What would you change about TC?

In case you haven't seen it, Think Christian has received some minor, but exciting, publicity in the last couple of weeks.  First, the blog Church Relevance used some fancy math equations to rank the top 60 Christian blogs.  TC was number 31 on the list, so that's good.  We're nice and comfy in the middle.  And secondly, in the January/February issue of Collide Magazine, we were one of the nominees for "Best Faith and Pop Culture Blog of 2008."  (We lost out to Jon Acuff's Stuff Christians Like, which is very funny and insightful.  It's worth a read if you haven't checked it out.)  I mention these two things not as a kudos to our organization, but as a shout out to you.  We want to thank you for making this blog what it is.  Without your participation, we wouldn't be on these lists.

When I see these kind of rankings, it makes me excited to know that more than a thousand people a day are coming to this site to think and talk about culture from a Christian perspective.  But it also makes me start to wonder about what we can do to make this site even better.  At the end of last year, we asked you what you like about TC.  So now, we'll go the other way.  What would you change about Think Christian?  Is there something that can be done to make it better?

As always, thanks for your thoughts.  It's always good to see what you're thinking.

Login to comment

Comments (14)

I would like to see the design change. Also the ability to connect the posts on facebook / Digg, etc... Content is good, but can use some work. I would also like to see more connectivity with your audience (me). Have a "top posts of the week" or a "most commented post of the week" type of thing. Get us involved and give us a reason to come back, not just to browse but to get us involved. I do love the site, but it can be so much better.
Thanks for your thoughts. I absolutely agree with connectivity issue. It's my guess that we'll look at a redesign of this website sometime in the next year, so it's something we'll keep in mind.
Disregard my previous message. Never clicked on "share this". I see there the ability to share stories on Facebook / Digg and many others. My bad!
I do like the short posts with lots of links if I want more information
David
www.redletterbelievers.com
I would like to see older posts, which received a lot of comment, brought back a couple of times a year for a "where are we now" sort of review. Maybe pick ten or so. Also, when moderators decided not to post, it would he helpful to have a brief email explaining why. There have been times when participants have assumed their contribution was rejected, but didn't know why, tried to rework it to be more acceptable, reposted, then found a moderator simply hadn't been available for a couple of days, and both (rather redundant) posts appeared. We could avoid this, AND provide people some understanding of what to do in the future, with some brief feedback.
How about more frequent posts. There's eight contributors, yet you're not even averaging one post per day as a group.
There should be a process where the original contributor who offers a topic for discussion can monitor the various posts, identify side issues that spin off, and move them into a distinct page or column, so as not to confuse the original issue, or unduly suppress free flow of opinion. For example, the item on Religion and the Obama Administration began with the question, will faith flourish under this administration. A whole lot of people immediately jumped to "Is Obama a Christian?" That's a fun topic, although perhaps a bit arrogant, but it distracts from the original point. So, the moderator could post a note "Many people have posted opinions about whether Obama is a Christian. To read these posts, or respond to them click on <this link="">." The side issue shouldn't become a new RECENT POST, which could get very cluttered, it should be accessible only from the original main item. There were many posts about abortion, and the strange semantic oxymoron called "gay marriage." That's two more side issues. It could make for more clarity in discussion, and avoid some redundancy also.</this>
That's a good idea. In general, we try to let the community police itself in terms of staying on topic. We hope that if a couple of people are in a conversation that's off topic, they will continue the conversation on their own off the site. Unfortunately, when the conversation is about politics, it almost always seems to stray away.
this site works good for me as is I recemend no changes.
I might have to agree with frequency. There's a gaggle of you Jesus-loving folk in here. On "The Writing on the Wall", it's just me [married with kids and a load of other things to do] but I crank out daily morsels of cyber unleavened bread.

Maybe I just can't sleep, but what you guys create is great to read. I would like a little more.

Peace,
HiScrivener
Seek out and display "original" Christian art and artists, commenting in their "fashion" (with their permission of course).
Jerod, I've been happy to see the change in comment moderation. It was frustrating for me to have to wait for every comment to be moderated.

I admit that I don't really understand the whole Disqus thing. I've registered and logged in before but it always seems a bit dorky and obtrusive.

Seeing the recent list of posts I'm very happy with the breadth of topics and also that a variety of people are posting. I'm especially glad for Mary's posts and not just because she's a chick blogger. She's writing some good stuff.

A magazine format for WordPress might give the home page some more dynamics. They're quite a bit of work to set up and maintain however.

I still get the feeling that ThinkChristian is narrowly American, evangelical and male. And as I've mentioned somewhere else it seems reactionary (a post on Halloween) rather than proactive in setting the conversation.

I would like to start contributing again but I need to get settled in Mozambique first.

All in all, things look positive.
It would be great to have you contributing again.

We haven't changed the comment moderation that I know of, so maybe we're just approving them a little faster. I agree that Disqus is a little bizarre. We'll have to see if we keep it once we do a website update.

Thanks for your thoughts and I hope all is going well in Mozambique.

See the latest in:

Promotion

promo 1 promo 2
promo 3 promo 4

Donate Now