I am thinking of moving this site to my own domain/host so I can have more control of it.
There are some catches though:
1) I’m not sure it would be worth the added cost on my end of paying for Hosting/Domain name/other services. Currently, I pay nothing for this site.
2) This would no longer be anonymous. Basically, you’d be able to discover my identity if you knew where to look.
This is my biggest concern. I really don’t want to be shut down either. I don’t want to feel weird either at BSF. One of the gals in my group mentioned my site and I just didn’t say anything. I’m not very good at criticism or complements so walking around BSF is easier this way. Yet at the same time it might be time to step out in faith.
3) Another concern is that due to the age of my kids, I may not be in BSF next year if they don’t take my youngest. That means if I move my site, it would all be for naught if I’m not here next year.
4) I’ve owned my own website before and not being a techie person, I have to rely on others. I found someone off the internet last time and I lost my site because he stopped paying the hosting fee. This wouldn’t be the case this time. I intend to do my own management. Still, finding an advisor whom you trust is not all that easy.
I’m really praying about this and what God wants to do here and asking you all to do the same. I just feel it’s time for this site to move to the next level. I have huge visions for this where I could reach a lot of people. I feel constricted here at wordpress and am feeling a prompting to do something. But what that is exactly I cannot say at this point.
Basically, I see two options: 1) Keep my site here and just keep doing what I’m doing. Or 2) Take a risk and see what happens. The best could surpass all I ever imagine. The worst is that this fails and I lose all I’ve built here. Either I’d accept as God’s plan.
This blog is as much as yours as it is mine so any advice and/or recommendations with regards to websites would be most welcome.
I feel that you might be best to continue as you are doing now and wait until next year to make a change. See if your youngest can go to BSF. Your Blog is a great help to many of us. When we have difficulty with our answers and can take a look at what you think it can smooth out the way
for us to continue with our lesson and be prepared for our own group. Many drop out of BSF because they get overwhelmed.
Stay anonymous
Thank you for posting your dilemma. That way, we know how to pray for you. My initial reaction is that you should not do anything yet. As you said, you don’t even know if your little one will be in the program next year. Also, I agree that your being anonymous is still important. If your were to be revealed, all your past postings, where you shared the depths of your heart, would be linked to your name – even the ones where you might have shared frustrations about family members. I have never had a blog and have no idea what it entails, but I think it is great that Word offers the service for free. Are the restrictions they are imposing so bad that you feel the need to pay for a site? Whatever you decide, I will still ‘follow’ you. I love your blog, AtoZMom.
Thank you Kallie, I agree with your comment.
You have added that being anonymous is important.
Because of the “guidelines” of BSF this blog would be stopped if idenity revealed.
You already know what to do, read your post aloud. Your privacy is a valid concern, as is your concern about your youngest child.
The risk has NO ADVANTAGES for you.
PS your right about nobody being that excited about the fellowships. We really don’t have the opportunity to visit openly.
i agree with kallie ……pray on it a some more …..i will also “follow” as well…
Atozmom ~ I agree with Kallie and Pam. I would at least wait and see if you are going to join BSF next year then decide. I would remain anonymous to avoid the “haters” out there (even though we love them
). I will pray for you and God will guide your decision. I too will continue to “follow” you . . . your insight has help me tremendously with my BSF studies this year (my 3rd year). We love you and appreciate your insight.
Live your dream! So enjoy your writing, your comments, and especially your BSF comments.
I am a new follower, but really like your style and presentation in the format you have. If you are comfortable, then stay with it and pray as others have suggested. God will nuge you when or if you need to change…thanks for sharing your blog. Blessings : )
I appreciate your site so much; it helps me when I get stuck on a question. I have a tendency to read more into or even misinterpret the questions. Your candor is also very refreshing. I would not make a move at the moment. If I were you I would wait until you know more about your daughter’s situation. Praying for you regarding this issue.
Ditto what Iris said! God Bless, and thank you!
What does God want?
