We've begun thinking about what is next for LDS.ORG. As we do this, we'd love to get your input.
Take a minute and answer the following two questions. Our team will read each response.
1) What is the Church doing well with the Internet?
2) What is the Church not doing well with the Internet?
Feel free to forward these questions. We'd love all the thoughtful responses we can get!
1. Doing Well
ReplyDeleteGreat resource for lesson planning, looking up General Conference and magazine info, etc. The ward and stake website access has good basic features (membership directory, calendar).
2. Not doing well
My #1 suggestion would be to have an automated Home Teaching reporting mechanism. Users could "subscribe" to receive monthly e-mail requests for HT reporting. The users could then go online and click yes/no on a visit. Also make this available for HT district leaders so that HT numbers can be inputted from home.
#2 would be to allow automated e-mail messages to be sent for various ward functions. In the past, I've used a Linux system at work to regularly send out requests for information, reminders for meetings, etc.
Finally #3 would be to correlate MLS with the website to have instant updates of leadership position changes.
Individual ward websites: better than they used to be (i.e., totally haphazard), but not yet as good as they can be. You guys have done some wonderful things on the web lately, and I'd love to see what could happen if that same passion, expertise, and ingenuity were applied to the ward websites. (I'm sure you guys have already been looking at it, but a reminder couldn't hurt!)
ReplyDeleteWard staff internet access: This is a tricky issue because of potential for abuse, of course, but one of the biggest frustrations I have as a ward clerk is that I can't check my e-mail (to get things e-mailed by the bishop during the week), order online from the distribution center, update the ward website, print out maps, etc., from the clerk's office. I regularly have to drive back and forth between the office and my home to accomplish a lot of basic tasks. Not a simple issue, but one worth exploring.
MLS: I'm sure web-based MLS is quite a ways off, but we've gotta dream, right?
I know the big picture is *way* bigger than just those items, but they're the biggest Internet-related pain-points for our particular ward, so hopefully the information will help. :-)
1) What is the Church doing well with the Internet?
ReplyDeleteThe on-line scriptures and the gospel library are my favourite and most used parts of LDS.org. Being called as a clerk I also find the on-line training materials very good.
2) What is the Church not doing well with the Internet?
Prior to 2001 we had a local stake website, which we used to publish materials that were generated locally and promote local events. We also used an electronic mailing list. When the brethren wrote asking for this to discontinue we complied. The letter told us that policy was being developed for local unit websites. This resulted in LUWS for North America, but as I live in Europe we are still waiting. From what I have read there are limitations with LUWS, but something would be better than nothing.
The only thing that the Church is not doing well with the internet is not having the entire lds.org site available in foreign languages like Samoan, Tongan etc.
ReplyDeleteDoing Well: Putting up the scriptures (both the written and the oral)
ReplyDeleteNot Doing Well: Making it easy for me to track down RS and EQ presidencies in other wards, finding out activities in wards I'm visiting
Calendar for local stake/ward websites should be done via Google Calendar, in my opinion. Make it easier to subscribe via RSS and add to my personal calendar whether its Google or iCal. And, please add PDA version of scriptures (Bible, BOM, PGP, DC). Now, Apple iPhone would negate this need, though. Can't wait for that. And, keep up the good work on ASL.lds.org -- add iPod/AppleTV formatted videos if possible, especially now that Apple's QuickTIme 7.1.6 supporting Closed Captioning standard.
ReplyDeleteI'm very impressed with the Web 2.0 focus the church is moving towards. I'm a little worried that the church is too late in moving towards this focus. IMO, the internet is moving into another era, the Social and Mobile era, and the church needs to be moving into those eras. For instance, Facebook just released an API, and within a day or so, most of the major Web 2.0 sites had applications out for it. I think the church should always be one of the first in the game on these new technologies to have "hype" like Google, Digg, etc. do. (yes, I really think the church could be as popular as them with a focus like that). My other largest complaint is that there is no API. As a developer (and entrepeneur), I *really* would like access to the genealogy data the church has. With this, I could make some really cool and useful apps, and probably faster than the Church could.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I really like that the church is taking a more agile approach lately. I'm just worried it's not moving fast enough.
I love what you guys have done with the gospel library. It is a great improvement. I think that you really things easier to find and easier to study. The Stake and Ward Websites could use some work. Here are a few things that I would like to see. Tiled picture directory for printing, Multiple phone numbers per person (ie. home phone, husbands cell phone, wifes cell phone), users can edit basic personal information such as email, phone and address and a prettier calendar.
