Welcome to Purple Row

As the 2011 season inches closer and closer, drawing fans into a frenzy, we're starting to see more and more new faces popping up in the comments sections. To those of you who fall into that category, I'd like to extend our welcome and a virtual, but hearty, handshake.

Purple Row was founded back in 1872 when the site was entirely transmitted via telegraph and the Colorado Purple Stockings had just begun their play in the newfangled pastime referred to by some as "Based Ball". Seriously though, if you cruise back to April of 2005, you'll witness the beginnings of the website, where Rox Girl basically spent most of the time talking to herself about the games that she was watching. Since those days, Purple Row has grown from a 1 person staff to the 9 people you see below and from Rox Girl's self contained discussions to over 2600 members, all excited to see the news and share their opinions on the Colorado Rockies.

Along with growing in numbers of users and staff members, Purple Row has distinguished itself amongst the various alternatives as being the best resource for Colorado Rockies baseball, both in news and analysis. We are part of the SB Nation network, which showcases unique websites and communities covering all 30 MLB teams as well as every major sports team in the USA along with a large number of college teams and non-team oriented sports (MMA, for example). 

Click past the jump, and we'll discuss how to get around Purple Row, The Rules, what you can expect to see when you navigate here, and where you can find whatever Rockies information you're looking for.

So the next question is: "Ok, I've registered, now what do I do?" Well, the best place to start is either in the Rockpile or in the Game Thread, as they tend to be the most offbeat places for discussion. A good rule of thumb is that if you want to talk general Rockies/baseball or just say hi and introduce yourself, those are nearly always the best places to do so. Feature articles typically take a lot of specifically dedicated time from the author, and we like to keep those on the specific topic of the article. 

Before we go any farther, have you read the Community Guidelines? Take a moment and review them again. Not being mean and nasty, but I fear that they're pretty regularly breezed over. I'm going to highlight a few:

First/Golden Rule: Practice civil discourse.

Play nice.

We're a pretty tight-knit community, and we'd love to weave you in. 99% of the time, this isn't a problem. Of that remaining 1%, 0.5% of it causes mods to step in and lay the hurt down. The other 0.5% tends to go down easier with a sense of humor. Most everything is in good fun around here, and like I said, if not, there's a banhammer keeping the peace.

Fourth Rule: Fans of opposing teams are acceptable. Just remember to follow the rules. We will quickly ban you if you get out of line. No warning, just a ban.

Somewhat related, don't visit opposing team blogs to make snarky/trollish comments before, during, or after a game ends. If you do, whatever happens is in your hands.

Again, most of the time this isn't a problem, as most of our visitors are coming over in an information-swapping venture, or just to experience a different community. But come August, after many a hard-fought series, things can get a bit dicey. Purple Row has your back, but if you step into interdivisional waters, you're out of our jurisdiction. If you adhere to the First Rule, there shouldn't be problems.

Seventh Rule: Just to make this clear, the level of discourse practiced on this site is a source of pride for us. There will be zero tolerance for asinine comments. We are not talking about writing, "Aaron Miles was the greatest Rockie ever!" As stupid as that may be to write, it's your opinion. There's a problem when you start making ad hominem attacks against a baseball player or a member of the community. Oh, and don't use an asterisk to hide your curse word. Just don't.

As part of being the premier Rockies website around, we also pride ourselves on having some of the best commenters around as well. Strive for excellence.

Lastly, 

* A FanPost should not be your first foray into Purple Row.

Fanposts are meant for individual research and opinion. If you just joined Purple Row, go ahead and do what I suggested up at the top. Comment in the Rockpile or Game Thread, get a feel for the community, get acclimated, and hold off on making that FanPost. There's nothing wrong with having opinions you want to share, but remember: Everyone on this site is a bigtime Rockies fan, and there's an awful lot of discussion, analysis, research, and coverage of everything the Rockies are doing. We pride ourselves here on being educated on the current status of the team and it's players. If you're coming from a more casual discussion environment, it might seem like something huge to reveal that Todd Helton's power days are over or that Ian Stewart strikes out too much and needs to have a breakout season - Trust me, we already know. If the FanPost doesn't meet a certain standard, it's likely to get a friendly request for more effort/content and then taken down.

It seems a bit harsh, but we have some regularly awesome FanPosts from some of our members, and they get pushed off of the front page if too much clutter comes around. We can discuss proper FanPost usage in more depth later.