I love your site and have used it a couple of times as a reference when I was lost on a paticular question. With that said, on a new web site with your own domain, you can establish it like an author would who didn’t want to release their true identity for privace purposes. Create a fictitious author name and have the domain name correlate with the authors name. This way you keep your privacy and you are able to reach a much larger public. God Bless you and Good Luck.
I think you should stay put until next year when you know what will happen with your youngest. I agree that you might want to remain anonymous, so if you do get your own private site, maybe you can use a pseudonym.
Could you do both? Keep this site anonymous and have a new site where you have more control and can go to the next level.
Your site has been a blessing for me. As long as this continue to glorify God, keep doing what you’ve been doing so the Lord will bless you with abundance…
i enjoy the blogs, but don’t want you to have any hassle from BSF. God will show you what to do. I believe you should have faith and you will be shown.
Love your BSF information. Leave it like it is. Your blog has given me more insight into my studies. I really appreciate what you do.
Bill C
Ditto!
agree totally with
bill
I love your site just as it is and where it is.
My first thought was this a temptation from satan or a prompting from God?
Only you can decide.
I agree
I would stay at this site at least till next year than see what happens. I would hate to lose you. You have helped me so much on some questions. I seem to over think the questions. Again, I would hate to lose you. God Bless!
Stay where you are for now.
Leave it as is, Mom!! The two big stumbling blocks would be the BSF issue and the time commitment to manage your own site. More folks would be weighing in on the “copyright” issue (a non-issue since you are NOT reprinting any BSF materials). Even with a small site, the time necessary to manage it would be onerous since you already spend time with personal stuff (book reviews, personal views, etc) and posting your responses to the BSF questions.
Cost is a minor issue. I have a site hosted on HostMonster at about $85 per year for a 3-year contract. Has to be pre-paid so that is a $255 expense every three years.
Are BSF members going to cheat and simply copy from you? Yes! But I believe most of us are honorable and spend the time necessary to create our own responses and, therefore, learn so much more. While I sometimes do not agree with you, I find that checking after the fact, we are in agreement most of the time.
Keep on keeping on!!
Stay put girl! You just don’t realize how many people you help with this Blog.
I wouldn’t make any changes until you are sure, if that ever happens.
Losing your anonymity would vastly alter what you’re doing and possibly end it. If God wants you to take steps that might lead to that possibility, He’ll show you with clarity.
Ditto to what Kandace said and a few others. Stay here and if you feel you have to go elsewhere do it under a pseudo name. I know your anonymity is important to you. I know I would follow you either way because I love your heartfelt postings whether asking for comments or just telling us your frustrations. Praying for you my friend; and I really hope your youngest gets to go to BSF!!! Jeanette
I enjoy your blog,it help me to understand BSF question and losing your site i don’t know were to ask. Wait for now and see what will happen this coming BSF.take care and i know what to pray for you.
What do you mean have control?? I don’t understand what the advantages of changing would be.
Whatever you decide I will follow, please let us know how.
I would recomend staying here. If it is not broken….why add stress and other issues. Love your all your postings and BSF postings can be helpful when my mind locks up and I over read the text.
Thank you
I love your site and the honesty of your struggles & trials in your life. Your insight the BSF questions has helped me to know I’m in the wrong or right direction. I think you should stay anonymous. And I agree with Cathy…stay put…this blog helps in more ways than just BSF. Just my two cents!
PLEASE stay where you are… YOU are helping to change lives for the glory of God! HE is pleased, and I am most grateful! Blessings!
Keep things as they are. Most of the time your answers mirror mine however, it is great to see a different perspective when our answers aren’t similar. Keep doing the Lord’s work.
What exactly is your goal with the site? How is WordPress restricting you now?
I agree with most of the comments. Though I stumbled on your post accidentally, I love reading your responses and comparing them to mine. I would hate to lose you as a resource on my spiritual walk (I need all the help I can get!). So, even if you are led to give it up, I will miss it, but we must go where we are led. Blessings!
I totally agree.
