Comments on: Enhancing communication with changes to our youth group website

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:29:01 +0000

I had that on our former site. Kids could register for an event, pay online if necessary, see who else was already signed up to go, and even post comments about the trip or their registration. I took that down, though, and never added it to this site because it really wasn't helpful. It's easier for everyone to sign up by turning in a check to the youth administrative assistant out our church.

If that's something you wanna do with your site, though, it's pretty simple using Google Doc's form. It spits registrations into a spreadsheet, making it pretty easy to sort and organize the list later. Of course, there's always Facebook event invites, too.

By: Travis G.

Travis G. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:20:01 +0000

Do have the ability to perform an online registration?
Thank you Travis.

By: Jason Peck

Jason Peck — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:46:32 +0000

I finally got to the bottom of my problem. I was trying to upload my altered file via my FTP client instead of through my server. Thanks for the help.

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:36:23 +0000

You sure you're replacing the file that's in /wp-content/themes/irresistible/images/file_name.png? If so, then I don't know what the deal is for ya either. Sometimes your browser still has a local copy of the site stored in it's cache, so if you hold down SHIFT or COMMAND (Mac) or something when you click refresh, that will force the browser to reload the site from scratch again. Try that.

By: Jason Peck

Jason Peck — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:05:08 +0000

I meant the phrases like "myvideos, mywritings." I took the original file and made a new .png file with the original file name and replaced the file that came with the theme. I then tried to load the files again to Wordpress but nothing changed. I also made sure they are the same dimensions as the original files.

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:52:16 +0000

What do you mean by, "phrase logos?"

By: Jason Peck

Jason Peck — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:46:51 +0000

Tim, sorry to keep bugging you. I have spent several days still trying to figure this out. I couldn't find a place through Wordpress to replace the phrase logos. I can replace the "irresistible" logo just fine. I also tried to replace the original file in the images folder in the theme file and then re-upload that theme again to Wordpress. Is there a step I'm just overlooking?

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:46:41 +0000

Yup. Just make sure your new images are the same dimensions of the images you're replacing, otherwise it might not display correctly without changing code.

By: Jason Peck

Jason Peck — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:06:32 +0000

Thanks Tim. Does that also work for changing the phrases like "myvideos, mywritings, etc."?

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:35:31 +0000

In this theme, the logo is an image, not CSS, so you'll have to replace the logo image with your own logo image. That's the easiest way to do it without having to mess with code.

By: Jason Peck

Jason Peck — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:45:15 +0000

I'm looking for some good tutorials on working through some of the CSS to change the wording in a theme like "irresistible." I have tried to edit the .php code with no luck. Any suggestions?

By: Pastor J

Pastor J — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:01:57 +0000

I use Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/) instead of PhotoShop, as it is FREE. Let's face it, free is a great price for ministry as long as it does what we need. Gimp fills that bill for me, and works just like PhotoShop. Enjoy!

By: gforster

gforster — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:21:49 +0000

Thank you. I of course should have thought of this, but I thought it might be in the "irresistable" setting somewhere hidden form me.

By: Turn your youth group website into an event LiveStream | Life in Student Ministry

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:26:43 +0000

[...] already explained how to setup the website for collecting all the updates. The rest of it is really quite simple. It basically entails setting up a couple email addresses [...]

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:58:06 +0000

I actually modified the template files to create some of my own little "blocks" on the home page. Since I'm using "custom-home.php" I copied the "subscribe" block on my site and pasted it right underneath it in the code. Then I went into the sytlesheet (CSS), copied the style for the subscribe block, pasted it at the end of the file and modified it to float left instead of right. Updated the new block on the homepage to use the new CSS and bingo.

(I realize that makes no sense whatsoever if you don't know what I'm talking about, but to explain how it all works is way outside the scope of this comment. Sorry.)

By: SamT

SamT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:44:43 +0000

Yeah, thanks so much for posting this. I encounter the same difficulty. Am researching around how to get the calendar to the front page …

By: gforster

gforster — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:50:55 +0000

I've got most of this up and running with a few exceptions. Maybe you could help a little? First, how did you add the calendar to the front page with the "nextevents" title? I can get it in the sidebar, and I can get it as a separate page, but am lost in getting it on the front. I know how to edit the pic, but not how to link it for a totally new section. Second, (and I am sure it is done similarly as the calendar), how did you add the "discussions" section to the sidebar as half of the sidebar? I can get a full width, or a half width below the other, not next to. anyway, if you happen to see this and can help, it would be appreciated.

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:14:53 +0000

There is no way to plug your Facebook Page into the lifestream plugin. You have to go the other direction with updates instead by setting up your Twitter account to go through lifestream and also into your Fan Page with the Selective Twitter App I linked in the post.

By: bigalfro

bigalfro — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:53:59 +0000

Tim, I'm trying to use lifestream but I can't find the right URL for my Facebook Fan Page to place in the settings. Any help?

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:47:19 +0000

Yeah. WordPress is free and is much more flexible.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:11:06 +0000

Do you recommend Wordpress over iWeb?

By: CHIC meeting on Monday, Summer schedule starts | AlexandriaYouth.com

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:43:27 +0000

[...] If you’re reading this in your email and haven’t yet checked out our new website, you need to! It reflects a lot of how our online communication has changed over the past two years. Tim explained the rationale behind changes in more detail on his blog. [...]

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:15:42 +0000

I actually used Photoshop to do it. Inside the "Irresistable" folder there's another folder called "psd." Unzip the file in there and open it with Photoshop. Then you can make all the custom graphics and icons that you want. You may have to download an extra font or two off the web, but they're all free and shouldn't be a problem.

You can download Photoshop from Adobe's website and use the 30-day trial if you don't have it yet.

By: csellers0956

csellers0956 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:10:05 +0000

I apologize for double posts, but I found out that if I enter a url or our logo, it will show up in place of the word "irresistible" on the home page, but I want to figure out how to get "SURGE Student Ministry" in the same design as "irresistible", the way Alexandria's is, Thanks again, if this is no easy solution, I will figure out a work around.

By: csellers0956

csellers0956 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:04:41 +0000

The problem I am having is getting the the word "irresistible" to our student ministry name, like yours says Alexandria Youth.

Is this an easy fix that I need to make in the editor of wordpress, to one of the php files. I looked under dashboard at the settings of the irresistible theme and could not find a simple way to change that. Thanks for your help

By: Jon Jolly

Jon Jolly — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:23:34 +0000

Hi Tim, Great job with a simple design. I love the way you're pulling in the info from other sites to one central location.

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:20:38 +0000

You can do a month view with Google Calendar. Click "Browse events" or "Calendar" at the very top of the site. I have an agenda/list view on the front of the site and the month view on the calendar page.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:42:15 +0000

Nice! This is the direction we are headed as well. However, I'm wanting to have two areas of communication simplicity, one for youth, and one for parents.

I send out weekly parent's emails with articles and reminders, I'd like to start posting these on the website and pushing them to parent's that way to help draw them to the site.

They will both share the same calendar and most info, but I'm looking more to provide a place for parents to find out about specific events and trips, grab forms, and youth culture info.

My only problem with your site is Google! I wish that Google would allow more customisation with how the calendar is displayed. I'd love to be able to show a month view, but to made certain days highlighted to show the importance of a particular event. A once a year event and a monthly reoccurring event look exactly the same!

Good work though, I love the simplicity.

By: benboles

benboles — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:12:32 +0000

I've never heard of the live stream plugin for Wordpress before. Thanks for the resources and thoughts behind what you're doing and why you are using specific services.