Further suggestions re emailing:

1.. I’m getting an email a day from various African sources wanting to ‘transfer’ millions of dollars out of their countries. Be careful!!!! 2.. Figure out an email address that is spam-proof. For example, my Yahoo address is – no junk mail. My Hotmail address – – only junk mail!!! I’ve just activated a new hotmail account, with a_rcroucher as the sign-in name, and the junk filter set to ‘high’ (why didn’t I do this before?). We’ll wait and see. c.. Why not adopt a missionary or two to encourage by email? (Be careful, however: one of the missionaries I communicate with in China has issued some careful guidelines to her emailing friends!)

d.. Put something personal in the subject-line. If you leave it blank, or use ‘general’ words, your recipient my delete it, thinking it’s spam! EMAIL LISTS On one of the lists I subscribe to a pastor sent out this plea for help: ‘I am searching for a hymn that is often sung by mariners and I need it in time for a funeral early this afternoon. I know it is in the Australian Hymn Book and that one verse concludes “for those in peril on the sea”.

I was online at the time, and within one minute he had this response: ‘Eternal Father Strong to Save’…

See http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/questions/eternal.html

Tip: When looking for _anything_ in terms of Concordance, Dictionary, words from hymns etc. put the words into Google, then an identifier (in this case ‘hymn’ – without quotes).

E-ZINES. For example Dick Innes – http://www.actsweb.org

COPYRIGHT

Helpful note from a Net friend: ‘You can quote a book without the author’s permission, but it has to be a small quote and only for specific purposes. You can’t just take big hunks of text and re-publish them, of course. Also, newsgroup postings are not “public domain”. They are certainly publicly readable, but that doesn’t mean they escape being covered by the Berne Convention (of which Australia is a member). Written works are copyrightedthe moment they are fixed in tangible form, and a news posting is certainly tangible. In Australia, there are no means of “registering” copyright such as they have in the United States, so anything written in Australia by an Australian is, under Australian and international law, copyrighted automatically.

The only exception to this is if the author specifically and knowingly releases all rights to the work or it has been more than (I think) seventy years since publication. As for Google, it’s entirely possible to get Google NOT to archive your post when you make it. There’s a header you can put in: X-No-Archive and if Google encounters that header, it won’t archive the post. Some news software has an automatic option that you can tick if you want that header added to your post. Therefore, it could be said that if the author of the post has included that header, the post should NOT be archived anywhere, without the author’s permission prior to archiving it.

Other than that, it is an ethical and moral grey area. I’ve always been one to err on the side of “if in doubt, leave it out” and I don’t republish others’ stuff unless I have license to do so. I don’t want people circulating my material (written and otherwise) without my consent or out of context or whatever, so I just follow the “do unto others thing”. > :-)’ [End of friend’s quote].

I’ve now got into the habit (since privacy conscientisation/awareness) of leaving out email addresses of people who submit articles for our website. When all this started I don’t think there were bots that raided websites and lists for email addresses. We now know better 🙁

I have twelve published books. To satisfy copyright requirements I’ve acceded to the publishers’ requests to put a copyright notice in them. But I now hold the copyright to these books, and am delighted for anyone to pinch anything they want, with or without acknowledgment, provided that if they put my name on it it’s ‘copied right’! Same with stuff I’ve written on our website. I believe that to copyright any of my writings is against God’s will for me, but I freely acknowledge a different stance by others, and will respect their wishes in this regard.

An injunction which has meant a lot to me is the biblical exhortation ‘Freely you have received, freely give!’

g.. GLOSSARY

Code of Ethics for Christian Internet-users: see http://jmm.org.au/articles/9783.htm

“Netspeak” includes dozens of universally understood abbreviations and acronyms:

Common abbreviations: AFAIK = as far as I know, b4 = before, brb = be right back, btw = by the way, CC = carbon copy, FAQ = frequently asked questions, hth = hope that helps, IIRC = if I recall correctly, IYSWIM = if you see what I mean, imho = in my humble opinion (imnsho = in my not so humble opinion!), iow = in other words, jic = just in case, lo = hello, LOL = laughing out loud, ROTFL = Rolling on the floor laughing, TANSTAAFL = There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Common Net terms:

Emoticons: e.g. a smiley : – ), or a frown : – (

Flaming: sharp attack aimed at someone.