I agree with everyone. Love this site, and it has helped me tremendously with some of the BSF questions. Stay put.
I rarely post, I agree with staying for a while and continue to stay anonymous, yes, I agree.
I suggest keeping things the same. You would lose a lot of people if you charged for access at a new domain. Keeping yourself anonymous is best for all!
There would be no charge to you. You pay for domains and hosting. This is costs on my end. I purchase my own name and choose a company to host it and then design it. It’s just like other websites on the Internet. None of them are free. Not much is these days.
Just discovered this site, and I absolutely love it. I am new to BSF this year and not so savvy at answering all the questions. The girls tell me I will get better with time. Your site has helped me tremendously. We will all have to pray your child will get into day care. We have the same problem where I live. God bless you.
Oh my. you have quite a situation. I feel you should continue to pray and ask for guidance, but it sounds to me that you should wait until you know if you will stay in BSF next year. If you do, then you could persue a domain. If not, your question will be answered. You have to know from my perspective you have given me such amazing guidance with my BSF. This is my first year and it was sometimes overwhelming. Please know that I truly feel you are a gift to all of us from God. I honestly believe you would know if it is not the right thing to do. So, THANK YOU for your generous gift of your ideas and thoughts. Bless you, Carol
Please don’t move from here. You have been a huge help to me. If it weren’t for this blog, I would have dropped out of bsf. Thank you for all the help you give to all of us
Keep it like it is. BSF has been around for a long time. If you come out then start your own study and build on that. I like to look at your thoughts to see another opinion before class. I do not use you for answers.
I think that by now that you should have received some sort of direction, you have had so many positive reply’s .
I have been at BSF some five years now, but only recently found your blog (lucky me). I love it,
I love what you have to say.
You have helped me so much in my studies, and not only that, I enjoy my studies so much more because of you.
I agree with all that Kallie had to say and most of what the others have said. Keep up with the great work you are doing. God will guide you if we don’t. Bless you my BSF friend.
Please stay put for now. See what happens next year. I love reading your blog. It is a helpful tool for me. I will follow you anywhere though. Thanks for all you do. God Bless You !!
It seems all of us agree that you are a huge help to us. I truly believe the Lord led me to your blog site because I needed help with putting my thoughts into words and with answering the questions period. Like Elizabeth, I would have quit going to BSF if you hadn’t been so kind and helpful. I will pray for Jesus to reveal to you His will. Whatever you decide, I love and appreciate you and pray for you and your family.
God bless you.
Carolina
I totally agree with Carolina (that’s my third and final reply. ‘nuf said.
You have been a great help and given a lot of insight this year in Acts. I’ve been praying about
whether or not to continue with BSF. I no longer like the question format, the questions are becoming more opinion or personal than biblical. I pray that God gives you a clear answer as
to what you should do with your ministry. God Bless you.
I agree that the questions are sometimes strange and hard to know how to answer.
That’s a big reason I read your blog each week.
I do my own answers by reading the question and the Scripture but sometimes it’s very unclear where to start. So, rather than just quiting I look to see what AMom says.
I need BSF to grow closer to God. My church does not offer anyting like this. I have found that what I learn at BSF has enriched my worship very much.
I would prefer to focus on what the Scripture says. Questions about our opinion are a bit risky. I will continue with BSF next year because we have a great Lecturer. I have been blessed with a very good group discussion leader. Some of my friends have not had that blessing.
We all agree that we get a lot from the lecture.
The notes are always very good, a bit long but good.
I agree as well with staying put for now. I am new to your site and really enjoy reading your ideas.
You are a very talented young lady and my God bless and keep you in the direction He is calling.
I use your site as a reference when I’ve not quite understood where BSF was going on a question. I think you should stay put, if BSF learned of your identity, they would shut you down and that would be a shame as you are helping so many.
Do you think they could really do that???
