We have a new website: advocatemag.com.
I mention this not just because I want you to take a look at it, but because what we’re doing with the website reflects what you’ll find in our magazines, and hopefully it reflects the trust you’ve placed in us over the years as a neighborhood information resource.
First, I can tell you what you won’t find on our new site: items and posts that aren’t relevant to our neighborhood. That’s what we’re working towards with advocatemag.com. We want you to use it to find information you need and to share interesting insights with the rest of us.
Others use their websites to be flashy or snarky or just plain mean — that’s not our goal. We want to dig into neighborhood issues a bit more and give you enough information to decide for yourselves — whether it’s something as simple as picking a new restaurant for the evening or something as complicated as weighing the pros and cons of taxpayers paying for the proposed $500 million convention center hotel downtown. We’ll have opinions, but we’re not going to force them down your throat.
Here’s what else you’ll find at
advocatemag.com:
• Daily news updates, including everything from school events to garbage pickup days to discussions about the new city anti-smoking ordinance to new store openings to unveilings of new restaurants just down the street. You’ll find our blog in the center of advocatemag.com, and you can subscribe for weekly or daily updates, along with RSS feeds. The big difference between our blog and most others out there: We have a stake in our neighborhood, so we stay away from name-calling, inside jokes and making fun of others.
• There’s never quite enough room in our magazine for everything you send us. There’s plenty of room online, though, and you can post the events and activities yourself at advocatemag.com while at the same time sending them to us for possible inclusion in the magazine. It’s easy, and it’s free.
• If you’ve ever needed a neighborhood plumber or electrician but didn’t have an Advocate handy, you know the value of having access to that information online at advocatemag.com. Our StoreFront website component is all about neighborhood businesses, with free basic listings and a nominal charge for posting pictures, menus, videos and other information that will help you make a decision about where to spend your money.
• We can never publish enough neighborhood photos. Now we can, with your help. Log on to advocatemag.com to upload neighborhood photos. The upload process is easy, and again, it’s free.
Every month near our magazine’s table of contents, you’ll see a spot promoting what’s new and interesting on advocatemag.com, but the best way to check it out is to stop by every couple of days (or daily, if you have the time) to read the blog, check out neighborhood activities, or add information that we’d all be interested in knowing about.
Everything on the website doesn’t work perfectly yet, and we’ll always be working to improve some aspects and add others. But advocatemag.com will never be the ultimate neighborhood resource it can be
without your help.
I hope you’ll check it out today, send me an email with your feedback (positive and negative), and help us continue working to make advocatemag.com a valuable part of the neighborhood.