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Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

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Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#211

Post by lotharbot »

tptacek wrote: post #209
ivanca wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are techies here, we know someone could pack WordPress with a couple of plugins, stamp some theme and call it ChurchPress and it would be way faster, safer and more extensible than this. So yeah, 640 points do seems a bit ridiculous, and is going to reach 1000 without doubt, meaning hn crowd find this article just as relevant as snowden prime revelations.

I disagree and further would be concerned that a comment like this says more about you professionally than it does about the software we're discussing, somewhere in the vein of "Stack Overflow? Weekend Project".

It's important to note that what to put into a project like this (ie, requirements) is at least as important as the technical aspects. Part of the reason for the massive upvotes is the software has most of the right features for the job, which is actually quite rare in this arena.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#212

Post by freditup »

tptacek wrote: post #206
freditup wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you got a lot of downvotes, but made me chuckle with the part about everyone just loving ruby CMSs. :) Honestly though, I think it's a combination of a few things. First, Christians (and other religious people) are used to being bashed on HN and other similar sites, so I'm sure they (which includes me) would find it cool to see a positive post on religion and upvote it. Second, I'm sure some non-religious peop…

Did you look at it? It's really nice work . That's why I upvoted it. I don't think we have to reach psychoanalysis to see why this is doing so well.

Hey, point taken - agreed, I don't mean to belittle the work in any way. The dedication to stick with a project that long (and do a nice job on it) is something I definitely admire. I haven't run the software or browsed the code, so I can't speak to the technical merits of it, but again , it looks great. And I don't think we should underestimate the enormous amount of time and effort it takes to make something like this.

However, I don't think a little bit of self/community introspection about its popularity would hurt. Might learn an important lesson or two.

Broadly, I haven't figured out when criticism/cynicism (if you want to call it that) is or is not beneficial. You and I would probably concur that modern culture is all to quick to tear down the good and pure with cynic blasts. Yet criticism at even seemingly happy things, like the upvoting of this post, can be beneficial.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#213

Post by peeters »

patcon wrote: post #159

> true # everyone can read bible verses! must be my favourite code comment ever. :) https://github.com/churchio/onebody/blob/3cac22587627b7846ea...

No love for the Apocrypha though it seems ;-). Not being Catholic, I don't know how much teaching is done out of those books, but this might reach a larger audience if the books to show were configurable.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#214

Post by ps4fanboy »

skizm wrote: post #143
timmorgan wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glory to God! :-) It's just my passion. I really hope someone does build this as a slick hosted service. I don't do well dealing with customers :-)

You could at least sign up for gittip or throw a btc/ltc/dodge address up there. I'm sure users who donate will feel just as good as you do when you donate your services. Either way, the app looks great. Keep up the good work.

I am sure you could donate to his church if you wanted too.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#216

Post by r-s »

jfc wrote: post #165
timmorgan wrote: post #2

Hard to believe, but I've been working on this Rails app for over 7 years now! It started as a Rails 1.0 app waaayyy back when, and I've managed to bring it along through almost every major Rails version (still working on updating to Rails 4.1), which I'm pretty proud of. You can see screenshots at http://church.io . Being specifically church software, it might not find much of an audience here on HN, but still, I'm…

Nice UI and a comprehensive app. Congratulations on a job well done! My only thought is that small to mid-sized churches may not have a Rails specialist, so a hosted option would probably be very popular.

I highly doubt many large churches have Rails specialists either..

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#217

Post by notduncansmith »

jashmenn wrote: post #183
callmeed wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. I actually built an MVP for a "Kickstarter for Missionaries" crowdfunding project a couple years ago. I thought (and still do, to some degree), it could be a good way for churches and missionaries to get steady/predictable support (which has always been a problem for my friends who do it). But, the same dilemmas exist. Figuring out a business model I was comfortable with seemed hard. And, like you said, th…

Yes! I completely agree that there is some improvement possible here. There is a sense in which social networks in general have greatly helped the fund-raising process for missionaries. I don't mean to seem unscrupulous, but the process of raising money for a missionary is not unlike what is done by a sales rep or a realtor: you have to keep yourself at the top of people's minds or the money dries up. In that regard,…

I think by offering a listing fee (maybe refundable if they don't meet their funding goals?) would be a viable/ethical approach here. Flat fees are as fair as it gets. Also, be sure to start with a church that isn't your own; if it doesn't work, it's not like the group of people you see every week (or however often you attend) will look at you any differently.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#218

Post by boyaka »

I'm a complete Rails noob, can anybody help me understand why after installing this my app shows up without any formatting? http://imgur.com/pQ8wOdG

I did notice that there was a Warning regarding different versions of libxml used for Nekogiri:

$ RAILS_ENV=production rake db:migrate WARNING: Nokogiri was built against LibXML version 2.8.0, but has dynamically loaded 2.7.8

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#219

Post by thret »

callmeed wrote: post #152
timmorgan wrote: post #2

Hard to believe, but I've been working on this Rails app for over 7 years now! It started as a Rails 1.0 app waaayyy back when, and I've managed to bring it along through almost every major Rails version (still working on updating to Rails 4.1), which I'm pretty proud of. You can see screenshots at http://church.io . Being specifically church software, it might not find much of an audience here on HN, but still, I'm…

Great job, Tim. Looks really solid. I really think you should team up with someone to offer hosted versions of this to churches (take the WordPress model). My church uses The City [0] which charges anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars a month. It works well but I definitely think there's room for others. Also, Zondervan acquired The City from the developer/Mars Hill (he was an Amazon engineer too IIRC). I also th…

Agree re. Stripe. YMMV but in Australia when people give to their Church via CC it is tax deductible.

Re: Show HN: OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

#220

Post by lotharbot »

thret wrote: post #219
callmeed wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great job, Tim. Looks really solid. I really think you should team up with someone to offer hosted versions of this to churches (take the WordPress model). My church uses The City [0] which charges anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars a month. It works well but I definitely think there's room for others. Also, Zondervan acquired The City from the developer/Mars Hill (he was an Amazon engineer too IIRC). I also th…

Agree re. Stripe. YMMV but in Australia when people give to their Church via CC it is tax deductible.

in the US, any giving to the church is tax deductible -- as long as the church documents it. This is why churches often have little envelopes that you can write your name on when giving cash.
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