ReplyDelete- Hope this helps
1. Online content, especially the Gospel Library and the mp3's of conference are wonderful!
ReplyDelete2. I've love to have the mp3's of Priesthood Sessions of general conference. I also wish that things like CES firesides or BYU talks were available as podcasts, or that the content of talks could be made available through an RSS feed to provide some push content for members.
What I'd like to see:
ReplyDelete1. Better calendar integration with online calendaring systems.
2. Country specific content not based on language (Canada for example).
3. Leadership manuals (not just curricula)
4. Web version of MLS
5. Internet access in meetinghouses (wireless would be sweet)
6. Leadership directory tied to MLS
7. Faster response times than 3 years for inclusion of submitted GED files
8. Online TempleReady creation (including verification of previously-done ordinances)
9. Book appointments for temple ordinances online
What I wouldn't like.
1. Online HT reporting. The current method for reporting HT is seriously flawed. By moving it to the web, we would be perpetuating its ineffectiveness. The entire programme needs to be overhauled before we go to web-based reporting
One more thing I'd like to see.
ReplyDeleteBetter training for leaders on th website. For example, training for ward Melchizedek priesthood leaders is HT centric. There's more to being a MP leader than administrating home teaching.
Doing Well: The scriptures online are wonderful. As are most of the other content. I am still not yet used to the new interface, (finding the link to stake and ward websites where it is was an adventure, as well as the "shopping" section.) but I like the simpler design.
ReplyDeleteNot doing well: The job board on provident living seems a little substandard, and not any more advantageous to using indeed or some other site...
I'm still more likely to use google to search lds.org than I am to use the internal search.
The online scriptures are fantastic, but better marking tools are needed.
ReplyDeleteMake the Church Almanac a web site as well as a hard cover book.
1. Online scriptures, conference talks, other gospel library materials.
ReplyDelete2. Community aspect, interaction especially on a local level.
1) What is the Church doing well with the Internet?
ReplyDeleteI love the online scriptures, ensign, student manuals, hymns, etc. Online study materials are amazingly helpful. Has anyone measured the improvement in sacrament meeting talks since lds.org launched? :-)
2) What is the Church not doing well with the Internet?
My favorite thing right now is listening to conference. My suggestions are all related:
a) would like to see the audio archives expanded. I'm sure the church has audio archives for General Conference going back 30+ years--can we make that available online?
b) the metadata tags in the exisiting MP3 files are inconsistent and sometimes thoroughly confusing. It would be great if the exisiting audio library could be cleaned up in a consistent manner so that I don't have to spend so much time organizing it to go on my iPod.
c) would love to see the priesthood sessions and choir numbers made available on MP3--just like the CDs.
d) would like to be able to download an entire session of conference as an archived set of individual MP3s, instead of a single, 2-hour file.
1. Providing relevant information to current members that will benefit them in their mission to return to our Father in Heaven and serve our brothers and sisters.
ReplyDelete2. Organization of the content. Accessibility of the content to all nations’ kindred and tongue. Searchability from external search engines. Better and more descriptive URLs. Better optimization for narrowband connections. I personally would rather have the site and the entire Gospel library in all languages before trying to implement anything else. When I speak with my friends from other countries they lament that they do not have access to the same information that we have. We are so blessed and I would love to share that with everyone.
Truly what makes the church’s website great is the information that is contained within. I am weary that we might use technology as an excuse to replace personal interaction with others. I am also worried that we get caught up in trendy technologies that are neat but aren’t essential.
Suggestion:
ReplyDeleteAs a stake administrator, whenever I send an e-mail broadcast I get dozens of bounced e-mails. The ability to better maintain e-mail lists would be wonderful since members do not often update this on their own.
I love the online scriptures and lesson manuals.
ReplyDeleteOnly 1 small suggestion:
When I prepare my priesthood lessons online, I never know which page number to reference to the SWK text for the year. Either an (optional) PDF of the final printer copy, or at least an annotation of where the original page breaks were would be ideal.
1. Doing well: Gospel Library
ReplyDelete2. Needs improvement: Gospel Library
The searchability of the resources in the Gospel Library is really nice. It could be improved by adding the many other church approved resources such as Lectures on Faith. It would also be nice, since the church has decided on the importance of making resources such as the standard works available to us on the web, if it considered offering additional help to use those resources (personal bookmarks, highlighting, etc.). I realize there's sometimes a clash with commercial resources that has to be considered, but it would still be nice to see the Church offer it.
