Member Profile Pages on new.mormon.org

Can someone explain when and why the Church wants member profile pages on new.mormon.org?

I suggested something like this back in December 2009 on the LDS Tech Wiki -- see the Social Media Missionary discussion page. My suggestion was met with some UNDERSTANDABLE concerns, but then the discussion stopped. Then all of the sudden I see the make a mormon.org profile Facebook group.

Who is Tyler Ames? (The Facebook group creator.)

I have no idea who he is.

Does it matter who Tyler Ames is? It looks like the web site is an official church site. Can you verify this? I typed new.mormon.org and was taken to: http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/new-mormon-org
If it is not official, then this is probably a phishing scam and should be shut down immediately.

Given that the domain in question is mormon.org, it's going to the church.

I'm scratching my head over the facebook page, but that's a different story.

rketcheson wrote:Does it matter who Tyler Ames is? It looks like the web site is an official church site. Can you verify this?

That's why it was asked who Tyler Ames is, just one more way to try and validate the officialness of the site/group.

This thread deals with a question about profiles on mormon.org:

hung wrote:Can someone explain when and why the Church wants member profile pages on new.mormon.org?

For some reason I don't quite understand, the responses have all dealt with an offhand comment about a Facebook group in the original post:

hung wrote:Then all of the sudden I see the make a mormon.org profile Facebook group.

I really don't care about the Facebook group; anyone can make a Facebook group, and someone chose to make a group encouraging people to make a profile. That's a side issue; the question of who Tyler Ames is (one of hundreds of millions of Facebook users, who just happened to start a group) has nothing to do with the validity of the request on new.mormon.org (an official Church site) for members to add profiles.

So back to the original question, it seems to me that the http://new.mormon.org page answers the questions that are posed.

1. When? "Our goal is to have 1,000 profiles of Mormons by the end of May 2010."
2. Why? "The new Mormon.org is designed for visitors to learn more about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each profile is a collection of stories and testimonies from Mormons."

To give some guidance, they have even posted a sample profile page.

Alan_Brown wrote:This thread deals with a question about profiles on mormon.org:
...
So back to the original question, it seems to me that the http://new.mormon.org page answers the questions that are posed.

1. When? "Our goal is to have 1,000 profiles of Mormons by the end of May 2010."
2. Why? "The new Mormon.org is designed for visitors to learn more about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each profile is a collection of stories and testimonies from Mormons."

To give some guidance, they have even posted a sample profile page.

Since the domain was simply mormon.org, I went ahead and logged in with my LDS account. I get a profile page with this text in a box at the top:

Welcome

Thank you for your sharing your stories and testimony to those seeking the Gospel. We know that your efforts here will bring "Light to the world". You can start creating your profile by filling out the sections below. Remember, visitors to Mormon.org will be new to principles of the Gospel so please keep the stories conversational and the language simple. Here are some other helpful tips as you're creating your profile:

• Your answers should be in harmony with Church doctrine.
• Please use appropriate language.
• Keep the voice and tone simple, relaxed, informative and encouraging.
• Do not divulge personal information, either about you or someone else.

Followed by text that says "Hi, I'm Matthew" followed by "I'm a Mormon." and places to fill in a profile matching the one pointed to by Alan_Brown. (I hope everyone likes their first given name. )

Just for fun, I tried the "Moderators: Sign in" link below the big "Sign In" button and get this message

Sorry!

It looks like you don't have access to this part of Mormon.org. Only assigned moderators are given access here. If you think this is a mistake, please contact your supervisor or the Missionary Department. Thank you

The URLs are all lds.org or mormon.org, so this looks legitimate.

Now how to decide to make my story interesting in any way.

Take a look at the lds.org homepage. It now has:

"Visit New Mormon.org, Create Profile

Get a sneak peek at the new mormon.org and create your missionary profile—the exciting new way to share the gospel."


So, I guess this is legit.

Yes this is legit, there's a post late today on ldsmediatalk.org which is a blog site run by several people at HQ.

I'm also noticing that there will be other features down the line, but the basic profiles are what is up first. That makes good sense to get the basics up in this case first.

But I've come across a glitch, when you sign in, it also shows your middle name on the profile, but not a last name. I'm sure they just mean to have your given name, but many who have a middle name are going to notice this particular glitch. What was'is the format intended to be with names on the page.

And as far as Facebook, etc., there are share buttons planned for the profiles. The sample shows buttons just below the name but closer to the first bullet point.

A quick start guide to the profiles would be helpful, not just the guidelines posted, to help people get started with them so that when the site goes live the vast majority of users have what they want on them fully fleshed out or as good as they can get them already in the profiles at that time, so this will be the success it can be, I've seen previous types of implementation that fall flat on some other sites, so having as much good material as possible when going live is going to make a good impression on those coming across pages on the profiles area.

So i filled out the profile part and it says "Almost done". Like what does that mean? I filled out everything I think they wanted me to fill out when is the more that needs to be done?

cam wrote:So i filled out the profile part and it says "Almost done". Like what does that mean? I filled out everything I think they wanted me to fill out when is the more that needs to be done?

The sentences right under "Almost done!" say this:

In order to make your profile available to the public, you will need to fill out each section of your profile (Picture, Name and Introduction, About Me, Why I'm Mormon, How I Live My Faith, and Additional Information) and answer at least one question under Frequently Asked Questions and Personal Stories. Linking to social networks is optional.

Have you fulfilled all of the requirements?

Is the access to new Mormon.org related to country IP codes (can be accessed only inside USA)? I ask it because when I try to login, I receive this message only:

mkmurray wrote:The sentences right under "Almost done!" say this:

Have you fulfilled all of the requirements?

Well that is the thing. I think I have and it still says "Almost done" I have answered several questions now and filled in the other portions. I am wondering if its done when they put it up online in the summertime? or possibly a glitch?

Possibly a glitch. I completed my profile last week and it said that it was complete, I even had a couple of notes from a moderator to change spelling/clarify something. Since I've made the corrections it's said 'Almost done'. I guess I'll just sit tight for the time being.

MorettiDP wrote:Is the access to new Mormon.org related to country IP codes (can be accessed only inside USA)? I ask it because when I try to login, I receive this message only:

Internal Server Error

The server has encountered an error. Please contact the site administrator.

I know only English speaking people can be added by now, but can't be made a profile by outside USA English speakers?

I am having the same issue. I'm in Denmark.