Stepping Toes 2015 in review

Posted on 2016/01/13 by Christadelphians

WordPress for you and me

There are a huge amount of articles on the internet to find. We are happy that we can use Word Press were also many people try to place their word. It is an incredible fact: together, those bloggers published more than 660 million posts on WordPress.com in 2015, and made more than 655 million comments.

That’s a whole lot of joy, laughter, tears, insight, and thoughtfulness. And it’s just one part of a huge global community of people — WordPress now powers more than 25% of the internet — with interests ranging from the news shaping our world to personal stories that shape our own families and lives.

Bloggers and their issues

On this site and on our other sites for sure we shall not be able to receive as many viewers several bloggers may receive on theirs. Our subjects are of lesser interest. We do know it is not always good to compare with others, but as human beings we also are sensible for that. On this site and on From Guestwriters we may also talk about the serious and the mundane, the silly and the sorrowful. Marriage, parenthood, love, differences, divisions, and identity may be subjects you might find on this site and From Guestwriters as well on the Ecclesia site and the Brethren site. On this site there is not much place for the very popular subjects, like sports, movies, television, showbiz, entertainment and politics. Sometimes love, romance, and much more often inner feelings may find some place here and on our sibling From Guestwriters.

Xanga and two new readers digests.

On 28 September 2011 we started on Xanga to present some controversial themes. For some readers when Xanga closed down and found us on WordPress it could have been a revisiting. Two years after our start on Xanga we came to Word Press on October 2013. On this New Platform for us, we hoped to continue in the same way as on Xanga, presenting a readers digest of interesting material around religion and spiritual matters. We created this platform to bring more difficult issues and we present From Guestwriters to bring more social news and family related issues as well offering there a choice of what we could find interesting on the WordPress blogs and on selected material from the huge amount of publications on the internet, with the intention of bringing also some positive news in this world were there is a lot of suffering.

On this site eyes directed to the Master Creator

We took 2015 to look at religion, as usual, and looked at this world with or without religion and with or without a god or The God, wondering also why so many think there has to be a competition between those religions.

Once again the past year we had to come to the conclusion that there are many churches without faith. For that reason we wanted to continue our work of preaching and showing people that there are still several lovers of God and seekers and lovers of truth.

Gretchen Kelly of Drifting Through may think that

There is no After – happily ever or otherwise. There is only today. Just today – During.

on “The Thing All Women Do That You Don’t Know About.” But we showed that even when there is no such thing of ourselves what people call ‘soul‘ that would continue to live when we die, we are convinced and hope to bring you to see, that we have reason enough to believe our hope in a later life is grounded in promises which will come true. We wrote that there is a more than great God to look for, Who promised a “heaven on earth” and had a short series on the mortal soul and mortal psyche.

To come to see what those promises are we pointed out to that Book of books which tells everything. We also looked at an anarchistic reading of the Bible. and at this and at our newest baby site ‘Messiah for All‘ we showed that nothing in the Bible has to exclude science. Yes a scientist has enough reason also to believe in God. Also an historian has enough reason to believe God’s Word, but he will be worried more, because he or she shall understand the predictions in the Bible and shall see the connection with what is going on now. Many people may perhaps also see that we are entering a new period of cold war. We all should see what happens in the region or land of Euphrates and Tigris. It is very important that people come to understanding from sayings written long ago.

With the Bible at hand we continue to show you and our readers that we have a sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man. In a year when it is still possible that girls can do anything that boys do but sometimes it turns out that they get killed for it {The story of “A Senseless Death,” from don of all trades.} on this site and on From Guestwriters we want to bring such anomalies in the news and have people think about it. In 2015 some people tried it to make impossible for parents to have their children growing up in a certain religious way. In the Middle East was there a oppression group which forced its own beliefs to all around. The problem with them is that they managed to get some Westerners to believe that what they say is in their holy scriptures, the Quran, though it is not and often contrary to what is written in it (like the abusing and killing of children, burning of the Quran and mosques, etc.)

In the year that Muslims denied the Jewish claim to the temple mount, we looked at Pascal’s possibility and the scientific evidence for God. We also continued to show were people go wrong in their thinking about the person of God and about God His son, whom we consider our Messiah. Closing the year we looked at that man, his skull and his skin and how certain pagan elements entered Christendom and still keep many Christians celebrating the birth of Christ on an other day than he is born, and how a framework and vehicle for Christian scholasticism and loss of confidence has been created.

