We’ve made some tweaks to the blog since we’ve started, and we haven’t always done a good job at explaining them. So let me summarize a couple of older features we’ve received questions about, along with a new widget I added today. By the way, we’ve steadily added links to our blogroll. Do check them out from time to time. If you’re a blogger who’s feeling left out, let me know in comments, and we’ll see about adding you.

First up is the events calendar. We started off with a Google calendar linked in the banner at the top of the page, but for various reasons, that hasn’t worked out. Some months ago, I added the Soapblox-provided “Events Calendar” to the left sidebar. Originally I was worried about spam, so I restricted its use to regular commenters. A few weeks ago, I opened it up to use by any user of the site, as long as they are signed in. If you know about an event coming up and you want to spread the word, please do make use of it.

I also added a widget today, just below the calendar, called VoterStory ’08, that aggregates voter complaints from all over the country and alerts voter protection groups in the area. From their website:

The VoterStory web widget is programmed to collect and classify voter complaints in real time across the Internet and will provide a data feed of complaints that can be addressed in real time by Voter Protection groups who partner with VoterStory. Originally developed for the 2006 General Election, the VoterStory Web Widget is distributed web technology that enables a broad and expandable network to easily place sophisticated voter protection functionality on news, organizational web pages, blog and social media sites such as FaceBook or MySpace.

The VoterStory widget will be active on April 15, 2008. Complaints generated in the Pennsylvania Primary will be shared with election protection partners.

1 On Election Day, the voter completes the form with their story.

2 When they hit “submit” their information is transmitted to voter protection organizations who will be standing by to intervene or lend support if necessary.

3 The voter also receives an email confirming that their story was transmitted.

4 Voter information is entered into a database of election incidents.

5 Voter Protection groups receive live information about voting problems during the election.

Finally, a reminder about BlogAds. If you would like to advertise a candidate, cause, movie, restaurant, or whatever, and you want to reach an active and educated audience, head over to our BlogAds order page. Ads start at $15 per week, and we do give discounts for longer runs.