Sites that I recently found

I recently found a couple of official websites that I have not seen elsewhere. I have not seen these linked or talked about anywhere and are all copyrighted this year. I do not even remember how I ran into them.

• http://GordonBHinckley.org
• http://ThomasSMonson.org

These are besides the other domains that we all know and love (probably more exists, but these are the other ones that come to mind).

• http://LDS.org (Jesus Christ, Scriptures, Newsroom, tech forum, etc.)
• http://FamilySearch.org (Priesthood, Consultant, new version, pilot labs, beta wiki, http://LDS.NetDimensions.com, etc.)
• http://ProvidentLiving.org, http://ItsAboutLove.org
• http://Mormon.org
• http://LDSCatalog.com
• http://DesNews.com/cn

If I missed any others, please feel free to post. I enjoy these sites.

Thomas_Lerman wrote:I recently found a couple of official websites that I have not seen elsewhere. I have not seen these linked or talked about anywhere and are all copyrighted this year. I do not even remember how I ran into them.

• http://GordonBHinckley.org
• http://ThomasSMonson.org

You're fairly new to this forum. The sites for President Hinckley and President Monson were publicized right here on good 'ol LDS Tech over a month ago at http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=995.

But I would certainly agree that it is a bit surprising that there is no good linkage from lds.org to these sites (at least nothing I could find). They are linked to from places like lds.about.com and a variety of blogs, but nothing official that I can see.

You are right, less than a week. Thank you for the link to the other thread.

Not new, but other ones. Is it okay to list these all out? I just find they have some great resources.
http://LDSCES.org
http://JosephSmith.net

Thomas_Lerman wrote:Not new, but other ones. Is it okay to list these all out? I just find they have some great resources.
http://LDSCES.org
http://JosephSmith.net

Yes, absolutely! Thanks for doing so!

Tom

Another one that I found from another posting:
http://familysearchsupport.org/

Another one that I ran into, I believe through a posting or newspaper: http://www.JosephSmithPapers.org

There is also a new Research Forum with a Support forum for the WIKI.

http://familysearchsupport.org/vbb/index.php

Others that I ran into:
http://www.LDSMediaTalk.com
http://www.LDS.net
http://NorthTemple.com
http://Mormon-Blogs.com
http://www.MoreGoodFoundation.com
Actually, it does not look like any of these are actually church sites.

With the recent emphasis on cyber missionary work by Elder Ballard, I'm curious to know if an official website specifically for online missionary work is in the works. Does anyone know?

LDS1dotOrg wrote:With the recent emphasis on cyber missionary work by Elder Ballard, I'm curious to know if an official website specifically for online missionary work is in the works. Does anyone know?

I believe mormon.org is filling that role. It has a very nice layout of our basic beliefs and a place to ask questions to a live missionary online.

Mikerowaved wrote:I believe mormon.org is filling that role. It has a very nice layout of our basic beliefs and a place to ask questions to a live missionary online.

This is correct. Mormon.org is "owned" by the missionary department of the Church.

Tom

Mikerowaved wrote:I believe mormon.org is filling that role. It has a very nice layout of our basic beliefs and a place to ask questions to a live missionary online.

I think this misses the point of Elder Ballard's speech.

The idea wasn't just to support resources created by the Church, but to also create your own sites and participate in other forums in a way that represents the Church well.

Many members have done this already, and I think more will in the future.

It would be nice to see more support from the Church for these sites (off the top of my head: images that can be used without license problems, tools that can be easily added to a website to enhance those websites, and even Church-run websites that allow members to support each other -- exchange links, pass-around materials, promote each other, etc.)

Kent

The following were talked about at the LDS Tech Talks;

http://clerk.lds.org (firewall, filtering of unit sites and other clerk info)
http://maps.lds.org
http://tech.lds.org
Winner of LDS Tech Award (not official site): http://ReturnAndReport.org

Need LDS account, all will use in future
- http://ldsaccount.lds.org
- http://tech.lds.org/volunteer
http://tech.lds.org/wiki
http://tech.lds.org/forum
Jira - issue management (coming soon)
http://tech.lds.org/svn (subversion)
sandbox -> http://labs.lds.org -> http://beta.lds.org -> http://www.lds.org

Thomas, thanks for posting the list of sites from the tech talk.

