New Site-Theme and Framework
How do you like the new look of the Random Roads website? I just upgraded it towards the latest Drupal version (the framework behind the website) and also gave it a new look.
Overall this is a great improvement. I am looking forward to finish the last bits on making the website more user-friendly, especially for the editors and then I think we are ready to really start off this website.
There are still some small glitches. Do let me know if you notice something that does not seem right, or that can use some improvement.
Still Growing
Regardless of the silence we've had for nearly a year now, Random Roads is still growing! We released a couple of more stories that had been submitted before and new submissions are very welcome.
The printed magazine is still pending. We will still be working on this, one day for sure you can have a printed copy in your hands! The plans for now are first to migrate the website to the lastest Drupal release and to redesign the website.
Free Fall Travel & Nomadic Culture
Hitchhiking isn't the only form of traveling that we cover at Random Roads. We rather talk about the broader concept of being nomadic and "Free Fall Travel", a way of traveling by which you "let go".
Hitchhiking is an obviously an example of Free Fall travel, but also long-term cycling and walking or horse-riding and sailing can be considered as such: being on the road, not having a fixed home, and not knowing where you will be tomorrow.
Get Ready For A Pre-Release!
Random Roads Magazine is an online magazine but - maybe even more important - will have a printed edition also, which hopefully will end up hitchhiking across many countries and places. With so much great content that we now have - and that with very little promotion(!) - we are finally ready to make the printed edition happen!
Bringing Blogs Together
There is quite some writing about hitchhiking and other forms of independent traveling, especially on blogs. However, these are not easy to aggregate: some people have special travel-blogs, while others again are only writing about hitchhiking now and then.
There have been some attempts at bringing them together, most notably the planet-function at Hitchwiki. But as you can see there, we have a lot of unrelated content.
New Feature: Postcards
Since recently we have a new feature on Random Roads: Postcards. The idea is simple: pick a good photo that you took and tell us the story that goes with it. To add a postcard, login and go to Share Postcard.
All postcards come together in a special page: http://randomroads.org/postcard
First Publication Coming Soon
We're coming closer to our first print publication. Ever since we started almost 1,5 years ago, progress has been steady but we are now at the stage where we actually can really move further.
So far we have more than 20 articles that have been selected for the first issue. As soon as we have the selection finished, they will be send to our designer and then fingers crossed we will have our first edition in print ready soon after.
