Tag Archives: Blog

I sold my blog’s soul to Facebook

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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.

Question about agenda-driven comments

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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?

B&B Friday: Heartlight

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OK, so Heartlight.org isn’t a blog per se. It’s much bigger than that. There are graphic resources, articles, study resources… a wealth of material. They also offer a number of daily e-mails, from “Today’s Verse” to daily blog-like articles.

Phil Ware, minister at the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, developed and maintains the site. I first started receiving their e-mails over 10 years ago and now have the privilege of writing regularly for Heartlight. Our ministry team writes articles that are featured on the site each Wednesday.

If you haven’t visited Heartlight.org, do yourself a favor and explore the site a bit. There’s something there for just about everyone.

Comment policy… suggestions?

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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?

Top posts from 2009

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So here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. What were the top posts from this past year?

  • One post that was discussed in the forum at preacherfiles.com was the post about sermon-less assemblies. The post has been viewed over 300 times, although the poll only has 40-something votes. Go ahead… vote in the poll. It’s not too late.
  • My post about the gates of Hades has also been popular. I don’t even have a clever explanation for that. I guess people are just interested in the topic.
  • The review I did about Danny Corbitt’s book about instrumental music in the church has also drawn some interest, with over 400 views of that post. I hope that means that more people read Danny’s book. No matter one’s views, the book presents material that should be considered.
  • Not surprisingly, the series I did on alcohol continues to draw a decent amount of traffic. The first post in that series has been viewed over 1000 times.
  • By far, the most popular post I wrote this year was “When Mistruths Go Viral.” It was also discussed on the preacherfiles.com forum. I’m glad to see that people are interested in correcting some false information that was circulating on the Internet.

Those are the top posts from 2009. Go ahead and start voting for your favorites from 2010!