I realize not every reader and subscriber regards himself/herself a member of this virtual parish, but on my “About” page I promised to treat you as one. That is, you hold all the same privileges as any other member; the only limit of my service to you is your involvement.
Today I’d like to ask for just a tiny bit of involvement from any and all of you.
As you might expect, some members are pretty active and we carry on conversations via email (try ehurst909@gmail.com or br073n@outlook.com) and other means of communication. A topic that naturally comes up is the background administration of our virtual parish. It’s virtual, so that means the bulk of that work is online. Right now we are all using common carrier type services: this is a free WordPress account, those are free email addresses, the ebooks are published by someone who charges no fees for free books, etc.
Do you suppose it might be advisable to self-host some of this? That is, do you think it would work better if Brother Ed ran a server from his house and hosted this blog with full control, and maybe offered a free parish email service, etc.? Which services would you like to see that I might add to our parish if it were possible?
Be aware that this is something that would not happen tomorrow even if we had the money for it. We would have to obtain a good server box, and then I’d have to learn more about systems administration (Linux, of course), and eventually I’d have to pay for upgrading my Cox broadband account to a commercial grade connection, because standard home Internet service blocks almost all of that stuff. No, I can’t promise it would be quick, but I’m quite willing to try for the sake of this parish and my ministry to all of you.
Even if some of you would pony up some donations for it, I still need some assurance that a portion of my readership gives a rat’s patootie either way. So come on and speak up; I need to know if it will bless you to, say, get rid of the ads that show up on this blog.
Ed, I appreciate what you’re doing here… while some posts resonate with me, others don’t, but I try to pay attention to what’s going on within the limitations of my internet time. I don’t participate by comments because in spite of my interest in what you’re doing, I don’t see eye to eye with you on a lot of stuff and I don’t feel that a comment or an argument are appropriate coming from my point of view. I have no interest in changing your way of thinking, but I read and sometimes fit what you are saying in with what I believe to be true, this keeps my interest here. I’m also willing to consider what you’re saying about various developments in the world, although I might not draw the same conclusions. I also think the idea of an internet ministry on this level is unique and worth learning from by observation. And I like to think of you as a friend in a spiritual sense that I can reach out to on a deeper level than a facebook post, for example, if needed.
That said, you kind of lost me on your suggestions for possible changes. The computer aspects of your ministry usually leaves my head spinning. So you shouldn’t take any of my comments as weighing in on this issue. I most always read your posts in my email, so I don’t see the ads.
Best wishes as you make your decisions. I’ll keep watching.
Yes, a friend, indeed. And a smart lady you are, Jeanne, because getting folks to agree with me was never the point. As you note, it’s a matter of learning something you can use. For those who get as much as they need the way you do, the proposed changes mean nothing. But your feedback remains a valuable treasure. Thanks, dear Sister.
I think having a way to post questions to you without making them public on a blog and without having them archived by Google for eternity would be advantageous to this community.
Well, email works for that right now, and there is a good bit of that right now. But I was also considering something kind of in-between for “members only” in the sense of those who really want to bother to join a forum and invest the time it takes to make sense of what’s going on. It would moderated and members would fall under that virtual dominion thing I talk about. 😉