Dr. Holzapfel is a BYU professor of Church History and Doctrine and a prolific author. We are very excited and honored to work with him.

Christ.org will include top articles, music, and videos on the life, death, resurrection, and mission of the Savior Jesus Christ. It will be well documented, well designed, and translated into over a dozen languages. We hope it will bring everyone who visits it closer to Christ.

Question for Commenters: What resources or features should the top website on Jesus Christ include?

We are encouraged by all the faithful Church members who are sharing what they believe with the world. We hope we can add to what they are doing.

Since we started the More Good Foundation two years ago, many people have been generous with their time, knowledge, and contacts. A few have asked if they could contribute money, but we didn’t offer that option. We are now making that an option. Like every non-profit entity we are constrained by limited finances, so we’re grateful for all the help we receive.

If you’re able to help support the More Good Foundation financially, please consider making a donation.

Clay Gorton is “Gramps”, a former mission president and temple worker who answers questions on a variety of topics at www.askgramps.org. Thanks to Mikel and Clay’s hard work, Ask Gramps content is now available by podcast. Point your pod catcher at the standard feed or subscribe in iTunes. If you don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can listen from your computer. See the list of articles with audio.

Clay is a great example of sharing the Gospel on the Internet. While he doesn’t speak officially for the Church, his deep knowledge and experience provide helpful insight to hundreds of people. Interestingly, he publishes only a portion of the questions he answers, often responding privately on especially sensitive concerns and often suggesting that people speak with their local ecclesiastical leaders.

Clay turns 84 today. Anyone who would excuse himself from getting involved in the Internet, blogging, podcasting, etc. certainly can’t use age as an excuse. Great work, Clay.

LDS News Watch will also call out newspaper editors and writers who report inaccurately about the Church. This will give interested Church members the opportunity to submit polite clarifications to those newspapers. We hope this will encourage accurate reporting about the Church while showing the civility and graciousness of Mormons even when misunderstood.

UPDATE: On his personal blog Jacob discusses several possibilities for OpenSearch from a religious perspective. For example, it would be great if the Church’s new Gospel Library supported OpenSearch.

Aaron Curtis has created a Google Custom Search Engine for searching official LDS Church web sites. It includes lds.org, mormon.org, josephsmith.net, familysearch.org, providentliving.org, and international Church websites (like the site for the Mormon church in Australia, for example).

Also, the More Good Foundation operates a search engine called LDSsearch.com, which indexes pages that are faithful to the Church. It should be a “safe” place to search when looking for information about the Church.

It would be great to get Firefox search plugins for both of these search engines.

Link: Aaron’s LDS search

I worked at the More Good Foundation as an intern for eight months and began work soon after the Foundation was formed. It has been a blast! The position I applied for was as a “writer/editor,” but I ended up doing much more. I learned so much and now feel confident using software programs and techniques that are requisite in my field. I was able to come to work every day, having flexible hours, and research my religion. How great is that? But more than the benefits I received, I felt great knowing I was helping others. I worked to write articles for websites that would spread correct information about the Church. It was a nice feeling to know that I was part of something that had entirely selfless goals. The More Good Foundation is growing and it has been so exciting to see the positive changes we’ve undergone since I started work here. The point of the More Good Foundation is to help our brothers and sisters on earth find the right information that they search for. What a worthwhile cause!

I’m sad to be leaving, but this upcoming semester is just too jam-packed . . . I will continue keeping my eye out for more opportunities I can suggest to MGF.

Thanks everyone, for making the experience a great one!

He was excited about doing this, and went off to work on it. I didn’t hear from him for a couple of weeks, so one day I called him up and asked how it was going. He told me that shortly after our previous conversation, he had gone to the temple and mentioned to the Temple President that he was going to create a Web site about the temple.

The Temple President cautioned my friend that he may want to check with the temple department of the Church first. “After all,” said the President, “the Church doesn’t want Web sites about temples created.”

When I heard this from my friend, I realized that there was a lot of education to do. It is true that in March 2001 the Church sent a letter to ecclessiastical leaders instructing that all Church Web sites be taken down. This is the specific wording that was used in the letter:

…the First Presidency has requested that local Church units and organizations should not create or sponsor web sites. They have also determined that existing sites should be discontinued.

The policy was later clarified in a letter sent in December 2004, where it was stated that Church unites were not authorized to create sites apart from the official sites created by the Church. Further, it was stated that:

This restriction includes but is not limited to temples, missions, visitors’ centers, auxiliaries, quorums, classes, Scout units, and committees for special events.

This is obviously where my friend’s Temple President got the idea that my friend should not create a Web site about the temple. The Church policy states that the Temple President is not authorized on his own to create an official site about the temple, but there is no restriction on individuals and non-Church groups from creating or sponsoring their own Web sites about temples.

For instance, the Elder’s Quorum President in the Danbury Park East Ward cannot create a Web site for the quorum and post personal information, quorum events, and provide ability to sign up for welfare assignments. These activities carry potential problems with privacy rights and security issues. However, that restriction does not extend to individuals who could create Web sites that talk about priesthood quorums and the amazing work they can do. The difference is that you are creating a personal site *about* the Church, rather than an offical site *from* the Church.

It is in the Church’s interest for people like my friend to create Web sites that help to spread the word about how the gospel (or some aspect of the gospel, such as temple work or priesthood quorums) has positively affected lives and brought people to Christ.

Do you have a story to tell about the Church? The Church is supportive of stories being told in a faithful, respectful, and positive manner; this helps the Church.

So, spread the word–individuals and non-Church groups can be anxiously engaged in creating the type of Web sites that will help the Church.

Questions? Feel free to e-mail me at awyatt@moregoodfoundation.org

We hope you’ll join us this Thursday, at 4:00 PM, in room 185 of the MCKB building (on BYU campus, just west of the Kimball tower.)

The More Good Foundation is pleased to announce the location of the next Webmasters Roundtable. It will be held on BYU campus in room 185 of the McKay Building, on Feb. 16 at 4:00 PM.

Our monthly Roundtable meeting is an opportunity for local webmasters, bloggers, and techies to hear about and discuss issues related to the Church on the Internet. We’ve been pleased to have many participants at past meetings, including BYU employees, owners and employees of local Internet companies, and interested individuals. We’ve also been excited to have several Church employees attend, including Ron Schwendiman, Manager of Internet Operations for the Church; Steve Anderson of FamilySearch.org; and Larry Richman, Project Coordination Director, who at our last meeting spoke about the Church’s Internet strategy and upcoming improvements to LDS.org.

This month we’re excited to hear from Tom Dalton, Director of Consulting Services at 10x Marketing (now Innuity), a local Internet marketing company. Tom is a search engine optimization expert who will discuss tactics for improving the search engine rankings of your site. Even if you’re familiar with SEO, this is a great opportunity to hear which tactics really work, which “myths” don’t work, and to sharpen your skills.

WHAT: More Good Foundation Webmasters Roundtable, with guest lecture by SEO expert Tom Dalton
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 16, at 4:00 PM
WHERE: Room 185 of the McKay Building (MCKB), located just west of the Kimball Tower on BYU campus

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The meeting will be held this Thursday, December 15, at 2:00pm in room 151 of the Tanner Building on the BYU campus. There will be plenty of room, so feel free to bring your friends and anyone interested. Refreshments will be served!