Loading...This is a good time for some feedback from you, the members of the blog!
We are very pleased with the roll-out of the new blog site, and hope you are as well. The user experience appears to be much improved (or so it seems to us, and that is what we are hearing from you as well). And yet it is still the same approach and format, with posts on a wide range of topics dealing with the New Testament and Early Christianity appearing five times a week, and readers (at the silver level and above) able to make comments and receive replies. On Jan. 1 we will move from our crisis-inspired-trial offer of giving all bronze memberships privileges of silver. At whatever level you are now, when your current subscription ends, you can choose to move to whichever level most suits you and your needs.
We received excellent feedback at the outset of the launch and have been able to tweak lots of things as a result. There are still things we are working on from our end to improve what we can provide. But what would *you* like? Now is a good time for us to request additional feedback. Are there things that are not working as well as they should? Are their some obvious or not-so-obvious improvements we could make? What could we add, remove, or change to make the blog better?
Just append a comment to let us know, or if you’d prefer, contact Support directly: [email protected]
As you know, the blog is designed to provide as much scholarly information about the literature and history of early Christianity as possible, in ways that are accessible and intriguing for general readers. It is also designed to raise money for charity. We hope we are doing well meeting your interests; and we are pleased that we are doing so well helping these in need. But we can always do much better. Let us know how!
Very nice.
It’s still difficult to gift a subscription when you have to refer to a FAQ or something…
I sent an example of a hockey writer who offers gift subscriptions with a big red button on every article.
It goes directly to a payment page and can be done literally in seconds.
But, it may be me as well…
I’m pretty dumb about these things but it’s good to have dumb people interested in these topics too
Thats a good sign ha
Thanks. I’ll look into that!
You should consider advertising your blog using Google ads, Facebook ads, etc.
Thanks!
If I may prof: I know raising funds for the needy is a major objective of the blog, and, thus far the blog has been excellent in meeting that objective. Nonetheless, please, no ads.
I retreat to this blog daily because I consider it a safe space away from the “noise” of the web. Far too many web pages now include some kind of an advertising applet churning away at my cpu cycles, chewing up bandwidth, and getting in the way of the information for which I seek.
Before you turn to ads, I’d prefer you offer some other metallic subscription level free of ads; I’m willing to pay for quietude.
Just my 2c.
BTW: the new site is ‘aight.’ Again, I’m averse to “noise” and distractions, favour function over form, and choice over compulsion; so, all this new stuff is ok.
Never fear. There ain’t gonna be no adds on this side, come hell or high water.
I meant not ads on the blog itself but using ads like Facebook ads or Google ads on other platforms that point people to the blog.
Ah, thanks.
Hey Dr Ehrman, in your debate with Dr White, you claimed that Origen believed all text variants were inspired. Do you have a source for this? Is this common knowledge?
Thanks
Yes, Origen does talk about that — but I’d have to dig around to find the references. If you’re interested you may want to track down Bruce Metzger’s article on Explicit References in the Works of Origen to Textual Variations in the New Tesatment.
I think the blog is awesome. It was very good before the recent changes and now it is much more professional looking, more polished and neatly formatted. I have yet to encounter a problem.
I was struggling to use inclusive language this week and very proud to use “pregnant person” instead of “pregnant woman” and “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” when someone pointed out that the overall discourse was nonsensical, and I realized: what a waste of inclusion!
Anyway, I would suggest, instead of using the term “member” of the blog, the word: “phenotypical participant” of the blog.
My second suggestion is to add a “debunk” article, maybe weekly, very short and dense, on theories or myths, or fake news or something like the equivalent of “chemtrails” in your studies. (1)
The third one would be like Gurdjieff’s “Meetings with Remarkable Men” a short kind of article with a Bio of people who you debated or met.
The fourth. You should invite more ex-students to explain what they are doing. For instance, Kim Haines-Eitzen (2), talking about noise or the Negev and Judean Desert Sounds.
The fifth. Arrange some articles as a dialogue between two persons. Couples at home could recite the two characters. Also would be fabulous on podcasts.