Writings, happenings, perspectives, ciphers, visitors and viewers

Up to December the 29th 387 articles were published of which 77 were published this year, having this site looked at 3,200 times.

At our other sites we looked more at the tragedy of the EU refugee crisis. For sure 2016 shall bring that refugee crisis often in the picture. Also the ones who want to force all thinking and handling in the same way shall come more often in the news with their acts of terror.

We do hope we shall be able on this site and on From Guestwriters to show the community how important it is that we keep an open mind to all sort of people and all sorts of believes. With others who write on WordPress, we like to come together to uplift each other. Following attacks in Paris and Beirut, WordPress.com bloggers offered unique perspectives on what happened around the world in 2015:

“Most never thought they’d be in this position.”

—From Lionel Beehner’s visit to the Zaatari refugee camp. More blogs featured in “On the Run: Blogging the European Refugee Crisis.”

We don’t have to be united. We don’t have to agree. We don’t always have to “stand together,” even. That’s precisely what makes us strong, and that’s precisely what makes our way of life worth defending.

—Drew Messinger-Michaels (Everybody’s Talking at Once) on the Paris attacks. Featured in “Don’t Be Who ISIS Wants You to Be”: Bloggers on Paris and Beirut.

This is a day for celebrating equal treatment by the law, and equal recognition by the state.

—Lela Urquhart, at Tropics of Meta, on the history of marriage. Featured in the roundup “#LoveWins! LGBTQ Bloggers Make Their Voices Heard.”

We could reach 75 countries in all with this site and do hope in the coming years to reach more people in more countries.
Most visitors came from The United States (2314). United Kingdom (141) & Netherlands (117) were not far behind. Belgium with only 61 viewers come far behind. Australia with 101 did even better.

For 2016 we shall continue our way trying to bring people closer to the Only One True God. We also shall try to show people that they do not have to change their own ‘I’ when becoming a Christian. On this site and on our sibling site From Guestwriter we shall try to get people not to neglect to live their life, but to make it fit in accordance with the ordinances of the Most High Almighty God. As the teacher Junah writes

We spend too much time to copy the life of others. Try to live life according to what you like. You have your own identity to showcase in the stage of life. {There is Life}

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Find also to read

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Stepping Toes 2014 in review

Posted on 2015/01/01 by Marcus Ampe

For the Belgian Christadelphians 2014 was not the ideal year. But it was not a a year they consider waisted and where they waited and wanted to see how everything went without doing something new.

Having transferred Stepping Toes from Xanga to WordPress, we had to start all over again and continued in the same way we had done on Xanga, though did not find so many articles of like minded people to reblog. We had also invited many Christadelphians to join us here on WordPress but shamefully did not receive many positive replies. We regret that there have not yet presented many volunteers to help preaching the Good News.

Also for the new lifestyle magazine From Guestwriters there have not many people presented themselves to help to bring more awareness into this world or to talk about life matters. We also had hoped some photographers would have be willing to share their work to show the beauty of nature, the creation which more people should come to respect more.

Perhaps the received 3100 viewers for the 228 posts in the first year of From Guestwriters can convince others to join the team to reach even more people.

As founder of the lifestyle magazines Stepping Toes and From Guestwriters, I came to close down my other foundation Bijbelvorsers, Vereniging voor Bijbelestudie, Bible Scholars the association for Bible Study, because it turned out always to be the same persons to be doing all the work and not really many interested to put their hands out of the sleeves. Though I still believe in the free sharing and of the necessity of giving our values and assets also to others I was negatively surprised to find that not many are really willing to take up the action of sharing for nothing in return. Our society is still so directed to speak in terms of money and personal gain that we still have to go a long way before we can find enough people willing to share what they have with others for free or for not asking anything in return.

For this website Stepping Toes

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Having most visitors came from the United States, Australia & U.K. were not far behind, we only received 330 visitors from Holland and only 223 viewers from Belgium, the country we are based.

Our busiest day of the year for Stepping Toes was March 20th with 59 views. The most popular post that day was Reblog: Happy International Happiness Day!.

