Sunday, October 30, 2011

Tackling the web site

Since 2003 I've had a web site called The American Cat Project. I started building it with the help of my then-neighbor Alden. It is all in html, and updating it hurts my brain, but it is certainly not outside of my ability.

The site is wordy and out-of-date. I get quite a bit of positive feedback on it, primarily because it is a "both sides of the issue" site and you don't find many of those. It's a pretty poor communications tool, though.

It was thrown together with the idea that I would get the content in there, and then whittle it down. However, I switched jobs, and there it sits. Alden has moved away.

I managed to update the landing page last night, and while I was in there I noticed they now have a page builder in the system, which I could use to replace my html based pages. Their templates don't really inspire me, but the site would be much easier to manage if I didn't have to work with html

I have been spurred to update it and include data from our colonies, because I continue to note that anti-feral wildlife organizations like The Wildlife Society and the American Bird Conservancy state there are no confirmed colonies that have been managed to zero via TNR. I would like to get the basic pages cleaned up, throw out some of the outdated pages, and add a page with data from each colony we've cleaned up. This is a good time, since I need to touch base with caretakers before winter anyway, to find out how many cats they have, and whether they need help with shelters.

I am continually impressed with the The Neighborhood Cats pages. I need to remember to check in there at least once a month to see what they have added.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Susan,
    I just wanted to let you know that I've found your American Cat Project page immensely useful. Since I thought it was great before, I can't wait to see how you're going to improve it!

    When I started TNR there were so many cats that all I had to do was just throw the trap out there and somebody would wander in. But then I got down to the 15th one, then the 20th one, then I started branching out to assist neighbors. Your tips have helped a lot.

    Thanks for all you do, and for making time to write about it too!

    -Janet in Florida

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