Gospelr: Ready for BETA Testers!!!
First things first: Praise God. Gospelr is finally done and ready for BETA. That means that I need YOU to Sign Up and spread the word.
Designing, developing, coding, online web technology for the Kingdom… that’s what I’m all about, and is a small part of what I’m trying to do for LifeShare… and beyond.
Blog about it, tweet it, email it out! Twitter-land needs a little more Jesus. More info after the jump.
So, what is Gospelr all about you say? Is it just another Twitter service?
The answer is no. It’s not just another one in the mix, but rather it’s microblogging-as-ministry: Ministry Microblogging perhaps!
The purpose is to provide provide an effective communication medium for sharing thoughts, ideas, words of encouragement, prayer requests, daily scripture readings/devotionals, and more to friends, staff, ministries, family, and others.
But my hope is that it becomes so much more than just a Christian-Twitter: My desire is that it is actually effectual in regards to sharing the Gospel with those that have already heard the Good News (because we all could use a good reminder… daily!) and those that have not.
That’s why it’s integrated with Twitter.
Kind of like the “be in the world but not of it” deal. Read more about the Mission and Vision on the About and FAQ page here.
And that’s why I really like Gospelr’s favicon and RSS feed icon: It’s Christ, His Good Work on the Cross, being communicated and broadcast to a fallen and dying world, via web technology.
To be quite honest though, I have no idea how Gospelr might eventually be used.
I could imagine small groups picking it up to keep updated with each other… I could imagine ministries, ministry teams, ministry leaders using it to keep others in the loop… or something to the effect of what Eric was talking about in his blog entry about how it would be neat for christians to connect with others and build real relationships, communicating truth and encouragement.
Or perhaps like what Tony, Carlos, and Brandon did this past week with the LifeShare movement, and how a community came together, from all parts of the world, to share ideas and experiences, and encourage each other to go out into their respective communities and spread the Gospel.
Because that’s what it’s really all about, right? Being missional: It’s Missional Microblogging.
Anyways, done with the preaching.
Here are some of the neat features and doodads that Gospelr has that Twitter (and a few others) do not:
It’s got a way cool logo. … … … ok. On to the next feature…
It’s got 3 flavours of fun.
As you can see above, the first one is a “normal” tweet. The second is a “reply” and is colored in green, and the third is an imported tweet from Twitter, colored in blue.
This way, you can easily identify the source and the purpose of the tweet visually.
There are also buttons to reply, delete your tweet, grab the permalink, and make the tweet a “favorite”.
In addition, looking to the right, there’s a little yellow arrow. This means that the user has uploaded a file with their tweet and you can download it by clicking the arrow.
A user can upload a file with the handy-dandy uploader under the typical update box. Sweet. Can Twitter do that? Nope. (But Pownce and a billion others can…)
You can change the background of your profile page as well with a cool image or wallpaper… and you can change a number of other configurations, the most important one being integration with Twitter!
But one of the coolest things that Gospelr has is that it auto-refreshes the page… so you don’t have to.
Finally, you’ll see there are a few small things like floating boxes if you hover your mouse over other people’s avatar… WordPress Plugins for your personal blog (coming soon!), Jabber support (coming soon!), and some other neat stuff.
Gotta dig the floating…
But best of all (and this is pretty much my biggest win) is getting API source parameter approval from Twitter for Gospelr.
…
All that means is that when you use applications like TweetDeck or visit Twitter you’ll see the way-cool “from Gospelr.com”
Ok.
So that’s the skinny and the 411.
Sign up, stay tuned for more info, and spread the Good News (and the lowercase “good news” about Gospelr!)
Nice work dude. You definitely inspire me to do more personal projects of my own.
@Adrian – Thanks for your comp proposal! I’d like to actually talk to you more about potentially building new templates for it…
Yes! That’s me signed up
Looking good, John, I’m impressed!
I’m trying hard man, but I’m still not sold. If I were to read a slashdot or techcrunch article on this service, it would probably say:
It’s Twitter. Only with fewer features.
I probably won’t use it for the same reasons I don’t use GodTube.com, or “Praise Guitar”.
Just trying to keep it real. I write web apps too.
peace|dewde
“@Adrian – Thanks for your comp proposal! I’d like to actually talk to you more about potentially building new templates for it…”
You serious dude. Thanks.
This sounds great! It’s inspiring to see you using your gifts and talents for God. Using technology to advance the Kingdom. Right on!
I like it, thanks for the hard work.
What? No iPhone app? And I am not talking about an iPhone web app (there are already too many of those).
I use Twittelator, so I may not be on here at all.
PS
Twitter plus Twitpic solves the image issue…just for your info.
Double PS
Your site is nice, but you need to differentiate yourself more somehow. Why not incorporate Seesmic within the tweets? Just a thought…
Holy crap dude I didn’t think you’d *actually* get a TC write-up. And they didn’t blast you really. Guess they’re leaving that to Giz…
peace|dewde
http://dewde.com
I’m not sold and will not be using it. Not only that, I signed up, just so no one would use my name, and it won’t even let me access the account. So you fail on that note. I wrote a blog post on you and why I think you are shaming Christs purpose here on earth.
http://www.3amjosh.com
@3amjosh – I wrote a reply on your blog.
For some reason, the confirmation click to confirm my account isn’t working and is invalid. I don’t want someone else to be able to access my 3amjosh name on gospelr one day so not sure what is up.
I’d love to chat sometimes, and also commented back on your comment on my blog.
Hit me up on twitter with your gtalk or aim.
Again, I see your purpose and mindset with this, but have very strong views what are calling is.
If anyone read my previous blog entry I beg you go back and read the new one with my apology and thoughts on it in a more loving way. Sorry to anyone who read it and saw me being who I try my best not to! http://www.3amjosh.com
when I try to change the avatar or the background image – it doesn’t change …
Now this is what I call cool + awesome mixxed together.
This is ridiculous. Why clone an existing service and just change the demographic? Will that get you anywhere as a service?
And why would Christians want to hang out in a separate place? Aren’t we supposed to be “in the world”.
Somehow you got TC to only be sarcastic and not downright mean about your launch though.
I love how people have such strong negative opinions.
Jesus seemed to attract those negative opinions as well…
Does Gospelr.com have an API of it’s own? If so, is it similar to Jisko.net’s API?
Nm. Found it.
Hehe. Great. Would love for you to dev something…!
I tried to register the name iemergingchurch and it tells me the name is either longer than 15 characters or is invalid. It is exactly 15 characters. Please advise….
Once registered, how do I sync with Twitter?
Thanks…
Fred
Hey brotha.. just wanted to apologize for judging this service when first announced.. I should have followed my conscience and realized that you were doing something to honor God.. my bad and thanks for shining the light.
God Bless,
Tom
My GospelR account doesn't appear to be reading any tweets of people I am following on Twitter. It sends my GospelR tweets out on Twitter just fine, but I'm still having to check Twitter to catch up on Twitter tweets. Am I doing something wrong?
just email me your account name. and i can do it.
I would please like to know how to delete my account with Gospelr.
Not that I don't think it's a GREAT idea to expand the Kingdom, but I really really don't have time to be in it
Blessings!
Chris, did you find the Gospelr API? I know the service uses Jisko, but I can't find any API docs specific to gospelr…
Just happened to find this… Not sure even how. But this is great. Led me to Jisko too which I did not even know it existed. Hats off to you John .. you are leading the way in bringing web 2.0 to the ministry. Wow… so many things running through my tired little brain right now… the possibilities for Christ and His Kingdom are endless.
I posted here a while ago, I come back now and then to read any new articles
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