A Great Start

[WelchTC]

It has been a month since we first rolled out the LDS Technology Web site. It has been exciting to see people participate on the site and exchange information with others. Let's recap what we have accomplished in that month.

First let me share with you some statistics from the Web site.

<table align="center" border="1" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" rules="none" width="50%"> <col width="16*"> <col width="211*"> <col width="29*"><tbody><tr style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" align="center"><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="100%"> Top 10 Visited Page</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

</td><td width="82%">Page
</td><td width="11%">

Visits

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

1.

</td><td width="82%">Purpose
</td><td width="11%">

2544

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

2.

</td><td width="82%">LDS Technology Site
</td><td width="11%">

1055

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

3.

</td><td width="82%">Read Joel's Blog
</td><td width="11%">

838

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

4.

</td><td width="82%">Welcome to the Church's Technology Web Site
</td><td width="11%">

747

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

5.

</td><td width="82%">Joel Dehlin
</td><td width="11%">

604

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

6.

</td><td width="82%">Tom Welch
</td><td width="11%">

548

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

7.

</td><td width="82%">David Burggraaf
</td><td width="11%">

544

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

8.

</td><td width="82%">Read Larry's Blog
</td><td width="11%">

526

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

9.

</td><td width="82%">Tadd Giles
</td><td width="11%">

518

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="6%">

10.

</td><td width="82%">Pete Whiting
</td><td width="11%">

511

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table border="1" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" rules="none" width="75%"> <col width="128*"> <col width="128*"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="100%">

Miscellaneous Forum Statistics

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Number of User Registrations
</td><td width="50%">762
</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Average # of Registrations per Day
</td><td width="50%">15

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Number of Forum Posts
</td><td width="50%">1248
</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Average # of Forum Posts per Day
</td><td width="50%">40

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Highest # of Users Online at One Time
</td><td width="50%">52
</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Most Viewed Thread
</td><td width="50%">

Encouraging Members to Use Unit Web Sites

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Most Replied-to Thread
</td><td width="50%">

Encouraging Members to Use Unit Web Sites

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="50%">Most Popular Forum
</td><td width="50%">

Unit Web Sites

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table border="1" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" rules="none" width="30%"> <col width="25*"> <col width="164*"> <col width="67*"><tbody><tr style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><td colspan="3" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="100%">

Top 10 Forum Posters
(Not including myself)

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">
</td><td width="64%">Poster
</td><td width="26%">

# of Posts

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

1.

</td><td width="64%">thedqs
</td><td width="26%">

143

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

2.

</td><td width="64%">RusselHltn
</td><td width="26%">

66

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

3.

</td><td width="64%">kgthunder
</td><td width="26%">

55

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

4.

</td><td width="64%">mkmurray
</td><td width="26%">

48

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

5.

</td><td width="64%">atticusewig
</td><td width="26%">

24

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

6.

</td><td width="64%">pwhiting
</td><td width="26%">

22

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

7.

</td><td width="64%">WaddleDee
</td><td width="26%">

22

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

8.

</td><td width="64%">shellinese
</td><td width="26%">

19

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

9.

</td><td width="64%">huffkw
</td><td width="26%">

19

</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td width="10%">

10.

</td><td width="64%">JamesAnderson
</td><td width="26%">

18

</td></tr></tbody></table>

Although these numbers are not huge, I am very pleased and feel that they indicate that we are off to a great start. It is gratifying to see so many people contribute to the conversations and dialog being conducted in the forums.

Interesting Insight

I found that many of the topics on the forums were both interesting and helpful. Some of the forum topics I found particularly helpful include the following:

• Encouraging Members to Use Unit Web Sites—In this thread people have shared many great ideas on how to get more of your ward or branch members to use the Local Unit Web Sites.
• VCARD Download—In this thread people have shared solutions and even some code to help others import data they have previously exported from the Local Unit Web Sites into Outlook or other applications.
• Ward Maps—In this thread efforts by the community have put the wheels in motion for the Church to add some very nice features to the Local Unit Web Sites.

