What's a Vegan?
I personally go with what I've read as who the first people were that actually coined the term "vegan", for my opinion of what a vegan is (to my knowlege, this would be the Vegan Society of the UK).
I got the following quote from here although it can be found on several other webpages as well. (Additional information on the topic can be found here.) As the Vegan Society put it:
"Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverance for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals."
So yes, that is what I believe a vegan basically really is. I am aware however that there are people who believe honey can qualify as vegan. The reason I personally don't think it's vegan is mostly because it makes sense to follow the definition of a word that was created by those who created the word.. if that makes any sense 
Here's a nice page on the topic, along with a bee-friendly recipe: Is Honey Vegan?
The issue of being a "perfect vegan" seems to come up a lot though, as well as criticism of not really being vegan because of something someone might do that does not technically fall into this definition of what a vegan is.
I personally believe the most important thing regarding the entire issue, or any issue really, is effort. Our decision to put in the effort to do less harm, in my opinion, is what makes us more compassionate beings. Not being "perfect". No one can actually be 100% free of killing or harming life, as I've come to learn, but everyone can try to do what they can. I think that's really all that matters, just caring enough to try.