For 2014, having not so many people willing to contribute we only had 156 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 307 posts or 310 on December 30. For a Christian blog about not such easy subjects it is perhaps not bad, but to be honest, we could not be so happy, because we would have loved to have found many more contributors.

We also did not manage to get many followers, though at one time we had 56 but got it fast reduced to 16 when we spoke about the Holy Trinity. Now we are back to 51 followers.
We are thankful for those who followed us from the early hours, like Clay J Mize who is our longest member, 1 year, 2 months, with ethicsbeyondcompliance, The Semifeminist, Kendall F. Person, thepublicblogger, Raluca Stoica, The CoF, AConservativeEdge, Joxua Luxor and purpleraysblog

We are grateful for those who clicked on the ‘Like’ button or shared a link to one of our articles on Facebook or Twitter which brought us 128 and 41 readers respectively.

We are also thankful we could get 27 extra views by referrals from Tasmedes.wordpress.com: Taede A. Smedes and 20 views from James Paulgaard his WordPress site:Farewell to Shadowlands.

He like us, does know that there is a better future coming and how we need to prepare so that we are ready to get on board when it comes. At the moment it is really a shame that we do not see more Christians involved in sharing the Good News. Like the author of People Get Ready writes:

We want, with every fibre of our being, to fully engage with the mission of Jesus Christ. We want all people everywhere to come to life through faith in Jesus Christ. This means, as we seek to engage with the mission of Jesus Christ, that everything is on the table.

What we are going to have to face is too important to ignore or to let it in the shadow.

It’s not about you or me and what we like. It’s about the missio Dei, God’s mission of saving people from an eternity of condemnation and suffering apart from God and bringing them to a life of meaning, purpose and joy with Jesus that will last forever. God’s mission has a church that exists to carry out that mission. If we abandon our mission, we lose our reason to exist.

Today there are still too many Christians who think once saved always saved and that they do not have to do any works. They forget that faith without works is dead. We may find lots of readers and people in our ecclesia who believe that Jesus existed, that he died or even that he was risen; but are they willing to show their love and show their works of faith? We do know that by works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And through the faith in Jesus people should follow his teachings and orders, like going out into the world to preach the gospel of the coming Kingdom. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,we should show others our faith in him and live according our faith (= a work)

( Habakuk 2:4; Romans 2:13; 3:20-22; Timothy 1:14; Galatians 2:16; 3:11 +)

“17 Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. 18 {1} Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from [thy] works, and I by my works will show thee [my] faith. {1) Or [But some one will say]} 19 Thou believest that {1} God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder. {1) Some ancient authorities read [there is one God]} 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 {1} Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; {1) Or [Seest thou…perfect?]} 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, {1} And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; {2} and he was called the friend of God. {1) Ge 15:6. 2) Isa 41:8; 2 Ch 20:7} 24 Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. 25 And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:17-26 ASV)

“Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to {1} maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men: {1) Or [profess honest occupations]}” (Titus 3:8 ASV)

We would like to see many others joining in doing such good work of preaching and sowing plus showing others the way to God.

We did try to do our best to reach more people and got the most views in 2014 for following articles:

1 Christianity without the Trinity 11 comments February 2014
2 Ian Barbour connecting science and religion 6 comments January 2014
3 Marriage of Jesus 1 Mary, John, Judas, Thomas and Brown 10 comments May 2014
4 All Souls’ Day 6 comments October 2014
5 Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh 7 comments May 2014

Hopefully these results shall be able to inspire others to join us and to be active preaching people on Stepping Toes or on From Guestwriters. We could do with some help in the preaching-work, soplease do not hesitate to become a contributor.

Click here to see the complete report.

Help us to get on the right track and carrying enough good articles to as many people as possible. -Subway tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Find also:

From Guestwriters 2014 in review

Additional reading:

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Tenentrappers

Posted on 2013/10/08 by Marcus Ampe

Image via CrunchBase

Enkele jaren geleden werden de Christadelphians geconfronteerd met het feit dat zij op verscheiden Xanga websites dingen lazen die niet in overeenstemming waren met de waarheid of zeker een reactie vereisten. Men kon echter enkel reageren op dat platform als men lid was van Xanga. Na lang twijfelen besloten wij uiteindelijk ons aan te sluiten en vervolgens ook een Xanga website te maken waarbij wij uiting gaven aan onze ‘reactionaire instelling’, bij wijze van spreken. Wij wilden niet echt tegendraads zijn, maar mits wij zo veel websites tegen kwamen waarop wij moesten reageren en misschien op hun tenen trappen, besloten wij de fotoachtergrond van stappende voeten ook in de tittel van de site op te nemen waaruit “Stepping toes” geboren werd.

