Straight from the Community Guidelines (with a specific reference to today's FanPost list):
How to use FanPosts:
The Community Guidelines for posting a FanPost are:
* A FanPost must be a minimum of 75 characters in order to be published. If you need to add filler in order to publish, it is not a FanPost. It should be a comment somewhere, most likely in the Rockpile or Pebble Report.
* 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.
* They are not to be used as a form of advertising. We occasionally receive spam posts that somehow got through the network's spam filters, but I'm not talking about those. For instance, the FanPost about the Torrealba kidnapping would be much better as a FanShot to the embedded video(s). The FanPost about a Rockies chat works better as a comment in the Rockpile.
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.
FanShots
There are 6 different types of FanShots:
- Links - Link to a page and your own description of the page you are linking
- Quotes - Sharing a Quote and the link to the page
- Images - Sharing an Image and the link where you found the image
- Videos -Sharing a Video and the link/description
- Lists - Sharing a list you created or found (max 5 things) and the link/description of where you found it
- 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.