A Big Change

Having this technology Web site is a big change for the Church. It is a change in which we are trying to be more open in our processes and procedures with you who we consider the experts. In addition, we love reading about your ideas and suggestions. We are not used to talking directly to others in the community about some of the challenges that we face. Consequently, over the next several months we will be working hard to share even more information with you, and we hope to get your input on what we share. Many departments within the Church are looking to this Web site as a great source of information and help.

I would like to thank everyone for their participation. When the idea was first presented of creating an open forum for people to communicate, there was concern as to whether the forums would get out of control. To date that has not happened. I thank you for your continued adherence to the community guidelines.

Get the Word Out

This Web site is only as good as the users who visit it. While we are pleased with the progress of the site so far, we feel we could reach and engage so many more people. The more people we can involve with this Web site, the more we will all benefit. Tell your friends, neighbors, and co-workers to visit the site. Get involved today and help the Church further its mission.

Tom Welch
Technology Community Manager
[greenwoodkl]

As the site seems to be more valuable in the content of the forums than the static pages about managers, could we have regular reports on the Top 10 Forums or Threads? Hopefully more static pages will go up eventually, but I don't forsee those stats changing much over time.

[WelchTC]

As the site seems to be more valuable in the content of the forums than the static pages about managers, could we have regular reports on the Top 10 Forums or Threads? Hopefully more static pages will go up eventually, but I don't forsee those stats changing much over time.

Good idea. I agree that the static content does not change much.

Tom

[dhopkins76]

How about offering a feed of new posts/topics? That would make it much easier for me to keep track of the new topics I'm interested in. I think that functionality is offered in vBulletin.

Thanks,
Daniel

[WelchTC]

How about offering a feed of new posts/topics? That would make it much easier for me to keep track of the new topics I'm interested in. I think that functionality is offered in vBulletin.

Thanks,
Daniel

You can get a feed of new threads by subscribing to to http://beta.tech.lds.org/forum/external.php?type=rss2. This will give you all new threads in any forums. It does not, however, give you new posts. You must use the "email" subscribe to those posts you are most interested in and then a new email will be sent to you each time a new post is added to the subscribed thread. Also, if you want to RSS subscribe to a select group of forums verses all forumsyou can append "&forumids=12,14,22" to the URL line. The numbers represent the forum ID's y ou want to subscribe to. To figure out the forum ID's, simply go to the forum home and hover over a forum and you will see in the URL "f=xxx" where xxx is the forum id.

Thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming!

Tom

[Skeezix-p40]

Tom,
Other good information on the members list might be the location of the user. For those of us outside the state of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comUtah, g</st1:State>etting to know other tech geeks locally who are LDS is a treat.<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p

Another note is at larger events (such as SAP SAPPHIRE, Oracle World, RSA, etc.) it may be nice to find out other members who might be in attendance or even speaking.<O:p></O:p>
<O:p</O:p

Just a couple of suggestions,<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p

Joe Nay<O:p</O:p

[WelchTC]

Tom,
Other good information on the members list might be the location of the user. For those of us outside the state of <st1:state w:st="[/IMG]Utah," g=""></st1:state>getting to know other tech geeks locally who are LDS is a treat.

Each user needs to enter in the information in their own profile. This information is not asked for during registration.<o></o><o></o>
<o></o>

Another note is at larger events (such as SAP SAPPHIRE, Oracle World, RSA, etc.) it may be nice to find out other members who might be in attendance or even speaking.<o></o>

Good suggestions.

Tom

[thomasjking]

i have a question----but it is private---i dont have im---can i send you an email
mine is rogerscreek at comcast,net
tom

[WelchTC]

i have a question----but it is private---i dont have im---can i send you an email
mine is rogerscreek at comcast,net
tom

Yes, you can send me an email by clicking on the "tomw" link by my picture. Then on my profile page, you will see a link that says "send a message via email to tomw". Click that link and type in your email message.

Tom

[mkmurray]

There is also a lightweight form of emailing in these forums called "PMing". I think it stands for Personal Message. Sending a PM to someone will show up the next time the user logs onto the site (and also be emailed to them if they have the correct setting applied in their User Control Panel). A PM is just as private as email.