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ChristianBlog.Com - What Are We Really Here For? |
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Posted By: abelajohnb
A Public Address:
It is not often that we/I/ChristianBlog.Com make a formal post to the general membership body of ChristianBlog.Com about how we operate ChristianBlog.Com, but something happened yesterday that has spurred me into action.
I would hope everybody that is a member of ChristianBlog.Com would take the time to read this, ponder on it, and see here it leads you in your own walk, and with your interactions with all things here at ChristianBlog.Com - because this truly is about both ChristianBlog.Com AND each of our walks with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What ChristianBlog.Com Is:
ChristianBlog.Com is first and foremost an online Blogging Service Provider for those of the Christian Faith. At our core is being an online ministry to the millions/billions(??) of Christians throughout the English-speaking world that use the internet and have a desire to Blog.
Within this is a desire to provide a place that offers the services that our members want/need, to provide a place that has a Christian atmosphere, and a place that is safer than the average website for those of the Faith.
What ChristianBlog.Com Is Not:
What ChristianBlog.Com is NOT is an online Blogging Service Provider for those who are not of the Christian Faith. Our core goal is not to that of the billions of people world-wide who do not yet know of the Faith of Jesus Christ.
Within this fact is a realization that we will never minister "outwardly", but only "inwardly". ChristianBlog.Com is not an outreach, but an in-reach! We are not a place that focuses on those who are not of the Faith, but rather a place that focuses on the building up of those who ARE of the Faith.
What ChristianBlog.Com Must Enforce:
Understanding that ChristianBlog.Com is for those "of the faith" means that ChristianBlog.Com must also handle those times and situations when those who are not of the faith, attempt to utilize ChristianBlog.Com - for whatever their reason may be.
At the very heart of our foundation is the "ChristianBlog.Com Registration/Faith Disclaimer" which opens with the following statement, "ChristianBlog.Com is a website strictly reserved for those who know they are a Child of God."
This Faith Disclaimer is a Policy that ChristianBlog.Com has long-held as the basis for both our mission, and a basis for our communities well being. It goes on to say that if a person has "worked out your Salvation" they we invite them to join the website.
In order to continue their process of becoming a member, all members must agree that this Registration/Faith Disclaimer is applicable to them and their walk with the Creator. This is a legally binding contract between the member registering at the website and ChristianBlog.Com - and as a legally binding contract it is therefore something we must enforce.
Enforcement of Policies:
There is no doubt that ChristianBlog.Com has a LOT of "policies" that help us legally govern the website and its membership. Some people are even bold enough to tell us we have "too many" policies in place - too which we often chuckle and quietly agree with them.
ChristianBlog.Com, however, has a desire - a desire to stay online as long as possible! ChristianBlog.Com desires to continue to minister to our membership body as long as the Lord allows us to, and in this day and age, that often times means a website of this site requires a fair amount of lawyers making sure we can do just that. Our lawyers exist to help us make sure we can enforce that which they feel we need to enforce, and to be able to build a case where a case needs to be built.
In the past ChristianBlog.Com has worked with many of the electronic enforcement agencies of many different international governments. We constantly work with the USA-based FBI to help them monitor and enforce Electronic Identification Frauds; we have worked with Scotland Yard to help prosecute a group of people who violated International laws; and we have worked with many other countries that we simply do not need to share about. Suffice to say, our policies are in place to protect ChristianBlog.Com (first and foremost), and by protecting ourselves, we can therefore help protect our general membership body.
Policies are in place to both protect and to be enforced. Any group that never creates Policies is a group that will suffer great wrath from all directions (something ChristianBlog.Com has never had happen) and any group that creates Policies but does not enforce them will suffer great wrath from within (also something ChristianBlog.Com has never had happen.)
Sometimes enforcing Policies is not easy - sometimes we just really do not want to - but we do not have the liberty to enforce on "feelings" - rather we have the obligations to both ourselves and our members to enforce on the very Policies we have in place.
Some of these Policies we often have to enforce are:
1. Electronic Identification Fraud - when somebody lies about who they are, where they are from, etc.
2. Copyright Violations - when somebody duplicate content that they do not have the legal right to duplicate - be it text, photographs, videos, lyrics, quotes, etc.
3. Registration/Faith Disclaimer - when somebody says they are a Christian at the time of creating their account, yet later clearly indicates they are not a Christian.
4. Membership Contact Policy -when somebody shares personal information about themselves that we have clearly stated they are not allowed to share.
