It’s an exciting day here at the Lamp, as we finally start to settle into our new, swanky site. Of course, things are far from finished – Rangoon wasn’t moved in a day, and unmarked boxes will fill the storage cabinets for weeks on end. But the blog is working, and that’s all we really need to get things started.

Here’s some of what you can expect from the new site:

-More feature pieces. Four hundred word asides and fifty word Lebowski allusions can be a natural, zesty enterprise, but there’s something to be said for good, old-fashioned, edited essays. As we look to expand from a straight blog into a more fully-fledged media outlet, we’ll be focusing our writing efforts on more conventional forms (even if the issues are far from normal). These can be found under the “Headlines” section on the left-hand bar.

-More writers. Of course, we can’t do it on our own – keeping up the blog is enough work on its own. While we’ll certainly turn in our own efforts, you’ll also see contributions from other famous UA bloggers, students on campus, and alumni contributions.

-More user-generated content. We also hope to publish work from readers like you, from whom the site has derived much of its strength. Whether it be insights from the student leaders in charge, or incriminating pictures from DormLife, we fully subscribe to Hayek’s argument for localized knowledge – put brusquely, you often know better than we do.

You’ll also notice a “tip-line” under the header, and we sincerely hope that you’ll take advantage of it. If there’s an issue that you think needs coverage, please do not hesitate to send us a line, even if you’re unsure of its merits. You can also just shoot us a straight email – desertlamp “at” gmail “dot” com.

-More multimedia. Yadda yadda social media bullshit. Your author may be a techno-skeptic at heart, but even he can see the Twitters on the wall. The Twitter feed experiment (featured on the right) will be a little more active, and we hope to add more photography, videos, podcasts, and other fun gizmos in the future.

-More ads. “When the going gets weird, the weird go pro.” Hopefully, this will be as unobtrusive as possible. We’ll also add a PayPal tip-jar in the coming days.

Please don’t hesitate to email any comments – praising or critiquing (and honestly, we prefer the latter) – about the new site as we develop it. Many thanks go out to Sarah Trainor, the mastermind who designed the site; and to Adrienne Lobl, the artist behind the resplendent header image.

Image courtesy of Flickr user popofatticus.