Honey, stay where you’re at. I love your blog and I’ve been going to BSF for years, my first born kid is all grown up now and completed BSF, I have been a CL for years too, so it’s not like I’ve just started out, and I still love your blog and your insights are precious.. don’t loose this by going public, and stay anon. Plus, BSF would shut you down so quick and like EJ says, that would be a shame. In short, stay right here, love and encouragement all the way from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Remain anonymous.
You are doing what you like.
The risk’s you speak about are not risk’s…they are protection for your privacy and your heart. You have the wisdom to speak about faith and help so many others. I appreciate what you are doing. You are not going to gain anything by changing your format. Be Blessed.
I hate to see you leave this site, but if that is God’s will I understand. It has been a blessing to me, because after I do mine I look at your answer to see if I might be on the right track. I will be praying for you and that you will do what is God’s will. Take care and May God Bless You!
Ok! I woke up thinking of you this morning. I have to tell you I wished you stick with the site being here. I have to tell you if it wasn’t for you I would have quit BSF! I was so happy to find you! You helped me so much. I just use your site for a cross check, making sure I am on the right track. But! I hate to say if you don’t stay anonymous I think they will shut you down. My prayer and support are with you.
In the end you have to do what you have to do! God blessing upon you!
I’m new to the fellowship and your responds really help me when I’m stuck with a question. Your spiritual wisdom and guidance has helped me tremendously. I too stumbled on to your website accidently and I’m very glad that I did. I have a shortcut to your link on my desktop at work and on my personal laptop. How would I find your website again. When I read your responses, I really get a better glimps as to how i”m expected to answer. I’ll give you one example that helped me tremendously, when the question was on lesson, I think it was 24, I’m not sure, it was talking about organizational comformity and something unity, I think, I don’t remember what the other one was that we had to explain. I had no idea what to answer. That is when I first stumbled into your blog. I read your explanation and I got it. I could see what it was that you were explaining. I used that to explain it in our class and there was this one lady from our group that hadn’t understood it either. At the end of the class she approached me and thanked me for the explanation and I told her that I got that explanation from you and I told her about your website and how it helps me when I’m stuck on something. Please think this very carefully before you make a move. I”ll be lost half of the time if I don’t read your explanations. You are truly blessed with God’s wisdom, please don’t take that wisdom that you have shared away from us. God will guide you, I will pray that he does according to his will. God bless you Atozmom.
Im sorry, I don’t want you to feel pressured, just guided. I just want you to see how you’ve helped many of us. But you have to do what you feel the Lord is telling you to do and whatever you decide, I still thank you, I too like Diana would have quit BSF if it wasn’t for you. You kept me understanding and really enjoying it. I will continue to pray for you and I trust that what ever decision you make is guided by God’s will. God will be with you in making your decision.
Amen to that, I now enjoy doing my study and answering the questions.
Just ask the Lord to lead you in the right direction and He will. This is my fourth year in BSF and I like it more each year. I just happen to have stumbled on your blog and have enjoyed comparing your thoughts with mine. BSF is truly a wonderful study of God’s word. You are definitely a talented lady and truly interested in expanding your knowledge of the Bible and sharing your knowledge with others.
I think you are doing BSF a service as you are, right now. I’m proud of you. You love God, we love God. BSF loves God and us all. They can’t approve an unofficial site but they can read, pray and learn just as we all do from each other and especially from your blog. It’s no different than discussing it with a friend on the phone. When we all get to heaven, I will come over to you and give you a big hug, because you won’t be anonymous then, will you? I’ve been in the BSF group for almost 8 years now and I don’t know if I ever even started to grow much in my Christian walk until BSF got in my face with all the personal and application questions. Frustrating, yes but being honest with God helps us grow. I feel much closer to God now. If no one wants to answer some of the personal questions we just go on. God can still get personal with us, thru these pointed questions and that is probably the BSF goal. Your doing us good, so stay our secret sister. Yeah, Atozmom! BTW our BSF has prayed about it and now has an infants class, too! That just means God needs more servers and He’s the one in control, anyway
I love your website and think you need to remain anonymous. BSF could expand their horizons with you as a web leader. I appreciate your insight and seek help from your blog with difficult lessons. Will keep you in my prayers.