Na de confrontatie van de teloorgang van Multiply en de noodzaak om de vele artikelen van Bijbelonderzoekers en Christadelphians terug op het net beschikbaar te brengen, werden wij nu nogmaals geconfronteerd meet het verliezen van enkele artikelen die geplaatst waren op Xanga.

Omdat het niet lukte die artikelen te integreren op de Blogger site Christadelphian World of een nieuw aangemaakte Bloggersite hebben wij uiteindelijk geprobeerd de teksten op een WordPress site beschikbaar te maken. Hier zijn wij dan!

Nu al dat werk moest verricht worden vroeg ik mij af of wij hier geen nieuw platform voor bevraging in opmerkingen konden waar maken. Een plek waar opvallende gebeurtenissen voor het voetlicht konden gebracht worden en waar tegenstrijdige dingen konden besproken en wie weet uitgeklaard worden.

Wij zullen de kat uit de boom zien en afwachten welk een bezoekersresultaten wij kunnen verwerven met onze apart geplaatste artikelen, die niet echt op onze Ecclesia site passen, waar eigenlijk aandacht wordt gegeven aan wat er in de gemeenschap en in de dienst wordt besproken of samen gaat met de Bijbellezingen van die periode.

Met de Multiplysites dachten wij ook eerst een Transfer website geopend te hebben op Blogger maar spoedig bleek dat die nieuwe wegzetplaats beter een eigen zelfstandig leven kon gaan leiden. Al de vele samengebrachte artikelen lokken voorlopig ook de meeste lezers per dag. Alsook geeft het ons de gelegenheid te linken naar artikelen daar zonder dat er telkens een ‘backlink’ wordt geplaatst.

Met Stepping Toes zal het zeker wel niet zo een vaart lopen; Het betreft trouwens maar een handvol (15) overgenomen artikelen. Maar indien het de moeite waard zou zijn om hier ook reacties op het wereldgebeuren te plaatsen of liefst in de toekomst meerdere schrijvers hier aan het werk te zien, zou dat fijn zijn en het waard maken om Stepping Toes een nieuwe levensfase te laten in gaan.

Hetgeen wij hier aan het woord willen laten komen zal hoe dan ook steeds gerelateerd kunnen worden naar de wereld, de plaats waar wij vertoeven en het beste moeten trachten te maken van ons en anderen hun leven. Hier willen wij ook een halttoe roepen aan al het negativisme maar ook aan onze maatschappij die iedereen een bepaald uniform wil aanpassen en bij zovelen doet verlangen dat zij toch maar in het juiste kadertje zouden passen. De sociale netwerken helpen daar sterk aan mee om mensen te verblinden en in de luren te leggen en om werelden voor te leggen die niet zo zijn. Hoe velen doen zich op hun Facebookpagina’s niet beter voor dan dat zij werkelijk zijn en gebuirken de sociale media om te pochen en hun droomwerleldje als de ‘goede wereld’ voor te stellen?

Wij geloven er sterk in dat iedereen in de wereld zijn steentje kan bijdragen om tot een betere gemeenschap te geraken. Het zijn de hersenspinsels van de mensen die maken dat zij op bepaalde manieren gaan handelen. Dat denken en handelen kan door anderen ook gestuurd of geleid worden, tot zelfs verandert worden. Vaak beseffen mensen niet wat een macht zij in zich zelf hebben om toch veranderingen voor het goede te bewerkstelligen.
De negativiteit die wij rondom ons zien hoeft niet het geheel te verbrodden. Als wij de leugens en ongerechtigheden vrij laten gebeuren zullen die negatieve elementen verder woekeren als onkruid. In ons hebben wij de juiste middelen om er ons tegen te beschermen maar ook om er ons tegen te verweren en het te vernietigen, ook al zal het moeilijk zijn om het uit te roeien. Onkruid vergaat niet, en zo is het ook gesteld met de negativiteit in de wereld. Natuurlijk onkruid heeft echter haar naam slecht gekregen, daar deze kruiden wel voor veel goeds kunnen bezorgen in thees, oplossingen en medicamenten. Wat eerst zo negatief lijkt in de natuur kan dus ook wel eens goed voor ons zijn. Zo ook is het met wat op het eerste zicht verschrikkelijk kan lijken of ruikt naar ketterij. Meerdna eenszal men kunnen verstomd staan dat datgene waar men eerst negatief tegenover stond of zelfs eerst tegen vocht, misschien wel dat goede kan zijn. Daarom is het essentieel om alles grondig te onderzoeken en voor nader onderzoek bloot te leggen. Dat is dan ook wat wij graag op deze site willen doen.

