I recently received an email from a reader stating that she appreciated our ‘clutter-free’ web site. I thanked her for letting me know her opinion and then thought I might make mention of my reasons for its current design in a post for everyone to read.
In building The Outlaw Bible Student web site, I implemented, within its design, the ‘Golden Rule’ advice found in the book of Matthew, chapter 7. “In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12, NET). I found, by visiting various other sites, that I would become aggravated with such things as flashing lights and colors, vibrating or moving screens, auto-play music or video, etc. So, I decided I would not use any of those things. I also do not like confusing pages that have so much stuff and so many columns that I can’t figure out what is the main message. So, I don’t use them, either.
I really dislike pop-ups, especially pop-up ads, so you won’t find any here. In fact, I decided not to accept or display any kind of advertising on these pages. I didn’t create this site to sell stuff or make money, but only to freely share any modest amount of biblical knowledge I have that may be helpful to someone. After all, we are instructed: “you received without pay; give without payment” (Matthew 10:8, NRSV).
And I don’t like to have a church or ministry try to shame me into tithing to them. That is why we do not beg for money, but only mention “financial support for our ministry is provided by the free-will gifts of those who wish to see our work continue.” We neither put people on any mailing list to obtain donations, nor beg for money in any way. I’ve personally donated to some ministries, but not to those that try to make me feel guilty or tell me they can’t continue to operate without my monetary help, so I won’t do that to others, either. I trust that God will help motivate and supply, if he wishes this ministry to continue.
I try to do all things in an acceptable Christian way. The only thing I ask from everyone is that if you find The Outlaw Bible Student posts of any value to yourself or to others, please share them. I have tried to make it very easy to print, download, email, and use social media to share our articles at no cost to anyone. You will be contributing to our ministry, in a great way, by sharing our material.
Thank you,
Ray Hermann
What if I like sites with all the action of popups and flashing colors?
Thanks for writing, but if you want the web page to pop, shake, and flash like a pinball machine, I respectfully suggest that you look somewhere else. When you want a bit of equanimity, please ‘come on back’ – you will still be welcome here.
I do like visiting this site because I don’t have things flashing and popping up all the time. Calm is good. Thanks.
Yes, calm is good. And thanks for visiting the OBS site.
As this website grows how can I find past articles. Will you have a cross reference menu, by date and subject, etc.?
The comment and question are appreciated. Yes, we are beginning to provide information about articles in the ‘right-hand side bar,’ which will be visible on all pages. Scrolling down toward the bottom, viewers will see “OBS Articles by Category.” which will pull-up articles pertaining to the selected category. For instance, select “Lifestyles” and several articles pertaining to lifestyles will be brought forward into the main article column.
And below that is “Archives” which will pull-up articles by date for a particular month and year. Another way to view articles is using “Search the OBS Site” and entering a topic or subject. If an article matches the topic or subject, it will be pulled up. As an example, enter “robot” and it will pull-up an article titled “What do you think of robot sex?” If you enter “science” it will pull-up all articles that contain something about science in them.
We are still ‘fine tuning’ all of this, but what we have done is working pretty good, so far.