No problem . . . and another that I found today: http://www.LDSChurchNews.com

Thomas_Lerman wrote:http://www.LDSChurchNews.com

Normally, you have to be a paid subscriber to access the LDS Church News. Every so often they open it up to everyone, such as around conference time and while they solve problems when the account numbers from the Distribution Center get scrambled every now and then. [grin]

And more:
http://www.LDSBSA.org/ - Boy Scouts of America LDS Relations
http://ABrandNewYear.lds.org/ - A youth-oriented website arriving 01 Jan 2009.

lajackson wrote:Normally, you have to be a paid subscriber to access the LDS Church News.

LDS Church News now appears to be an open site with no payment required.

I noticed that some of the Church Family History Sites have not yet been mentioned.

http://forums.familysearchsupport.org/index.php
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Main_Page
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsea ... t.html#p=0
http://labs.familysearch.org/familytree/#start

http://labs.familysearch.org/familysearchblog/
http://labs.familysearch.org/alpha/
http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/home/home.jsf
http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php
[url]https://new.familysearch.org/en/action/unsec/welcome[/URL]

Generally speaking, I was mostly including the higher domain level. In many cases, links exist to at one level to all of the other levels and that is why not every URL is mentioned.

It is really quite exciting as to the web sites the Church is developing.
I've tried to keep up with them on my website:

http://myldslinks.com/official_lds.html

If anybody has any suggestions or comments just let me know.

Howard --

So I take it that from the discussion of this thread, that there are many official sites that represent the church. More than we can identify? Is there an official list? I have recently been a little overwhelmed by the number of sites that I have encountered, that may not necessarily be official sites, even one or two that at first everything looks like it is and from the images you assume that it is, but as you get into it you find that it is anti- ---.

So remind me again how we can know if it is an official site? Even the scholarly,sites that might be good, but not official, how is one to navigate this totally crazy world of information and keep away from the undesirable? How does one check the sources of this article? How does one know if the information on a site is credible?

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:So remind me again how we can know if it is an official site?

Here's the "techy" way:

First, identify the domain. That's the part before the first slash (if any). Cut off everything in front off the second period (counting from the right).

For example (the domain is highlighted in red):

This thread is: tech.lds.org/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=40&p=147010

The domain is lds.org - it's official (although in this case, the information comes primarily from members).



A spoofed example: lds.org.myspace.com

While it has 'lds.org' in the name, that's not the real domain.



If it's not a lds.org or byu.edu, then it we have to look it up at http://internic.com.

To use examples in this thread: www.ChurchHistoryLibrary.org

If we look it up, it belongs to Intellectual Reserve, Inc.; 50 East North Temple Street; Salt Lake City; UT - it's official. That's how the church registers it's property.



Example: myldslinks.com/official_lds.html

Internet doesn't have the information directly, it's registered by tucows. If we use the "whois" at tucows, we find it's registered to "Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0132403512" - a privacy firm that's hiding the real owner. Clearly not official.



Another example: lds.net

It's registered to the "More Good Foundation", 520 TIMPANOGOS PKWY, OREM, UT - not official.



Of course this leaves open the question of how to identify official sites in social media - such as the official lds Facebook page. For that, I'd say you'd have to got to an official web page and see if they tell you what the official social media contact is.

Wow, thank you much Russell, This is pretty tech y for me, but I will study on this a little, and give it some time to sink in and will be that much better off. THANKS AGAIN.

mormon.org is the official online missionary site

Of course this leaves open the question of how to identify official sites in social media - such as the official lds Facebook page. For that, I'd say you'd have to got to an official web page and see if they tell you what the official social media contact is.

I have noticed that can be tricky, sometimes not believable, and mostly frustrating.