Wij danken de lezers die de weg naar hier gevonden hebben en een kijkje willen nemen in ons artikelen aanbod op deze en andere websites. Zij zullen kunnen merken dat wij niet enkel naar artikelen van onze denominatie zullen linken , maar ook open staan om andere denkers en schrijvers aan het woord te laten.

Hopelijk zullen ook meerdere mensen hier een woordje willen mee delen met anderen.

Vindt om te lezen:

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Special Insight # 11 – Je gedachten maken wie je bent (slideshare.net)
Pers en social media een mooi huwelijk (slideshare.net)
Daily Prompt | Bookwurms (nathalieblogt.wordpress.com)
from xanga to wordpress… an aside… (hunt4truth.wordpress.com)
Starting New (skangs.wordpress.com)
Migration (xcbobby06.wordpress.com)
Testing.. (traclin.wordpress.com)
Things I wouldn’t ever wear (thebeautynary.wordpress.com)

New platform for Stepping Toes

Posted on 2013/10/08 by Marcus Ampe

Image via CrunchBase

On 2011/09/28 the Christadelphians could not stand it any more they had to face the many untrue sayings on Xanga websites without having the possibility to react. For that reason the Christadelphians became also a member of Xanga and started with their own pages on that platform. “Stepping toes” came into existence. It did not refer to the 1938 British musical film directed by John Baxter starring Hazel Ascot, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Jack Barty, made by Two Cities Films. Though having the ambition to become a tap dancer requires also lots of guts. {Film Stepping Toes} Today it may demand guts, nerves, spunk, grit and courage, to say what you think and it requires patience and discipline to be able to discuss about dissension. To accept discord is not so easy any more in our current environment. Peaceful disagreement is something weird for many. Though it should be possible to be is discord and to discuss it peacefully. And that is what that platform wanted to offer. It did not want to sow discord but wanted to solve the battle between those who did not like each others ideas or where there was a disproportionate situation.

Last Sunday they were surprised to note that their site could not be reached any more because Xanga had stopped giving her free service to bloggers. Some time ago Multiply also had stopped providing the free service of having webpages and groups, but they at least warned in time their writers and readers that they were planning to shut down the Multiply formula of free blogging.

On Sunday I tried to transfer the Xanga writings from the Christadelphian Xanga site unto the Blogger site “Christadelphian World” but could not succeed. I also tried than to make a new ‘Stepping Toes’ in blogger and to transfer the XML files in there, but that did not succeed either. Therefore I tried to place them in WordPress and got them here where you can find us now.

Having the writings standing open to the public on this seperate blog is a testcase to see how many people we get to these sometimes, for many, controversial writings and to see if it be worthwhile to bring more writings about subjects where there is a lot of debate going on, or which seem to be strange in our world. For example having the Catholic Church in Belgium forbidding the priest to bring prayer services and Eucharistic services (masses) is other places than the churchbuilding of the Roman Catholic Church. I would call that Sunday October 6 news a controversial idea, having a religious organisation claiming to have all rights on the place of prayer.

So it may be others threading on someone’s toes or we ringing a bell about a certain situation in the world which should receive our attention. It may be a political as well as a religious matter. There are many things in the world we should not let go unnoticed. Though some may think when we talk or discus those things which happens in the world we are politically active, which according them would not be allowed, we would say that we do live in this world and are part of it and should protect all those without a voice (like plants and animals) and those who dare or can not speak, the poor ones and those in need. We also should come up for the Creation of the Most High and make sure that people will get to know who is behind it all. The world may be in denial but alert people not. We should guard against malpractices and wrong-sayings and keep a watchful eye on the development of this world.

