Welcome to Purple Row!

Purple Row has recently seen an increase in traffic, much of that coming via the SBN/Yahoo deal. Still, even old timers should reacquaint themselves with some of what follows.

The Big Stuff

When signing up, you receive this message:

Practice civil discourse, and read the rules and regulations. Don't tell us that we didn't tell you to read them.

I'm not kidding here: read them. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. For the most part, we haven't had any huge problems regarding the rules and regulations (except when Boston fans came by during the 2007 World Series and acted uncivil). However, eternal vigilance on everyone's part will help maintain a properly functioning community.

Once you sign up, there are three things everyone can do: you can post comments, you can write a FanPost, you can create a FanShot.

How to use FanPosts:

The only Community Guidelines for posting a FanPost are:

* A FanPost must be a minimum of 75 characters in order to be published.

* A FanPost must in some way belong on PR--in other words, it must relate to the Rockies, or to baseball, or to PR, or to an existing thread or FanPost, etc.

Tips on writing good FanPosts:

Some of the qualities that the most popular FanPosts often have in common are:

* They expand upon the main idea with supporting examples, or statistical data, or a link to a relevant article, or a "thinking question" for others to consider, etc.--something beyond just the main idea itself.

* They explore a topic, idea, or question that has not been explored recently, or at all, on PR.

Keep in mind that if your FanPost contains only one point or idea that is not developed, expanded on, or supported with arguments or data, it is really not a FanPost--it is a comment that should be posted in an existing thread, FanPost, or FanShot.

Here is a primer on how to use FanShots.

The Staff

GM

I (Russ) fill that role. Nothing goes on around here without my knowledge. I"ve been a member of Purple Row since the first day (technically, the second since there was a registration problem on SBN's end) it opened in 2005. I became the acting blogger just before the start of the 2006 season. I make plenty of historical references (see the next link).

Manager

Rox Girl carries equal weight around here, but in baseball parlance she's the manager. She's been here since before day one (as in, before the site actually went active). She puts forth the Purple Row idea of the Rockies more than I do, and she's prone to making "big" predictions. William Stueck explains why I try to stay away from those "big" ones (it's not an invitation to discuss what he writes at the end).

Bench Coaches

In January we added three new writers to help us improve the site. Jabberwocky, Poseidon's Fist, and theoldgrizzlybear entered our search and made it to the front page. They'll help out with game threads, game wraps, Rockpiles, and Pebble Reports in addition to their own weekly articles.

Base Coaches

RockiesMagicNumber and Silverblood write weekly columns for Purple Row.

Topics

Game Threads - These are by far the meat of the site. Every game has a game thread where we can talk about it as it happens. During spring training the comments have been between 300 and 700 comments.

Game Wrap - New this season, the game wrap will be up within six hours of the end of the game. While not necessarily a recap that you'll read in a newspaper, the wrap is designed to offer insight into something may not be covered in the paper.

Rockpile - This leads off the day. It's a collection of links and thoughts on what's happening with the Rockies.

Pebble Report - During the minor leagues' regular season, there will be an update on how the farm teams fared the night before.

Rockies Review - This covers the week that was for the Rockies. Silverblood has this every Sunday.

Counting Rocks - RockiesMagicNumber takes a statistical look at the Rockies each and every Wednesday.

Know Your Foe - What's going on with the Rockies' opponent in the next series? Poseidon's Fist lets you know.

Purple Row Academy - Jabberwocky treats us all to various aspects of baseball that are confusing, arcane, or not well known on Thursdays.

Rockies Blog Review - Rox Girl scours other Rockies' blogs on Saturdays to find the most interesting posts from the last week.

Rockies Retro - From obscure Rockies to well-known ones, theoldgrizzlybear profiles a new player each Friday.

X - For a lack of a better title, this is supposed to be my Tuesday column. But I'm not sticking to an every Tuesday column. They appear when I fancy them to. Things like this, but most likely my pieces will be on the draft.

The Future

Coming in late April to celebrate the site's fourth birthday: A Brief History of Purple Row.