Hot News and Specials

Hello OurChurch.Com webmasters,

Summer is here and lots of things are heating up. School is out, temperatures are up, the World Cup is on, and here in Florida the first tropical storm of the season is just about over. Similarly, we have a wide variety of hot things to tell you about at OurChurch.Com from a special offer, to a guestbook issue, to a new graphics tool, and more.

Please post comments and questions concerning this newsletter in our forums. You can also view this message on the web with color and graphics in our newsletter archives.

IN THIS ISSUE
1) Hot June Special - Save on Bronze Package and Ad-Free
2) Warm Up to the New Online Graphics Tool
3) Guestbook Spam Making Your Blood Boil?
4) Christian Web Trends Blog Heating Up



1) HOT JUNE SPECIAL - SAVE ON BRONZE PACKAGE AND AD-FREE
For the month of June OurChurch.Com is offering a year of our Bronze package and a Ad-free option together for just $179. That's a savings of $46, or more than 20%, off our regular prices. The Bronze package includes a free domain name, free set-up and configuration of your domain name, unlimited web pages, 200 megs of disk space, 4 gigs of bandwidth, 50 email accounts, audio and video capability, and more than 50 pre-installed scripts like forums, chat rooms, photo albums, and shopping carts. The Ad-free option removes all ads from your site, giving you a clean, professional looking website. For more information about hosting packages and options see our Packages and Prices page.

2) WARM UP TO THE NEW ONLINE GRAPHICS TOOL
One of the most common questions we receive from our members is, “My pictures on my website are huge. How do I resize them?” We do have instructions in the help pages for how to resize images using the Paint program which is included with Windows on every PC. However, we are experimenting with an even easier way to resize images and we’d like your feedback. Please go to our forums, read more about this new tool, try it, and tell us what you think of it by posting a message in the forum.

3) GUESTBOOK SPAM MAKING YOUR BLOOD BOIL?
Several months ago we implemented a spam blocking tool for guestbooks and prayer request pages. While it has made some impact on the problem, our members continue to receive spam in their guestbooks on a regular basis from automated spamming programs. Today we started blocking all guestbook entries that include "http" (without quotes) in them. Our reasoning is that almost all guestbook spam contains at least one link, so this should block messages from most automated spam programs. At the same time, if a human signer of a guestbook includes a message with "http" in it, they will get a message explaining why their message was blocked, and they can simply post the link without the http.

4) CHRISTIAN WEB TRENDS BLOG HEATING UP
If you haven't read our Christian Web Trends Blog lately, you've missed some interesting articles. Pam shared how the Internet made her life-changing trip to Ireland possible. Last week's article concerning the importance of the local church has generated a record 31 comments so far. Yesterday we took a look at Yahoo! Answers as an opportunity for online evangelism. Check out the articles and post your comments.

Thanks for hosting your website at OurChurch.Com. Please post comments and questions concerning this newsletter in our forums.

In His Service,
OurChurch.Com

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- JMiller