1. Online Gospel Library is great.
ReplyDelete2. The Church News should be on lds.org (not Desnews) available for free.
Feature Requests:
ReplyDelete1. online Tithing/Offerings management tool with ability to pay by online check.
2. Home Teaching management tool with ability to report results.
3. Membership directory should support displaying family pictures to ward memebers (huge help for new members to get to know names and faces)
4. Unified genealogy database as a replacement to PAF. Let's keep our genealogy records online to keep our records in sync with each other are reduce redundancy of effort.
Doing well:
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding the ability to upload pdf files to ward and stake websites. Now we can make our stake newsletter available via the web.
Need improvement:
Allow more web access into MLS functionality. For instance, many of the members of our ward have outdated addresses or phone numbers listed on the ward website. To correct this right now they need to contact the ward membership clerk and have him change it in MLS. Much better if they could do that themselves.
I would love to see the Church tackle Boy/Cub Scout tools, providing a one-stop shop for tracking progress against both scout activities and Faith in God -- and make it possible for a boy's records to transfer should a family move.
ReplyDeleteI understand the Church's reasoning for discouraging existing 3rd party online solutions, but we definitely need some kind of online solution.
A great stretch goal would be to also incorporate RSS feeds, so parents could subscribe to updates.
1. Access to the Gospel Library is great.
ReplyDelete2. It should be a tool that simplifies, not complicates, the jobs and lives of local unit leaders. MLS and LUWS should be ONE and the SAME. Leaders need simpler access to practical membership information that allows them to serve more effectively and spend more time at home with their families. It's time the first-class effort the Church puts into A/V, Buildings, and Curriculum be applied to MLS/LUWS as well!
With the recent launch of Google gears and the tools that go with it, I'd like to have the ability to view some on-line content while off-line; e.g. scriptures & training material.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's the assumption that everyone know how to use computers. My branch recent had MLS installed and the clerk doesn't know how to drive a mouse. So some training material (available on-line and off-) would be nice (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/computertutor/computertutorone/index.shtml)
Online content is wonderful, and the training for ward clerks is great. Your training section for ward clerks save me a lot time. I also appreciated the CES Manuals being online at ldsces.org. I also like the streaming audio for conferences and firesides.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the online content, the church can always improve searching tools. I look at it again and it is better, but I think there is still room to improve. Also now that I am not ward clerk it would be nice if the training sections for other positions was as detail as the ward clerk section is.
Doing right:
ReplyDelete- Site design is beautiful!
- Thanks for adding the "search for a member" feature on the stake level.
- Agreed the music dept stuff is phenomenal.
Could use:
- An online appointment or calendaring app for use at the stake level (or ward level for that matter). My stake is geographically very large and stake leaders coordinate everything by a dizzying amount of email. A calendar app where you could block out available appointment times and even let members schedule their own appointments would save sooo much time--and more importantly, it would model a clear and cohesive process for all involved.
- Also, an observation: many times even ward and stake leaders are not using the Internet resources that are available, when pointed to the site as a place to look, people are surprised to find out what is available. So that is an education need.
Just thought I'd put in my two cents-
ReplyDeleteGreat:
Lots of information
the Church Music Site
design
Needs Improvement:
Contribution and group participation, ie calenders, posting announcements on unit sites, e-mail list managment;
The UI could use a little more AJAX
Oh, and BTW, I'm in a singles ward, and the Bishopric's membership is not in the ward, therefore, they do not appear on the leadership directory. Or the membership directory. This really needs to be fixed!
I would like to see more hi-res photos available for download of General Authorities so we can use to promote stake conference. Also, photos of temples, temple square, and the Conference Center.
ReplyDeleteWow!! Such great comments! Keep them coming!! Our team is reading each one carefully!
ReplyDeleteGreat work on the redesign of LDS.org. Whoever lead that project is incredible!
ReplyDeleteSuggestion:
In MLS and the Stake/Ward Web Sites, provide the ability for a cell phone and e-mail address for each person, not each household. We're ready to turn off our house phone (land line) now that each family member has his/her own cell phone.
