jblueep Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 2Honest and I registered AtheistFamily.com today on a whim. Any brilliant ideas? I'm a software nerd, so we can pretty much do anything tech-wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
London Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Lately looking for recipes I have run into too many xian blogs. Maybe you need to do the same thing but in non xian format. Really the only difference is bible verses and god quotes won't appear. You could do a blog and have different tabs for recipes or other hobbies. I've used b2evolution and Wordpress before. I like b2 better but that's just me. Hostgator is a great hosting company if you don't already have one. I run into quite a few sites where people just share their experience and it's interesting. I was reading a Korean cooking site. Yummy! You could have a page of inspirational and helpful atheist links. Just brainstorming here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Thanks London. I'm a web developer and I have my own hosting servers so the sky is the limit on what is possible. We definitely want to do something that is positive in nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Hey Jblueep, great idea and love the domain name! I like London's idea about it having some stuff other than just atheist resources as well, because it might be able to give a more "human" and non-baby-eating kind of view to atheists. I was just thinking the other day when listening to some political commentary, why do christians and 'the right' seem to think they have the monopoloy on family, so I especially love the name of your site. From a family perspective, maybe content on being an atheist family/raising free-thinking kids, sharing books/book reviews, secular holiday ideas, resources like London said. Even things like travel- but talking about visiting areas where there are dinosaur bones instead of the creation museum, lol. From my end, I'd love to see more things about "doing good", volunteering and making a difference in our world and community. Religious groups do seem to have a monopoly on a lot of social programming, so it'd be nice to have another resource. Do you want it have a really strong atheist bent or are you more focused on the family side of things? Yup, sky's the limit... I'm sure there will be some fantastic ideas here! Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConureDelSol Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I think as part of the blog you should do reviews of books, movies, or other products that pertain to atheism in a family setting. You could also come up with secular activities for families to do, advice for raising children in a religious society, coming out tips, etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
London Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 @J, awesome about the servers. @kristen and Conure, you both said that much better than I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valk0010 Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Thanks London. I'm a web developer and I have my own hosting servers so the sky is the limit on what is possible. We definitely want to do something that is positive in nature. Parenting advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 damn, if i wasn't so busy moving house and doing assignments i would've loved to whip up a homepage design for you, just don't have time at the moment. but i definitely suggest avoiding black in the design, it's a bit of an atheist cliche and promotes negative feelings in the viewer. something organic and subtle would be good, something unexpected. can't wait to see it, sounds awesome!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 ...because it might be able to give a more "human" and non-baby-eating kind of view to atheists....From a family perspective, maybe content on being an atheist family/raising free-thinking kids, sharing books/book reviews...volunteering and making a difference in our world and community. Definitely along the lines we are thinking. People have such huge misconceptions about atheists. Do you want it have a really strong atheist bent or are you more focused on the family side of things? Not a strong bent...just letting xians see a friendly alternative. ...coming out tips... Definitely would be a good thing I think, and coming out stories Parenting advice Thanks Valk. We were never crazy xian parents, but we spent WAAAAYYYY too much time worrying. We would like to relieve some xians of that unnecessary burden. damn, if i wasn't so busy moving house and doing assignments i would've loved to whip up a homepage design for you, just don't have time at the moment. but i definitely suggest avoiding black in the design, it's a bit of an atheist cliche and promotes negative feelings in the viewer. something organic and subtle would be good, something unexpected. can't wait to see it, sounds awesome!! Owen...I can wait Seriously though, I am not a designer. I'm a tech guy. I always farm the design out on work for my clients. If you are really interested, it would be cool to see what you come up with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Wow, I'm so excited for this idea for you! I think it would be so great to have a positive source to also be a part of the atheist movement that isn't necessarily focused on activism. Especially as people deconvert and/or move away from religion, it sounds like a great way to fill that vacuum where they've been used to having a church community. I would suggest looking at some websites that you might want to model yours after. I do business planning/strategy and communications and pr for a living (haha, which you might not believe considering some of my spelling errors), but my suggestion would be is to think about what you ultimately want this website to do. Do you want to use it as a way to share your thoughts (then a blog format would be great), or do you want it to become a serious resource for atheist families to go to for advice/information. It might be worth thinking about this and briefly outlining a personal mission or values statement so that you can refer to it down the road when your site takes off. Also, it might be worth thinking about where you want to be with this project x numbers down the road. Do you want to use this as