Last year I shared the blog commenting guidelines on the Desiring God blog.

Justin Taylor at the Gospel Coalition has published another list:

• Is this comment gracious? (Col. 4:6)
• Is this comment seasoned with salt? (Col. 4:6)
• Is this comment corrupting? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment seeking to build up the church for good? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment intended to give grace to those who read it? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment fitting and appropriate? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment true? Is this comment written in love? (Eph. 4:15, 25)

Anything you’d add to this list?

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“Computers … in so far as they impose the reign of information, are the enemies of truth and democracy. Our gaze at their screens is the constitution through watching and receiving of inherently violent transactions which in the end, when we step through their looking-glass, always involve real physical violence.”

You can read the full quote, plus Michael’s reflection at ‘Clubbing each other to death‘. Michael concluded that:

“Whatever the case, it is true as it has always been that ‘the medium is the message’; but it is the medium of which we are always least conscious. And few media have ever been as engaging as the personal computer…”

This was a helpful reminder that we need to evaluate the benefits and dangers of the technology that we use. The benefits to using technology are often obvious (at least to me!), the dangers are usually more subtle. Over at Don’t Eat the Fruit I came across this interview with Bishop N.T. Wright:

Wright touches on a number of important topics, but the big take home point I have been left reflecting on is the danger of dehumanizing our communication.

On this website and many others, Christians engage with one another – often with people they have never met in person. There are many benefits to this, and I have made friends, and since met up with people who I first engaged with online.

However, most of us have seen, experienced, or even been hurt (or hurt others) by the dehumanizing aspects of our online communication.

• Online written communication (often blog posts and blog comments) are easily misunderstood and taken out of context.
• Assertions and accusations are made against blog authors or other commentors that would never have been made (at least with the same bluntness) if both people were sitting down over coffee, face to face.

As N.T. Wright puts it, when we communicate online, we don’t get the benefits of body language, facial expressions, smells, tones of voice. All we are left with are words, and it’s too easy to forget that the words belong to a person.

In his article ‘On visiting Saddleback Church‘, blogger Tim Challies reflects on the time that he met Rick Warren. Before the meeting his felt concerned when he considered the things that he had written about Warren’s work online. After meeting Warren he reflected:

“Somehow just meeting Warren reinforced in my mind the challenge we face as we reconcile ourselves to a fast-paced, digital world in which a person can quickly dash off a missive that can severely impact another person on the other side of the continent. It seems that ethics and morality have been a bit slow to catch up to ability in this new digital world.”

This has been a helpful reminder to me, and perhaps others too, of the need to remember that everyone we write about and engage with online is a person who needs to be loved as carefully and thoughtfully as we love ourselves.

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1. The history and evolution of social media. Excellent article exploring how social media evolved, and the different ways social media has been and is being used.
2. Social media in Plain English – a great explanatory video for the tech-novices, from the inspiring folk at Common Craft.
3. Social Media Counts – a visual ‘counter’ illustrating how much new social media content is generated, in real-time.
4. The Social Media Guide – lots of interesting posts on social media.
5. 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Daily Lives – I don’t want to overstate its importance, but social media is changing our lives in lots of ways.
6. Twitter Guidebook – Mashable has put together a helpful guide to Twitter.
7. 19 Twitter desktop apps compared – if you’ve decided Twitter is for you, check out different platforms for tweeting.
8. 10 Twitter tools for effectively managing your followers – this one is perhaps for the more advanced (obsessed?) users.
9. 10 things social media can’t do – it’s always good to keep some perspective! For fun, check out 10 things you need to stop tweeting about!
10. Compassion using Twitter to get kids sponsored – a post I wrote about an innovative use of Twitter.
11. 101 social media sites – a good list, plus check out the top 25.
12. Responding to the internet revolution – two compelling videos with some mind-boggling stats on the use of social media.
13. Top 10 most popular social media sites in Australia – plus lots of other interesting links.
14. 15 ways for churches (and ministries) to use Twitter – the fourth most popular post on Communicate Jesus!
15. How to organise an event on Facebook – another helpful guide by Mashable. Check out their collection of social media lists and resources.

Have you come across other resources that you’ve found helpful? Share them with us!

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1. 20 simple productivity tools for bloggers. I’m a fan of TextExpander and Fluid.
2. Bible events seen from Google Earth. “The images…use real satellite imagery to achieve the incredible effect.”
3. Free album download. Phil Wickham offers his album ‘Singalong’ as a free download. h/t Hayley Neal.
4. 20 non-preaching websites for better preaching. Most are US-specific, but not too hard to find a local equivalent where necessary.
5. PhillipJensen.com. The Dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral gets his own website!

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Our expectations are really very simple, and for most of you they go without saying. We will moderate comments according to the following rules.

Most important: Be kind and be sincere.

Less important:

1. Stay on topic.
2. Be coherent.
3. Limit the length of your comment to 300 words or so.
4. Only link to items that are relevant.
5. Post your own work.
6. Don’t self-promote for the sake of self-promotion.
7. Don’t respond to provokers.

Would you add anything to this list? Take anything away?

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