Who should decide how web 2.0 websites are used?
3 January 2007I have been trying to use mychurch.org over the last couple of months. Without much success to be honest. This is because I have failed to encourage anyone else from my church to sign up. As a church of only 30-odd members, this means there are relatively few households with adequate internet access. It seems there ought to be a critical mass of members, which should enable the community features of mychurch.org to be useful. (Holy Trinity Brompton only has 4 members on mychurch.org, with a Sunday attendance of in excess of 4,000).
When I made a suggestion on the forum about correcting the Google Map, so that non-US churches were correctly shown I was given the following response by the mychurch team;
We only have a handful of international churches now, and most of them have just 1 member. When we start getting more activity internationally, we’ll globalize the google map.
Sorry for being so US-centric, but that is where 99% of our users are right now…
You can help by getting more members from your own UK church online.
Clearly they have their priorities, but can they tell me what to do, or how I should use the service? It is their website, and they are free to prevent certain uses or users but is it in their best interest?
They see themselves as a web 2.0 outfit and as a possible replacement to myspace, but what if the users want to use it for something else, is that a problem?
Clearly it is good for a church to be listed, so that people searching for the church or a church in the area and using mychurch can find it, but what if the church cannot (because of the lack of members) use the site for the purpose set out?
When websites decide that they know best how users should use the service, will this help them long term? Or should sites like mychurch.org listen and accept that there are different types of users with different needs and that allowing them to use the site in a more limited way may ultimately lead to greater participation.
Hmmm,
I felt the same way when I tried to use the site. What people want from the web is to give them tools and information to help solve thier problems. I don’t sense the website gives people what they really want.
People can get the same church information from a phone book. Email connects most of us and the younger generation already uses instant messaging to connect together.
mychurch.org is an experiment with good intentions. It just doesn’t come across as something that people can’t wait to tell others about. If it did you and I would have told everyone about it already. Instead we are left scratching our heads and going, Ok that was fun.. Next!
Side note. It would be nice if there was an easy way to delete my profile.
Hi David,
Thanks for voicing your concern. But I disagree that we’re telling you how to use the service. You can use our tools anyway you want. I don’t believe excluding non-US churches from the Google map is dictating how to use the site.
We’re fine if churches just want to get listed and have a single member on it. But we do encourage folks to get the rest of their church on board since the site will become more useful to them personally.
We don’t see ourselves as a replacement to myspace.
Steven - what do you suggest in terms of tools to help solve church’s problems? In my private correspondence with you, I suggested that you use a personal profile instead of a church profile, and I explained why. I read about simplechurch.tv before I responded to you. It wasn’t some canned impersonal message. I also told you about the global groups feature that might be serve your needs. I never heard from you after that… until now.
There are at least a hundred churches that are actively using the site. We listen carefully to their feedback and make changes/improvements based on their needs. I think if you were both in my position, you would also prioritize the requests and suggestions of your paying customers.
We know the site is not for everyone and every church. But please understand that pleasing 100% of our 7,000 users is impossible. One man’s request is another man’s complaint.
But thank you both for giving the site a try. If you’d like me to delete your profiles, you know how to reach me.
Peace
joe
Joe, thanks for your comments, I certainly do not want you to delete the profiles. I understand that the site is still in beta and you are still improving and changing things.
I was just a little frustrated when some of my suggestions on the forum were met with comments to the effect of, ‘that’s too difficult’, ‘not a priority’ and ‘get some more users’.
As users we would love to hear more about the development of the site and what the priorities are.
Thats fair David. We will be mindful to be more tactful and professional in explaining why we choose not to implement things. We certainly do not mean to insult or brush off any of our users, and I apologize for the curt forum responses.
Blessings,
joe
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