500 likes | 648 Views
The Peril and Promise of the Internet Within Mormonism. John Dehlin. 10 Things I Learned This Year on the Mormon Internet. Identity matters Moderation wins over “open dialogue” Privacy is dead. Get over it. The challenge of blogging: The desperate need for ratings
E N D
The Peril and Promise of the Internet Within Mormonism John Dehlin
10 Things I Learned This Year on the Mormon Internet • Identity matters • Moderation wins over “open dialogue” • Privacy is dead. Get over it. • The challenge of blogging: The desperate need for ratings • Angry at the Church: 3, Happy with the church: 1 • The unecessary chasm between “apologists” and “antis” • Surprisingly high number of people suffering in silence • Audio is great (podcasts) • Video is even better • Social software • Explosion of LDS content
Identity Matters Banner Gate RT & SV Watt Mahoun
Moderation wins over open dialogue FAIR Times and Seasons Ex-Mormon censoring Mormon Stories Blog aggregators
Privacy is Dead…Get Over It Marie Osmond Frappr Maps Web Logs
The Desperate Need for Ratings Life of a blog post Threadjacking Polar attacks Digg & Slashdot
Angry at the Church: 3Happy with the Church: 1 Podcasts Web Site Video moregood
Stupidity of the Chasm between “Apologist” and “Anti” FAIRWiki How do we build a bridge?
Audio is Great Podcast review Success of Mormon Stories
Video is Greater Youtube, Google video Digg experience w/ Godmakers Video overview Remix (Mormon Park, Joseph Smith Superman)
Social software Myspace and facebook Warnings against it ELGG
Explosion of LDS content Dialogues Sunstones Sunstone symposiums Journal of Mormon History BYU Studies
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fjmh • http://www.mhahome.org/pubs/journals_on_dvd.php • http://www.lib.byu.edu/spc/byustudies/ • I would also add the UU’s Newspaper digitization effort: • http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/ • The updating of the Mormonstudies data base: • http://mormonhistory.byu.edu/ • and Michael Hunter’s Mormon Studies page: • http://mormonstudies.byu.edu/ • I’ll try to pull together real numbers for the size of the community • tomtrails
– all the hymns and children’s songs in MP3, as well as in a format where you can transpose and rearrange as you like, and then print things out. • – an online catalog where regular members can order things • – .pdf and .html (or at least one of the two) full versions of all the scriptures, all the scripture stories, all the current manuals, and the Church magazines from 1972 forward. And .mp3 versions of all of them. And all of the CES materials. And most of it’s in Spanish, a lot of it’s in French, and more will be brought in for something like a dozen languages within the next year. • – the various special topics sites (the one for investigators, the one for temples, the one for Joseph Smith…) • Plus all the semi-official stuff from BYU and BYU Broadcasting.
10 Interesting Dynamics • Google Search • Blogging • Podcasting • Video • The growth • MySpace & Facebook
Podcast Reach • Mormons and Masons w/ Greg Kearney 3,512 • New Order Mormons Pt. 1 (Ann) 2,983 • Polygamy with Todd Compton Pt. 1 2,729 • Kiddie Baps – My Mission Story in Guat. 2,683 • Grant Palmer Pt. 4 2,486 • Stages of Faith Pt. 3 2,435 • Interview with FAIR 2,247 ~2,500 downloads per episode on average
Church Sponsored (1) lds.org (2) byu.edu (3) familysearch.org (4) deseretbook (5) mormon.org (25) josephsmith.net Anti-Mormon (6) exmormon.org (9) lds-mormon.com (13) irr.org (14) 2think.org (21) i4m.com (22) utlm.org (23) saintsalive.com (24) richard packham Apologetic (10) jefflindsay.com (18) fairlds.org Blogs (7) timesandseasons.org (11) bycommonconsent.com (15) millennialstar.org (17) femmormonhousewvs.org (19) mormonstories.org Other (16) ldstoday.com (20) affirmation.org (8) Meridianmagazine.com (12) ldschurchtemples.com Top 25 Web Sites Within Mormonism* *Not counting dating sites
Google Search Terms Referring Folks to Mormon Stories (or “Privacy is Dead…Get Over It”)
City, State, Country, IP Address Pages visited Date, Time Duration of visit Country Referring Link, Search String Domain Name/Company Entry and Exit Pages
The Personal • “John Dehlin” • “John Dehlin Mission President” • “single dallas robbins”
The Strange • “Jim jones survived” • “How to mold football mouthpiece” • “Jones jello cult” • “Joseph smith vs. l. ron hubbard”
The Curious • “do lds believe in creation”
The Sexual • “LDS Whores” • “gay mormon studs” • “extreme mormon girl videos” • “mormon boys sleeping naked on mission experience” • “mormon elder homosexuality” • “open marriage stories” • “was joseph smith gay” • “slept with a married woman Mormon” • “mormon missionaries gang raped names”
The Struggling • “Conflicted with Mormon faith and now in love with non-mormon” • “Mormon used to agree” • “Mormon leaving church telling TBM parents” • “Suicide in the lds community”
TBM This Mormon Life Mormon Mom-Cast MormonCast Mormon Archipelago Anti-Mormon Mormon Truth! Thechurchisnottrue Catholicmormon Living Truth Mormon Musings Sons of perdition Apologetic? Borderlands Mormon Stories Sunstone Sunstone Classic An Atheists’ Prayer Reproductions of GA Talks LDS Voices BYU Classic Speeches April 05 General Conference Top Podcasts Within Mormonism*
Wiki Wars • FAIR Wiki • MormonWiki • ZCLM Wiki