One of the hardest things about maintaining ANY website, whether it be a blog or just plain ol’ HTML, is keeping external links updated. Websites change, become irrelevant, or just stop working altogether. Every now and then you just have to clean house.
When I first started using WordPress there was a component called “links”, which now is called the “blogroll.” Since my links go to more than just blogs, I wasn’t sure that term was entirely appropriate. I’ve also got this page called “Other Voices” which was supposed to focus specifically on local blogs and individuals. I’m beginning to think some of this is redundant.
As a first part of my housecleaning I’ve updated links on the Other Voices page. I’ve removed a few (sadly, RIP The Beat) and added a few local blogs that I follow in my RSS reader. I’m debating whether or not to drop the links page completely. The first version of it was created for my old blog using ASP and a MS-Access database. I just imported the old links into the new MySQL database. Most of these were just one-shot deals – things I wanted to highlight in a blog post, but have lost their relevance to what I’m doing now. If I do keep the links page, there will be some serious culling.
For the time being I’m deactivating the Links page just to see how I like the difference. I may add one of my old pages back in – another that I had to deactivate because it didn’t fit on this particular theme. I have also combined the Contact Us and About Us pages, so that eliminates yet another page. The contact form should now be working (thanks, Mark, for catching that.) Just keep checking back, and we’ll see what eventually survives.