Well, the Health Department finally caught up with us. The Kitchen will be closed for a few days. But I won’t leave you with nothing to read… I’ll post some blasts from the posts over the next few days.
Well, the year is getting away from us. Two days from now will be 2011. I decided to look back through the archives and pick out some of the high points (low points?) in The Kitchen during 2010
January
Audio from Ray Vander Laan — This post brings more traffic to my blog than any other, not because people want to read what I have to say, but because they are looking for material from Ray Vander Laan!
February
Falling Away From Grace discussion (2/2-2/15) — I learned a lot during this discussion, especially about Calvinism and its teachings.
Sunday-Go-To-Meeting Clothes — A lot of people were interested in discussing our dress, even though I meant for the post to be about Leviticus!
March
Hugo Chavez and Jesus — A discussion about nationalism in the church
April
Romans 13 discussion (4/12-4/29) — Lots of good discussion about the meaning of this much-used passage
May
Forsaking The Assembling — Post examining one of the most-often misquoted verses in the Bible
June
Field Guide To Church Fauna series (6/28-7/8) — An attempt at satire that probably didn’t come off as it should have
July
When Original Isn’t Good — A look at the dangers of finding things no one else has ever seen
August-September
Study of To Change The World (8/13-9/16) — Probably the longest series I’ve ever done. Once again, this features someone else’ material.
October
Bringing The Ark (10/12-10/15) — People seemed to enjoy this study of the story of David bringing the Ark to Jerusalem
November
Lord’s Supper Stress Disorder — A look at how we often fail to consider outsiders when taking the Lord’s Supper
December
Study of The Next Christians (12/13-12/17) — Discussion of Gabe Lyons’ book
Yes, the ubiquitous “Like” button has invaded my blog (See, there at the right, under the header). Facebook has added new functionality to their empire, allowing outside sites to connect to Facebook. Now you can “Like” The Kitchen and that will show up to your friends on Facebook. (The button is for the whole blog, not any individual post)
We’ll try it out for a while. I may decide it’s not worth it. I have noticed that the page loads more slowly than before. There are some other things that might could be added as well, so I’ll probably either expand Facebook’s presence on this blog or eliminate it completely. Time will tell.
Hopefully, you’ll tell too. If you’re on Facebook, why don’t you try “liking” this blog? If you don’t think this blog should be connected to Facebook, feel free to tell me that as well. I’d like to know your opinion.
You touched on some things that I have been trying to say in blogs where ever I can.
That comment was made on one of my recent posts, referring not to what I’d written, but to someone else’s comment. The exact subject matter isn’t important. I’m curious what others think of the tactic. I’ve noticed some people that go around and comment on other people’s blogs in what seems to be an agenda-driven way. That is, they have a certain issue they are passionate about, and look for every chance they can to expound on that issue… on other people’s blogs.
Is that how it should work? To my thinking, if you’ve got something that you feel needs to be said, enough that you will try and expound it on numerous blogs, it seems that you should be writing your own blog. I’ve cut off one commenter who tried to drive almost every discussion to a discussion of one particular doctrine. Was I incorrect in doing so? Shouldn’t comments follow the general topic of the post? Or am I being dictatorial in expecting everyone in The Kitchen to discuss what I want discussed?
What do you think, o gentle readers?
I block spam. I do at times edit comments. I delete some comments. (The vast majority of deleted comments, by the way, were written by me.)
I don’t usually moderate comments, except when certain someones are being a little too feisty and I’m going to be away from my computer for a long period of time. With a good spam filter, I see little to no reason to delay comments from going through. We’re going on four years, and this hasn’t been a problem yet.
However, listening to advice here and there, I decided to establish a comment policy, partly to make things a little less arbitrary. (Be it known, however, that I do consider myself to be the arbiter here. I’ll try to be reasonable, but in the end, I will make the decisions regarding what goes on in The Kitchen)
So what should I put in said comment policy? The standard stuff about profanity, spam, etc. seems unnecessary, but I may put it in. My number one rule is that you will not be abusive to other commenters. I want this to be a safe place to express ideas. I’m not always good at that, but I try.
What other guidelines should be in place?