(1) The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml5H7CET-LM
(2) https://ehrmanblog.org/why-scribes-changed-their-manuscripts/
Ah, right. Inclusive language is very important, I think. Exclusivity is what leads to oppression (historically beyond doubt!). But I like your other suggestions!
Like the new format, especially the current posts titles listed on the right side of the one I am currently reading. Would be nice if I could logout from any page. Thx
Thanks!
Is there any way that the blog could be converted into an app? It would make the gold mine of scholarly material on the New Testament and Early Christianity that much more accessible. Just a thought.
We’re looking into it!
Great new look to the blog!
It looks like the membership prices have increased significantly since the new blog was launched.
Previously, we received all the “Silver” membership level benefits for $24.95. I understand this is now going to cost $39.95 upon renewal, which is an increase of nearly 40%. I value the comments that other people write, but don’t have a lot of time to make comments or ask questions. I guess I would like to continue to read comments on every blog post at the bronze level where the membership fee is more affordable at $29.95.
I would hope that the increased membership fees don’t impact on the ability to grow the blog and to make voluntary donations to the charities that the blog supports.
Yeah, sorry ’bout that. If you look at the “Join” page you’ll see that because of the Covid crisis we introduced two introductory offers, at the same time: we started all bronze members at the silver level and lowered the bronze price to the pre-new-blog-site level — all through the end of December. I tried to be completely up front about it, both on that page an in posts that I made about it. Sorry if you were blind-sided. Most people (the vast majority) don’t make comments, and so for them it is not a big deal: they will stay Bronze. We have organized the tiers so that those who get more benefits will pay a bit more for them — in this case, from Bronze to Silver is about 20 cents more a week. The bronze level is going up simply because we have kept our prices at the 2012 level (we’ve never changed them) and thought that since there was so much more available now — among other things, well over 2000 posts in the archives — not to take into account inflation, that it was probably time. I hope it’s not too much of an inconvenience. but thanks for bringing it up.
The fonts in the forum are incredibly small for old foges like me.
Thanks. I’ll look into it.
Put the blog behind a CDN (like Cloudflare) to make it faster or let me do it. They have a free tier..
Thanks. I’ll look into it.
All modern web browsers provide many tools for displaying web pages to suit many individual tastes and requirements from simple text fonts size to general font size ranges to the actual font itself. Add to this more global aspects like “dark mode” and the options are enormous. If my eyes are tired, for example, on my Safari browser, I highlight the blog entry I am interested in and have the computer “read” it to me.
Rather than spend time on this (perhaps just a FAQ that members could write and submit — not forgetting that technology changes relentlessly in the tech world and this FAQ would need it’s own ongoing maintenance) your time is much better spent doing the things that bring people to the blog in the first place — your writing!
Yes, I try to! Thanks,
The links on the “Recent Posts” do not change color after you visit a page. I believe that the did on the older version of the blog. Regardless, I don’t get here every day, so it is a helpful reminder as to which blog entries I have looked at, and which I have not.
Thanks. I’ll look into it.
That is more or less a browser issue, however, your blog does indeed change the colour of the text for visited links. If someone, for example, browses anonymously the browser does not know what links have been visited.
Hello, from Suffolk England, Bart . I first came across your blog about a year ago shortly after ‘ leaving the faith ‘ which had been the foundation of my life for over 50 years . Leaving it behind was, as you and many of the bloggers know , very tough . My question to a friend was ‘if I can’t believe in God what do I do with Jesus ? ‘ The blog, which I find stimulating, informative and accessible has helped me answer that question, as have many of your books Bart . Thank you is scarcely enough for all your time and effort . The blog has helped maintain my sanity for so little financial cost and yet overall has raised so much for charity – as you say it’s a win win !
Thanks! Ah, so *you’re* the person on the blog interested in early Christianity. 🙂 My mother-in-law lives in Suffolk (Woodbridge). Fantastic part of the world. Not that I’m seeing *any* part of the world just now….
As a new subscriber I am delighted to have access to so much great material, thank you for that. However it would help new members like me to read through past posts in chronological order but I have not found a way of doing so. Would it be possible to add a simple sort facility to the Categories and Archives?
