Blogs4God and GospelShout both recently launched interactive Christian news websites where the articles and placement of those articles are determined by their users, like they are on the popular news site Digg.
Digg is one of the hottest and fastest growing news websites online. Unlike traditional news websites like cnn.com or msnbc.com, on Digg stories are submitted by users and their placement on the page is determined by the voting of the Digg community of users. It’s a truly democratic, Web 2.0 approach to news.
Digg originally launched as a tech-only news site. While it has added categories for world, business, sports, and entertainment, it is still dominated by technology stories because its user-base is primarily young men with a strong interst in technology. So, as Digg has grown so have calls for similar less tech-centric news websites and similar sites that focus on other niches of news.
Last year Pligg was released. Pligg is open-source (free) software that allows people to quickly and easily create their own Digg-like site. Since its release there has been an explosion of Digg clones, including at least these two that focus on Christian articles.
Blogs4God is the creation of Dean Peters, who also operates HealYourChurchWebsite.com. Dean has been working to develop a website that aggregates quality Christian blogs for years. There have been several previous iterations of the Blogs4God site, but none of them quite lived up to what he had envisioned. There were issues with articles espousing non-Christian beliefs, blogs that included some articles related to Christian issues but others that did not, and high quality blog articles sometimes got lost among lower quality articles.
The latest Pligg-based version of Blogs4God is less than a week old and still in beta, but the democratic nature of Pligg is cause for optimism that as a Biblical, discerning, and vigilant community grows at Blogs4God, it will cause quality Christian blog articles will rise to the top. Because Blogs4God has been around for years and Dean has developed friendships with many Christian bloggers, it has the reputation and connections that will help it to develop that community of users more quickly.
GospelShout is the creation of John Hamman of GospelLabs, LCC. The articles included on GospelShout are conventional news stories like you might find on traditional Christian news sites like Christian Post. Currently most of the articles appearing on the site are from One News Now and submitted automatically through an RSS feed. This was done to ensure fresh content is being added to the site while the community of users is still small and not submitting many articles manually.
With the explosion of Christian blogs and news stories that impact Christians, it is very difficult right now for Christians to find and keep up with the flood of new information. Both Blogs4God and GospelShout have the potential to help by providing a single website where Christians can go to read the top Christian blog articles and the most important Christian-related news articles.
Whether they succeed or not is completely dependent on their ability to attract a Biblical, discerning, and passionate community of Christians to submit, vote for, and comment on new articles on a daily basis.
I encourage you to check out both sites. Register and try them out. You can even vote for this article on both sites (Blogs4God vote, GospelShout vote) Then post your comments here.
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
30 Comments
Thank you for telling me. I just joined DIGG yesterday, and it is horrible there.
nada
Web 2.0 is a great opportunity for churches. Our church, Cornerstone Fellowship in Englewood, NJ created a Christian Video Sharing Site
RE: Paul’s questions.
Forgive the delay, but I’d like to answer your three questions.
1) Were you aware of Blogs4God and GospelShout when you began developing FaithTag?
Answer: I was aware of them, yes. However, I noticed that neither one developed their own ‘brand.’ Instead, each simply altered the color to the default Pligg template, with both using the same basic color (light blue) as their color. They look like any other Pligg site. I recommend both develop their own look.
2) How do you envision FaithTag being distinct from the other two?
Answer: In three ways. (1) FaithTag has its own look, it’s own ‘brand.’ There are similarities, but one notices up front that FaithTag has its own look and feel. (2) FaithTag is the only one of the three that promotes the ability to put a voting button on other sites (Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, etc. users are already familiar with this). Additionally, FaithTag offers two sizes: the standard large size and a smaller version. This way webmasters and bloggers can use whichever they prefer.
3) Since Digg-like sites take a critical mass of users, do you think there’s enough room in the Christian news/bookmarking arena for all 3 to achieve the critical mass necessary to be successful?
Answer: There is enough room for all three to be successful. One does not need to be the only one in existence to be successful. For example, there are many arenas were more than one organization/company/group is exists and yet many are successful. In cable news, but CNN, FoxNews, and MSNBC make profits; in newspapers, the L.A. and N.Y. Times both are successful; in wholesale retail, both Costco and Sam’s Club are successful; in Internet, both Digg, Reddit, and others see success. Therefore, I think there is plenty of room for all three to be successful.
Left of part of the answer to question two:
The third way FaithTag will be distinct is that FaithTag is open to a wider base. Although FaithTag is primarily Christian, it is open to those of other Faiths. However, it will operate based on the principles of the Christian Bible, especially the “Golden Rule.”
“Thank you for telling me. I just joined DIGG yesterday, and it is horrible there.
nada ”
Yea, unfortunately Digg.com is grounded in reality.
Really this information is very useful and we are professional counselors in Dallas, Palno, Richardson who upholds Christian values beliefs and philosophy.
Gospelshout is down now. Author left a message on the main screen. God bless.
I noticed that GODSurfer.com never was mentioned. I know this post is pretty old. But GODSurfer was one of the original digg clones for Christianity. I went through many of the sites above and noticed they are all still down. GODSurfer.com is still up in case anyone is interested. I am currently working on the next version which will incorporate Facebook and Twitter.
Jeff, thanks for letting us know about GODSurfer.com. Looks like Blogs4God, GospelShout, and FaithTag have all bit the dust. There doesn't appear to be much of a community at GODSurfer yet (only one vote per article). Seems like that's been the biggest challenge for previous Christian social bookmarking sites. Would be nice to see a Christian social bookmarking site succeed, so I hope you're able to find a way to build a community around GODSurfer.
yes Paul, GODSurfer is struggling in the community department. I recently re-released GODSurfer.com and it is heavily tied to Facebook. Hopefully that will bring a few more into the fold. However, even now it is difficult to get people to check it out. Not sure if it is the type of site that Christians don't like or if there is some other issue behind it.
However, I will keep trying as long as God wants me to.
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