Online gospel discussion forum for ward?


dillonkor
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Hello! I am thinking about creating an online venue of discussion for ward members. Often the classes go by without getting to everyone who wanted to speak, and there are people who feel hesitant about sharing their questions/concerns in public. 

 

So I would like to ask for your recommendations/suggestions about sites and tools that may allow a sort of message board/discussion forum that I can create for my ward. A couple things that I am looking for are as follows:

 

1. Must guarantee privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophiscated

5. Mobile platform

 

 

Any help is much appreciated!! Thank you.

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What about right here?

The main reason, how much participation will you get from your ward.

I know of many a forum where generally they get 10 or 20 posts a year.  That means some topics 2 or 3 posts per year.

There just isn't that much participation.

And a few forums where there are posts every few seconds, many per minute.

So I think you will get a lot more participation here, not with everyone in your ward, you will have to bring in others from your ward, but everyone here has experience with your lesson, etc.

So post it here.

dc

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Hello! I am thinking about creating an online venue of discussion for ward members. Often the classes go by without getting to everyone who wanted to speak, and there are people who feel hesitant about sharing their questions/concerns in public. 

 

So I would like to ask for your recommendations/suggestions about sites and tools that may allow a sort of message board/discussion forum that I can create for my ward. A couple things that I am looking for are as follows:

 

1. Must guarantee privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophiscated

5. Mobile platform

 

 

Any help is much appreciated!! Thank you.

 

I question the appropriateness of an online forum for this sort of thing. But, moreover, as others have stated, they don't stay active. We had one in our ward. A few flurries of semi-activity. But, really, if it's controversial, is it really a good idea for ward members to be sparring with each other online? Not to mention, online allows for a certain level of incivility that just doesn't occur in person. If, for example, someone says something inaccurate in church, I very rarely correct them (unless I feel it's so inaccurate and harmful that something really needs to be said -- and even then I often won't because...you know, debate at church just isn't conducive to it's purpose), whereas online I probably would. Now whereas some would say that I shouldn't be any different online than in person (and there may be merit there), the simple fact of the matter is that people ARE different online.

 

Just my thoughts on the matter, of course. Feel free to disregard if you feel so inspired and/or simply disagree. ;)

Edited by The Folk Prophet
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I don't feel like ward facebook pages is the appropriate place to have online gospel discussions.  To me ward facebook pages is more the place to make announcements or to share ward activities etc.

 

Too many online gospel discussions become contentious and when people actually know each other instead of anonymous pages or forums, there can be some extremely hurt feelings.

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I don't feel like ward facebook pages is the appropriate place to have online gospel discussions.  To me ward facebook pages is more the place to make announcements or to share ward activities etc.

 

Too many online gospel discussions become contentious and when people actually know each other instead of anonymous pages or forums, there can be some extremely hurt feelings.

 

We did have a ward facebook page for gospel discussion that stayed pretty civil. But I think that's because people like me had the good sense to not post thereon. Which means it was also quite bland, albeit innocuous. ;)

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I question the appropriateness of an online forum for this sort of thing. But, moreover, as others have stated, they don't stay active. We had one in our ward. A few flurries of semi-activity....

 

We currently have well over two hundred members subscribed to our ward's facebook page. It gets considerable traffic every week, and is used for community things like requesting subs for nursery and primary teachers, getting volunteers to feed missionaries and go on splits with missionaries, announcements for scouting, giveaways of free tickets, furniture, toys, books, and clothing, questions about who to contact in the ward, general announcements to the youth when someone has babysitting or yardwork they want to hire someone to do, reminders of whose turn it is to clean the church the coming weekend, etc. etc.  It's a pretty useful and heavily used community bulletin board.

 

I don't feel like ward facebook pages is the appropriate place to have online gospel discussions....

I have *never* seen our ward Facebook page used for gospel discussions in the three years I've been in this ward.

Edited by hagoth
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I made my comment since some had mentioned using facebook for the ward gospel discussions.

Yes. And to be more clear, I agree with you and Folk Prophet that Facebook is not a good venue for doctrinal discussion. For our ward, however, it has been a good tool for getting many church- and community-related tasks done (or as you put it, "the place to make announcements or to share ward activities etc.").

Edited by hagoth
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Hello! I am thinking about creating an online venue of discussion for ward members. Often the classes go by without getting to everyone who wanted to speak, and there are people who feel hesitant about sharing their questions/concerns in public. 

 

So I would like to ask for your recommendations/suggestions about sites and tools that may allow a sort of message board/discussion forum that I can create for my ward. A couple things that I am looking for are as follows:

 

1. Must guarantee privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophiscated

5. Mobile platform

 

 

Any help is much appreciated!! Thank you.

Dillonkor, requirement #2 would rule out using Facebook since, if I recall correctly, Facebook requires usernames to be the user's real name.

Edited by hagoth
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Thanks everyone for many helpful feedback.

 

Some of the things we are trying to achieve are 1. helping people who are shy/less vocal share their questions/concerns. 2. expand the scope of gospel learning and discussions beyond just a couple hours at church.

 

Facebook is great because many people are already on it but it doesn't allow anonymous posting. I was looking for some sort of message boards which can be perhaps accessed by private invitation/link. 

 

For lds.net, is there a way to make a private group space here?

 

1. Privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophisticated

5. Mobile platform

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I could only imagine the comments that could surface in a Ward discussion group. We can attend Sunday school now and hear such things as ....... I heard a GA say one time ...... And other types of comments .....I will use my own area for the next example ... A memeber told us in Sunday School a few weeks ago they knew when the world was going to end.

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For lds.net, is there a way to make a private group space here?