a forum to blog and share your personal stories in your own time (less maintenance) or do you want it to become a business down the road (or anywhere in between). It might seem tedious now, but your goals will inform how you start out. It doesn't need to take too long to brainstorm, but even if you can't do everything right now, you might be able to build towards it and having a little bit of a strategy might help. Looks like you have some awesome resources on this forum. As I said, I have fun with communications so if you ever want a contributor, commentor or copy writer for free, let me know 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Positivist Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Cool!!!! I agree with the other suggestions--how to raise kids that can think, how to live ethical lives (including ethical food sources, since we no longer have 'dominion'....lol), how to come out.... I agree with the "not black" thing. I'd say make it as alive as possible. I know this is 2H's department--she's got some great ideas, no? Very exciting!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 I have fun with communications so if you ever want a contributor, commentor or copy writer for free, let me know Awesome! I know this is 2H's department--she's got some great ideas, no? Definitely. She's the writer between us for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owen652 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 the more i think of it, the more it sounds like a really fresh, innovative idea that as far as i'm aware hasn't been done before. an atheist website that is family-oriented; who'dve thunk it? religion has cornered the market on community minded family type stuff, so this is really groundbreaking imo. I would love to contribute to it in some way design-wise, even if it's just maybe a logo or something, so let me know if you've had any ideas yet about how you want your public image to be. Have you sketched out your core values, mission statement, anything like that? To be honest i only started doing web design last term, but I'm really enjoying it. Here's my first website, it's VERY basic at the moment, but gives you an idea of my style. I'll start thinking of ideas, but don't worry, it's up to you guys what you use or don't use in the end. http://www.sydneyfreebord.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
London Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 A very inspirational site for CSS ideas. http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 Have you sketched out your core values, mission statement, anything like that? Haven't got that far yet. Over the last six months (since we deconverted), we've talked about some gaps we've seen in support systems, literature, etc, but not in the specific terms of a website. It will be fun to go through the process though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Honest Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Wow, thanks for all the great ideas! This is starting to seem like it might actually be something! We've dreamed of writing books/doing websites for years but never dreamed it would be as atheists! Now it seems we are more inspired than ever. Who knew?! I'm starting to get excited about this! It would be so great to provide something really positive, meaningful and helpful to people. I don't want it to just be about us/our family. There will be some of that, but only for the purpose of showing people that freethinkers/atheists are real people - and to give examples of how becoming atheists has actually helped us individually and as a family. I also want the site to be a place where other families can share their personal stories and give input. We can also link to other sites/blogs of people with similar goals. And we've discussed having somewhere on the site to share videos. We're also going to see if our kids each want their own page to share whatever interests them. Since they were never hard-core believers, they are pretty laid back about their atheism. Right now they don't seem interested in reading or watching vids about it or anything. I think as they get a little older and get exposed to more people questioning them, that will change. But for now I think they might want to just have a place to express themselves and their personal interests. So that might be good, just so people can see that deconversion/atheism doesn't turn kids into evil, mindless athi-bots. lol Keep those ideas coming, I'm saving all of them! And thanks for the offers to help! You guys are so awesome. One thing I'd definitely want on our site is a HUGE link to Ex-C!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valk0010 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 So that might be good, just so people can see that deconversion/atheism doesn't turn kids into evil, mindless athi-bots. lol I remeber watching, the Morgan Spurlock, 30 days show, and they did a atheist christian deal. I thought even watching it a few months ago. Wow these kids(in the atheist family) are not really being taught critical thinking. They almost seem like parrots. It was bizarre. So good on you guys for thinking that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openpalm45 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Its like Focus on the Family.... but NOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Honest Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Its like Focus on the Family.... but NOT! Focus on the Family's evil twin! muwahahaha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yalta Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 My advice is to make something that's not heavy on the atheism. I mean, have tips for coming out as an atheist, etc., but don't focus on the bad things religious people do, etc. We have a bad enough reputation as it is. It would be nice to see a positive voice for atheism that focuses more on family raising, activities, etc. with the atheism being a part of it when required (the aforementioned coming out tips, how to be respectful of religious family members while also getting your own respect, etc.), so as to show the religiously prejudiced that we're not all the angry screaming religion-hating people they think we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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