Month: May 2007

  • Troll problem?

    Troll problem?

    We created YMX as a place where youth workers could come and talk freely about their ministries. We knew in creating it that way that “freedom” comes with a nasty risk.
    Trolls.

    In an online community like YMX, there are two types of trolls. One is annoying and the other is dangerous.

    1. Trolls who stir up the community for fun. This is really just a breach of etiquette more than anything. We actually have seen this fairly rarely during YMX’s existence.
    2. Trolls who gather information on a member to destroy them. Believe it or not, there are people working in churches as volunteers and paid staff who are evil trolls. Just like Richard Nixon wasn’t a crook to the core, church politics will make leaders do evil things even if they are overall good people. They will scour the internet looking for incriminating evidence against a staff person. It’s never innocent as the “stumble” across something as they are clearly looking for a justification to fire someone when they’ve already decided to do it.

    Why am I writing about this?
    YMX has always taken precautions against trolling since at our previous host a couple of members had been the victims of trolling. For instance, we have different levels of services and different levels of service will show different areas of the forums to different people. In other words, we don’t allow Google to search the forums making what is written there “ungoogle-able.” Second, for someone to receive access to “premium” areas, they have to pay us. That allows us to know who they are beyond a shadow of a doubt. This forces the troll to identify themselves and proves they aren’t “stumbling” on something accidentally, but showing malicious intent by actually paying to troll.

    That said, a truly intent troll can get through and troll if they don’t appear to be violating the terms of service. Has this happened? We don’t know. But my admin/mod team is a good bunch of “troll busters” and if it has happened, we’ll take precautions to root it out.

    There are times when my soul just aches because of the working conditions that some churches operate under. The politics of the local church drives many away from the church. It’s sick.

  • You can make money on any good (or odd) idea

    Tumbleweed3
    No joke. There is a lady grossing $40k/year selling tumbleweed. This is living proof that anyone is just one good idea away from doing something truly remarkable and special… to some people.

    Life lesson: Your idea may be odd or dangerous, but the net is filled with people looking for an idea just weird enough to send their hard earned PayPal dollars your way. Your ability to take a well-timed risk could get you somewhere you aren’t today. Take action!

    "What a crock!"
    Sure, she didn’t invent coke.     But she’s selling refuse for $25 a pop. That’s even cooler than selling addictive sugar water in my opinion. She may only end up as a "thousandaire" as a result… but who cares? It’s fun and people get joy from spending money on yard waste!

    Story about the biz
    Here’s the link if you want to buy some weed

    HT to Seth Godin

    p.s. Judging by the cheesy Christian art on the site… I think they go to church. That would make for some great small talk, "I sell weed on the net." "Oh, want some coffee?" I kept waiting for the sappy midi file to start playing "Onward Christian soldier." 🙂

  • Back to work… for a few days

    Godiswatching15webfinal
    It took yesterday off.     I know, it’s unheard of to sneak in a day off the week before I begin a 10 day vacation. But I needed it.

    I’m exceedingly human in that regard. I get tired even though everyone wants me to do "more" from every direction. There was stuff I probably could have done for the church, YMX, or even some of the stuff I do for fun. But I chose to do nothing… to take a break. My brain hurt.

    As a result I feel much more prepared for the week. Instead of dreading the things I have to do this week, with a little more rest, I am actually looking forward to this week. It’s jam Feetup
    packed with more goodness than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

    So, what did I "do" on my day off? Um… nothing. Absolutely nothing worth a squat. But I did rest a lot… and that’s worth something.

    p.s. Who told my grass it could grow this fast. I just cut it 4 days ago and it looks as shaggy as Ringo.

  • We’ve hit 1000 members

    Ymx_model

    I’m always looking for something to celebrate, and here is a big milestone for Youth Ministry Exchange: 1000 Members.

    In honor of this momentus occasion, I’ve posted our first "State of YMX."

    One thing I didn’t mention… Derek and I have still never withdrawn a penny for ourselves from the site. We are firmly still in the "reinvestment stage." Profits may one day grow to a point where the site generate income for us… but that’s still on the horizon.

    Below is the text of my "state of YMX" that will explain the diagram to the right.

    (more…)

  • Three Cheers for Northern Ireland

    Nulster27
    I know this story isn’t hitting the news around home since it doesn’t fit the "if it bleeds, it leads" category, but it should.