We would like to bring a wake-up call and in our spryness be on the watchtower to look out for the promised one coming back.

For some it may look strange we also put quotes from people and links to organisations who may not think like us, but we do believe in open-mindedness and open dialogue. We are also not thinking we alone do have all the truth and we are aware nobody can know everything. But we believe we can learn from everybody and from everything. So we do have our eyes and ears open to what is said and done in this world, where we would like to see as many people as possible living together in peace.

It is not because we may irritates some people with our thoughts that we would like to go into a battle with that person. Our aim is to let everybody see that there may be different viewpoints in the world, but that they may live peacefully together in the same community.

May we express the hope we shall be able to encounter many interesting people with different viewpoints, who do not mind to share their ideas in a peaceful manner, hoping that every other person shall be able to grow with respect and shall get more insight how others think and in what they say and mean.

We shall see how it works out and how we can stimulate each other to look more in details and to explore the rest of the world.

We thank all those people who do not mind to take time to read our musings and are also thankful to those who do not mind to share their thoughts.

Hoping you may like to be with us, we look forward to your return.

God bless.

Of interest:

We do not have any pictures of the old Xanga website,
nor from the first try out or essay on WordPress.
From the Aumn 2013 Stepping Toes went on line as:

Xanga now runs on WordPress (poststat.us)
Xanga is one of the oldest hosted blogging platforms out there. This summer, they embarked on a crowd-funding campaign to reboot the platform, with a goal of porting everything to WordPress.
Moving is Never Easy… (mjk1221.wordpress.com)
I knew years ago that Xanga was a gamble to keep blogging on when blogging took its nosedive and Blogger and WordPress emerged. Either of them were a solid choice, but I was being stubborn since I’ve been on Xanga since my high school days (Sept 20, 2003 was my first post) and far before either ever became popular. Consistency, right? Well, Xanga has converted to Xanga 2.0 and though I could keep blogging there, it’s going to be a while for them to get it up and running and I could sign-up for Premium (only $48 for a year), but I figure I’ll start migrating myself somewhere else.
Constructing an Identity: New Media and “Becoming-other” (jasonorous.wordpress.com)
New Media platforms are considerably trendy and multiform in today’s world. No matter where you go on the Web, if you stumble upon something newsworthy (read current), you are likely able to share whatever that is on a variety of linked social media websites. Here I have already invoked the term ‘social media,’ which I think can be used synonymously with new media. Although, the term ‘New Media’ can mean different things to different people, depending on the media’s function.
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With little interest in congruency where that was concerned, I began to compulsively use LiveJournal in an attempt to come to self-knowledge in a world that did not make any sense to me. My LiveJournal account has since become a hideous intrigue, being the only testament to my teenage years which still exists online.
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Furthermore, I was active on a ProBoards forum a friend set up, where a group of twenty of us or so talked about books, religion, philosophy, and engaged in a nerdy role-play where each of us added a fantasy narrative onto a friend’s preceding post (I shouldn’t have to mention this, but the goal was literary; not sexual…). However, this was a peripheral activity for me, overshadowed by how much time I spent on LiveJournal.
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MySpace (as LiveJournal had been before it) was just as existentially jarring to me as it was liberating. Here was somewhere I could be myself without the fear of rejection or alienation. I could experiment and channel ideas through my mental framework which felt empowering, but it was all essentially a facade for my undeveloped real self. Needless to say, homecoming was an abysmal failure, and so was dropping out of school, for
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Rheingold says regarding cyberspace, “the most obvious identity swindles will die out only when enough people learn to use the medium critically.” Therefore, let us hope that future digital natives (especially those inclined to certain dispositions like myself) have the proper wisdom imparted to them so they may regard technology critically, as something to be used meaningfully and without troublesome consequences.
Xanga fights for its life with crowdfunding bid (dailydot.com)
For more than a dozen years—an eon in digital terms—Xanga has been revamping and reformatting itself. It has mutated from a site to share book and movie reviews into a blogging platform that eventually added social profiles, video/photo/audio uploading, and Pulse, a “miniblog” feature accessible by cellphone.
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If this sounds hopelessly convoluted and fairly unenticing in a world where people connect via Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram for free, that’s because it is. Saving Xanga this way would be, at best, a Sisyphean task. How long can one keep pushing that boulder up the hill?
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The alternative option, as outlined on the Crowdhoster page, seems much more attractive: offer everyone a free download of their own blog posts, then pull the plug with some dignity left intact.
xanga? (superdedooper.wordpress.com)

