If we could do one thing ...
Posted by Mark Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:30:00 GMT
Everyone has an opinion and we want to hear yours. If we could do one thing to improve eBible.com what would it be. Sure we have a lot of feedback from our recent survey but we want to hear in your own words which area or new feature needs our attention. We are working hard to clean up the whole hosting switch from our own hardware to the Textdrive Accelerators we are now running on. At the same time we are working on some ways to bring in revenue to keep this wonderful resource moving forward at a good pace. But what is the next big thing here at eBible.com?
- make it prettier. aka clean up the design and layout of a lot of the pages
- speed it up. optimize the database calls, javascript and IT issues that slow me down from getting the Word
- add more content. i want more Bible translations and study resources on my eBible
- more study features. i want to go deeper and need better ways to use the study titles you have. add greek/hebrew functionality and more powerful searching, etc.
- interaction and community. can you guys make it easier to study the Bible together as families, small groups, churches, etc. i want profile pages and better note sharing and more social features added
- mobile version. i want to use eBible from my wireless phone or PDA
- fix the bugs. can’t you just focus on fixing the little bugs that are there before adding new features?
- just easier. i just want ebible.com to be easier all around. i want to be able to simply search, copy and paste verses and everything else is getting in the way
- none of the above. the infamous “none of the above” option
This is just some of what we are hearing but we need your help to focus our efforts. Speak up. Add a comment below. If we could do one thing what would it be. One of the above or something else you think will make everyone fall in love with eBible.com that much more? :-)
b. speed it up: optimize the database calls, javascript and IT issues that slow me down from getting the Word.
That is the single thing that would make the biggest improvement to my experience. Thanks for all your work.
j. all of the above?
No, just kidding. This is a big undertaking and you guys are doing a great job for only launching a while ago. I think that e) more community is the most interesting area for sure. I don’t know exactly what this would look like but it sounds like it could make me fall more in love with eBible.com as you put it.
1st priority – Speed 2nd – Read through the Bible via RSS
Here is what I am thinking. The user enters: 1. Translation 2. Number of chapters (or sections would be even better) per day 3. Start date This would generate an RSS feed that could be subscribed to. You would probably want to generate the last 10 days, whenever it is called, so that a user can catch up if he gets behind, but not much more than that in order to conserve bandwidth. If someone (like me) wants to read from two different places everyday, they can subscribe to two different feeds. I was working on something like this a couple months ago but ran into a few problems with the API. If you would rather do this through the API I would be glad to talk to you about going that route too.
b. speed it up.
I’d consider using, and linking others to, eBible once the site is optimized for speed rather than AJAX goodness. For now, I continue to use BibleStudyTools.net for its speed.
Add support for Strong’s numbers to look up the words in the original languages and search that way.
I have a search box on my Found in the Word blog to biblestudytools.net/bible.crosswalk.com that does this. As far as I know, they are the only site online that makes this information available.
They recently redesigned, and some things got better, but other things got worse.
Also, I like your mobile version idea, too. I just got a BlackBerry this month and have been using mobile sites a lot more lately.
Thanks, Tim 10,846 days numberyourdays.com
fix bugs, and make it faster.
I’m not a fan of how I look up a passage, and then i have to click more. I always, want to go to the more view.
some bugs i’ve been noticing lately: adding bookmarks from the scripture view doesn’t work: i have to go to my bookmarks, and add them manually all the commentary stuff seems like a verse off: I have to go one verse up to read the commentary.
otherwise, good stuff =)
This is good stuff everyone. Keep ‘em coming.
First off, let me just say what a wonderful resource this is. I am truly enjoying using this site and have been telling everyone I know what a wonderful job you’ve done here.
As for features… in order of importance for me:
1. E – Interaction & Community 2. C – More Content 3. D – More Study Features
Community is most important for me because of how vital small groups are at my church and in my personal life. I want more ways to be able to connect and share with members of my group so that we can can grow as Christians and in our knowledge of God’s word. Content is important, because I like to have many translations to work with and study from. Lastly, more study features such as the ability to look up the Greek and Hebrew would be excellent for use in fully understanding what God wants me to hear.
Thanks again for all you do!!!
Definitely E:interaction and community.
Our church relies heavily on the small group model of community and I would love to be able to study passages of the Bible with my small groups, and possibly create communities of users from my small groups with profile pages, etc.
It’s so vital to our Christian walk to be able to engage with a community of fellow believers and grow in our walk together!
Man, I find ebible insanely addictive. Being able to parallel passages and stuff is great, and my favourite part are the inlaid commentaries. This site is even more addictive than digg, which is saying something. Great work guys.
I think more bookmark integration would be great and more communal discussion about different passages integrated directly into the main user interface would be great.
MatchWise.com plans to add your tools to its popular Christian dating site. You guys are creating cool stuff and should be congratulated for it. You’re like the Bible Googlers.
Thanks. Dave B. CEO, MatchWise.com