So we did the Donut Awards and that was a huge hit, but we haven’t talked about this site in review yet. As always, stress the positives, learn from the negatives. Mix of editorial picks and statistics!

Jan 25th 2010 (ish) – This site was born. Previous to this we were radio show/podcast with a facebook site as a central location. Considering we had been kicked off of the radio before (it happened again later on this year) and I had my personal facebook (and all pages) deleted because of a campaign, I was pretty intent on having a site to work as a central location away from all the nonsense. Massive thank you’s go out to our dear friend Karol, who put a ton of time into the site and was always quick to help if there was ever an issue. I strongly suggest people using Karol for their web design needs!

Our Most Downloaded Podcast: Will Potter – Jan 13th, 2010. I still re listen to this interview from time to time and really enjoy it. It was informative, but light hearted and I think I like it most because Will and I both feel that its paramount that people stay active and hopeful. Nod also has goes out to Anthony Nocella, Peter Young, Josh Hooten, Adam Gnade, Terry Romero and also our very last radio show with John Sakars and Melissa and Ally from the Local High School AR group SCAR. Very happy to end on that high note.

Best Contributed Piece: Tara Pelette – Interview with Ross Corder (Vegan Eats). This is tough because I really really enjoyed Rasha Taha’s Vegan In: Lebanon series and was really sad when it ended. That said, Tara made my interview/journalism skills look childish (I admit they are, she just highlighted it with a really really great interview). I think the future is very bright for Tara in her journalist career and I hope she keeps writing for the site! P.S. We are always looking for writers/contributions/guest blogs.

Top Story on the Site: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Vegan Police. This actually broke my heart. I knew I didn’t have ownership over the term, no one does, but the fact that my semi-serious activist-media outlet was going to be forever tied to a shitty pop hollywood venture made me very angry! If anyone is paying attention, there will most likely be a spin-off, at which point I will sit back and wait for whatever production company to buy this domain for a couple hundred thousand dollars which I will then turn into Sanctuary. (I wish!). In the end this story got the most hits and brought the most non-vegans to the site, which is a blessing in disguise and some sort of consolation I guess.

Funniest Interview of the Year: Chris Colohan. Everyone loves it when people rip into crust punk trust fund kids. Dan Shannon’s response to the classic tofu vs. tempeh vs. seitan questions also ranks pretty high. Also, Terry Romero talking about zombies and wrestling is pretty funny too.

Best News Break of the Year: Tie Ohio Conklin Dairy Arrest / EU Seal Hunt Ban. I still remember the morning I woke up to a press release from the Mayor of Plain City, Ohio stating that an arrest had been made at the farm. One local source managed to get it up before me but no AR source had it first. My shitty little site broke news! In the end it wasn’t a story to be happy about. The industry offered up a sacrifice and moved on. As far as a news story having the most impact on me personally this year, this story and its trajectory made me drastically re-think the effectiveness of criminalizing behaviors towards animals when an industry remains of abuse remains in tact. The second story, the EU Seal Hunt Ban, or the supposed drop of the EU Seal Hunt Ban, was lesson in weirdo government journalism. Trying to force the hand of the EU, the Canadian Government, alongside the Fur and Seal Industries and using Inuit and Aboriginal Peoples as a shield, attempted to run a truimphant nation wide story about the repeal of the EU Seal Hunt Ban. Journalists love a story that is pre-written. Unfortunately, EVERYONE bought the story wholesale even though it contained absolutely no sources from within the EU itself. In the end the Ban stand intact and is enforced in full, unfortunately, most Canadian news outlets didn’t run that story.

Local Story of the Year: Happy Rolphs. I wrote about it extensively. The issue is still not resolved, however, the pressure on the City to move towards third party Sanctuary guidelines is still on. If you are a fan of angry commentary, this one is for you!

Favorite Interview of the Year: Billy Ray Boyd. Billy provided more hope for “abolitionism” in that interview than I saw anywhere else this year. I think of all interviews I did this year his was the one I was happiest to post.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to support us this year, whether that was coming out to/promoting an event, contributing to the site, reposting links, leaving comments, etc. We didn’t really know what to expect when the site was first launched, but after almost a year I can say we are very happy with the response we have gotten back. Here’s to all of the possibilities of 2011!

xo,
Dylan

Resolutions

We promise to edit more
We promise more content and more fundraisers
We promise more stories and viewpoints from more diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
We promise to try and cus’ less.