A local Christian Community Site I'm working on. Need advice.

[Webster Fields Jr]

Hey All,

I've come to respect the opinions and expertise of the Bros. and Sis. here and I was hoping you guys might check out www.aaocf.webs.com and look at the Home page and tell me what you think about what I have written there.

I'm hoping to have a site, and local fellowship offline, where everyone even slightly Christian (heh) would be able find quality Friendships, Employment, help with life issues. Not dogma, rules, and people looking for donations for their building funds when they already have a building they can't fill (LOL).

I need council.... please help.

Ty.

Edit:

Ok... here the text I would like you guys to comment on. Remember, it's the first thing people will read on the site for a Open Multi-Denominational Forums site for Local Christians...

"Welcome to the AAOCF Website. Hope you enjoy the Fellowship!

AAOCF is a non-church affiliated group for Christians in the Alvin, TX area who want to connect with other believers who value a Non/Multi-Denominational Online presence and Community (Seperate from the "World")/Fellowship (United with others in Christ) where Christians who are in Alvin, and the surrounding towns can come and Fellowship with one another 24/7.

AAOCF is not here to replace any local church bodies.. but to Support and Edify them all as an extension of the Body of Christ. This Community/Fellowship IS NOT and NEVER WILL BE a church of it's own, ran by a specific church, non-profit, group or individual (not even ME) exclusively.

By the Grace and Mercy of God, I will be in Unity with all Children of God, usually and preferably at the expense of my Self. I commit myself fully to God and to you all... even IF most who participate in this Community/Fellowship do not do the same.

I hope to find others of a similar mentality and belief to hold me (and each other) accountable to the Lord. In the Body of Christ, there is NO "us" and "them". Even those in the "World" will serve the purposes of God... it's up to our Free Will (our Surrendering it to God) whether we will be a type of Pharoah or Moses.

We are not here to preach AT or judge one another, but simple to LOVE one another in Relationship, and only in the ways that God Himself shows us individually and personally. Only God can fix anyone and only He can reveal any real Truth to us.

With these things in mind (and our hearts) please feel welcome and free to participate in our Community/Fellowship, as the Lord Himself leads you (by His Spirit) to do.

Reasons for the existence AAOCF:
When I (Webster "Weaver" Fields Jr.) came to the Alvin area, I began looking online to find any Christian community in the area and could only find limited information about local churches. I hope to help contribute to change in this area, for myself and others, by providing this site and community.

Also, I feel led by God to personally find ways to bring our Christian brothers and sisters of all denominational, social, economic, and political backgrounds together. This is one of those ways. If you want to find out more about me then check out my personal site at http://www.brotherweb.webs.com/.

I believe in the Will of God to continue in the present day Church the type of Unity found in the Early Christian Church (Acts 2).
To accomplish this will not be by the EFFORT or DESIRE of man, but by the MERCY of God... so don't worry about a bunch of rules or cult-like intrusion into or control of your personal life. We are not about anything like that and if anyone makes you feel uncomfortable or like they are trying to manipulate you, then let us all know about it... and follow the scriptures (Matt. 18:15-17). "

Ok, that's it..... Suggestions?

[Webster Fields Jr]

It's so bad no one will comment on it.. lol

[Gina Stevenson]

Actually, we were waiting for it to pop up on the "What's New?" to find it again, because of questions right off the bat. At the top we see: DOWNLOAD, and PLAY NOW.

Seeing no explanation of what there might be to download, nor what on earth it is that is supposed to be heard if ones clicks, "play now," we did neither. Some explanation of those flashing, huge buttons might be in order for starters.

[Webster Fields Jr]

Actually, we were waiting for it to pop up on the "What's New?" to find it again, because of questions right off the bat. At the top we see: DOWNLOAD, and PLAY NOW.

Seeing no explanation of what there might be to download, nor what on earth it is that is supposed to be heard if ones clicks, "play now," we did neither. Some explanation of those flashing, huge buttons might be in order for starters.

Was that on the aaocf.webs.com site? I'll check it out... it's a free site for now so the webs.com people are putting ads at the top of the site... but I'll try and pay for a Custom Domain and ad-free site soon.

[Webster Fields Jr]

Ok, yeah that Bin Laden ad at the top is from the webs.com system... don't click on the ads at the top ... there are links to the side under the City Bridge banner thing that you can look at but the info I want ya'll to read runs down the center of the page home page. I'll just edit the post here to show you the text I want opinions on .

Edited my first post here, FYI.

[Gina Stevenson]

I saw no ads, nothing about Bin Laden. What I did see definitely looked like something the page creator would have installed.

Ads don't usually say only: "DOWNLOAD" or "PLAY NOW." Ads give you a hint (at least normally they do) so figured there has to be something you meant for folks to either download or play, and forgot to say what they were.

OK, very odd ... now there are ads ... car ads. So, who knows what's going on. Since I'm not in Alvin, anyway, I'll just skip it.

[Rich Schmidt]

My first thought is that the first sentence is way too long.

Second thought: That's a lot of text on the main page. Most folks probably won't read all of that. If you can summarize it all in a tagline + intro paragraph, then put all the rest on some sort of "About" or "Q&A" page, I think that would be better. (Maybe you could replace the "Welcome to the AAOCF Website. Hope you enjoy the Fellowship!" line with something like, "A place for Christians in the Alvin, TX area to connect!")

Third, if it's going to be a community-focused site, it probably needs to have less "I" language. That makes it sound more like your own personal site. Of course, if you were to move that to an "About" or "About the owner" or "Why start this site?" page, that would help.

Those are my initial thoughts.

[Rich Schmidt]

You might look at the front page of NazNet.com for an example of what I think would be a better approach. A short welcome from the moderator at the top that includes some direction on where to start (the forums), followed by a brief bit about being Nazarene-friendly (with link to nazarene.org), and then the most recent forum posts, so people can see right up front the types of conversations that take place here.

[Webster Fields Jr]

TY, Rich... I'm going to look into how I can incorporate your suggestions. I keep trying to get everything "right" from the start when I do stuff like this.. and well... that's WRONG, lol.

[Paul DeBaufer]

Good morning Webster,

I agree with Rich that there is information overload on the home page and that some of the sentences are cumbersome. I, personally, get turned off by too much text in one block. I don't know how many pages you are allowed on a free site so maybe having an "About" page and the other info pages Rich suggests, while ideal, isn't possible for the time being. Maybe Headings as we scroll down the page. Being an old guy I found the text a bit small and difficult to read.

Is the picture in the banner Alvin, TX? If not is it something you can change to a picture of Alvin? Other than that I like the look of the site. I do not see the buttons Gina spoke of, maybe they got cleaned out before I got to the site.

[Webster Fields Jr]

Gotta figure out a way for me to get and edit digital pics for the site... haven't got that far yet... the pic in the site is generic... not of Alvin. I'm sure you guys are right about making the homepage more simple... sometimes Less is more... I don't want to run people off before they even get in the door :S