I love the resources for lessons and also the music section.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is to the right team, but what I would like to see is a web-based solution for TempleReady. The lack of family history tools (ie. PAF) for the Mac is more than frustrating. A nice remedy would be to have the ability to prepare names for the temple by running our gedcom files through an online application.
Thank you for encouraging feedback, and for allowing me to share my thoughts.
Several people have mentioned being able to pay tithes and offerings through electronic means. This is already available and has been for a few years now. Here is the information for that department:
ReplyDeleteThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Attn: Treasury Services-Electronic Donations
50 East North Temple Street, Room 1521
Salt Lake City UT 84150-3612
Fax: (801) 240-1217
Phone: (801) 240-3060 or 240-3049
E-mail: RE-FRD-Electronic-Donations@LDSChurch.org
1. What are they not doing well? You guys rock!
ReplyDelete2. Ideas for improvement:
a. Ward website: ward map view -- plot members on a map. I moved into a new ward a year ago, and I'm still discovering people in the ward who are two blocks away.
b.LDS Facebook -- OK, we don't need the full blown thing here.... but I have lost contact with dozens of friends over the years I'd like to reconnect with.
c. Make scriptures, talks, lessons available in XML. I think you'd see some really cool mashups and applications come out of this.
Doing well: Scriptures, General Conference and Church Magazines.
ReplyDeleteCould do better:
1. Access to membership info. Once I have access, it'd be nice to be able to find friends in other wards in other stakes, in other states, in other countries. The current limitation is frustrating and confusing.
2. Mobile ward directory. I'm not ever going to know everyone's number by heart. Just being able to get names and numbers on my mobile would be extremely helpful.
3. Improved ward/stake calendar. It's already been said, but iCal and/or Google Calendar, or even a secure feed would be great.
4. Mobile version of the scriptures, general conference and church publications. It's be great when I can't find my copy of the Ensign and I'm heading out the door to HT.
5. K, just a mobile version of everything. It easily the fastest growing area of internet connectivity, especially in the developing countries where the church is experiencing a lot of growth. C'mon, Cameron's on staff. ;) (Everyone else is pretty smart too. Loved meeting them @ SXSW this year.)
1. I love the music site and all the content online.
ReplyDelete2. I do have some suggestions from my use:
a. More useful unit urls. I'm supposed to be getting more people in my ward to use our web site, but half of them complain they can't figure out how to get to it, and I don't have any easy way to tell them.
b. Speed is a huge issue in my ward. We are very rural and lots of people are still on dial-up. The site isn't very use-able for these people.
c. As has been talked about, the email management is a problem for us as well. Our stake web master is always upset with the wards, but there is only so much we can do here.
d. Our stake stopped printing directories, so this is the most used part of the web site for our ward. It would really help to have features like not having to click a link to see pictures, and a better print option.
e. I know why you would disable a lot of html options in the ward web sites to maintain consistency, but it's frustrating to not be able to make paragraphs or know how what I'm inputting is going to turn out.
f. I also agree with the person above who found the temple sites frustrating. We have our temple's schedule posted on our ward web site because it's not on the temple site.
g. I would echo the frustration with the ward calendars too.
I do love the site, but see so much unfulfilled potential.
We need more uplifting media. It has to compete with a lot of good, bad, and ugly stuff out there and needs to be in similar formats. BYU.tv is a great example, but it's not enough. We need podcasts, video podcasts, internet radio or conference talks, easier to navigate archives that allow you to search any words in the video (provided by the text from the Ensign). Make it look like the big sites that have seen a lot of success. Have a top 10/100 list of the most often viewed conference talks. we need to appeal to the youth in ways that worldly media appeals to them. Get on more mp3 players. Offer lds Gems in audio format, with the portion of the talk edited down. Media, media, media.
ReplyDelete-Jerry Aulenbach
Doing well:
ReplyDeleteThe scriptures! As one who easily remembers words, but can't remember numbers to save my life, I use the searchable scriptures incessantly.
Could do better:
A real, live person to speak to would be a blessing, to put it mildly. Bishops are often too busy with the "really bad stuff" to be bothered with answer-seekers or people finding themselves unable to cope with doctrines or life in general. There isn't much I wouldn't give for a more "mainstream," faithful and official real-life presence online.
I love the new lay out for the Gospel Library and the quick topics list! This has been such a great resource.
ReplyDeleteThings I would like to see:
1-a similar quick topics list on provident living.
