Archive for: Christianity

Godtube / Tangle: God Is On The Internet

The Christian community obviously decided that the Vatican Myspace account wasn’t enough, and they needed more ways of engaging with the online community. Thus Godtube, now known as Tangle (presumably because God told them to change the name) was developed. Their tagline:

We help unite the Body of Christ by allowing you to connect with other Christians, Share the Gospel & grow in your relationships – All for the glory of Jesus Christ.

The site is essentially a Christian themed media channel, with boards for Christian music, user submitted videos about Christianity and discussing religion in general (supposedly allowing comment from both Christians and Atheists, but you’ve got to ask yourself which right minded moderate atheist is going to be hanging out on a God-themed social networking website), profile pages for Christians, a Christian version of Flickr, where you can post your photos for Christians to look at… Basically, an ugly version of Facebook, with added Christ. Oh, and they’ve got a store, http://www.christiangiver.com/ where you can buy lots of nice Heaven Approved products.

They monitor and approve all content before it is allowed to go live, “tangle differentiates itself from other social networks by monitoring and approving all content before it goes live on the site, which works to provide a safe and secure online experience.” [quote from their Wikipedia entry] – this may indeed help stop arguments getting out of hand, and 4chan style trolling, but it doesn’t seem to me that it would be conducive to free and open debate, and some of the things they approve seem like the usual old right wing conservative scaremongering, or lonely crackpots spouting religious diatribes. Still, we have to give marks for effort; at least they’re trying to stay engaged in discussion.

I find it a little disturbing when people try to put the seal of divine approval on essentially commercial things; this site doesn’t flaunt it’s Holiness in your face, and seems quite laid back and open, so perhaps I should be more open minded in turn, but who regulates these things? Seemingly anyone could purport to be speaking for a religious community or market you any old product with the name of a deity in their mouth, and have nothing to substantiate the support of that religion, or to differentiate their product from the next online service/coffee maker/radio alarm clock. Ultimately, religious bodies are so diverse that no one voice speaks for them all, but there are a lot of faces and voices on Tangle, and if you like your society with a whiff of pews and incense, then this might be the place for you – personally I don’t know why the God-fearing can’t just mingle with the rest of us sinners online – it seems a little insular.

Spread the “Good Word” with Gospelr

If you’re looking at either spreading the “good word” or hearing some messages of praise and encouragement, turn no further then Gospelr. This Twitter-clone application brings together all the positivity and encouragement of the Christian faith to those who seek it out.

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially since it was established due to the perceived harshness of Twitter conversation. Gospelr looks to focus on connecting people for motivation and to share their faith with one another. No longer do you have to pay for missionaries to reach the far parts of the world or into the homes of people, now you can do it all online, and Gospelr looks to work that angle.

Because it’s based on Twitter’s API, integration into Tweetdeck and various other apps that play well with Twitter. An interesting addition to the Gospelr homepage is that the site will refresh for you, keeping you current at all times with the latest messages to hit the network.

If you need to hear the Word, be uplifted or encouraged by those strong in their faith, then check out Gospelr. While your there, check out the cool RSS button, now that’s creative!