts in a meaningful way.

Furthermore, phpBB is a real hassle to update, since administration here requires a few plug-ins to allow admin user registrations and to better watch for trolls. An update now takes a lot of custom code changes and nearly an entire work day. A Drupal based forum along the lines of the severely under-utilized John844.org would be far more powerful and flexible for users as well as for administrators. Yet I do not want users to make a decision based upon the weight of administrator tasks.

While the John844.org website offers users a lot more capability. If the website were utilized more frequently, there are many features that could yet be added. However many users may prefer to stay with a simple format such as phpBB, and that is fine too. So I am not going to make any unilateral decisions.

[southbendw1]

I like the Christogenea forum, how when I click on a topic in the index, it takes me to a sub-menu, so I can scroll thru the posts on one page. It appears to me as if , at john844.org, when I click on a topic that has like 70 posts, I have to go thru a dosen or so pages to view all of the posts. I guess that may be fine for some. I can see the value of both types of forums. Maybe if the navigation at john844 was more like the Christogenea forum. I am member of other forums that one can have multiple groups that each specialize on a particular subject, each with its own moderator, rules, and you have to ask to be included in that group, but once that group is clicked on, there are indexes. Just my .02, Billy. I am sure however you decide to do it, it will still be a powerful tool to bring the message to our brothers and sisters. In summary, I would probably prefer to see both styles either combined or ran parallel.

May Yahweh bless you and your work, brother Bill.
Bob

P.S. Since I am a facebook puffball, I post links to various Christogenea forum topics on my timeline, or in groups, or in the comments section of something that was previosly posted. Ease and speed when I am trying to find something is important.

[Vandal]

I like the model at John844.org. It offers far more functionality than what can be achieved here through phpBB. It is built on powerful software and it is very easy for site members to create Wiki pages, upload videos and audios, group related content into meaningful topics and so forth.

Sometimes low tech beats high tech. I have found this phpBB format more conducive to a linear discussion as opposed to the showcase nature of the format at John844. I don't even bother checking up on John844. Here you post, then everyone posts in succession. It looks and feels like a discussion without distraction, frills, etc. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[NicoChristian]

I think we have enough activity to maintain the forum.

[GermanSaxon]

Although I am new member and due to illness have contributed little, after looking at 844 format this format is superior. I have been on other forums for over 15 years and this is a more traditional format. I have never used the 844 style format. Maybe after learning how to use it I might see this issue differently.

[CairinDaithe]

I also much prefer this format. This is pretty much a pure discussion board, and I like that. It's nice and simple.

[PhilNotChristian]

How about a place for people, like myself, new to CI and need the proper guidance. I mean I have gotten lots of well meaning suggestions. But there is just much to absorb and I am unsure of what to read, etc. I started with "Acts" figuring this is history of CI @ Pentecost. Well done series so far. I started just last night intending to do #1 and ended up @ #4. Well done. Praise Yahweh, Christian.

[PhilNotChristian]

Wow, I didn't know there was talk about shutting down Christogenea. That would be devastating considering all the podcasts, etc. Bill, say it ain't so!!!