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Finally, content. There's a lot of content that you get as a member of our site. When you visit Purple Row during the regular season, be expecting the following articles to be popping up at you:

1. Rockpiles. This is where the daily news or daily opinion, is written and presented for all to digest and comment on. Rockpiles are free for any baseball discussion and new items of interest pertaining to the Rockies and MLB in general.

Along with each Rockpile we've included an Off-Topic thread (you'll find it linked before the jump). Being a community of very diverse people with diverse interests, we tend to drift off of the topic of baseball into other sports, music, movies, television, food, unicorns, and other absurd topics. If you feel the itch to talk about something non-baseball related, you're more than welcome to swing over to the Off-Topic thread to discuss said topics.

2. Pebble Reports. Every day, we will rehash the previous day's game results from all of the Rockies' minor-league affiliates. Usually we'll include a very short recap and/or top performances.

3. Feature Articles. On a near-daily basis, our writers will put up a column specifically devoted to one particular topic. The columns you'll see:

• Counting Rocks - A statistics-heavy column that focuses on the Rockies' play and oftentimes will delve into new statistical metrics entirely. Your friendly columnist deacs will be guiding you through the spreadsheets and complex number manipulation with the goal of education and information.
• NL West Report - Andrew Fisher does a weekly breakdown of the other teams in the division. He'll keep you posted on transactions, injuries, general performance, hot and cold performances, and basically everything you'll need to know to talk smack with fans of other NL West teams.
• Rockies Retro - From time to time, Bryan Kilpatrick discovers his muse and rolls back the clock a decade or so and takes us back to the glory days of pre-Humidor Coors Field. Bryan gives us a profile on a player from the Before Times and generally a good refresher on the days of Coors Canaveral.
• Rockies Rewind - After a long week of Rockies baseball, Silverblood graces us all with a curmudgeonly bard's tale of the week we just witnessed. Expect overreactions, gut instincts, and typically something to laugh at, or at least make you nod your head and say "yeah...YEAH!"
• Rockies Roster Moves - Greg Stanwood sums up the organization's transactions over the past week or two, from all the way down in the Pioneer League up to the Major League level. An absolute must-read resource for all of the farmhounds out there.
• Know Your Foe - Myself (Andrew Martin) and Bryan Kilpatrick will give you a preview of upcoming series, the opponent's strengths, weaknesses, and basically the kind of stuff that you'll see in the NL West Report. Except about the team they're about to play.
• Purple Row Radio - Renamed from Rowbot Radio, Greg Stanwood and myself give a rehash of the week, discuss the biggest topics of the week, answer reader questions, and bring in a variety of guests to bring some expert insight. Typically 30-45 minutes in length.
• Purple Row Academy - Jeff Aberle covers the fundamentals of the modern baseball organization, from the draft to the 40-man roster, to WAR and payroll efficiency. If you get the time, read back through the archives, because the educational value alone is mind boggling.

4. Game Threads/Game Wraps. Every game the Rockies play in the regular season and postseason (because come on, there's no way they DON'T make the postseason, right?) there'll be a Game Thread. The Game Threads are literally used just to talk about the game that you're watching. Thought is, if we can't all physically go to a sports bar together, we might as well simulate the experience by BSing about the game as it's happening. Pictures, cheers, mockery - all are accepted, expected, and usually encouraged. If you missed the game, there'll be a short recap in the Game Wrap with the top performers from the game and some general reactions from that day's Game Wrap author.

Here's the Purple Row Schedule for the 2011 season, beginning on Opening Day.

Despite not being explicitly listed in the above schedule, our newest staff member holly96 has been brought on as a moderator, and will occasionally pitch in with game wraps. Rest assured that if you want to get a little out of control in the Game Thread, our GameThread Mistress will be there to bring swift justice. Or something.

Along with the plethora of front-page content, the Purple Row community has expanded past PurpleRow.com to include PurpleRowRadio.com, the additional housing for the podcast (mostly set up for the inclusion of RSS feeds, which should be available through iTunes soon), and RockiesRoster.com, the fruition of Greg Stanwood's Project Libra and the ultimate up-to-date resource for the current status of every player in the Rockies organization. Also, user Charlie77 has set up Purple Row Cares, a CafePress site with Purple Row branded merchandise for sale, the proceeds of which will go to charity.

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Whew, that's an awful lot to take in, isn't it? Keep this page in mind if you have any questions during your visits with us, and if you have any questions that AREN'T covered in here, feel free to ask in a Rockpile or email one of the staff directly. If you're internet friendly, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Again, Welcome to Purple Row, and GO ROCKIES!