On FanPosts and FanShots

With no game tonight, it's a good time to take a look at what FanPosts and FanShots should be used for.

FanPosts are blogs within in a blog. In the rules and regulations, we state:

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. A FanPost should not be used for self-promotion.

And with the exception of spam attacks, FanPosts have been related to the Rockies. The concern here is that FanPosts over the current season have become diluted. While FanPosts don't need to be like this classic David OhNo one from 2006, it is an example of what we look for in a FanPost. It is well thought out, substantial, and discussion-oriented. Others . . . have not been. We appreciate your involvement, but a number of FanPosts are better off as comments in a Rockpile. Complaining about the hitting coach in a FanPost with no real argument, numbers, or a list of potential replacements and why is a comment. A FanPost can be your equivalent of publishing a front page article (we are able to promote FanPosts we're particularly impressed with to the front page).

And for the love of baseball, if you just signed up for the site please take the time to familiarize yourself with the tone and topics of discussion of the Purple Row community before you make your first FanPost.

After the jump, find out about FanShots and how they are different from FanPosts.

FanShots

There are 6 different types of FanShots:

1. Links - Link to a page and your own description of the page you are linking
   
2. Quotes - Sharing a Quote and the link to the page
   
3. Images - Sharing an Image and the link where you found the image
   
4. Videos -Sharing a Video and the link/description
   
5. Lists - Sharing a list you created or found (max 5 things) and the link/description of where you found it
   
6. Chats - Sharing a portion of an online chat and a link/description
   

The most popular seem to be the Links, Quotes, Images and Videos.  The most common mistake is putting a Quote in a Link FanShot.

There are two ways to create FanShots. The first is the easiest and one that we highly recommend.

1.  Drag this button to your Bookmarks Bar to quickly post FanShots to SB Nation:

You can also  go to the Fanshot page drag the button from the top of the page.

Links - When you find an interesting article. Just click the "Share on SB Nation" button from your browser bookmark bar and it’ll automatically make a Link Fanshot and give you a place to add your own description.

Quotes - If you want to make a Quote FanShot, highlight a portion of the article and then click the "Share on SB Nation" button from your browser bookmark bar.  It will automatically populate the fields of your FanShot.

Images - Right click and "view image" so that the the image is on it's own page.  Then click your button. Some image sites like Flickr you don't need to get the picture on it's own page, you just click the button.

Video - On YouTube just click the button and it'll take care of the rest.  Otherwise you'll have to copy and paste the embed code.

When in doubt hit the button.

2. The second way to post a fan shot is to click on New FanShot below the list of FanShots on the right hand side of the home page.  Then you have to choose your type in the menu bar and create your own HTML or use the toolbar buttons to add images, descriptions and links.

To summarize, a FanPost can be used as your attempt at writing an article on the Rockies or baseball.

A FanShot is content from someone's brain not your own that you have found and wish to share but you don't have much to say about. This includes articles from other websites. Do Not make a FanPost and just copy/paste the article you wish to share.

Hope that's clear, let us know if you have any questions.