# Website feedback



## Poimen (Mar 26, 2009)

I would like some feedback on our church website:

Grace Reformed Church of Leduc

It used to be a blog but now I have the old site forwarded to the address above. I have made a new page called 'Welcome' to greet visitors so that they know this is a church and not some personal blog (though the blog is still there). 

Anyways I was wondering what you think about the Welcome page. It looks kind of cheap to me but I don't know if there is much more I can do with free software (wordpress.com) Suggestions?


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## Marrow Man (Mar 26, 2009)

I don't think it looks "cheap." Question: is the church in the banner your church? If so, then you are showing them what you look like and what you provide. My experience has been that most people are now looking at church websites as a sort of 21st century yellow pages. They want information, and your site has it.

You have directions on a separate page, which is good. Also, I liked the liturgy page (especially the glossary); everyone appreciates knowing what to expect.

A possible solution if you want to expand this more: our church uses a free website service as well (through Home - ForMinistry). It might give you some more versatility. You can click here to see what it looks like. We did have to purchase the domain name (it appears you have already done that), which only cost around $15 a year.


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## Idelette (Mar 26, 2009)

I thought it looks just fine! Its very easy to navigate....which I really like!


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## OPC'n (Mar 26, 2009)

Very cool! I like the colors of the sky. Hey, I didn't know you were from Alberta! My sister and her family live in Calgary!


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## Marrow Man (Mar 26, 2009)

One suggestion: I mentioned having directions was good. It certainly is. However, they are on your "contact" page. That might be difficult for some folks to find right away. You don't want people frustrated looking for info on your site.

The more I look at it, the more I like the site. I get tired of the uber-animated "professional" sites. Most people want something that is no-frills and tells them exactly what they want to know about the church.


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## Prufrock (Mar 26, 2009)

I like the simplicity of it. It looks nice.

I have two suggestions which jumped out at me right away:

1.) Perhaps this is petty, but I might suggest taking the "For" off of "We Gather For" on the front page.

2.) This one is more of a question: Are the pages that come up under "Home" and "Welcome" supposed to be the same?


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## Poimen (Mar 26, 2009)

In answer to the many questions and suggestions:

Tim: Yes the church in the picture is ours. We use wordpress.com so I don't know how that would work with the site you posted. Thanks anyways. 

Ladies: Thank you for your encouragement! I like the website as a whole just not the welcome page. As per usual I assumed too much and need to fill out what my objection is so that I am properly understood. And Sarah Calgary is 2 1/2 hours south of where I am. 

Josh: As I noted to Tim (above) we are using wordpress.com and I don't think you can get CSS unless you make an upgrade to wordpress.org. They are also hosting the site. 

Paul: I took your suggestion and changed it. Better thank you. In answer to your question the 'welcome' page and 'home' page are technically supposed to be the same. This is where the cheapness (I feel) comes in. We get a free blog with wordpress.com that was, pretty much, being used a website. However I now have the blog address being forwarded to graceleduc.org so it has the 'feel' of a website. 

wordpress.com allows you to make one of your existing pages as the 'home' page and consequently the blog has been moved to another page. This is why I think it looks cheap - because the welcome page is the home page and I don't know how (or if it is possible) to meld them into one. 

Maybe I should just stick to the blog being the homepage but I feel as if people may be misled when they get there. Just thinking out loud...


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## PresbyDane (Mar 27, 2009)

I like it,
But you should really take a new picture, in all serieousness you look mean, and just that thought in my mind would give me a wrong first impression of you, unless you really are mean


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## Poimen (Mar 27, 2009)

Re4mdant said:


> I like it,
> But you should really take a new picture, in all serieousness you look mean, and just that thought in my mind would give me a wrong first impression of you, unless you really are mean



I see your point Martin but I did provide a little explanation below the picture to the effect that I _look_ mean but I am really a nice guy.


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## Prufrock (Mar 27, 2009)

I got to look around a bit on the site today: I like it. It's simple; it's easy to find everything a visitor might be looking for; and it has some rather useful links to other sites. Well done.


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## Scottish Lass (Mar 27, 2009)

Daniel,
I seriously doubt you're interested, but the site Tim suggested would function as a multipage website to which your wordpress blog could be attached. Tim does it that way so there's less hassle if/when we move on to another church, among other reasons.


