It is nice to see more traffic flowing into the BH Stack Exchange Meta site and to see positive changes occurring. It’s the place to ask “questions about how the websites work, or about policies and community decisions,” which leads me to the following:
There has been some interesting discussion about the value of launching a 4rd Bible-related site, including "Mi Yodeya", (hey, the Bible is important, right?) and a couple of moderators have indicated that they are at least supportive of the idea in principle. There has been robust discussion over the selection of an appropriate name and the definition of the distinct vision for the sister site. Possible solution to frequent question closures, edits, migrations, and mission dilution at Bible Hermeneutics: Floating the idea of a new site
Obviously, there will always be some hesitation about embarking on any new undertaking, but I think that there is some consensus that a different site focused more on Bible applications could reduce frustration over closed questions, endless repetitions, multiple edits, etc. and generate enthusiasm and cooperation among the related sites. Ideally, “other worldly” benefits will also accrue.
Ultimately, the only way to see if a Bible Applications site will fly in Area 51 is to fire up the engines. Worst case scenario, it sputters and we abandon it or we go back to the drawing boards. The way the process works is that we need a few people to follow the proposed site. If you’ve ever been frustrated about a question being closed or have questions that don’t seem to fit the existing sites, now is the time to see if this will solve the problem. Just the other day on one of our sites, I came across a new user complaining about the experience saying he may never post there again. I believe those kinds of complaints can be reduced and certainly should be.
Polyhat is the first to volunteer to help initiate the site, and GratefulDisciple has been helping to define the scope and will contribute when he can, but we need a few more to actively help shape the community from the beginning by asking, answering, and voting on good questions. I can bring in plenty of people that haven’t participated yet on Stack, and I will do that eventually, but I would prefer to have support from this community which understands how SE works and can provide questions that will help distinguish this site from the existing ones.
This should not require a huge time commitment from the community and I certainly don’t want to draw away any users who are already making valuable contributions where they are. I believe that new users coming in will also increase traffic to the existing sites. Questions that fit better on C, BH, or MY would be adjusted and migrated over. The focus and quality of the questions especially on the more Christian-related sites should improve.
All we need to do is come up with 40 questions that embody the topic’s scope. If 40 questions garner at least 10 net positive votes, the site moves from the development stage to the commitment phase. So please vote early and vote often on questions you feel are interesting and a good match. Here is the FAQ link for further information. https://area51.stackexchange.com/faq
I would love to hear from members of the community who are curious to see if a Bible Applications site can fly. A simple, “Count me in, I’ll see what I can do,” will suffice. Supporters can only vote 5 times on questions, so even if a lot of people only do that, it would be a significant help. Even expressing that you are just curious to see it would work is useful information. But just a few committing to do what it takes to get this off the ground could help send it into orbit for an exciting ride!
Please indicate your interest in the comment box or provide a more detailed answer if you wish. Thank you!