2-Better use of ward and stake websites--they are not very personal to the ward. It would be nice if the ward could really make it look and feel local.
Probably too specific for this general suggestions forum, but my stake (Slidell, Louisiana) was dissolved ten days ago, and the ward/stake for my login is still linked to the old, non-existant stake. I don't have access to my new stake's calendar, directories, etc. I can see the reasons for leaving things as they are for a bit, because our old dissolved stake is still finishing up some youth activities for the summer, but I'd like to be able to see my new stake's calendar.
ReplyDeleteDoing Well~
ReplyDeleteKeeping current with making magazines, books, etc available in PDA formats. Love the quick access to the current month's VT report, etc
Needs Improvement~
Needs to retain your user name like other programs to access the ward websites, just ask for password
Ward Websites are cumbersome, sometimes hard to move from source of info to another
Really Need~
Pay our tithing/FO etc. electronically to Church Headquarters with a special code that would automatically route it to the ward or mission fund or whatever.
Fantastic comments. I agree with all of them.
ReplyDeleteMy added vote for Podcasts of the wealth of audio and video material starting with Conference talks and going to the BYU library of mp3 and mp4 material. This would be a boon for driving time iPod study and a vote for BLIND members whose access to material would explode.
I'd like to see online home teaching for the less active members to connect to a priesthood holder and chat online. This could do a lot toward reactivation of inactive members and retention of converts.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a churchwide wiki for members to collaborate and record their ideas and solutions to hurdles that arise in a typical ward. It would be great to have all the church manuals online and searchable, as well.
I think the music site with church hymns is fantastic. I use it lots.
One more comment: Do seminary students still memorize scripture mastery verses? If so, it would be nice to see a page that helps students learn these scriptures by linking to/drawing upon the existing online scriptures.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the opportunity. The church does a great job with its web presence in general. Many of the ideas above (stake/ward sites, etc) aren't yet rolled out to the rest of the world (i.e. outside America), which would be a welcome improvement.
ReplyDeleteGranted this isn't directly relevant to infrastructure or development, and I don't think it's been mentioned here, but I really think content aimed at children would be an extremely useful addition to the church's web presence.
My daughters (eight and five) are proficient on the web and I would love nothing more than to direct them to some gospel-focused content provided by the church. I'm thinking "The Friend - Interactive". It could include online games that teach gospel principles, the movies from the books like "Book of Mormon stories", and also the primary songs.
@Alison -- The order you are concerned about is in fully alphabetical order. Aaronic comes before Melchizedek, and Melchizedek before Relief because that's the way the alphabet works; I guarantee there was no effort to purposely downplay the importance or value of women in arranging this list. Just an alphabetical coincidence, not gender bias!
ReplyDeleteWell -
ReplyDeleteEach time I return to the website I find something new to be excited about. This week, I discovered all the "printable" sheet music from all past "Friends" and "New Eras."
Could Be Better -
I wish that I could narrow my search fields more in the "Gospel Library" section. I knew I wanted a talk by Elder Ballard about missionary homes -- but I could only narrow based on magazines/Ensign. I had to go through several pages before I found what I was looking for. Ad advanced search option could include narrowing by 1)dates, 2)speaker, 3)forum etc.
I'd like a more obvious "bill pay" for tithing option.
I know that email notices are available via ward websites. However, we only have maybe 10 percent registered with ward-website emails. I send a weekly Relief Society email to more than 75 percent of our sisters. They were more than willing to just give me their email addresses. I have been able to add/delete new email addresses easily as families have come/gone. Could you allow authorization by clerks or someone to register (even with a paper permission form) so that those who are less tech savy can get registered? That way, I could utilize the church sites to send these emails rather than be left to my own means.
One more thought . . .
ReplyDeleteWe have several ladies, that are not members of the church, that have requested to be part of our ward RS email list. We also have many ladies, members -- but not currently attending, that want to receive our weekly emails. These ladies attend and participate in many Enrichment Activities because of these emails. This is something that the current ward website configuration would not allow -- but is obviously something that we want to continue/encourage. How could we make the ward websites/email work for those who are not members or are less active, but still want to participate?
Wendy,
ReplyDeleteYou can do a search by speaker if you click on the advanced search link. (I preferred the old way of being able to put the speaker's name in the search field, but it's still possible with that extra step). :)
How could we make the ward websites/email work for those who are not members or are less active, but still want to participate?
ReplyDeleteThis is a question I have wondered about as well.