One issue that has not been addressed here is how the questions and answers are handled in group discussion. First, the group leader is focused on the time and getting through all the questions and back to the Lecture hall on time. Second, in an effort to protect hurt feelings
when someone might be giving a “wrong” answer we were told there were no wrong or right answers., therefore, I sometimes don’t know if my answer was “on base/correct”. In discussing this with some of my friends who go to BSF I wondered if we could answer Humpty Dumpty jumped over the moon and the leader would say ok on to the next question. Not helpful. and Sorry for such a silly example. That is a long preamble to saying that I am thankful for the blog because your answers are very helpful to me in confirming that I am on target.
First and foremost I am in BSF to grow closer to God.
Your such a wonderful inspiration, I really appreciate all that you do. I would hold off on making a decision right now. I’ll keep this in prayer. You’ve help so many of us.
I’d wait til next year to see what to do. It is a shame you won’t have somewhere for your youngest. In my small southern town, we have 3 BSFs Womens Day, Womens Night and Mens Night. There is no reason for a child not to be in BSF from birth to death!
Both, Leave the BSF info here . You have a large following and can maintain your anonimiity. Based upon your other interests, musings, writings, etc., a domain could allow you more flexibility and latitude there, even other spiritual dialog and thought that is not BSF based… if you feel the need/desire to soar to greater hights. I’ve read you for a long time… stop doubting your self, your heart . God has given you a gift of expression so use it. Let the outcome take its own shape.
This has been very helpful to me when it comes to the questions. Your comments and answers help clarify the questions for me. Sometimes I just don’t get it! Think you should hang around here for now. Grace and Peace.
This site has been wonderful to me!! Im new to bsf and I have a hard time understanding the bilbe nad reading between the lines to get the point of the message. But when I read you comments and answers, I always say, “Oh now I get it!” You help me to get a better understand. I also love the humor you thow in there sometimes. I will pray that God helps you to figure this out. You have been so helpful!
After reading the other comments, you have received a lot of excellent advice. I also would recommend that you stay on this site. In some of your comments to a question you have brought up the evil one, I think this may be Satan inspired, to test you. Listen carefully to God, trust only Him. I have enjoyed your site and will truly miss you, if you decide to start charging for your thoughts. Keep up your godly good works in words.
Hey Nancy,
I’ve edited my blog post since this is the second comment I’ve got regarding a paid site. Again, let me re-iterate there would be no cost to you. Only costs to me. WordPress is free. If I moved my site, I would have to pay hosting, domain fees, and IT help. Hope that helps!
Lots of comments on this… very cool. See what happens when you ask for our opinions! :^) Ha! Ha!
The cost for domain and hosting can be minimal. ~$20/yr for each. EZ Domain Names is who I use for domains. The hosting like I said can be minimal, depending on your needs and the size of the site. You can always try using CloudAcccess.net to build your own. Check out their free trainings and then try it for free. They have excellent FREE training for Joomla, which also is free. I’ve built several websites using Joomla (all basically free). If you want to see how they can look, take a quick look at my first one: http://www.watergardenusa.com. I believe this site is more complex than you would need, but with Joomla you have control of what you want.
The real challenge you face (other than BSF guidelines) is time. We’re always fighting against time. It takes a lot of time to design and build a site, maintaining it isn’t so bad unless you want to make major changes. Based on this blog, you’d more or less be adding articles just as you’re doing now.
I’m not sure I understand why you feel the need to change. Your blog is obviously well liked and from all aspects appears to be functioning quite well.
However, God’s ways are often past our understanding.
If you feel it’s time to step out in faith and see if God is truly opening doors; I’d follow Jerry’s advice. (See April 24)
Create a fictitious name, get a Domain Name and do some research on hosting companies… they can be very different and deceiving – always trying to up sell you or get you to have them build the site for you.
