CW Site - Upcoming Changes

[nbunney]

While I see the concerns some have expressed and understand them, it sounds like you are already addressing this. I personally love the idea. It sounds like what you are doing is something like RoyalRoad.com not at all in content but in what the site provides. I am curious about the software. Is there off the shelf software that supports this or are you building something unique. If it is off the shelf, maybe you could point us to the system you are considering so we can examine it and understand it better.

 

[Rebecca]

Thank you all for your feedback and questions! I'll try to answer each below.

One thing I need to clarify is while the Storyed site is open to non-Christians, it's built for people who share similar values. I believe there's a great hunger for entertainment that is free from the cultural rot, divisiveness and leftist propaganda infused into almost every element of big media and big tech these days. I believe people are looking for a place where peace, sanity, and common human decency reign.

That's where Storyed comes in. The Storyed site focuses on stories with traditional values and positive messages. By traditional values, I mean things like peace, love, honor, faith, loyalty, the dignity of human life, the value of hard work, the importance of traditional family, self-sacrifice, right vs. wrong, personal responsibility, and just being a good, positive influence in this world.

In short, Storyed is designed to be a refuge and platform where people of traditional values find can find a positive community and entertainment. Many of these people may not be born-again Christians, but we still have a lot in common are looking for many of the same things.

I see this as a positive move for our CW community for a few different reasons. Off the top of my head:

1) Many of our members are Christians, but don't write specifically for the Christian markets. This will give them a whole, new, built-in market.

2) Christians are called to be in the world, but not of the world. Jesus shared meals with and reached out to the lost. While Storyed isn't about evangelism, my hope is we can be that salt and light for others and a positive influence on their lives, too.

3) I've often heard people say we need more Christian voices writing and participating in our culture instead of only preaching to the choir. We need more stories with good, moral values and messages in the marketplace, even if they're not explicitly "Christian fiction."

4) It gives our members more options. They can read or post stories in the other sections, talk about other genre-specific topics, and just have fun with some of the new features.

Another thought I keep coming back to is that faith and the spiritual side of our existence has become a taboo subject. The current "mainstream" culture would prefer us to focus on the flesh (and accept every imaginable perversion) and ignore our spiritual existence. I believe this is a type of spiritual warfare. The darkness wants us to hide our influence and light. It wants us to stay silent and feel "othered" and unwelcome in society. I say we should become a more active part of the culture and make our voices heard.

What better way to do that than through stories and entertainment?

To answer your questions and comments:

Can anyone explain this to me? I'm not sure what all that entails...

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I'm hoping the above description helps explain. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for asking my opinion! I would prefer two separate forums. Christianwriters.com has been a safe place and the reason I am is here is because people are believers. 

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within the current CW community there is a level of trust and a freedom

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A reoccurring theme I'm hearing is concern about the worldly making its way into CW. The CW section will still be separate and much as it appears right now. The main difference is CW members will also have the option to access and participate in other sections and genres on the site. We're not losing any aspects of our site; we're adding the ability to participate in the other sections and activities as well.

with merged Christian and non-Christian sites, members on the non-Christian site could just jump on to CW to spectate or troll. 

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Trolls will be immediately kicked out. There are also safeguards in place to prevent trolls and trolling behavior.

Are you going to point "christianwriters.com" domain name to the new one, or discontinue it where someone else can purchase and use it?

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The ChristianWriters.com domain name will be pointed to the Christian section of the Storyed site. So members can access just like they always have.

As far as how it currently looks to me as a user, it is very clean in appearance. I like that there are not ads popping up everywhere. I went to another Christian writer website where it was messy and had a popup ad which was not rated "G" quickly had me move on from it.

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I don't like ads popping up everywhere, either. I'm also a big advocate of Internet privacy and have no intention of adding trackers or intrusive advertising on any of my web properties. I find it all very creepy and Orwellian.

Non-believers could also bring more worldly content, morals, and language.

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Good concern, Sophie. That part of the site would only be seen by you if you went there. I don't believe they'd want to join us. However, I'm sure Rebecca would have safeguards in place for this.

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What Lynn said above is correct. Our audience is people who have traditional moral values, even in the Christian sections. We're not accepting content that advocates immorality or indecency anywhere on the site. And you'll have the option to only stick to the Christian section if you want to.

I believe that they would have to join Christian writers to be able to take advantage of the critique forum. Guests that visit here now cannot view the forum. I think it would work the same there.

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Correct.

I hope this is helpful! Please let me know if you have any other questions, concerns, or suggestions.

 

[Claire Tucker]

@Rebecca, this sounds exciting.

In general, my experience on the internet has been that most people will, when asked to, be respectful. There are always a handful who decide to throw their toys out the cot and voice their opinion about everyone else's opinion, but if, as you mention, there are safeguards for that and consequences in place, then I don't feel that it is of major concern. There are people who claim to be Christians who can behave worse than some non-Christians, in my experience.

As to the critique forum, I'm fairly neutral and open for either option (keep a Christian one separate or just have tags available for Christian/non-Christian). We as storytellers have no guarantee that just because someone claims the title of "Christian," they won't steal our work when it is shared. The risk might be greater by allowing non-Christians access, but only sharing our work with Christians doesn't mean plagiarism and piracy will never happen. What I will suggest is making a standard clear that material that is not clean (erotic or graphically violent) will be removed.

My feeling on this is that it is a great opportunity for Christian writers to create a safe space for non-Christian writers, a space where we can set the standard, so to speak, and encourage them to craft clean fiction/stories that isn't sensual or overly graphic. I do like the fact that there will still be a safe space for us to encourage each other as believers (Rebecca, please correct me if I've misunderstood you), but we will also have the opportunity to interact with others and be the light instead of just talking about it.

 

[Toni Star]

This sounds like a very interesting idea and as you noted, "create a space to encourage each other as believers."

 

[Shamrock]

I think the concerns I have/had have been raised by others but in general I am in favor of the idea.  For those of us who write for the non-Christian reader, the feedback could be very helpful. It is certainly worth a try.

 

[carolinamtne]

We trust you, Rebecca, to do what works for everyone. Sometimes the site will have to walk a fine line, protecting folks on both sides. Other times, and maybe some of those times, it will be helpful and inspirational for all.

I can envision Christian writers learning more about potential non-Christian readers, not only as readers and potential converts, but also as people, even friends.

 

[Rebecca]

Thank you all for your encouragement and confidence. If things work out as planned, CW will essentially be its own sub-site and really not much different at all from what you see now. The main difference will be the option to easily post on the other site, too.

I'm hoping to make the change later this week (or potentially over the weekend). You'll see an "updates in progress" type screen while the conversion is running. Adding the other site alongside will be a separate step.

I'm excited and think this will be a big improvement. Please pray the process goes smoothly!

 

[Alley]

Please pray the process goes smoothly!

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You've got it! 

 

[lynnmosher]

Yup! Surely praying all goes well!

 

[carolinamtne]

 

[nbunney]

Praying for sure!