Just a thought....I know you guys are growing, but when I think of where the web sites could go, you could do a lot. I'm just wondering if there is any thought to having some volunteer development on some projects. I know this is out there, but if you look at familysearch, the church has got old ladies around the world doing data entry for future databases. Why not have some development projects open to development throughout the church community?
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, there is a large talent base of members in the IT field who love the church, love their day jobs, but wouldn't like to mix the two. But, if you threw out opportunities to contribute through an open programming project, they might jump at the chance.
[Joel: We are working on some opportunities like that. Check out http://tech.lds.org for future opportunities.]
Doing well: There are so many things to mention. Here's what I find useful:
ReplyDelete- MP3 versions of the hymns in both voice and music-only format
- Gospel art library
- Scriptures, with the ability to turn footnoting on and off
Improve:
- Add single click ability to turn scripture footnoting on and off for the times I want to copy text without the footnotes
- Provide all the old Church movies (e.g., Cipher in the Snow) so we can watch them for family night, put them on the iPod, etc.
- In FamilySearch, be able to download all ancestors stemming from one individual (e.g., my mom or grandmother) in GED format. I want to get started with family history, but it will take forever to download just four generations at a time in all my family lines.
I second Karl Greenwood's #6 above. I love the Gospel Library, and I just want it to be bigger. I would love to see older Church magazines (pre-1971). I would also like to see PDFs of the magazines that are already there. Text of the articles is great, but I really like being able to see the whole page layout too.
ReplyDelete1) It's a good main page, but it's hard to find old talks or statements, or anything said at BYU.
ReplyDelete2) I wish we could customize the main lds.org page on our own computers to have a sidebar for our ward and stake website highlights. Then they might get used more often.
The admittance process to sign into stake & ward websites seems too difficult and cumbersome for even the most advanced user—almost as if entering the site is similar to the process of entering the Celestial Kingdom. I believe this is the reason why so few fellow ward/stake members who access the site.
ReplyDeleteUnderstandably we must take precautions, but I feel that a user name, an 8 digit password with at least 1 numeral, a confirmation date and my church record number is a bit excessive, and relatively difficult information to gather. Of all the login sites I visit on a regular basis, I have never found one so difficult to enter as the Church's site. Once the password is forgotten, the user is again required to enter the confirmation date and record number in order to retrieve/change the password. Sure I can "go the extra mile" but I was hoping the site would offer me wine and milk "without price."
I would suggest you allow the design savvy staff at North Temple to brainstorm a better way to allow the masses right of entry.
Things I like.
ReplyDelete- The Gospel Library material available in Spanish especially the manuals and the back issues of the Liahona, they make lesson preparation a little easier and reduce photocopying costs.
- The General Conferences and other broadcasts, the onliine scriptures and the music pages
- All in all everything is looking great
Things I would like to see:
- More material for foreign language speakers especially in the area of Family History and lesson planning
- Web sites for the wards, branches and districts in other countries, in my part of the world the branches are not very close to each other and the members only get the opportunity to meet at General and District Conferences so a place to interchange news would be appreciated.
- A Church Employment page for Europe, at the moment we have no way of knowing what jobs are available as they are listed in the England web page and if you are not a member of an English branch access is denied
- I agree with the person who talked about the problems with dial up access, here broadband is still very expensive and so is dial up is still used a lot
Please keep up the good work
Doing well:
ReplyDeleteSite design and organization
Content (scriptures, conference on time, library)
Improve on:
Provide some subset of content for mobile browsers (try going to LDS.org on your favorite smartphone like moto q)
1. I love having the scriptures online, but I would really like to see the search facility improved. For example, if I want to search for a word, but restrict the search to only certain books or chapters of the Old Testament, how do I do that? The facilities for running targeted searches seems lacking.
ReplyDelete2. MLS -- When can we get it online? I know a lot of others have asked for this too. It would be really, really helpful.
improve on:
ReplyDeletesecurity, reliability, better tools for local wards/stakes, better support for different platforms (firefox, linux, mobile handsets, etc)
does well:
design
I would love to see high resolution photos of each temple, which could be used in various ways to promote temple attendance.
ReplyDeleteAs stated in two of the previous posts, more audio and video content should be available through iTunes -- podcasts for General conference, New Era, Liahona in other languages (especially Spanish), Christmas devotionals, etc. I think that these resources would be used heavily if they were available so easily.