Stepping toes {revisited}

Posted on 2011/09/28 by Christadelphians

Image via CrunchBase

Hallo Xanga world and Xanga members. {This was our heading on the in 2013 defunct Xanga site}

As serious Bible Students and Brothers in Christ we could not react to certain writings on Xanga, because we had to be a member. Some writings on the Xanga sites could use some reactions from outside. To be able to react we made at last the step and came over the threshold.

Probably not many articles shall we publish over here, {we wrote on 2011 September 28} because we have already to put in enough energy and time in the other websites. (Though you never know.)

In Dutch “Op de tenen stappen” or “Stepping on the toes” can be “to thread on a person’s toes” or making that somebody carries a chip on the shoulder.

We do hope that our visitors would not be to quickly to take offence. But we know that certain ideas we keep to are not favoured by so many. First of all do we love and honor only One God, who we want to address to with His Name. And that Name is one which frightens a lot of people.

People are easily put out when they hear whom we adhere.

But we are also sure that the die is been cast and that we have come in a special time were it is more important to share our love to the whole world, like our Masterteacher Jesus/Jeshua, the Messiah did. The man we do like to follow on this earth not only wanted that everybody knew his Father, he also proclaimed the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God and wanted that all his followers went out into the world to bring that Evangelion of good Tidings.

You could say that nobody can quarrel with such good news that Jesus of Nazareth brought, but as the world went against him so they were not pleased either with his followers.

The logo of the blogging software WordPress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now we pitch our own tents here also on this Xanga Group {and now on WordPress} we do hope we shall find enough spirits eager to share their ideas and to welk along on the long road to … Tipperary and beyond. happy

Most of our writings you can find at our other web pages, to which we would like to invite you:

Our main site: Belgian Christadelphians

Christadelphia

Christadelphian Ecclesia

Christadelphians Multiply

Bijbelonderzoekers

Broeders in Christus on WordPress

Hoop tot Leven | Redding door Christus Jezus

Hope to find you there also. heart

+++

2013 October update:

Problem with free of charge websites, like Multiply, Webs and Xanga, is that they suddenly quit with giving it for free and demand money to continue the service, getting you for a dilemma to start all over again and for loosing lots of work done on the internet creating CSS and HTML!

Now we transfer some of the writings from Xanga onto WordPress we shall look into the matter if it would be not worth to bring further shocking news-facts for discussion, like this weekend (5-6 October 2013) the Roman Catholic Church forbidding its priests in Belgium to do services in other buildings than church buildings. According to the Belgian Cardinals only in the church may be prayed publicly. In future at cremation no prayer service may be held at the crematorium any more and people would have to hold an extra service in church if they want a Catholic service. Such thing could have us wondering and would perhaps be worthwhile to bring on this platform.

For those who think it to be good to write, to think themselves and to let others think and to request some meditation, we would like to offer a platform where thoughts can be shared. Reactions may be given and ideas about subjects are welcome.

Those who made a circle of friends and readers on Xanga, probably have to start all over again and will have to look for each other again on the net and in the bloggosphere. Hopefully those who look for like-minded souls will also find other interesting webpages to hold track off. May we express the hope that some ex-Xanga members may find us also on the WordPress pages and like to continue to follow us here.

