I’m excited Scot. Hopefully this will add a new healthy element to our good conversation. It would be great to see those of other faiths or of no faith join us here. I look forward to seeing how this unfolds, as well as participating in it.

Scott, just a quick FYI: the text-click link from jesuscreed.org does not work. Althought the autolink does work after 10 seconds or so.
Looking forward to the upcoming posts at the new address!

Cool, it looks like on some of the other comments that some new people have already begun contributing to the conversation!

Text-Click re-direct is now correct.
Dave

Kyle,
I am glad to see you comment here – I was a little worried you might have problems.

Scot,
A nice post underscoring the importance of civility in conversations here. I look forward to this next chapter of this blog and all that it will unfold.

I like the new screen candy.
Frank V.

An excellent liberal blog on history, HNN, was
taken to george mason university servers. I don’t
know the author’s workload, but that type of
shift seems preferable. I only have a peripheral
relationship with Belifnet.

like the new format, easier to read.

Scott,
The RSS feed is now only partial – meaning those of us who read you in an RSS reader have to come here to read every post. It would be great to still be able to read all of your posts in the feed.

Hey, Scot! It will take a bit to get used to the brighter screen, but this is easier to read. All worked fine when I opened the blog this morning.
Blessings!
Andie

Scot,
Please accept this as a gentle, but real concern. To come over to Belief.net and see ‘Jesus Creed’ framed by advertisements “Better than Bare” and “Smarter than Botox” somehow diminishes the caliber and dignity of what Jesus Creed is all about.
This is just my opinion. I will remain a loyal Jesus Creed reader and contributer.

Please fix the rss feed so it is not just partial. The RSS feed should be the full post

Greetings,
Are all old links permanently broken. You have done a lot of good writing over the years and I know that I lot of people have linked to your word. I certainly hope that those links have not all been broken. Even if you move here, you could leave the old posts up and just close the comments and let those pages go static. Then at least, those pages could be accessed.
I’m still reading of course, but have all those links broken would leave a big hole.

The brightness of the screen and all the moving parts are a little bit of a shock to the system. Remind me not to look at this too early in the morning or I’m going to have to drink a lot more coffee before I get on here.

John,
We are all used to seeing and often ignoring ads these days – maybe they will eventually have ads better tailored to the audience as these seem a waste of space given our community.
I agree with Andie and Ron that the new screen is easier to read.
Except – it would be nice to have the entire post and all of the comments available on the same screen. This is not currently possible – one either gets the whole post and some comments – or when requesting all comments one gets the brief post. This will make it difficult to converse and interact with the post and the conversation in comments at the same time.

Why? You too have gone commercial? Love your stuff, but did not think you would go to an ad based website???

On the ad issue I’d say that static, text and banner ads are one thing. And RJS is right that we’re all accustomed to seeing (and ignoring) them. However, flashing, strobing ads are another thing altogether. Not so easy to ignore. I wish sites like BeliefNet would be a little more discerning, not just about the content of the ads, but also the distracting nature of them. I don’t suppose Scot has any say-so as to what gets placed here though.

Generally read the blog on my mobile (cell phone) new site doesn’t seem to work so that’s a bit of a bummer means my interaction will be severely limited.

Although I’m a little concerned about the move Scot, I look forward to the forum for discussion. I’ve enjoyed the books and blog and know many newcomers to Jesus Creed, will be challenged as well.

On the ads, “my friends,” yes, they can be annoying; no, I don’t have anything to say about them; oddly, I’ve not seen one botox ad and have had Lance Armstrong and “Hot Seat” and something about responsibility all day long.

Darren (Nov 11, 11:05am) I find that minimising my browser to hug the text (or crop out the ads) works a treat.
Also, there doesn’t seem to be a numbering system for comments. . . referencing previous comments just got a whole lot harder!

wahhh! Change. Sigh. I’m surprised how sad I am reading this on beliefnet rather than your old, beautiful sight. Ah well. I hope this works out fabulously well. The world needs more Jesus Creed in it. I also hope you have an “out” card in your back pocket just in case.
Be the comment dictator! It can get awfully rough here on beliefnet.

Have to agree that it does now have a very bland, modern, & “commercial” feel to it vs. the more earthy, academic, & “real” look of the old site. But if the goal is to reach a bigger audience & this is the way to do it, then I just need to get over myself & move on. I suppose there are bigger issues to deal with – like tomorrow’s aftermath possibly???

Lance A. once told me that you and he were good buddies.
This is all beginning to make sense now.

Phil,
Unfortunately, minimizing the browser works when you have an average sized screen. But, being a web designer, I have a massive wide-screen. There’ll be no cropping out of the ads on my screen! Thanks for the idea though.

Is there an hope of getting Beliefnet to open up the RSS feed to include your entire posts? Right now I’m getting truncated entries which forces me to come to the Beliefnet site every time I want to read a post. I suppose it’s because of the ads, but truly, this hindrance to convenience may keep me from reading as often as I used to.

The Archives are now completely loaded here. You can find them under the Calendar. The organization is spiffier.

It’s funny that I’m not seeing *any* ads!? Then I viewed the site with Safari and I see what everyone’s talking about…
I guess I didn’t realize how much my browser is actually doing for me! I’m Using Firefox 3 and the AdBlock Plus plugin. BeliefNet must hate software like that.
Dave

I assume archives are still being worked on as the calendar is not present under the title?

Ah. It is a nice organization under archives – available at bottom of page.

