Cahokia Mounds website: things to update

While rebuilding the site we checked every page, news story, event and shop item for broken pictures, broken links and wording that has gone out of date. None of these were caused by the rebuild; they are on the current site today. Below is what we found, most important first.

Information visitors may act on

Groups & schools says the gallery and theater are “closed for renovations.” The site notice now says the cultural gallery is closed for NAGPRA consultation. Which is current?
Suggested donations on the Interpretive Center and Groups pages are listed as $7 adults, $5 seniors, $2 students, $15 families. Are these still right?
Directions links to Madison County Transit’s route 18 page, which no longer exists, and mentions a $5 taxi minimum. Worth checking both.
AR tour opens by saying the grant “will be used” to build the app, then repeats the same paragraph in the past tense. It also gives a $4.99 price and shows an iPod. Is the app still available, and at what price?
Mound Builder Award: the list of winners ends in 2023. Any winners since?

Missing files and dead links on main pages

Stockade: two audio clips about the east palisade wall are linked but no longer exist.
Bibliography: the two bibliography downloads (2009 and the 2014 long bibliography) no longer exist. Do you have copies?
Become a member links to a “membership levels” page that no longer exists.
PACT links to two giving levels ($25 and $100) that are no longer in the shop.
Land acquisition points readers to cahokiamounds.com, an old address that no longer works.
Tips for teachers links to an old eBay gift shop that eBay has closed.
Links & partners includes a St. Louis Community College archaeology page that no longer exists.
Monthly Giving (shop): the product photo is missing. Four donation and membership items also carry a stray link to a WordPress setup screen in their description, which should come out.

Wording that has aged

Terms and conditions prices image licensing for slides, prints and transparencies ($5, $12, $30 loan), and names the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which became part of IDNR in 2017. The Museum Society page names the agency too.
Central Palisade reports excavation news as “last year,” “this year” and “recently” without dates, so a reader can’t tell how old it is.
Videos leads with an older film festival award; fine to keep, but it reads as news.

Old pages still public

About 30 pages for past events and campaigns are still published and can be found by search, for example Trivia Night 2024, the 2024 eclipse, Photo Calendar Contest 2024, Spring Native American Market 2024, Annual Fund Drive 2023 and 2024, Membership Drive 2024, and the 2019 Art Show. We suggest taking these down, or pointing each to its current page (this year’s 5K, photo contest, giving). We have the full list.

Older news stories also link to things that have ended (AmazonSmile, a 2019 conference program, past Zoom lectures, a closed T-shirt store, an I-255 roadwork notice). That is normal for an archive and we’d leave them, unless you’d like them tidied.

Already fixed during the rebuild: links to individual mounds that used an older web address now go to the right mound page, and pictures that sat beside the text on the old site do again.