Question:
1. If we find sites that are clearly posing to representing the church, but are degrading and defaming the church. What should we do?
2. If we would like an opinion about a site, would it be proper to post it here and ask if people think it a reliable source?
3. I have recently become aware of sites that discuss the church or serve us members in varying ways, including scholarly discussions. could we have a discussion as to how these sites are helpful and how they may cause challenges?

Would these kind of discussions on LDS.Tech be appropriate?

Official Church sites (and official social media channels) always have the official Church logo in a prominent place. Part of the reason that even local units aren't allowed to use the Church logo is to make it easy to identify publications that are produced by Church departments. So, look for the Church logo at the top of the page. The logo is trademarked so if an anti-Mormon or other non-authorized site tries to use the Church logo they can be taken to court.

sbradshaw wrote:Official Church sites (and official social media channels) always have the official Church logo in a prominent place. Part of the reason that even local units aren't allowed to use the Church logo is to make it easy to identify publications that are produced by Church departments. So, look for the Church logo at the top of the page. The logo is trademarked so if an anti-Mormon or other non-authorized site tries to use the Church logo they can be taken to court.

THANK YOU, so it we do find a situation of non-authorized do we have an obligation to report it? Or is the church very much aware of this and have steps to get it corrected? If we get involved are we making things worse?

If you find a website that uses the logo and is not run by the church, and you think the church may be unaware of it, it might be worth dropping an email to copyright people to make them aware of it. Don't get into a long thing, just say "this site doesn't appear to be official but it's using the logo" and let them take it from there. You may or may not get a reply.

Their email can be found in the "Rights and Use Information" link at the bottom of lds.org pages.

hg4144 wrote:It is really quite exciting as to the web sites the Church is developing.
I've tried to keep up with them on my website:

http://myldslinks.com/official_lds.html

If anybody has any suggestions or comments just let me know.

Howard --

Howard, So do you believe that you only have official sites listed on your web site? Do you go through a certain criteria to make sure? Do you also list sites that are sponsored by the church but are not official? Thank you.

It may not be complete, but you can fun a fairly extensive list the wiki.
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Church_Websites

russellhltn wrote:It may not be complete, but you can fun a fairly extensive list the wiki.
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Church_Websites

Wow! wow! wow! I had no idea! This is amazing.

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:Howard, So do you believe that you only have official sites listed on your web site? Do you go through a certain criteria to make sure? Do you also list sites that are sponsored by the church but are not official? Thank you.

That myldslinks.com site is a bad site; I'd advise you to stay away from it. I don't know if it was ever a well-intentioned site, but it certainly isn't now.

aebrown wrote:

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:Howard, So do you believe that you only have official sites listed on your web site? Do you go through a certain criteria to make sure? Do you also list sites that are sponsored by the church but are not official? Thank you.

That myldslinks.com site is a bad site; I'd advise you to stay away from it. I don't know if it was ever a well-intentioned site, but it certainly isn't now.

THANK YOU FOR THE WARNING! Much appreciated.

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:

aebrown wrote:

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:Howard, So do you believe that you only have official sites listed on your web site? Do you go through a certain criteria to make sure? Do you also list sites that are sponsored by the church but are not official? Thank you.

That myldslinks.com site is a bad site; I'd advise you to stay away from it. I don't know if it was ever a well-intentioned site, but it certainly isn't now.

THANK YOU FOR THE WARNING! Much appreciated.

To clarify, the site myldslinks.com isn't "bad" in the sense discussed on this thread – it's just that the link doesn't work because the site doesn't exist anymore. It was posted on the forum 6 years ago, but now it directs to is a standard "this web domain is not being used" filler page.

Here you can see what the site used to be: https://web.archive.org/web/20120309041 ... l_lds.html. I don't think everything on that list is official, but they all seem to be doctrinally sound sites, anyway.

sbradshaw wrote:To clarify, the site myldslinks.com isn't "bad" in the sense discussed on this thread – it's just that the link doesn't work because the site doesn't exist anymore. It was posted on the forum 6 years ago, but now it directs to is a standard "this web domain is not being used" filler page.

Actually, it directs to a very operational site, the value of which the user will need to determine personally.

I was familiar with the other domains but the first two I didn't recognize but I always wondered about stuff like that.