New Mormon.org
It is refreshing and exciting to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) to move in the right direction with her websites. At the More Good Foundation we have been working for a few years trying to promote positive content about the Mormons online. A few years ago the Church was still moving slowly while those who oppose it were moving fast, creating a distortion in the public perception of what the Mormon Church or the Mormons really are or stand for.
I am happy to see that things have changed, and now the Church is including in her new or renewed websites some of the things that we first started at the More Good Foundation (e.g. online testimonies of normal members, videos on youtube, more searchable content on the internet, and so on) when many members were still wary of participating on the internet.
One of the last improvements that the Church is doing is related to the new Mormon.org. According to an article on another blog (ByCommonConsent):
The new mormon.org will launch this summer (current plan: mid-June). The preliminary index page offers several screenshots that give a preview of different facets of the site. Without question, the main event is the collection of personal profiles, the individualized building blocks of the site which have the potential to offer visitors a wide spectrum of perspectives on being a Mormon.
Here are a few details about the profile pages:
–Each page features an individual member of the Church
–Any member 18 and older can create a profile (you need your membership # to do so; there’s a separate site for youth)
–Profiles include your name, photo, and text you write yourself as prompted on the profile creation page
–Required sections include “About Me,” “How I live my faith,” “Why I am a Mormon,” FAQs and personal stories.
–Thought questions are provided for the FAQ and personal stories sections—the former are somewhat objective questions about what Mormons believe (What does Mormonism teach regarding baptism?); the latter focus more directly on your personal experience as a member of the Church (How has the Book of Mormon helped you understand the purpose of life?). You must answer at least one of each.