ReplyDeleteI would like to be able to check my recorded tithing/fast offerings balances online. This might be a baby step that gets us closer towards complete online donation management without having to do the hard stuff of transaction management.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a massive data entry effort made to enter the pre 1970-1971 Temple records put into the online version of IGI. This would avoid the potential for duplicating work.
ReplyDeleteI personally know of many cases where work has been duplicated because it cannot be "found online". Having to check old, outdate microfiche Temple records and TIB in addition to online IGI is tedious.
In many instances it would be quicker and easier to simply re-do the temple work than spend the extra hours driving to a place with the fische access and then looking through them.
I would like to see the IGI linked more than one generation. When you submit 3-4 generations for temple work all at the same time (that are already "linked"). They get autoMagically "unlinked" into only families (i.e. mother, father, children) with no link back to Grandparents, their Great Grandparents, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it would be helpful to have only 1 record to look at for a given individual. Right now there are two separate IGI records autoMAGICALLY created for each individual that has a spouse. (i.e. one for baptism, endownment and sealing to parent, and ANOTHER ONE for sealing to spouse).
Why not link them together? Isn't that the whole idea of sealing families anyway? (to link them? not unlink them?) It creates extra records to sift through and makes match/merging of temple records from IGI more complex than needed? I can see the need for two separate ordinance cards to be created, but why create a separate computer record for sealing to spouse? Couldn't they be linked back in the online version?
Just a thought.
1. Doing Well
ReplyDeleteStake and Ward websites
2. Not Doing Well
When exporting a ward directory to csv format the familyname field has comma seperating first and last name causing headaches when trying to import data into Microsoft Access or Excel.
1. I am an LDS bishop and I have really enjoyed the many tools and resources available to me. Great job!
ReplyDelete2. I would suggest that the church strive to deliver more via electronic means. I get a lot of paper sent to me that could easily be delivered via email (memos, announcements, etc.) Perhaps this could be a service where an individual expresses a preference and get things by email or mail (or even a combination).
I love all the stuff that's on MP3. I pretty much couldn't live without all the manuals online (I actually pick up my physical copy of the Primary 3 manual two or three times a year -- usually when the power's gone out.) I love BYU Radio, which I guess isn't technically LDS.org. I also love both the scriptures.lds.org and scriptures.byu.edu sites, though I know the second one isn't LDS.org.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to be able to see my VT assignments (which seem to change all the time) and check them off as I do them -- I suspect my mom (who's my VT supervisor) would probably like that, too; she ends out playing phone tag for several days only to find out that the person just wanted to let her know that she'd done her VT.
I'd love to be able to get selections of scripture on MP3 the way you can get selections highlighted in the online scriptures -- they put MP3s of each of the Scripture Mastery selections (just the specific verses, I mean) on the CES website, and it was a very happy day for me.
I second requests to expand the amount of information we can access via the calendar and the directory. I look forward to not having to remember my membership number. It'd be so awesome to get older (pre-1972 anything, pre-2002 PDF, pre-2005 MP3) stuff on the site. It'd be great if some of the other "missionary reference" works (besides Jesus the Christ) in MP3 format. It'd be nice to have things like Patriarchal Blessing copy requests available online -- or even just instructions on how to get that stuff done. It was thanks to kind LDS bloggers that I found out how to correct the spelling on my blessing and get a new copy, which is silly.
I also second the idea of being able to do ACH withdrawals online. I pay for almost everything that way: the Church is about the only place left that doesn't take that or debit cards. Sometimes I just withdraw enough to give cash.
I'd love (I think I said this elsewhere) to be able to customize the site. I have no interest in looking at the priesthood/Boy Scout stuff, but I have to look up the page with all the Primary songs (and why is it a two-click process to get to the PDFs versus the MP3 list?) about once a week.
And I agree about an official answers place that's open to member questions (I gather the one at Mormon.com isn't.) People are setting up their own independent sites for that kind of thing, and sometimes the answers really seem bizarre.
i need lots of help with scripture mastery, and i can't find any...how do i get it???
ReplyDeleteHow do we print out CMIS Weekly attendance forms for our Branch
ReplyDeleteHow do I go about finding my husband's priesthood lineage?
ReplyDeleteI like some of the forms (ie. the 3 month calendar that is used in BYC) in a PDF format.. so we could email copies and it'd help make them more legible in BYC.
