Is NLD's direction still headed towards the mission statement of being a community spreading the gospel through creativity?

This is a good question and I am sure there are diverse opinions out on the direction of NLD. Since you posted the poll there must be some doubt or confusion what NLD's direction is. We would like to hear some specific ideas. So feel free to fire away. Unfortunately long periods of inactivity on the site do not do much to spread the gospel or anything else.

I voted maybe. I think the community part is there, at least among those who participate in conversation. The sharing the gospel through creativity seems to be sporadic at best. If this is the purpose of NLD, how do we encourage more people to share their talent? And should discussions be limited to only certain things? Lately there seems to mostly be conversation about political topics, book reviews, and Bible studies. I would love to see more posting of music, poetry, art, etc.

I voted maybe.  I think that the way NLD is headed is good, and I think it is in line with the goals that we've had, but I'm not sure I completely agree with how you've defined the goal here.  I think the primary emphasis is on community.  Obviously the core group of us are interested in sharing our experience with Jesus, but not only that -- we are also interested in the experiences of others.  I think what we have experinced recently is the growth of a community.  Like any community we have our personal interests, we have conflicts, we have resolutions, but perhaps most importantly of all, we have fun and appreciate each other.

I think the concern that has been brewing about NLD's "direction" has to do more with the site presentation than what is happening on it (like political discussion showing up on the front page.)  Many of you may not be aware, but I continue to be unemployed, so I am studying how we can improve NoLessDays.org for an official launch.  I think our focus should be on how we can retool our site to be attractive and easy to use, while continuing to support the community that we have already grown.

I am interested to see what the outcome of this poll is.  Thank you for posting it.  I will be posting a new forum topic in regard to site developement.  The more input we get, the better NoLessDays.org will be.

Please vote!  Voting is anonymous.  Some of us have chosen to reveal our votes while explaining our position.  An explanation is helpful, but again, voting is ANONYMOUS.

I don't think the site is spreading the gospel thru creativity (wholly).  That does not mean it is not good.  I enjoy the political discussions and usually come away with some good things to digest.  There is some sharing and spreading of the gospel but that is apparently not the whole makeup of the site.  I enjoy learning about inspirational music or hearing of someone's experiences and I also enjoy being able to stay connected to family and friends.  I am not sure what the answer is.  Maybe this site should be only about spreading the gospel thru creativity.  But I think it would be nice to have a site where we can all come together and just discuss whatever we want to discuss.  It is the sharing of ideas religious, political, or whatever that I enjoy.  So, I have not provided anything in the way of suggestions.  Just my feelings.  But I voted no.  It does not seem to be what it was originially intended to be.

I don't think that NLD's current direction is in line with its mission statement, its name or its look/feel. That said, I agree with the rest of you that it has managed to promote community within the Williams' family...it doesn't seem to go beyond the family, though. I think this opportunity to keep in touch with each other and dialogue about pertinent topics is important as well as interesting. What I'm not sure is whether we'd be more honest if we changed our mission statement, our name, and it's look/feel to match what it is becoming. Adam and I have both considered posting our blogs at another location in order to feel more comfortable directing our friends there. Again, not that I think, what we have been doing is wrong, just that the people we meet have a certain expectation for NLD based on what we tell them, but when they get there it is something else entirely.

Can you articulate what this expectation is?

I also voted "no" to the question.  BUT, like the others said I don't think that what No Less Days has become is a bad thing in anyway.  I think it's great that it is keeping people connected and communicating.  What I think has happened is that those who most frequent "No Less Days" are very interested in politics and other subjects and so naturally enjoy dialoguing about those things.  I think part of the problem is that more of us haven't been contributing to the site in other ways (myself included).  Unfortunately, many of the people who would possibly be able to contribute artistically might be turned off by the political talk. 

 Your last sentenence is exactly what I meant in the beginning... those that might contribute would be turned off.... I recently had a college friend take a peek around the site,... he felt it was rather confusing, as I directed him to Nathan's initial post and those following, he said that he read that first, felt it was a politically based site, and was frankly surprised when he hit the home page and read the mission. 

Basically, I think the expectation is what the mission statement talks about. At least that's what we initially told people to expect. Then later, we started giving the site out as way for friends and acquaintances to keep track of what we were doing in El Salvador. It seemed that the site was becoming a place for missionary blogs. Then later if we told people about the site, we began to tell them that it was really a family site that dealt mostly in politics. Now, I really don't tell anyone.

Thank you.  This is helpful.  I will be posting a forum topic about future direction soon.

I couldn't figure out how to vote, but I actually have heard the gospel the majority of times that I've been on here. To put a percentage, I would estimate ~80% of the time. I agree that it was initially confusing to navigate for me, but I was so pleasantly surprised to happen upon a DIVERSE set of conversations. Once I figured out how to navigate a bit, I felt it was easy enough to skip topics that weren't interesting to me or weren't what I was looking for. I hadn't gotten the impression that any one thing dominated the site. That said, I haven't been on here for a few months, so things may have changed. I am REALLY excited about the forums idea. I think that will improve the navigation and help keep the purpose and options more at the forefront of our minds. I must admit that I get lazy and just like to read what other people write...whether it be Adam and Crissy's blogs, Somer's thoughts on relationships, Shannon's recipes or Christopher and Ron's political stuff. The fact that this community is made up of people who passionately believe and love God results in the gospel coming out through even "everyday" type conversations. But I think I should participate in a way to support NLD's mission more so and am going to make it more a part of my life.

Christina

Thank you for the input, bzealous; I am glad you've found our community encouraging.  We do have a nice little community here, with a fair bit of diversity.  In addition, there are a number of members (and visitors), like yourself, who post infrequently, but enjoy perusing the site.  It's encouraging to hear an "outsider's" thoughts.  Thank you.

By the way, the poll had closed, hence the reason for not being able to vote.  Thanks for trying though!