No, it’s not spring yet, but I’ve been busy with a ton of “virtual” housekeeping chores on the site:

* I spent a good deal of last weekend updating the Get Active! page, which had previously gone neglected since April. The list of activist resources has easily quadrupled in size. Because the list is so huge, I also subdivided the “human rights” category, adding sections for civil rights, elections & voting reform, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and click-through sites. This is in addition to the animal advocacy, environmental issues and general activist resources categories. No, women’s rights are not animal rights, but I’m a big believer in the intersecting nature of oppressions – and, while this is primarily an animal rights blog, I do encourage readers to speak out against oppression in all its forms.

Whereas the links previously took you straight to the “action center” section on each organization’s website, I parsed them out a bit in order to make browsing easier. Instead of just linking to PETA’s action center, for example, now I link to their main page (should the webmaster should change the URL of any given page, you can at least find your way home), as well as their action center and e-mail subscription management page.

So please, check out the list of resources, and feel free to suggest any links I may have missed!

* Regular readers will notice that I’ve shifted my focus a bit. Whereas I first started easyVegan.info as a place to crosspost action alerts, I’ve been posting more original material as of late, especially pertaining to the marketing (commercial, advertisements, etc.), as well as the intersecting nature of oppressions. I still include links to actions alerts, newsletters and such as part of my near-daily “easyVegan Link Sanctuary,” but I rarely post individual alerts in their entirety. This is a much faster way of working through my email, and frees up some time for me to blog about other things. Which I very much enjoy, I might add.

I’m curious what y’all’s thoughts on this are? How many of you read the link roundups and use them as a jumping off point for taking action? Is a useful tool, or a waste of time that might be better spent? If I offered the “link sanctuaries” via email (in addition to posting them here), would anyone be interested in subscribing? Which do you prefer, action-oriented posts or cultural analysis? Thoughts, comments, points of discussion?

* As coverage has changed, I’ve updated and added post categories to reflect this. “Medianimals” is now “pop culture,” with an emphasis on representations of veg*nism and animal advocacy issues in popular culture, especially television and film (as I’m a heavy consumer of each!). Instead of filing adverts under “photo blogging” (a generic term), they now have their own home in “marketing.” And so on and so forth. Hover your cursor over any one category for a description. I am nothing if not obsessively organized.

* My blogroll is simply massive, which isn’t surprising, as it’s a catalog of animal-friendly links as opposed to a simple list of sites I *heart*. Does anyone know of a Wordpress-compatible plugin which will allow me to limit the number of links displayed in each category, and then provide a “master list” of all the links on its own page? Currently, the blogroll takes up twice as much vertical space than the posts on the main page; it’s huge! I need a way of cutting down the display while not deleting any links.

Of course, feedback is always welcome and encouraged!

——————-

Tagged: admin site admin feedback easyvegan

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Blegging, Site Admin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.