Just like the Rimutaka Road from Wellington to the Wairarapa (pictured), we at envirohistory NZ are always looking for ways to improve ourselves.
The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted a couple of changes, but the other change involves something that you will not see.
First, we have changed our URL, from https://envirohistorynz.wordpress.com to, simply, envirohistorynz.com. So now, if you ever want to check out what is new on envirohistory NZ at work or wherever you are (or tell your friends about envirohistory NZ), that is all you need to type in to your web browser.
Secondly, you may have noticed the “Blog with integrity” badge in the right-hand panel. We discovered this badge recently on a favourite site of ours, and thought that we had the same values as those articulated by the Blog with Integrity founders (see Blog with Integrity, Inc). For example, that: “the trust of my readers and the blogging community is important to me. I treat others respectfully, attacking ideas and not people. I also welcome respectful disagreement with my own ideas.” And, perhaps, most importantly to us here at envirohistory NZ, the third tenet: “I believe in intellectual property rights, providing links, citing sources, and crediting inspiration where appropriate.”
Thirdly, we noticed recently that ads were sometimes appearing when viewing envirohistory NZ. These were inserted by WordPress, to help them generate some revenue. While we appreciated their need to pay their bills (and the fantastic service that WordPress provides!), we did not want to be associated with any commercial organisations or enterprises, especially when we had no control over what advertising appeared. So we have upgraded our site so that no ads should ever appear again. Phew!
So, we hope our readers like these improvements, as much as the users of the newly improved Rimutaka Road no doubt did.
Happy travels!
Photo: Improvements to the Rimutaka Road showing the old road to the left, with a new cutting straightening the route. A Ford motor car is rounding the bend. Photographed by Albert Percy Godber in 1924. Not to be reproduced without permission from Alexander Turnbull Library, APG-1306-1/2-G
envirohistory NZ 