5. Anti-Denominational Abuse - when somebody uses denominational factors to attempt to harass or abuse other members.
6. Advertisement/Spamming - when somebody creates an account for the sole purpose of posting advertisement or spam.
These six factors make up 95% of the terminations that ChristianBlog.Com takes upon individuals who have registered an account at ChristianBlog.Com at some point in time. Often times the accounts are suspended within 60 minutes of their accounts being created, because in just that short amount of time they have already done something to violate one (or many) of the above listed violations of our Policies. Sometimes, the individual is able to squeak past our team of sharp Moderators and keep their account active for some time.
Some Future Changes:
Some recent events have lead us to decide to make some changes to the way we operate. There is no doubt that ChristianBlog.Com does not make the "perfect, 100% correct choice" 100% of the time - of this we are willing to admit. But take into consideration that the ChristianBlog.Com ministry has only been online for two years and we have grown very fast. It has sometimes been difficult choosing which course of action to take on a given issue that arises - typically a really big issue that arises really quickly and out of nowhere. That said, for the most part, we have almost always made the right decision at the right time, for the right situation.
Like any good group of followers of Christ, when we do encounter one of those situations that causes us to have to dig into the deep unknown to solve an issue we have not been faced with before, we always time take afterwards to reflect upon what caused it, what could have been done to prevent it, what decisions were made, if they were the right decisions or the wrong decisions, and what we can do in the future to both keep the issue from happening again, and if it does happen again, how to handle it the next time around.
Looking Back On Yesterday:
Yesterday one of those "situations" happened that we have had happen in the past, but it happened in a new and different way than it has ever happened before - and that forced us into a situation in which a few (new) decisions had to be made.
I will be very clear on this:
a. We made the right decisions!
b. We took action on those decisions in the right way!
c. We handled it publicly in the wrong way!
d. We found some issues that need to be handled differently on our end and will work to make sure they are.
Some of our members were hurt by what happened. While this is unfortunate, the actions taken where - non-the-less - the correct actions. We enforced our Policies, we stayed true to our core values, we stayed true to the laws that govern us, and we stayed true to helping to protect our members. Yet, we also did it in the wrong way, for which we apologize to everybody involved. Know that we have changed how we will go about dealing with this issue in the future and hopefully our new course of action will better help to keep from non-involved members from being hurt by our need to enforce our own Policies.
Looking Towards The Future:
I started this message talking about what ChristianBlog.Com is - a Christian-based Community of people who desire to Blog. I would like to assure everybody that this will remain our primary focus! www.ChristianBlog.Com is just that "Christian" "Blog" - we are not ‘www.NotAChristianBlog.Com', we are not ‘www.AntiChristianBlog.Com', and we are not even ‘www.AlmostAChristianBlog.Com' either. Our mission will continue to be that of helping Christians minister "inwardly", not "outwardly" - to be an in-reach, not an outreach.
We realize this may not sit well with everybody. We realize many people may feel this is unchristian-like, we realize some people may take offense with this.
We also realize a very (very) large majority of our community/membership has joined ChristianBlog.Com because this is exactly what they want! The like the fact that we are "Christian Only". We realize many people want the stability, health, community, unity of faith, and like-beliefs that come only from having a Christian-only website. We realize this is what keeps most of our members returning to ChristianBlog.Com. We realize this is what has helped make ChristianBlog.Com one of the best Online Christian Communities on the internet.
What it ultimately comes down to is what do we (and be "we" we do not mean our community, but rather those who operate ChristianBlog.Com) want ChristianBlog.Com to be. Do we desire ChristianBlog.Com to be a "free for all" where anybody can utilize the ministry services we provide, or do we desire to remain community to those who are a part of the Family of Christ and remaining Christian-only. As this decision is ultimately our decision, we realize there will be those who like what we decide and those who will not like what we decide.
As we look toward the future of ChristianBlog.Com we have decided to stay committed to being a "Christian Only" website. It has helped hundreds, if not thousands, of Christians who have needed a safe place to come to. It has helped countless Christians from around the world find a place of peace. It has provided a unique internet hang-out where Christians know they can come to and not have to worry about that which seeks to kill and destroy.
It would be down-right foolish of us to change that which the Creator has created - an online community of believers from around the world, spanning a wide multitude of Christian believes, yet all united by a single factor: We Are Children Of The Most High God!
Thank you,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
(p.s.: this blog entry has been locked to prevent any blog comments from being posted - should you have something to share with Mr. Abela please contact him directly via a private message)
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Posted: 12/27/07 10:51pm - Total Views: 954 - Category: Site News
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Member Biography |
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Raised in a private Christian school until his senior year, Mr. Abela has been around the Christian Faith nearly his entire life. Shortly after entering High School he became involved in researching his Native American heritage and soon found himself deeply involved in the Native American religion. Shortly before his...
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