Ah, good question. If you go to any post (take today’s!) and go to the right column, “Recent Posts” and scroll to the bottom of it, you’ll see that you can search the entire archives by category or by the date (month by month) OR receive a list of the entire archive (Full Blog List Archive). Click that, and you’ve got it!
Thanks for that but when you select a Category, the posts are presented with the most recent first. I would like to be able to switch to list the earliest first and thus read the subject from beginning to end without having to scroll down to the end and work back up the posts. A minor point but I think it would be a useful tweak.
Can’t you just go directly to the end and scroll the other way? (Would a Control-End do it?)
Yes, that is the only way but when there are lots of posts, sometimes several hundred, to scroll down it is a pain. I like to browse the blog on my iPad so Ctrl End is not an option.
Got it. Are you suggesting we have a way of just clicking a button so that instead of beginning to end it goes to end to beginning (starting with oldest first)? I’ll look into it.
Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind. Many thanks for considering it.
The new design is nice. Makes the blog more readable. In fact, my only complaint is a pre-existing one: the regularity with which I’m required to log back in.
I’ve never heard that problem before. I’ll look into the reason for doing it that way.
Can we get an animation at the top of the screen showing Bart in shining armor and on a horse, riding down mythicists and fundamentalists?
No animation needed. Just film it.
Some other blogs I comment on have a “recent comment” feed somewhere to see where people are having conversations. Might be nice for this one too
Interesting idea. Thanks. (Do you know about the Forum, by the way: that is set up for that kind of thing, without Big Daddy (me) looking over anyone’s shoulder0
Thank you, Dr Ehrman, for all the hard work you do to make this blog such a joy. I have no complaints, just praise and, if it’s not going too far, I would say that you have done more to stimulate interest in early Christianity than anyone since, well, St Paul. And btw I thought Astakask’s suggestion was just brilliant ?. PS there’s a story in the British press about some of Charles Darwin’s notes going missing from Cambridge University Library. Thinking back to your post on the Dirk Obbink controversy, do you think the Hobby Lobby people could have acquired the notes in order to burn them? ?
Thanks, but uh, no… 🙂 As to Obbink, no, not at all. One of my good friends was the instrumental player for Hobby Lobby, and nope, I’d say no way.
Hello Bart, this might be as a good an opportunity to mention that I am thinking about becoming a book reviewer. I have been influenced by such internet personalities as James Rolfe and Doug Walker, the former reviews video games and the latter movies. I was thinking about become a book critic, the ISBN (Incredulous Scottish Book Nerd).
My idea is that this Nerd is on a quest of intellectual discovery. He reads books whose findings end up challenging his preconceived notions (the humour would come in his reactions to certain passages in books that shatter his worldview). But with each book he becomes more knowledgeable about the world around him.
For example, when it comes to your books on the historical Jesus, the evolution of Christianity in its early stages, how the Bible explains suffering, and how the Bible has been altered (either unintentionally or intentionally). That could be a source of comedy, the ISBN is very religious and so some of the findings take him aback.
Good luck with it!
I like the site visually, but just noticed that the RSS feed appears to have issues. I use InoReader and it’s reporting timeout issues.
Thanks. I’ll look into it.
Appears fixed. Thanks!
I’m satisfied with the design overall.
The one change I’d suggest would be moving the navigation widget [““] from beneath the current post to the top of the page, above the star rating. That would save repeated scrolling when moving a few posts at a time.
I love the new format and (for me) the text is bigger, not smaller. Easier to get to new posts; love being able to hover over citation and see the text. Thanks.
It would be useful if in the select by category section if there was a way to just have a list of posts by category rather than having to scroll through so many pages of posts with their descriptions to find a post I am interested in. That way I could follow the posts by thread more easily.
Are you saying that there could be a list of posts just by the title (when you click on one of the categories), without the beginning paragraphs for each one?
I like the layout. I just had a very difficult time logging in after having no problem for years. I was missing the blog. Finally I got down to sending a message with my problem and it was resolved. Happy to see it again!