Just loaded the feed into my feedreader – but can’t see the full post, only a SHORT SNIPPET. Man, that really sucks bigtime. That way of blogging is totally outdated.

Scot,
I wonder about the “agreements” concerning comment content posted being licensed to beliefnet.com — and in reading the “agreements” wondered about the ability to copy bits of posts and take them back to blog and link to them … it sounds like that isn’t permitted.
Any clarifications to help? Because if I can’t copy my comment and put it on my own blog, that’s a bummer.
…feels like going from simple “One T” freedom to Big Brother’s Rules.
Say, “T”, are you out there, brother? Have you read through the “agreements” and can you give us the legal Cliff Notes version?
…and I agree with the guy who pointed out that comments are no longer numbered. Real bummer for the conversation here….
Okay … enough whining! Hope you all get all the kinks out and you have enough grace for us as we process the changes.

…one more thing: did I read correctly that we cannot paste any URLs into comments? Well, that will really put a damper on the conversation! Would love clarification on that one.
And no emoticons? How boring is that :^/

I’m not opposed to advertising and I think that positioning the blog on a more public forum is a positive step — making it less work for you to maintain is a bonus. But the bouncy flashy 1980′s style advertising screams “cheesy” — annoys the senses — and is antithetical to the Jesus Creed ethos. You can’t even do an end run because the RSS feed is only partial, meaning you have to actually visit the site to read the content. It’s going to be a rough transition. This does not bode well — not at all.

Peggy,
As I read it – but I am no lawyer – it is a nonexclusive license. You can use anything of yours (you still “own” it) and others can allow anything of theirs. But beliefnet can also use it if they wish…
No emoticons is boring…I was just learning how to do them.
People have included url’s in comments – and posts.

Brad,
My guess is that Beliefnet is happy to have Jesus Creed – because it is a different demographic and will help broaden the site.
My hope is that Beliefnet will realize that cheesy bouncing ads, botox, make-up and dating are not exactly the right mix for a community with a high percentage of Pastors, Professors, and Professionals (male and female) and students aiming in this direction.

Wow, this is going to be hard. The bright screen is hard to take. I just loved the layout and colors of the other site. The double-spaced items on the right would look better single-spaced. I know that the content is what’s important, but there’s something to be said for the quiet, coffee shop atmosphere of the original site. I really am going to miss it.

I know I usually don’t like change, but I really don’t like this one. The old Jesus Creed was much easier to read and and follow the comments. I really do not like having only the comments on a page and not being able to follow the original post.
I use Firefox with AdBlock Plus and don’t see the ads, but I really miss the old site. I also miss being able to click on a website and go directly there instead of copy and paste.
Seems like a real move backwards to me.

wow there’s a lot of white space, that will take some getting used to. Will there always be a full page pop-up ad we have to close before we get to the real blog?

Yes..this new site is very hard to get used to. I guess I am not as cutting edge as I hoped I would be.

New site is terrible to work with I have tried posting quite a few times before it actually works. I also think the ads are pretty inappropriate not to say annoying and distracting, I hope the benefits end up weighing out the negatives but right now its the other way round for me.

Using firefox with the ABP add-on I see no ads.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

I am going to extend grace for the transition. Mostly, it’s just hard to read because we’re so used to looking at the old site. We’ll get used to this over time. Right now, I miss the old site. But in six months we’d freak if we had to look at the old one.
By the way Scot, great job on The Blue Parakeet.

I’ve never been impressed with Beliefnet. I hope that all the negatives associated with Beliefnet don’t mitigate the positives I’ve associated with JesusCreed. I’m pessimistic though. I’m afraid I’ll be spending a lot less time with the JesusCreed community than I used to.

Thanks, RJS…we’ll just have to adjust, eh? ;^)

I deeply respect Scot and esteem his wisdom; I keep figuring that he must see past these flashing ads, clunky clicking through to comments, and non-intuitive navigation, to something of greater value. I am saddened at the loss of the original Jesus Creed… yet I pray the merit Scot sees in moving here trumps my current experience…
Humbly trusting,
Ann

JesusCreed is my favourite blog in the world, one i visit all the time and have learned so much from in lots of ways. I also tell lots of people about it and Scot is one of my favourite authors. So i’m pretty dismayed by dating ads bouncing around, being enticed to be greedy by voting etc .. and finding the site is a lot less user friendly .. It feels like something great has been lost and i hope i’m wrong ..

The layout (background, character, ease on the eyes on contrast to a bright white background) of the old Jesus Creed was my favorite of all blogs. Change is difficult for me. We recently moved our Better Bibles Blog to a new address and blogging system. I hesitated about making the move for a year or so. Fortunately we were able to retain most of the look of the previous address.
Scot, does Belief.net entirely determine the look of the blogs it hosts? Or can you have a programmer create a background and other layout on Belief.net that is similar to what you had at jesuscreed.org?
At least would it be possible to mellow down the bright white background for those of us for whom it is difficult on our eyes? Perhaps a cream color that lights some of the glare?
I wish God’s best on your cont’d blogging and hope that much of the Jesus Creed ambience we have come to love and enjoy can be retained in your new digs.
Gotta get my sunglasses for my next visit here

Test?

I am currently reading the Jesus Creed and find it to be the best reason for explaining why I want to follow Christ. My question in light of our current political climate is how do we love other as our selves when it comes to the sticky issue of health care insurance reform? Should the Government be involved or should the Church be more involved?