7 things you told me and how I listened.
A few weeks ago I asked you what was working on Stuff Christians Like and what was broken. A lot of folks responded and gave me some great feedback. Here is what I heard:
1. We need an easier way to find posts.
Amen, this site is impossible to navigate. I tagged the posts and created categories over on the right side of the page. They’re not perfect yet, but hopefully it’s a good start to being able to find an old post.
2. Make better use of widgets.
I need widgets to make it easy to share the content, as one reader mentioned “especially if I want to send one to someone else in ‘Christian love.’” I added the “Share” button at the bottom of each post. Granted, you might not want to digg or email everything on this site, but now if you want to digg the “Thinking You’re Naked” post or email your worship leader the “How Metrosexual is your Worship Leader” post it’s a lot easier.
3. No one wants intense debate commenting.
As Marni put it, “it gets icky quicky.” So for right now at least, I’m not going to add intense debate.
4. How about a search box?
Hopefully the tags and categories will help alleviate this, but there’s also a search box in the upper left corner of the page that searches Stuff Christians Like. Maybe I can find a widget at some point too.
5. Keep it simple.
Most people seemed to agree with this idea. This site is ugly and bare, but I like the stripped down approach because it forces me to put everything I can into the words since that’s all there is. I’d like to find a good designer to help me simplify it even further at some point and I’ll probably build a more professional looking jonacuff.com, but for now, plain and simple like a white t-shirt on blogger is the way I think we should go.
6. Give us a breather every now and then.
A handful of folks told me to take a break every now and then or to give them more time to digest the longer, Serious Wednesday posts. I think that’s a good idea and will try to do a better job of recognizing when a post and the conversation we have around it needs to carry over a day. Sometimes I need to put my ego on pause and get out of the way to let an idea and the conversation that follows breathe a little. (At the same time, don’t worry about me getting all serious all the serious time because the interwebs are already jam packed with plenty of serious writers and the satire is really fun.)
7. Respect the RSS feed.
I blew it on this one. I don’t do much with RSS feeds and didn’t realize the hassle I was creating by making posts within Stuff Christians Like that essentially said, “Go read 97 Seconds with God.” From here on out, I’ll try to do a better job of not filling your SCL RSS feed with things that aren’t SCL-related.
Thanks again for the feedback. If you feel like I missed anything, please let me know.
Side hugs, Razzle Dazzle and Widgets,
Jon
