Remember the ‘Lord’s Gym’ t-shirts from the 1990’s? It was a popular ‘witness wear’ back in the day, as it resembled the iconic ‘Gold’s Gym’ t-shirt, but instead of having a body builder on the front, it had Jesus ‘bench pressing’ the weight of all the sin in the world.
While I have a soft spot for this t-shirt as well as the ‘cheesy’ t-shirts that look like a popular brand or logo, but have an entirely different message, I don’t believe that’s the purpose behind this new ‘Christian’ social media network. The new social media network called, Godinterest, and while the obviously similar logo reminds me of those parody t-shirts from my teen years, this website is serious about their mission.
Godinterest
I understand what Godinterest is trying to do. Creating a niche is awesome. After all, ChurchMag started as Church Crunch — not to be confused (or to be confused) with Tech Crunch — and while we cover technology like Tech Crunch, our focus is on how it relates to the Church.
Godinterest isn’t too far off from doing the same thing. They are providing a service that is targeted at Christians to pin their favorite images.
While ChurchMag’s focus on Church and technology is a tight niche that Tech Crunch does not touch very often, does the same concept apply to a social network?
Will It Work?
Maybe a better question is, will it last?
I took a little spin on Godinterest and found it to be a complete clone of Pinterest, but without all the cool pins that I’ve come to enjoy seeing with ChurchMag’s Pinterest. Here’s the thing about social media:
It naturally segments.
So, if you are following boards and people who are Christians, you are going to naturally see the type of pins that Godinterest is trying to niche out for its users.
Considering the number of apps that make Pinterest easy to use as well as the popularity of Pinterest, I am afraid that Godinterest will have a hard time gaining the kind of traction it will need to stick around for a long time.
Joanna says
I’m not impressed by it and certainly won’t be moving there. Sites that adapt an existing idea for a new niche can be great if they manage to provide substantial, quality original content and/or features outside the scope of the original (as ChurchMag or Stuff Christians Like does). Godinterest does not fit that category at this point. It just takes what was already able to be done well on Pinterest and produces an inferior clone. Given it’s an inferior clone, I doubt it will attract quality content.
I’d also question what non-Christians will think of Christians when they observe how closely the idea, font, layout and name are a very close rip-off of a competing product. I really doubt it is legal or ethical to copy your competition that closely.
Eric Dye says
I tend to agree, nor would I consider moving there.
Matt says
Segmenting off a portion of the internet aimed at Christian social media is sort of missing an opportunity to use these places for ministry.
Non-Christians are unlikely to sign-up to another Facebook or Twitter clone when they already have these services. Taking your uplifting messages (in moderation!), links or Christian conversations to a private little haven in the pit that the internet can sometimes be is taking them from the people who could benefit most from them. Your non-Christian friends and family.
Eric Dye says
True story. Moreover, I found a lot of the content on Godinterest were videos of strange online preachers ‘preaching’ to themselves…
Ceil says
Hi Eric! I am visiting from Wanda’s blog.
At first, I thought this was a neat idea. I’m always on the hunt for faith-filled images for my FB and Twitter account. Something like this would be really helpful.
But…as I read the comments here, the point about separation from Pinterest, the ‘pulling away’ from the mainstream might not be so great. Folding in faith with a big site like Pinterest is actually a way of witnessing. It would be a shame to dilute that.
Nice to meet you!
Ceil