One thing that has always annoyed me is that a lot of churches suck at the whole "web site" thing. Namely, it's really really easy to have a web page that says when your services are for Christmas, Theophany, or Easter at least, say, a month in advance. And makes it easy to see. Seriously, on Thanksgiving, if I go to your parish web site, I want to see, on the front page, your regular service times, your address, and your Christmas schedule. If you're on the Old Calendar, fine, by December 15th. At the beginning of Lent, I want to see your regular service times, your address, and your Holy Week schedule (or at least your Pascha schedule, I understand if you haven't nailed down how many presanctified liturgies you're doing that week). If your church web site does not make those three things quite obvious, you fail it. Those are the three things I would probably want to know about your church, so if you do not tell me that information immediately without additional mouseclicks, you are not doing the right thing on your web page. Also, if you send out weekly bulletins, you might want to mention the timing of Nativity services starting a month in advance.
My own parish's website gets at least a B+ here. They had an up-to-date monthly calendar available which listed all the services. However, it was not until this week that you could see immediately on the front page the times of services for the Nativity - there is a weekly calendar on the sidebar. If I recall correctly - perhaps they had an announcement up earlier. The parish I will be at for the Nativity gets a C. I found the information on the site eventually and, in retrospect, the schedule in PDF has apparently been there since 10/31. It takes a few clicks to get there, the information was not announced in their weekly bulletins, it seems to be in conflict with the google calendar, ugh.
3 comments:
In principle, I agree with you. I don't think many people visit church websites to read articles, look at pictures of people they don't know, etc. They want service times, directions, and special events. Unfortunately, the content management program that we use sort of dictates where things go and when they go up. The calendar function on the front page updates automatically by week - I have no control over that. During the latter weeks of Lent, FJ usually has me post a special announcement with service times, which are prominently displayed front-and-center on the home page. But normally, I don't mind making one or two clicks to get my info.
And, it is much easier to find than job postings on a university website.
Yeah, it would have to be announcement rather than being on the schedule. I do remember the special announcements at the end of Lent, which do deserve an A.
Recruiting software is just horrible. Don't get me started.
I run the website for my old GOA parish in PA. I stopped trying to provide accurate weekly service schedules because no one in the office could ever actually send it to me ahead of time for than a week or two, with months long intervals. So, I rewrote it all to provide just the Sunday morning services, along with a suggestion to check the bulletin, newsletter or call the office.
The priest also wanted to post sermons (that weren't all that interesting, though I love him) and all sort of content. In reality, it was a parish website whose main function was to provide exactly what you suggested: service times, address, directions, priest's name on the front page. A little info on Orthodoxy and the parish if you want to click around.
Personally, when visiting parishes, I like to see a few pictures of the outside and the temple, just so I know what to expect. Architecture and icons, pews, etc. tell you a good amount about what you'll experience in the service. And the photos should be neither staged photos of a perfect nave nor snapshots taken on the run during a procession or at Pascha.
I am a firm believer that the national church or diocese should provide a standard website page for each parish as part of its own website. A parish can buy a domain name if they want and point it, but the standard content can then be, well, standardized rather than the priest posting something he wrote in undergrad. Photos can be posted on Flickr with a link on the website, priest's reflection can be posted on a separate blog with a link on the site, too.
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