Website Report 2009
History: The websites http://fcc-stw.org and www.fcc-stw.org were established in mid-2007.
Site Traffic was reviewed after a year, and reported at
www.fcc-stw.org/Board/Web-Progress.htm
with several conclusions and suggestions:
- Continue the website (implemented);
- Emphasize the Youth page (no progress);
- Create the Newsletter in HTML (not implemented);
- Develop Sermon Videos (not implemented); and
- Expand Archives (no progress).
It appears that the attempt to shift from paper towards the web has stalled.
Utilization: Site usage for www.fcc-stw.org as of October 2009 is
typically 20 to 60 visitors per day (and about another fourth of that by way of fcc-stw.org),
only slightly more than a year earlier. Page-views were predominantly the homepage index.html, followed
by Youth/Uthhome.htm, WNF/WNF.htm, Calendar.htm, Agenda.htm, BulletinBoard.htm, etc.
It seems that utilization has stagnated.
Crossroads: Several decisions need to be made at this time:
- If we wish to institutionalize our web presence and make it permanent, I need to establish a website
owned by the church (rather than by me). To accomplish this, I need to have the church staff
give up their e-mail addresses @firstchristianstillwater.org well before the renewal date.
- Several individuals have criticized the webpage for being too plain, which is a
result of my keeping the code simple to maintain while adding large amounts of
data (currently 492MB). Iff we wish to go to a flashier layout, we
need a process for identifying:
- what resources to keep, e.g., the generic info for visitors at the head
of the homepage, and the regular publications accessed by the blue buttons; and
- what resources to discontinue, e.g., all the more rarely referenced archives
and pages.
I have recently been taken to task for not posting specific items in a
sufficiently prominent manner, and hesitate to be the one who decides whom to
cut off.
- Is there any support for having staff members and volunteers participate in
maintaining any of the specific webpages? Right now, I collect (and double-check) info after
I happen to learn it from announcements during services. I am often late and
sometimes inaccurate with my information, and I am discouraged by the lack of
communication from committee chairs and planners. Ideally, information would go to the website first.
- In order to move away from paper and towards the web, it will be necessary
to generate publications in HTML first (replacing both text and PDF files) first,
and subsequently derive mailable paper copies.
Right now, the Newsletter is generated in a print format first, then a text-only
version is prepared for e-mail, and a PDF version which is compatible with (but
not optimal) for the web. Are
we willing to support an effort to make this change in the near future? The
alternative is to put off the move to digital media (a church is not required to
have an active website), and take it up again in a few years.
I need instruction whether and how to proceed on each of these four points.
Peter Moretti