TIPS:
- Always check BBB.org to validate the company’s business ethics and business reputation. There are so many out there to beware of. If you can’t find them on BBB.org or they don’t have an A or B rating, just know you’re taking a risk.
- AND it’s a very good idea to make sure they are in the US. GOOGLE, Go Daddy and many others are not US Companies, and/or you’d have to deal with CustServ outside the US which can greatly add to your frustrations and rob you of your time and energy.
My only other comment or advice would be… If you decide to make this step of faith… you should keep this site the way it is while you’re going thru the transition/training/process. I’d even keep it running side by side for awhile once the new site is operating – providing links inviting them to check out your new site.
It’s clear from the comments you’ve got a loyal and endearing following. Many people don’t feel comfortable with change… and any change will disrupt things for awhile. Keeping it as seamless as possible will help too.
This was much longer than I’d intended.
I enjoy your blog and pray our God, our precious Jesus will lead you and guide you in His “Perfect Will” for your life. And also pray, He’ll open the door for you to be able to stay in BSF next year.
You are the reason I am still in BSF. I have had health problems. I cannot focus.The question are not clear. What do they want? Please stay here, I stumbled on this site and it points me it the right direction….
Nancy
don’t know much about what site is best just know i want to keep reading yours. you are a great inspiration and such a fountain of information that i don’t think i could get anywhere else. it’s like having you in my discussion group every week and i so enjoy that.
Surely you know God’s answer now. What a tremendous outpour!!
You are a blessing to so many. What ever you decide, I pray that God shows you the way and that you are obedient to His will.
I have found that when God speaks to us, it is not me or anyone else to “fix it” or “solve the situation”- (which is always my 1st inclination!) So, I say follow wherever God leads, and you may have difficulties or problems, but I’ve found the best blessings come when I answer HIs call. Just let Go & let God lead, and you will be fine! Saying that, I love your site. It inspires and challenges me. Thank you for bringing the word to so many!
You have helped me so much ~ please stay ~ so many of us appreciate your thoughts, wisdom and words of encouragement ~ on our journey to better understand the Word of God. Praying…
I was a discussion leader in BSF for 7 years, am now attending the class as a member. I’m sure that what you are doing is “against the rules” even though it is helpful – it is an extension of my group. I don’t look at what you have said util I have done the questions myself. That said, I also have a masters in Computer Science and a masters in Chemistry from William and Mary. I had a free web site but Cox no longer supports that. So I started a blog on wordpress for my music business. It is free and does what I need. I can’t see paying for a web site – and if people in your class become more aware it will cause problems. Doing your own website would be some work up front, but get a book from the library and go for it. You don’t need to learn HTML or anything hard, anyone can do it. Also, I don’t know where you live but here Verizon includes free web space and I’m thinking of switching.
I hope you stay as you are and continue. Your insight has been helpful. Keep your anonimity. In a standard google search you are in the top 3 always. Best of luck on your biblical journey.
Godspeed, Randy
Stay anonymous.
I hope you stay as you are and continue too. You are very helpful and I look forward to reading your posts. Stay anonymous and I will continue to pray for you!
I have been wanting to tell you for a long time that this site is a HUGE blessing to me!!! I have been a Believer all my life and it wasn’t until I started BSF a year ago (this is my second year) that I was finally able to study the Bible and read it and understand it like never before!! But this has also presented me with some big challenges as I struggle with understanding some of the questions on every lesson! So when I was desperate for some understanding and hopefully some help I stumbled upon this site and it has been so nice to read what your perspective is and it has helped me tremendously to have this as my tutor!! I am not terrified to go to BSF anymore worried that I’ll get called on to answer a question I didn’t totally understand!! If I get hung up I just go see what you’ve written and then go back to the scriptures until I fully get it!!! This is so huge to me, not just answer questions, but understand the Word of God more!!! I just thank you for doing this and I hope like crazy that you will not quit!! And why wouldn’t they take your youngest?? They always make room!!
Numbers 6:24-26 for you!!! Thank you so much friend, your time is not wasted!!!