Goodbye Xanga (germcookies.wordpress.com)
So, in the past when I needed to blog and reach out I always used Xanga, and I Thought I had purchased a lifetime membership, but I guess that membership didn’t transfer to Xanga 2.0 so, I guess today I am starting a new blog here on WordPress because I need to write, I need to process life and while I am bummed about losing so many of my old friends maybe a new start is just what I need now too.
So, no more Xanga. (steph123098.wordpress.com)
Xanga went on this whole “XANGA 2.0″ kick where it’s moved to WordPress….but you have to pay to use it.
+
Right now “free” WP is operating at a higher level that “paid” Xanga…not a good business move for them until they can correct that…or perhaps I should say “if”. =)
Xanga stuff (integrityhell666.wordpress.com)
Xanga transitioned my blog to WordPress even though I didn’t pay for that whole membership thing. I forgot I was premium for life – a big Xanga mistake business wise in my opinion.
+
You are aware there is no more lifetime membership, right? Your blog may be imported over but you will not be able to use it until you pay $48 per year.+
Anita said: Because I was free for a couple of years, all my stuff is locked up in the ether until I pay up. Which is fine by me. I downloaded my archives after my final post.
The move. (peterjbyun.wordpress.com)
So pretty much xanga decided it was time for a makeover and went along and made xanga 2.0 much to my dismay. Long story short, all my previous blog posts had to be imported and I am now a wordpress user.
Damn Xanga. (someonessally.wordpress.com)
I might upload my archives from Xanga, but since most people probably won’t care to read all that whiny depressed backstory stuff from my adolescence, I think I’ll just stick to having a fresh start.
Since Xanga Got Ruined, Here I Am! 🙂 (mcbery.com)
I guess there’s always time for a fresh start. Had to bury a cousin yesterday and now it seems I may have to bury Xanga. Sad. All the pictures I had on Xanga are buried somewhere too.
Welcome aboard, Carlette! (carlettes.wordpress.com)
I just imported my previous articles from Xanga since it was upgraded to 2.0 and that, it’s not a free blog anymore.So, I hope that my followers from my former blog site will be able to find me here. I’m seriously crossing my fingers now. He-he-he!
Hello, WordPress. (emeraldz12.wordpress.com)
So Xanga. I loved Xanga. But they were going to charge me to upgrade my blog to WordPress. Which I just did myself, in a few minutes, for free. Sorry, Xanga. I will miss you. And the friends I followed since 2004.
Second time around… (garlicbreadtwo.wordpress.com)
Since I refuse to pay for Xanga 2.0, my Xanga was not transferred to the new servers.
+
I spent so much time on the CSS and HTML of my xanga and now it’s gone!!

Hallo

Posted on 2011/09/28 by Christadelphians

Hi everyone! I’m just getting started on Xanga… Drop me a comment if you’ve got some ideas on what to do first – or just to say, “Hi!”

Image via CrunchBase

This Xanga site got transferred to a WordPress site under the direction of the Belgian Christadelphians in October 2013.

***

A pity we do not have a photograph of the old site.
From the Autumn 2013 Stepping toes goes through life as:

+++

Xanga vs WordPress (infinitymadness2.wordpress.com)
You know what I love about WordPress? How easy it is to meet new bloggers! On Xanga, I would occasionally pick up a new blog here and there, occasionally being the key word. It wasn’t as easy to find people to read, follow or read your stuff, because of the way it was setup.
Why start a new one? (siuyujolin.wordpress.com)
Well, now that I can’t use xanga any more… I realized how I’ve been using xanga as an outlet.
I don’t know if this is something I will keep up with, but as least for the time being, I have somewhere to say what I want to say.
Xanga to WordPress! (corijthonen.wordpress.com)
New platform for Stepping Toes (steppingtoes.wordpress.com)
hallo usfb world (olineusfb.wordpress.com)
Hallo Welt, hello world (stefanplaysguitar.wordpress.com)
Let’s Get Real (hollytwopointzero.wordpress.com)
Hallo. Hallo. (mixedbagzurich.wordpress.com)

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Stepping Toes

Things said on this site possibly can upset someone

Tag Archives: Xanga

Stepping Toes 2015 in review

WordPress for you and me

Bloggers and their issues

Xanga and two new readers digests.

On this site eyes directed to the Master Creator

Writings, happenings, perspectives, ciphers, visitors and viewers

Find also to read

Further reading

Tenentrappers

Vindt om te lezen:

New platform for Stepping Toes

Stepping toes {revisited}

2013 October update:

Hallo

WordPress for you and me

Bloggers and their issues

Xanga and two new readers digests.

On this site eyes directed to the Master Creator

Writings, happenings, perspectives, ciphers, visitors and viewers

Find also to read

Further reading

Related articles

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***

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2013 October update:

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