Mormon Messages Site Refused as A Resource on LUWS

[zaneclark]

The simple fact is that almost all young people are spending time on YouTube. You can try to fight that, but you'll lose. So the Church has decided instead to improve the overall quality of YouTube by posting good content. I don't think the Church is enticing people to go to somewhere dangerous; rather it is creating a safe place within a site that a certain set of people will already be viewing.

Going back to the original question on this thread, however, I think the Church should not list the MormonMessages channel on its list of official sites. In that case, the Church would be leading people to go to YouTube who might not otherwise go there, which would increase the risk for some people.

I totally agree with de-listing it on lds.org. One of the reasons stakes and wards were advised to take down their web sites a few years ago wasn't the sites themselves, but the links they provided that with a few clicks could take you to questionable sites. I was very surprised when lds.org listed this YouTube site which has the same potential.

[dmaynes]

The point is, I had no idea I was leaving the realm of official church sites. It's great to find a church presence on YouTube, but there really should not be a link to it from LDS.ORG unless there is some kind of warning that you are about to leave the safety of the church's site. We cannot link to Mormon Messages from our ward web sites, and it seems a real contradiction to find a link to it from the main page of LDS.ORG.

I think this is one solution. But, it is possible to play the YouTube video without leaving the LDS.ORG site. I think this is what should be done. This would then allow us to reference the video channel from the ward websites in a safe way.

Here are the instructions:

Option 2: Embeddable Player

Copy and paste this HTML snippet into your website to insert the video player directly into your page. This way visitors will be able to play the video without leaving your site. You may alter the size of the video (by changing the width or height). Example below:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/sharing

I think this would overcome the concerns of leaving the safe haven of LDS.ORG.

Thanks,
Dennis

[techgy]

The link that was formerly on the home page of the Church web site has been removed. Perhaps they realized the problem.

[sterlingb]

I dunno guys...call me a heretic, but I disagree. The church is trying to increase its presence beyond the safe harbor of its "intranet," and I don't think we should discourage it. Regardless of how safe it tries to make these external sites, it has no control over the direction they take nor the content they offer. It's a risk, but all of these efforts are. For example, the church would have no control over the advertising offered on their pages unless the content provider can enable such controls for a fee. And I'm sure the church put a lot of thought and study into each risk.

Most people (myself included until the other day, and I'm pretty 'net savvy) are probably unaware that the church even has a YouTube channel, so what better way to get out the message? No matter how the church promotes that channel there will be those who complain. And really, what other methods are there? Any time they put the "Copyright by the Corporation of the President of the Church of..." seal on a document promoting it, there are people who will call it an implicit endorsement of YouTube, when in fact it is not.

Anyway, I'm not trying to start a flame war, just want to present a slightly different position.

[russellhltn]

The church is trying to increase its presence beyond the safe harbor of its "intranet," and I don't think we should discourage it

But how does stretching force them to compromise the "safe harbor"? The YouTube postings are great for outreach. But it would be a simple technical matter to create an internal page with only safe content using the YouTube embedded tool. In this case, I don't see anything preventing us from having or cake and eating it too. (Hmmmmmmm, chocolate.)

[AileneRHerrick]

The link that was formerly on the home page of the Church web site has been removed. Perhaps they realized the problem.

I noticed that too. That's probably a good thing. Most people would likely assume that any outgoing links from the LDS.org are completely safe for browsing.

Although, to other posters here, who talked about embedding it on the LDS.org site... they could always list those videos under http://videos.lds.org. I think the point of having some videos on YouTube, was not to promote to members the Church's presence on YouTube, but to have something about the Church on YouTube, so if people are already using YouTube and looking for stuff, they may come across it!

[dmaynes]

I noticed that too. That's probably a good thing. Most people would likely assume that any outgoing links from the LDS.org are completely safe for browsing.

Although, to other posters here, who talked about embedding it on the LDS.org site... they could always list those videos under http://videos.lds.org. I think the point of having some videos on YouTube, was not to promote to members the Church's presence on YouTube, but to have something about the Church on YouTube, so if people are already using YouTube and looking for stuff, they may come across it!

The link is back on the main page. If you are going to take the gospel to everyone, you need be where the people are found. You can teach gospel doctrine in Sunday School, but the outreach potential of your lessons will be limited. So, we send out home teachers and visiting teachers. In the same way, a lot of people will view positive messages on YouTube but they wouldn't think about searching for those messages on http://www.lds.org.

We all know the Internet can be really nasty. But, knowledge doesn't keep the nastiness away. Only wisdom and correct use of agency does that.

There are a lot of good videos on http://www.mormon.org and as Ailene pointed out at http://videos.lds.org. We should probably link those videos as resources for the ward websites.

I think the link is on the main page so that members of the Church have another resource for sharing the gospel.

[marianomarini]

I'm thinking to a Mormon-ad poster. A big icecream with a dead (I suppose) cricket on it.
It seem to me that LDS (official videos) on you tube is like a bit of icecream into a nest of cricket.
I'm not questioning about the video but about "official" link.
Teachings as "stay in holy places", "avoid even the shape of bad", and so on. This are the words we are used to listen here in Italy from Chuch sources.
A link to youtube sound like an invitation to go close to water with alligators on it.
I'm aware that I live in a mission field, not in SLC, with all pros and cons of this situation.
I'll not remove LDS.ORG from my safe sites list, but I'll not include youtube LDS videos into my web sites or member conversations.

[zaneclark]

The link is back on the main page.

Not in my part of the vineyard......

[mkmurray]

Not in my part of the vineyard......

Perhaps dmaynes viewed a cached copy of LDS.org when the link was still there...?