Web Submission Guidelines

Uses of the site

For many people, the web site is the first form of contact with our church. The site should accurately and fully describe the various programs and services that we offer. If you belong to a group within the church that is not well described on the site, please contact the webmaster (see Submissions section below). The site is also an efficient means of posting transient information such as class times or topics that is not appropriate for a mailing to the entire newsgroup list.

Types of Information

An informational web site such as the church's site is primarily used for two general purposes: 1) to provide updated information to regular users and 2) to provide explanations of the programs and services offered. The two purposes are quite distinct and content for the two should generally not be mixed.

Updates: Examples of updates include announcements, the newsletter and the times or topics of meetings or classes. Each update should be placed in a consistent location that is easy to find. Updates should be short and all, or almost all, of the information should be transient.
Explanations: Explanations can be long and should provide enough detail that the reader can decide whether the program or event is of interest. Details such as meeting times should not be buried in the explanation. Most explanations will be read by a person once; ever. That is, it is unlikely that someone will read a long explanation of the topic, then revisit the last paragraph to see if the meeting time has changed. Any transient information should be isolated. If the explanation is a single page, transient information often works well in a block at the top of the page. For a multi page explanation, transient information can be separated into its own page.
Exceptions: The above guidelines should be tempered with reason. For example, if a page consists of multiple short, explanations of a variety of topics, it would make sense to place meeting times within the explanation.

Submissions

The webmaster aims to make submissions as painless for you as practical. If any of the below seems painful, something can probably be worked out to ease the pain.

Level of completeness: Any level of detail is acceptable. If you provide just bare facts, the webmaster will apply formatting. If you want a particular look, format the document as you would like for it to look. It is not necessary to spend too much time getting a perfectly formatted print document because some of that formatting will be lost when the document is converted into a web page. If you think that the page would benefit from a graphic, you can either make a recommendation (eg, "small picture of fall leaves in upper right corner") or you can include a specific graphic yourself in either an electronic or print document.
Format: Just about any format is acceptable: word processing file, email, brochure, hand written note. Print images can be scanned. Electronic images can be imported either through email, from disk (floppy, zip, CD) or USB device.
Your responsibility: The webmaster is not in a position to come up with the facts to be conveyed: the content. If you can provide content that is reasonably understandable, the webmaster can probably turn it into a coherent web page.
Contact person: Provide the content for the web page(s) to the webmaster whose contact information is listed here.