I did some volunteer design work for some non-profits. Never again! You get no respect at all when you work for free. You just get slave-driven and no appreciation at all.MeanDean said:You're not the only one of that opinion.
Check out this article I wrote a few years ago called:
Mike Boyink on the problem with free ice cream
It is based on a situation where a rather talented webmaster gave away free services to his church, only to have a pastor with an "well optimized ego" run Mike out and then ruin the site with his own "expertise."
I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have dialup. Nothing like sitting there for 10 or 15 minutes waiting for the page to load so you can proceed.MeanDean said:Well think about it, if the Flash intro needs/requires a "skip intro" ... then is it really content of value to the conversion goals of the site?
Interesting, I like the first one on the list the most.snv1492 said:As other people said, I think the vast majority of churches do not hire professionals to do their sites. They "hire" a parishioner, who is probably a volunteer, and who's only experience with web design is dragging and dropping things into their free copy of FrontPage Express. They have probably never even seen the code they created, and they don't want to.
That being said, there are some pretty nice standards compliant church sites out there.
- http://www.zcpca.org/
- http://www.trinitybirmingham.com/
- http://www.parkviewbaptist.net/
- http://www.thecity.org/
- http://www.nsider.org/
...
What's the security issue in visiting it? Aren't websites are supposed to be visited.
On your review of the website I noticed that one of your concerns was that the area the church was located, had 50% of the population over 25.MeanDean said:Interesting, I like the first one on the list the most.
Excellent employment of a blog-like format up front, and incredibly clean. I would change the picture of the church for a set of smiling - as people go to church generally to connect with other people - but even that works on this rendering.
Interestingly enough, your last site listed was the subject of a review I wrote last week entitled:
All that said, I share your sentiment about said 'security issue.'
