gartersnake.info all about garter snakes

Site Updates

Gartersnake.info’s Seasonal Audience

Sunday, July 15, 2007

An interesting quirk of this web site’s audience is that it has a growth spurt each spring and summer. Here are the monthly page views from July 2004 to June 2007 — each sudden spurt correlates to the start of spring; each decline to the fall and winter:

From this I can only guess that most of my page views are generated by people searching for information about garter snakes, and that most of them do so when garter snakes are out and about in the wild. This suggests that I should provide more information for people who find garter snakes in their gardens, and not just for people who keep them in cages.

Subscribe by E-mail

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

You can now receive new articles and updates from Gartersnake.info by e-mail. To subscribe, enter your e-mail address in the appropriate form on the sidebar at right and press return. Once subscribed, you’ll get no more than a daily e-mail with that day’s posts, and you’ll only get an e-mail if there is new content that day.

Species Section Updates

Friday, May 19, 2006

Rossman’s Garter Snake (Thamnophis rossmani), about which I posted a short article yesterday, has also been added to the species guide; the page is here. I’ve also made some changes to the design of the species pages. Still to come are range maps and descriptions for each species, though I’m not sure when I’ll be able to start or how long it will take to finish them.

Redesign Complete (More or Less)

Saturday, May 13, 2006

All pages have now been transferred to the new template; now it’s just a matter of fixing all the little errors that crop up when things change over like this, of which there are still a few. And there might be a few bugs for those of you silly enough to be using Internet Explorer.

That went much faster this time.

Another Redesign

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I know it wasn’t all that long ago that I finished the last redesign, but I’m in the midst of redesigning the site again. It’s mostly finished in some ways, in that most pages are now on the new template, but I’m still not completely happy with that new template, so I’ll be doing some more tinkering for a while.

More Knick Knacks in the Store

Sunday, November 13, 2005

I got on a bit of a roll yesterday and added a few more things to the store yesterday, including postcards, stickers, all kinds of buttons and magnets and a hilarious dog t-shirt.

The photo that serves as this site’s logo is going to end up as possibly the most over-exposed photo of any garter snake ever.

I hope to have a few more things uploaded in the next few days.

Updates: New Design Finished; Advertising; Store Now Open

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

A few updates already in place to let you know about, in case you missed them because I didn’t mention them here:

A month or two back I finally finished changing over the site to the new design I started implementing back in May; the last pages to be updated were the contact page and the front page.

If you’re a breeder, wholesaler or other supplier, or have products or services that would be of interest to people interested in garter snakes, you can now buy text ads on this site. The current price is $10 for two weeks — quite reasonable for small breeders and other businesses.

After much delay, I’ve finally opened the Gartersnake.info store on Cafepress.com. So far I’ve only got a couple of items up for sale — custom stamps and stickers to place beside ordinary stamps — but more are definitely coming. If your interest in garter snakes means you’d like to buy garter snake related tchotchkes, this is the place for you. Watch this space for updates on new stuff available in the store.

Natricine Species Page Updated

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Subspecies data and other information has been added to the Natricine Species page, which covers North American natricine snakes other than garter snakes. I must confess to liking them as well; there’s a distinct risk that I’ll start talking about water snakes and brown snakes on this site if I’m not careful.

RSS Feed Updated

Monday, April 25, 2005

The RSS feed has been updated to include the full text and HTML of NewsWire posts and site updates; articles have full HTML and an opening paragraph or two, plus a link to the rest of the article.

Species Navigation Improvements

Monday, April 11, 2005

The improvements to navigation for the species section I referred to in my last update are now up and running; you can see the form at the bottom of every species, state and province page in that section. No doubt still a few bugs to work out, but it seems to work well so far.

Other recent changes include minor fixes to the individual article/update/news item pages and to the article archives. The font size has been made a little smaller, which might help those with lower-resolution screens.

Improvements to Species Pages

Monday, February 7, 2005

A few updates and fixes in the Species section: the species list is now on the front page, eliminating one step; two more photos each for the Eastern Ribbon Snake and Common Garter Snake pages; cover art for field guides now displayed on the state/province pages; species photos have been reduced in size to help the flow of text; some other behind-the-scenes coding fixes. Still need to improve the navigation: you should be able to jump from one species or state/province page to any other species or state/province page. That’s next in terms of technical fixes.

By the way, I’m always looking for contributions to the species pages, whether it’s descriptions or photos.

Tracking My Progress

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Check out my task list to see what I’m planning in the near term, what I’ve completed, and what’s still to come. If nothing else, it’ll be proof that I am still working on the site!

Mind the Dust

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

I thought I’d post a quick note to say that this site is still a going concern, though progress has been slow since its launch last September. Since then there hasn’t been much to show except for a link here, an article there, and a bugfix or six. Unfortunately I’ve been busy elsewhere; now I’m behind on my to-do list here. But things are happening here: yesterday I gave the site’s appearance a going-over, and now I’m rejigging some of the code. Things may work weirdly or not at all for a while. There are some placeholders now for graphic/photo elements that still have to be done, and I’ve got a backlog of content to write. In other words, more soon — I just wish I could define “soon” a bit more definitively.

Gartersnake.info Launches

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Today Gartersnake.info finally makes its official debut. The domain name was registered in early June and parts of the site have been linked to for the past month or so, but it’s been planned for many years. (And procrastinated, as other, less-intimidating tasks got in the way.)

Even so, like many ships at their christening, this site is being launched when it’s not quite finished. It’s a big undertaking. Lots of work remains to be done — and you can help, with articles, contributions to species description pages, and more.

For now, here’s what’s available:

• All the articles on my personal site that dealt with garter snakes have been transferred here.
• My garter snake care page has been moved here, and expanded. I still have two more sections to write — on breeding and raising babies — but it’s already more up-to-date and more extensive than it used to be.
• There are pages of links to books and web sites about garter snakes.
• The new Garter Snake NewsWire tracks garter snake stories in the media.
• Finally — and most extensively — there’s a species section, still largely incomplete, that aims to provide information on each of the 30 species of garter snake.

In the future — and with your help — I hope to be able to have the following:

• More articles by more authors. If you’re interested in contributing, here’s where you can submit an article. I’m hoping to have new contributions frequently — every week if I can get them.
• More information on the species pages: in particular, species descriptions, more photos, more information on legal protections, and, if I can get them, range maps. If you’d like to lend a hand, here’s where you can volunteer.
• A Q&A section that answers questions from readers.
• A store with site-related paraphernalia like t-shirts, mugs and stickers.
• Getting the care section finished, including a hard-copy version!

The idea behind this site was to provide a massive source of information about garter snakes for amateur enthusiasts. It’s not quite there yet, but this site is ready enough that the public can have a look at it. Check back often to see the latest changes!