Troll: Comes from the verb “to troll,” which means to fish by trailing a baited line from behind a slowly moving boat. A troll is someone who makes a post deliberately intended to generate more heat than light, baiting readers and seeing who will respond intemperately.

Spamming: where the same message is sent to many newsgroups, some of which have little or no relation to the subject of the post.

Urban Legends / Hoaxes: The Internet is full of them. Before you send an emailed story on, check it in Google or Hoaxbusters http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org or one of the many Urban Legends sites.

Net protocols: Don’t SHOUT! Use asterisks to emphasise something. Pointed brackets emphasise body language .

h.. BEFORE YOU START.

• Pray about your motives for using the ‘Net: computer users tend to have a basic urge to control the world through their keyboard. Or an ego that gets a kick out of ‘seeing something they’ve written published’.

• Look over someone else’s shoulder as they ‘surf’ the ‘Net. Learn all you can before committing yourself.

• Spend a few months familiarising yourself with the ‘ethos’ of the various groups on the ‘Net. Read newsgroups specially created for ‘newbies’. Read the FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) for the groups that interest you. There’s help everywhere, once you know where to look for it.

• As a ‘missionary’ be sensitive to the ‘Net’s sometimes strange culture/s. You’ll learn some new languages. ‘Net groups and mailing-lists have their own protocols.

• Don’t get turned off by weirdness or profanity: U.S. (and other) college students enjoy shocking wowsers! Some will parade their erudition (‘this debate got hijacked by a solipsist’). Others (‘Single mum college student…’) ask for money. Because of the anarchistic nature of the ‘Net you can’t easily remove the ‘village idiot’. Be tolerant, loving – and humorous! Remember Jesus related well to all sorts…!

• If you post something to a newsgroup or mailing-list, be brief, well-researched, accurate (particularly if you quote an author – it’s amazing how many non-Christians have read CSLewis and Josh McDowell), and conversational. Be prepared to have all your views challenged, by some very clever people. If you put a personal testimony or preachy gospel message on alt.atheism for example, they’ll chew you up and spit you out, fast!

• If you post something to a newsgroup you don’t regularly visit, ask people to respond by email.

• Children’s access to the ‘Net ought to be carefully monitored: they can access popular newsgroups like ‘alt.binaries. pictures.erotica’ very fast.

GENERAL HINTS/TIPS/IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS:

• Backup up everything. Ideally keep the backups away from your premises (in case of burglary/fire). I back up important emails in a free Yahoo mail account; and carry a floppy around containing backups of current work.

• Consider using a laptop as your main computer. They’re just as powerful these days, take up much less space on your desk, they’re quieter than PCs and more portable. (I’d recommend Toshiba – they specialize in laptops). Maybe attach a mouse and keyboard (be sure you get the right connection/attachment). Printer? I like my new $79 Lexmark (the $700 Hewlett-Packard printer became defunct when I upgraded to Windows XP!).

• My favourite keystroke/s? Alt-Tab! I use it several times a minute when I have several projects on the go at the same time! Closely followed by Shift-Home, Shift-End, Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End.

• Learn to do your banking online: it will save you a lot of time (and perhaps money) and you get up-to-date balances in your accounts. Same with travel – the cheapest air flights are online.

FINALLY…

Navigating the ‘Net isn’t easy to begin with. You’ll experience hours of frustration. It’s like a maze – or a blind person negotiating a minefield while dribbling a basketball – only more difficult and less dangerous! Gradually it is becoming more user-friendly.

We at John Mark Ministries want to encourage others to pursue this strategic and ubiquitous means of evangelism, and in particular link pastors and Christian leaders via the ‘Net.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Fuller Seminary, Ministering in the Internet Age, (Theology News and Notes), October 2000

Jason Baker, Christian Cyberspace Companion: A guide to the Internet and Christian Online Resources, Baker 1997.

Rowland Croucher

John Mark Ministries

http://jmm.aaa.net.au