Cyber Missionary Testimonial Pages

[Marcel Demas-p40]

Ok, any second/third opinions on nutterb's post?

I personally think the most effective work a casual unofficial LDS Cyber Missionary can do today is to help move potential investigators to mormon.org and jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod where the Spirit can reach and teach them. I always suggest a signature line with those links. Your post supports that as being beneficial in getting those official sites ranked higher in search engines.

Re your second paragraph I don't think that sites with "no content" would ever make it to the top anyway and the church is there near or at the top with pay per click ads, at least on Google. I think many people doing searches for info about our church visit more than just the top three or four links. I'd personally like to get anti-Mormon sites that tell lies and mislead right off the first page of searches, though that's not likely to happen without a deliberate campaign to do so.

So, with respect, I can't accept your second paragraph as necessarily valid. I still think that ordinary Latter-day Saints posting their testimony on simple webpages is probably beneficial for their own sense of contributing to the mission of proclaiming the gospel, and could possibly be beneficial for that lost sheep who might stumble upon such a page and be moved to mormon.org. Just my opinion, I'd like to hear from others.

I think the term "cyber missionary" is appropriately descriptive, especially if the church ever does in the future organize missionary work in cyber space. The More Good Foundation I think uses the term "member missionary" which is useful but does not distinguish between missionaries in the physical world and cyber missionaries.

But whatever phrase eventually emanates from Salt Lake City we're all pioneers in using the "New Media" to help bring souls to Christ. Having a phrase such as "cyber missionary" bandied about I think helps members identify with others online and feel a sense of belonging and contributing to a great cause. Not everyone can leave their homes and wear a missionary badge. But many already use the internet at home. I see some good while we wait for further direction from SLC in members saying something like: "I'm a cyber missionary. If you want to know what I do on the internet go to LDS1.org."

I agree that as far as I know the church is not yet sponsoring "an online proselyting effort." But I think the Brethren are encouraging it, the mission to proclaim the gospel hasn't changed, that's the bottom line. And that's what individual LDS cyber missionaries are attempting to do, each in their own unique way, each guided by the Holy Spirit, each motivated by Elder Ballard's several requests that we get anxiously engaged in harnessing the "New Media" to further the work of the Lord.

That's how I see it, how about you?

[techgy]

This thread has wandered from the purpose of LDS Tech and I would ask that this discussion be continued on the lds1.org site and not here in the forum. Thanks for your understanding.