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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

#311

Post by thret »

timv wrote: post #267
thret wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In general, churches in Australia are not tax deductible. Some of the activities they perform may be, but that requires a relatively complex separation of accounts where one "business" is deductible, but the other is not. It can be done, but my experience is that most churches don't bother since the administrative burden exceeds the value.

I must admit to being ignorant of the specifics. My brother in law is a pastor, and he mentioned that he tithes/donates by CC because it is tax deductible. He used to teach accounting, so I am sure that he understands the system.

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

#312

Post by nathan_long »

Our church has members from age 0 to 80. Some of the oldest members have never used a computer, but we'd want to include their pictures in a photo directory. Does this software support adding pictures on behalf of someone? Can you designate "editors" or some lower-level admin ability for that?

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

#313

Post by mseebach »

adambatkin wrote: post #307
mseebach wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is actually something to be said for not being personally/emotionally invested in the market you're in, it can help you to see things more objectively. On the other hand, if you're emotionally invested in atheism, in the sense that you actively want to see religion gone (as opposed to just not believing as a personal choice), you're emotionally invested in religion by extension.

I've never heard "emotionally invested in atheism" mean "you actively want to see religion gone". In fact, I find that idea quite disrespectful. That's just as bad as a religious person trying to push their religious ideals onto you. I know a large number of religious people who would consider themselves "emotionally invested in their religion" but I would never describe any of them as "actively wanting to see all ot…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism

"New Atheism is a social and political movement in favour of atheism and secularism promoted by a collection of modern atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.""

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

#314

Post by timmorgan »

nathan_long wrote: post #312

Our church has members from age 0 to 80. Some of the oldest members have never used a computer, but we'd want to include their pictures in a photo directory. Does this software support adding pictures on behalf of someone? Can you designate "editors" or some lower-level admin ability for that?

Yes, there is support for Admin users who can manage the entire system, or just part of it, depending on the permissions given.

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

#315

Post by hnriot »

shortstuffsushi wrote: post #106
hnriot wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vatican City the 18th wealthiest nation in the world per capita.

The Vatican in no way represents the average. They're about as far an outlier as you're gonna find. The parent comment mentioned specifically small churches with low budget/tech-phobia as well.

right, but the small churches are franchises just like Taco Bell. They all belong to a bigger church.

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

#316

Post by callmeed »

tbrooks wrote: post #277
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…

I'd be interested in working with you on this. I've thought a lot about a product like this and could sell it pretty easily to my existing customer base.

Drop me an email and we can chat (I didn't see your contact info in your profile).

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

#317

Post by SandersonSun »

timmorgan wrote: post #131
sushimako wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I saw the "Install in the Cloud" option > ... > Unfortunately any church that wants to use this is going to need > someone technical enough to handle the installation themselves. I thought it would be awesome if that button would actually (eventually) result in setting up a droplet and installing the software for me. I think sandstorm[0] is going into that direction. I guess one tricky part of such infrastructure w…

I strongly considered building on DigitalOcean API and doing some sort of pre-built image where I transfer it to the customer or something. I'm interested in Sandstorm -- will check it out!

Hey Tim, love your work on this. I started something called The Sunday Assembly - which is church for the not religious (though plenty of religious folk come too) - and we are in the process of building software which is so similar.

I also looked through the current offerings and thought the market was just not well served. It seems like a huge mistake on someone's part.

Do you have anyone using the software yet? I would be interested in finding out if we could. Super great work!

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

#318

Post by SandersonSun »

timmorgan wrote: post #284
fiatjaf wrote: post #185

I don't understand what does the software do. It is a "group manager" for churches? Something like Facebook Groups or many others of the same kind? I really liked the aspect of the app and that it was built, because I really think group management and group data is an issue, but WHY is it a problem when there exists Facebook Groups, email groups and lots of other solutions? Is church directory a totally different dom…

Yeah, I suspect a lot of churches could just get by with Facebook Groups and be happy. For our church, however, finding/begging people to join Facebook was a problem, and some people have privacy concerns, so having our own private social network has been successful.

We had the same thing at Sunday Assembly. Some folk don't want to have their privacy revealed on FB. Also, it doesn't have great events functionality so that attendees can create their own events.

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

#319

Post by SandersonSun »

timmorgan wrote: post #236
jasonkostempski wrote: post #93

What exactly makes it specific to churches and not organizations in general?

It has a handful of Christian church-specific features, such as personal "Testimony", bible verse sharing, attendance tracking, etc. If one were to take those features away, it would work for any close-knit community.

Also, you could then monitor which events people go to, to see which ones lead to the most conversions, then optimise these. I'm really excited by using data to make our Assemblies more effective (though we don't have as clean a metric as baptisms!).

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

#320

Post by SandersonSun »

timmorgan wrote: post #236
jasonkostempski wrote: post #93

What exactly makes it specific to churches and not organizations in general?

It has a handful of Christian church-specific features, such as personal "Testimony", bible verse sharing, attendance tracking, etc. If one were to take those features away, it would work for any close-knit community.

Also, you could then monitor which events people go to, to see which ones lead to the most conversions, then optimise these. I'm really excited by using data to make our Assemblies more effective (though we don't have as clean a metric as baptisms!).
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