In light of some of our discussions about the isolation that comes with modern life, especially for people outside the workforce, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some folks who are doing something about it.
One great example is that of the website Faith and Family Live!, the online arm of Faith & Family magazine. For those of you who aren’t already regular readers, it’s a website for Catholic women with the specific goal of building up a sense of community among the readers. Many sites offer helpful information, but Faith and Family Live! takes it step further by encouraging readers to get to know both the authors and one another on a personal level. I’ve been in the web development business for over 10 years and have rarely seen a site that does as good of a job of creating a virtual community, so I wanted to take a closer look at what they’re doing right:
Good design: Poor design can be a roadblock to gaining traction on the internet, especially if your goal is to get readers to interact. A few things that FFL does well in this department are:
- Threaded comments: This design component allows commenters to interact with one another, making it clear through levels of indentation when one person is replying to another.
- No roadblocks to commenting: Requiring special registration drastically reduces the level of user interactivity on a site; FFL requires only name and email address to leave a comment.
- Pictures of authors: Readers feel more bought in to a site when they can put faces to the names of the people producing its content, so prominently-placed author photos are important.
The right tone: Editorial Director Danielle Bean says that her goal is for the site to be “a healthy balance between practical and spiritual topics—everything that runs through a Catholic woman’s head in the course of her day is fair game.” It’s important for a site that wants to build a sense of community to consider this kind of thing carefully: Content that’s too stiff and formal could make it seem inaccessible to readers, whereas a tone that’s too casual could make it seem unprofessional and not worth the time to read. Faith and Family Live! strikes the right balance between having quality content that’s still informal enough to be accessible and inviting.
User-generated content: One of the most popular features at FFL is their daily Coffee Talk post. The editors choose a general subject (e.g. Education, Parenting, Natural Family Planning, etc.), and then readers are invited to talk about whatever is on their minds in that department. These posts often lead to lively discussions in which the site’s editors, authors, and readers all get to know one another better.
Interactive podcasts: FFL also produces a weekly podcast. Like the rest of their content, it strikes the right balance of being professional yet informal, and—most important in terms of building a sense of community—they feature a phone number that anyone can call throughout the week to share their thoughts to be aired in that week’s episode.
In-person events: Earlier this year, FFL put together an event in the Boston area that all their readers were invited to attend. I was there, and it was wonderful. There was an instant sense of connection among the attendees, since we’d all been coming together in the virtual world for years. It was hard for the organizers to move from one event to the next because so many lively conversations were going on, with women exchanging phone numbers and email addresses to keep in touch with one another. People who weren’t able to make it were invited to join in through live video feeds and real-time social media updates. The event was an excellent way to take FFL’s already strong sense of community to the next level.
Obviously the online world will never be a perfect substitute for real-life communities, but it can go a long way toward decreasing people’s sense of isolation. I encourage other Catholic organizations to study the Faith and Family Live! model as an example of uniting the body of Christ through new technology. And I encourage everyone, especially women, to keep the site bookmarked as a source of daily encouragement and inspiration. In the words of Danielle Bean: “We invite you to pray, laugh, cry, and share the good and the bad right along with us. We hope that you will join us as we work toward building a Christ-centered community where we can encourage and support one another in the joyful, challenging, important work of Catholic living.”
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Cool! Another amazing online Catholic community is at the phatmass.com “Phorum”. http://www.phatmass.com
I LOVE FFL but I do think the commenting system is cumbersome. One’s post doesn’t always end up where one tried to put it and because of the way things are posted daily, almost no one goes back to the previous day’s post so if I want a lot of help I need to post in the morning or early afternoon. But it’s an amazing site and I LOVE coffee talk. I love how balanced Danielle and most of the commenters on the site are. So faithful and practical! I’ve definitely been supported on that site to the point of having tears run down my face. God bless them!
I, too, love FFL. It has been a wonderful ‘community’ to keep in touch with. I love the writers, topics and the sharing that happens there. (It is hard to find Catholic support for families in our small town.) Keep up the good work.
I too like the articles, but like “A fan” I have trouble with the comments part. I end up not bothering with posting a comment because I can not seem to navigate it properly. I would love to be able to communicate with Catholics if this were easier to do.
I have mentioned it before to others. Where is the manly Catholic equivalent. I agree FFL is a great gorgeous site, but the topics it seems to cover are geared to women. This is a great thing of course, women have different interests, struggles, etc. than men.
Where is the website that features Catholic manliness with topics like “Best barbeque in Texas without the having to risk your purity?” or “Black Star Brewery: Cooperatives that Ferment Friendship” and “Top Ten Trappist Ales.” Other topics could be leadership skills to teach your children, how to evangelize your co-workers without risking your job or coming off as some fanatic, inviting your buds to confession, what is Catholic fatherhood, 10 Great Catholic Football coaches, etc.
I am thinking of sites that also, like stated above and FFL is a good example, mix the practical with the orthodox.
Jared, the phatmass.com/phorum has a “Catholic Beer Reviews” section. Also, there is a section for “Raising Small Humans”, although, admittedly, it is mostly women in that section. haha
thank you Jen, I hope you bring a lot of people to FFL! I love them. They give me so much support, and yes, the very best thing is the perfect mix of the practical and spiritual. I am also wondering where a similar website for men can be found? I get so much support from places like FFL, I wish my husband had the same thing. It seems like most Catholic men’s websites are too abstract or theological or political, and not enough about the challenges of everyday life as a man, husband, and father. I am looking forward to hearing any suggestions!
I agree with Jared. With a title like, “Faith and Family” one might logically assume that Family has a MAN in it somewhere and there might be some articles of interest to THE WHOLE FAMILY?
It’s not like there are a dearth of male Catholic writers out there…. why don’t you include this aspect?
In fact I subscribed to the magazine but didn’t renew it due to that fact (and the very high cost). But I would pay more and renew if there were some articles written by men.
I otherwise do enjoy it anyway.
There is of course The Art of Manliness, though that is obviously not a Christian publication per se. I agree that it would be great to see a Catholic website for men. There’s gotta be one out there somewhere…
I enjoy GraceHope. It’s like a Christian Facebook. you can leave inspirational messages, prayer requests and give praise. Probably the most positive commmunity site on the WWW!
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