ReplyDeleteDOING WELL ON...
ReplyDeleteI was ecstatic when you guys came out with RSS. I'm following some discussions on mashups although not necessarily built by you guys although making the APIs availabe is definitely cool.
COULD DO BETTER...
1) I would like to pay my Tithing and Fast Offering Online. I pay all my other bills online but still have to write a check for Tithing and my checks are really outdated. I really only keep it around for Tithing and church related matters.
2) If you're understaffed, how about using an online community much like the way OpenSource does things. I am pretty sure there are a lot of LDS geeks out there that would help. I will step in as well and contribute.
Otherwise, keep up the good work.
Just a quick question on other websites--I know at one time, we were asked not to have ward/stake websites and to only use the church website. I see many websites and especially 'Blogs" out there. Are they ok to do specifically looking at doing an Emergency Preparedness for our area. I would appreciate any thoughts Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe most useful feature as a priesthood leader would be to add secure meeting capability (Webex-like) functionality so meetings could be held among ward leadership without the need to travel. This would save a great deal of time and money.
ReplyDeletePlease can you tell us when we will get Stake and Ward websites in the UK/Europe/Rest of the World. We have waited years...perhaps an explanation of the reason why and some timescales.
ReplyDeleteAs a ward mission leader, I know that many of our members would benefit from a section dedicated to Member Missionary Work.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entriely sure of the content, but it could include such things as:
1) Links to talks from the Ensign/Conference on the subject
2) A Members Guide to Preach My Gospel- what parts are particularly important to members.
2) How to's
-Initiate Gospel Discussions
-Bear testimony- without it sounding like testimony meeting
3) Success Section- allow members to submit what works and any success stories they may have had for editing and approval. If approved these will be published here.
Thanks for asking.
Calendar need to be improved greatly. I would like the E-mail reminders that get sent out for events to include all the details of the event. Not just the title and a message to go see the website for more information. Calendar also needs an option to filter based on ward or stake or churchwide events. The ability for nonmembers to view and recieve event reminders from the calendar is needed also.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the LDS digital scriptures more usable. I have numerous notes that I would like to transfer to my digital scriptures next to the appropriate verse, not on a separate page. It would be wonderful if you could also do this in the TG, BD and Index where I also have many handwritten notes. I don't expect to just transfer my scrawls. I am more than willing to re-type everything. I would also like to highlight or underline in different colors.
ReplyDeleteThis needs to be available on a regular PC, not just PDA's.
I would be happy with a synch between the ward computers and the church website. If someone adds an email address, for example, in MLS system, it doesn't get updated on the website and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be a way to put in more than one email address per person in MLS (like the website)
The website picture directory needs to be able to upload a picture greater than 135 x 180.
ReplyDeleteIf the church is supposed to be about families how can you see an entire family of 8-10 people and still distinguish their faces with 135 x 180 pixels?
Higher resolution, or even limiting the picture by filesize would be fine. Even 50Kb per picture would be MUCH better than this artificial size limit
Look at what e-bay does when you upload an auction picture that is too large, it auto-resizes it FOR you to the appropriate size/ width dimensions. The site simply says: "too large" or even worse, displays no message at all?
ReplyDeleteI agree with some mentioned above:
ReplyDeleteAgenda (or other meeting) templates
Duty to God or Personal Progress tracking on line
I would love to have better search options from the "Search Gospel Library" link. Something similar to a google search would be great! If that's not possible, I would love to be able to search on 2 or 3 words ... for example, find a verse or chapter which contains word1 AND word2 AND word3
ReplyDeleteIt would also be really neat in the search tool to just search one of the standard works, or just one of the books in the standard works, rather than having it search all four. For instance, I would just like to search on "word1" in the Book of Mormon, or I would like to search on "word2" in 1 Nephi.
Thanks!
I love everything about the site. Updates included.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see a template that shows a reading schedule that guides me to completing the four standard works in a designated period of time, a year or two years. It could follow the SS Lesson schedule (but without skipping any chapters or books) or the seminary reading schedule. It could have options for multiple readings of the Book of Mormon. It would allow me to customize according to my own chosen reading patterns.
ReplyDeleteHi I have spent 2 days finding a duty to god book( the new book) if at all any1 who knows how to or knows any who can please add an app that we can use to be able to write and off in it would be a great help and I would kiss the person who dies create it other wise EVERYTHING else is doing great keep it up
ReplyDelete