    BELFAST, Northern Ireland: Protestant leader Ian
    Paisley, who spent decades refusing to cooperate with Northern
    Ireland’s Catholic minority, was elected Tuesday to oversee a
    power-sharing administration alongside his longtime Sinn Fein foes.

    The unopposed election of Democratic Unionist Party chief Paisley,
    81, as "first minister" of a new 12-member administration heralded an
    astonishing new era for Northern Ireland following a 9-year struggle to
    forge a Catholic-Protestant administration, central goal of the
    U.S.-brokered Good Friday accord.     link

    I don’t pretend to understand the troubles, but it is extremely exciting to think that long-term peace in Ireland seems to be arriving. Along similar lines, in the past two weeks both the UVF and UDA have publicly announced that they are ceasing their paramilitary actions. In the UVF announcement they basically said, "We ending all arms dealings and putting arms dealers far enough away from locals that they won’t have access to any more guns."

    Of course… this is all great news from Kristen and I as in 6 days we’ll be leaving for Northern Ireland. I know it’s just my theory, but I am certain that there is a correlation between these steps towards peace and the burgeoning "revival-like" movement of Christ in Northern Ireland.

  • A dream of Stoney’s

    It’s been well documented that my dog, Stoney, has a distaste for the black squirrels in my backyard. And especially the ones that are half brown half black with the poofy annoying tails.

    This video… is his dream.


    HT to Tim Schmoyer

  • Commercial Profiles

    Kristen and I have a new game we play while watching TV. It’s called, "Profile the viewer" and we try to determine the profile of the people who watch that show based on the commercials that are shown. The thought is, if marketers think there is a demographic of a show… they’ll target their commercials to that particular show.

    For instance:
    Kids Programming on Disney features loads of snack buyers who take occasional trips to Orlando unload cash in between repeats of their 5 shows.

    Or "Without a trace." That’s a show where the people who watch have sexual issues such as erectile dysfunction, genital herpes, or various other things chose a new cell phone while thinking about scoring some Kentucky Fried Chicken or other junk food and contemplating selling their home.

    It’s an addicting little game that we believe will sweep the nation.

  • RSS in Plain English

    Flamocon_190hI’ve already established a pattern of letting the world know what a cow-suit wearing dork I am, but I think there are times I have a point of my dorkdom worth sharing to the non-dork blog reading public.

    What if I told you that in a typical day I have the ability to read more news, blogs, and other internet stuff than you do in half the time you can? My guess would be that you’d say… "Hey, Adam… I want to do that too!" (You have to say that with your best Matt Foley impersonation)

    Well… here is a video I’ve seen posted all over fellow dork blogs and I thought it was worth sharing.


    Click To Play

    Watch this and increase your cool factor by ten times.

    Now that you understand RSS… click on that pretty orange icon and subscribe to my feed on your new reader. (I suggest/use google reader. More reasons to love google reader coming soon.)

  • An ustream experiment

    I’ve been watching a couple of people mess with ustream.tv. So, this is my experiment tonight. You can watch our event tonight, Married Street live… right here on my blog. Check it out starting at 7:00 PM.

    If think this makes me a complete and total dork, right?

  • 10 More Days

    Spring is totally here
    It’s sunny and beautiful here in Romeo with the weekend looking just as nice ahead. At the same time… I can’t stop thinking about our awesome vacation coming up. Kristen and I have a few plans but we are still "planning" to have no/little plan.

    I’m looking forward to Kristen and I reliving our adventurous times back "when we were single."     (Meaning, married with no kids) We would explore Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan for no other reason than just to explore something new together. So… it’s a vacation… it’s a time of reconnecting (How do people who live in the same house not connect? Um, that’s how life is sometimes I guess.) … it’s exploring a gorgeous country together… it’s trying something new… it’s seeing a good friend… it’s making new friends and new memories.

    In the mean time… the next 10 days until departure are busy!     We’ve got an event tomorrow. We’ve got Megan’s birthday party. I’m going to Grand Rapids for a golf outing. We have a full compliment of ministry stuff next week. We have a training event next Saturday. I’m filling in for Bob next Sunday. And we have to start thinking about packing… along with all that normal pre-trip stuff.

    Work on vacation? Um… no. I am not planning on doing work on vacation. That said, I find vacations to be a tremendous time when God reveals Himself to me as I slow down and do different stuff. I know that after 2-3 days of "chillin’" my mind will start to race and I’ll get very industrious. And since there is a tiny turn around between the end of vacation and some other big stuff on my calendar… I am hoping that I can get a big portion of my preparation for the Youth Rally done.