 

1. Privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophisticated

5. Mobile platform

 

There is but I won't.   :)

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Thanks everyone for many helpful feedback.

 

Some of the things we are trying to achieve are 1. helping people who are shy/less vocal share their questions/concerns. 2. expand the scope of gospel learning and discussions beyond just a couple hours at church.

 

Facebook is great because many people are already on it but it doesn't allow anonymous posting. I was looking for some sort of message boards which can be perhaps accessed by private invitation/link. 

 

For lds.net, is there a way to make a private group space here?

 

1. Privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophisticated

5. Mobile platform

Dillonkor, for what you're trying to accomplish, the FHE, HT, and VT programs are designed to accomplish the same things but on a one-on-one basis - a lot more personal - than an anonymous group setting.

This is really how it is supposed to be addressed - one-on-one, instead of anonymous, so that the mantel of priesthood authority can be invoked and the Holy Spirit can dwell in the discussions. There's scripture references supporting this process.

If you want to encourage your ward members to join a forum, then remove the ward limitation (as the priesthood authority of the Bishop over the ward is bypassed), and just have them sign up here on lds.net and let the entire lds.net membership be part of discussing whatever y'all want to discuss. We all have close to similar Sunday gospel topic schedules, so we can all contribute.

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Every hour that goes by, there are 100 fewer mormons who feel that social media isn't appropriate.  Eventually, we'll take those who refuse to evolve and rope them off by themselves in a back room in a museum, where people can tell their children about them.  Yeah, we're supposed to discuss the gospel with our neighbors and come together oft, not on Facebook?  Why?  Is it like evil or something?  If you're the guy who is a jerk online, it'll impact your relationships in real life.  If you're the person with a thin skin who gets offended easily, you probably manage to get hurt offline as well as online.

 

Social media is changing how humans interact with each other, and our church leaders are absolutely recommending we jump in with both feet.  

 

These guys get it.

 

Coolest thing ever: I like arguing in comments sections of our local newspaper.  A guy in my ward likes the same thing, and we're on opposite sides of many fences.  We mix it up online to the point where our wives fret about hurt feelings, but we've both been careful to express fondness and respect for each other in real life.  It's cool. 

 

You can engage in it or not, but the naysayers are a dying breed.  Some people do letters, some do phone calls, some do email, some do notifications in the bulletin, some do social media.  

Edited by NeuroTypical
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I hate to be a naysayer, but . . . I would think that running a ward-oriented gospel doctrine discussion site would create a really weird dynamic between the site mods vis a vis the bishop and/or the gospel doctrine leader--it's not insurmountable; but you'd want very clear agreement from all stakeholders from the get-go about where the channels of accountability lie.

 

Also, while I recognize the desirability of anonymity; the problem with making a semi-anonymous group along ward lines is that you're allowing nameless site members to critique/snipe at statements made in class by specific, named individuals.  You're creating an uneven playing field that would make people even less likely to participate in the Sunday lessons--speaking up in class is hard enough without knowing that your comments--and by extension you, as a person--are subject to being sliced, diced, and generally dissected over the next week by a bunch of faceless nobodies on the internet.

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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Hello! I am thinking about creating an online venue of discussion for ward members. Often the classes go by without getting to everyone who wanted to speak, and there are people who feel hesitant about sharing their questions/concerns in public. 

 

So I would like to ask for your recommendations/suggestions about sites and tools that may allow a sort of message board/discussion forum that I can create for my ward. A couple things that I am looking for are as follows:

 

1. Must guarantee privacy so only ward members can access

2. Must allow an option for users to be anonymous

3. Need the option to appoint moderators

4. Better to be simple and easy-to-use than sophiscated

5. Mobile platform

 

 

Any help is much appreciated!! Thank you.

Our Stake President specifically asked that we don't do this. He expressed that past experiences have proven the discussions lead away from the Spirit. 

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Every hour that goes by, there are 100 fewer mormons who feel that social media isn't appropriate.

<snip>

This whole post is a blanket statement that doesn't apply to the specific issue of the OP.

We are on LDS.net and we are pretty active in it. So, of course, none of us here are "behind the curve" on social media as it is.

BUT, social media, just like the telephone and the letter and the smoke-and-blanket and the carving on cave walls is just ONE form of communication that has its specific uses.

The OP's specific needs do not comport well with social media. The first indicator is the desire for anonymity. When discussing very important facets of doctrinal teachings in a ward setting, hiding behind anonymity is counter to the teaching methods established by the Church. Now, if you are an investigator trying to get your foot wet in the investigation of restored gospel teachings, then an anonymous conversation with an online missionary would work okay. But, somewhere along this progression, the anonymity will have to be lifted for the discussion to move forward.

General Conference is broadcast all over the world in several different methods of communication. This format works for General Conference. This doesn't work for Sacrament Meeting. Sacrament Meeting works best through personal attendance in a Ward Building. In the same manner, expanded discussions of Gospel Doctrine as a Ward is a good thing to have but is better served through the FHE, HT, VT programs instead of Social Media.

If you want the Social Media format, then the services provided by LDS.net is the format that best serves this need at this time. This takes the conversation out of the Ward setting and, therefore, outside of the priesthood authority that presides over the Ward and Sunday School. In this case, the ward boundary doesn't need to be applied.

Just my 2 cents.

Edited by anatess
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We are on LDS.net and we are pretty active in it. So, of course, none of us here are "behind the curve" on social media as it is.

 

I dunno. I can honestly say that I just don't get Twitter. I'm like the old man shaking his stick at the kids to get off his lawn with it. Stop twittering you derned fool kids!!

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