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## Berean (Mar 27, 2009)

> Although (like the picture above) he usually looks angry, he really is a nice guy.



I can't decide if you look more like a prison guard or a drill instructor. Shouldn't you appear more "seeker friendly"?


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## Semper Fidelis (Mar 27, 2009)

I recommend you get a "warmer" picture of yourself for the Pastor profile. Maybe something in a suit. Just something that doesn't say "cage fighter".


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## AThornquist (Mar 27, 2009)

I agree with the above comments. To this poor baptist, you just have a "baptize your baby if you want to live" look.  The website is looking good, though! If you did feel like you needed to update it some, it is at least in a position where it can decently serve your community until whatever necessary updates are completed.


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## Idelette (Mar 27, 2009)

Semper Fidelis said:


> I recommend you get a "warmer" picture of yourself for the Pastor profile. Maybe something in a suit. Just something that doesn't say "cage fighter".



Yeah, I was actually going to suggest wearing a suit as well!


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## Poimen (Mar 27, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestions on another picture. Seriously. It looks humourous to me but then not everybody shares my sense of humour. I will see about putting up another one.

On another note we haven't thawed out yet so getting me to smile might be a bit of a stretch. In this part of the world we are all frozen, even the Arminians.


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## Edward (Mar 27, 2009)

I agree - ditch the picture. 

You might also add a 'what to expect' page, (or add to the Welcome page) setting out typical range of attire for the service and the service style. Yes, the clues are there that it's a casual, contemporary service, but why not spell it out. 

I just noticed - the home page and the welcome page are the same. So use the Welcome tab for the what to expect. 

And while you are making changes - ditch the picture.


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## Poimen (Mar 27, 2009)

Edward said:


> Yes, the clues are there that it's a casual, contemporary service, but why not spell it out.



What clues would those be? We are anything but casual or contemporary.


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## Scottish Lass (Mar 27, 2009)

I didn't get "casual" or "contemporary" at all either time I clicked around. It actually has a very formal feel.


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## Edward (Mar 27, 2009)

Poimen said:


> What clues would those be?



- It looked like you were wearing a t-shirt in the picture. Robe indicates formal, suit moderate, and a preacher in a t-shirt indicates things will be kind of casual. And casual usually indicates contemporary. (I notice the picture is now gone) 

-Looking at the order of worship, it indicates a contemporary lean to the service. The songs aren't identified by name, just number (Old Trinity Hymnbook, Happy Clappy songs of Praise - if the source is indicated, it's not readily seen). So then I looked for the next clue Song of Praise in the morning, Opening Song of Praise in the afternoon. Sounds like contemporary praise choruses to me. 

So the clues are a bit sparse, but there isn't really much pointing the other direction. 

The explanation of terms below the order of worship is useful for folks coming from other faith traditions, and the unchurched.


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## Poimen (Apr 1, 2009)

Folks:

An update with a question - I have been refining the site bit by bit but now, for some reason, I have hit a snag. 

I was editing the links this morning and for some reason after I was done 'Archives' 'Meta' and 'Categories' showed up on the sidebar (previously not there). I don't know why because I haven't selected them as widgets. I even installed them as widgets and uninstalled them but they won't go away when the pages are being loaded. I can't even edit them to appear in the order I want. 

I am missing something here? Anyone have any suggestions?


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## Scottish Lass (Apr 1, 2009)

Archives and Categories are pretty common sights on a blog--meta's not usually visible, though. Maybe your host did an update? I have no advice-sorry!

If you can't remove them, can you go back and categorize some of the older posts so it's useful to others even if you're stuck with it?


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## Jimmy the Greek (Apr 1, 2009)

If you can't get rid of that widget, just go to the Support page and scroll to the bottom for a contact link that will provide for an email question/submission. You should be able to omit it.

Also, Wordpress has about 60 Skins. Try out some different looks. You can view previews without changing anything or making a permanent switch.


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## Berean (Apr 1, 2009)

Don't know about web page construction, but is it possible that you need to clean your browser cache and history? Maybe that'll fix it?


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