We are a community of believers serving God with our gifts and talents of web designing.

Membership Requirements

When you joined the GNWDA, you professed that you believe and agree with the principles upon which the GNWDA was founded. To review these membership requirements, see our Membership Requirements.

Anyone who violates the rules of the GNWDA or biblical Christian ethics will have all their posts moderated by admin, possibly without warning or notification. If sufficient evidence of repentance and understanding of the sin is provided to the administrators, the member will be restored to unmoderated status. Otherwise, it will lead to dismissal from the community. The founder and administrators of the GNWDA are very protective of the integrity and reputation of this outreach ministry for Web designers.

Community discussion guidelines

Community discussions are focused on tips and questions about tools and ideas and educational help for web designing and for being God's ministers on the internet.

Although we come from different denominations, we all love and serve the same Lord. We strive to imitate Jesus in all we do and in all interactions with others. As Christian web designers, we unite here on the common ground of our faith. We do not debate our doctrinal differences. We do support one another in prayer and by sharing our expertise. We learn from each other how to improve our websites for the sake of effective evangelization and for the glory of our Lord.

If we're not respectful of each other's busy schedules and already-full mailboxes, we will lose some members from our community. Here are some guidelines for our interaction:

• Do not use this discussion group to pass on forwarded "cutesy" mail, as great as they might be.
• Do not use it to share links to webpages other than those that would help other members with their webwork.
• Do not share any links to Christian sites that include material that puts down Catholicism or any other truly Christian denomination.
  
• Do not use it as a promo to bring others to your site(s).
• Do not invite other members to read the wonderful Christian messages you have online, inspirational though they might be.
• Do not invite other members to view anything on your site(s) except when asking for critiquing or to share web designing information.
• Do not include previous letters in your replies. If you need to show us what you're referring to, quote a brief portion of the previous letter.
• Do not send a personal letter or email intended for the administrator to the whole list. The e-group gets a lot of mail and we need to minimize where we can.
• Do not make the file size of your emails any larger than necessary. Do not include graphical backgrounds or other images unless pertinent to the discussion, and send plain text messages. This is especially helpful to members who have nearly full mailboxes.
• Do not feel hurt if you don't get a quick response to a request for help. The people who know the most are also usually the busiest. Allow time for your mail to be answered. We live in different time zones, all around the world. Due to higher priorities (God, family, work), members might drop out of conversation for a while. We might even have to reluctantly delete unread letters. Please don't take this personally.
  
• DO be a support for others.
• DO ask for support in search of answers to your questions, tips, advice, graphics you need, JavaScripts, etc.
• DO try to research the answers yourself first. Webmasters are mostly self-taught. If you do ask a question and then find the answer somewhere else, please come back to us and share it. And when you see a question that intrigues you, take a minute to do some research to help yourself and others.
• DO provide enough details to give others good clues about what kind of help you need. Consider:
  - Have you done everything on your own to find the answer? Have you included the partial answer you found?
  - Have you included all pertinent information, including what you're sure is not the answer?
  - Have you searched the GNWDA website or the e-group's archives for a past answer?
• DO participate at least once in a while. Most lists are 90% "lurkers" who never contribute, but read to learn. The remaining 10% ask AND answer questions. It's okay to be a lurker, but if you know any answers to questions asked, please get involved.
  
• DO form friendships.
• DO take the time to care... Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.
• DO pray for each other, but leave out doctrinal differences that make our denominational separations obvious.
• DO remember that webmasters are a busy bunch. Please don't inundate everyone's mailboxes with nice but loose chatter, such as "me too" and "thanks". Do give the affirmation, although privately -- watch who's in the TO field of your reply! Some personal replies made publicly are okay, as they help build familiarity and community bonding, but on days when there are lots of other emails flying around, please be respectful of those who don't need to see non-webwork chit-chat.
  
• DO give email writers the benefit of doubt if they seem to say something hurtful. Emails simply do not do their messages good justice, because we can't see the smile on the writer's face or the twinkle of friendliness in their eyes. However, if you still believe that the writer was being unChristian, tell the moderator privately about it instead mentioning it to the whole group.
  
• DO give requested feedback publicly even when it's meant for only one person, because it might benefit others.
• DO use plain text instead of html-coded fonts to help keep the file size of emails small, so that the digests are mailed out less frequently, especially on days when there's a lot of discussion.
  
• DO share graphics or documents as attachments, BUT ONLY when this is useful for others or when asking for input about them.
  

We are here to minister to one another.
Lord, help us to look past the words
and past the names
and see Your precious face
smiling with great love.
May we be Jesus for one another
and see Jesus in each other.
May we look beyond whatever divides us
and be the Body of Christ
in the unity of our common love.
Amen!

Thank you!
Terry Modica
GNWDA founder