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Principles should be like bedrock: strong, stable, and highly unlikely to change. Policies should be like the materials we use to build on the bedrock: measured and cut to current needs, and changeable if necessary. Here are the main policies we currently endeavor to implement at reading Scripture:

Viewpoints

To restate a point we made on our “Perspective” page, we will occasionally feature articles that present the views of people we do not agree with. This is intended to be in keeping with our stated desire to treat other points of view fairly. Depending on the nature and depth of the disagreement, and the extent to which it touches upon matters essential to the faith, we may or may not go out of our way to point out that we think such views are wrong. Please do not take the inclusion of a person’s ideas on our web site as an indication that we are in full (or sometimes even partial) agreement with him or her. There are times, for example, when we will present a point of view simply because it may be a prevailing view in the academic community, and not because we agree with it but because we think our readers should be aware of it. Feel free to express your reaction in one of our comments boxes, but when you do so, please be aware of the following.

Comments

We require all those leaving comments on this site to exercise courtesy and consideration for the feelings of others. We also do not allow our comment boxes being used for purposes other than for what they are intended. For example, do not use our comboxes to advertise your product. While we employ all the usual spam filters, at the present time comments are not moderated, and so—until it proves unmanageable—our commentators are on the honor system. Please help us keep it that way by treating all parties with the same kindness and consideration that you most certainly desire for yourself. We do not think it wise at this point to implement a hard-and-fast rule for those who choose to ignore our pleas on this point (example: “three strikes and you’re out,” etc.), but be assured that at some point persistent violators will be banned from leaving comments.

A Few Categories vs. Many Tags

Thanks to the emergence of blogs (web logs) on the World Wide Web, many people are familiar with two similar and overlapping systems for classifying posted articles: categories and tags. We have decided to adopt a policy of having a short list categories for our posted articles, but an unlimited number of tags by which they may be grouped. We feel that this helps us do a better job of organizing our content. Since we have no limit on the number of tags we can use, we can make sure to provide the most specific possible means of marking articles for reference with as many descriptors as necessary. This makes for a very long list of tags in the long run, but it has its advantages. On the other hand, to avoid unnecessary duplication with tags, and to ensure that each article fits into the purposes of reading Scripture, we currently limit ourselves to the following ten categories:

The “General Interest” category is our name for what many other sites designate as “Uncategorized.” We try to avoid it as much as possible, but you may see it used occasionally. If so, we either forgot to assign an article to a category, or we could not make an immediate decision but will probably do so soon. We also have the policy of placing each article under only one category, with the single exception of our “Video” category, which exists solely for the purpose of allowing us to display selected videos in the “latest video post” spot at the bottom of each page. “Video” articles will have one additional category.

URL formats

reading Scripture gratefully runs on WordPress software, which offers several standard ways to configure URLs (web addresses, also called permalinks) for posts. We have chosen the “numeric” permalink option (example: “http://www.readingscripture.org/archives/123″) over such popular options as the “day and name” option (example: “http://www.readingscripture.org/2011/02/11/sample-post/”), primarily because it allows us to change the date of an article—which, due to the nature of this web site, is something we do a lot—without changing the URL, so users will still be able to find it. That should clue you in on another little policy of ours: for various reasons we occasionally change the dates on our articles. The dates on our Daily Bible Reading articles, for example, change annually out of necessity. Sometimes we may also change the date on a current article to keep it at the top of the pile after more recent ones are added.

Advertising

reading Scripture uses advertising to help meet its expenses, including banner, sidebar, and text ads in articles. reading Scripture is also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Can I make a donation?

This question initially took us by complete surprise. We were astonished by the generosity of our fellow believers and greatly encouraged by the fact that they thought reading Scripture was worthy of their financial support. While running this web site is not without expense, and it is likely that its expenses will rise over time, presently we do not have a means by which visitors can express their appreciation in this way. As more people ask about it, and as costs rise, we will be seeking ways to change that to ensure that reading Scripture provides the best possible biblical resources to Christians in particular and the world at large.

Why aren’t your menu pages finished?

We made the decision to go “live” on December 31, 2010 because we wanted people to be able to take advantage of one of the basic features of our web site—daily Bible readings—by beginning with Genesis 1:1. We also wanted to go live at the beginning of the 400th anniversary year of the publication of the milestone King James Version of the Bible. This meant we had to make a decision: which site features should we have most prepared for viewing by the time we make our website available to the web surfing public? We have great ambitions for our menu pages, and we hope to develop them into deep, high-quality resources for Christians around the world. But we also wanted to start out with a good variety of content available on our main pages (the ones people first see when they visit us), and so we concentrated on that before we plunging into the ambitious project entailed in the development of our menu pages. The fact that you’re reading this page, however, which you found by selecting a menu item, shows that we have been making some progress. So please check back often. We are able to view which pages are being accessed (or attempted to be accessed) by visitors, and we are paying attention to what people are looking for. We’re working so that the pages you want to see will be available as soon as possible.

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