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Welcome to Purple Row! Here's what to expect in 2016

Whether you're here for the first or the million-and-first time, we welcome you as a reader and as a community member. Here's what you can expect from us, as well as how to make your experience a rewarding and enjoyable one.

By Bryan Kilpatrick
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

Colorado Rockies baseball is upon us. With that comes another new year at Purple Row. We're thrilled about both developments.

If you're new here, welcome. If you have been here for one, five or even 11 years, you deserve a welcome, too. We're excited to have you on board as a reader, commenter and/or FanPost contributor, and we would like nothing more than to see that continue this year and beyond. But, before you begin posting, please take a look at our Rules & Regulations.

All done? Good. Let's continue.

Since you're so valuable to us, we feel compelled to tell you about what you should expect from our staff this season. We'd also like to give you some tips on how to make your experience here at Purple Row more enjoyable.

What to expect: Content

Prospects. Our bread and butter has always been minor league coverage. We lived up to that during the offseason by unveiling our top 30 prospects in the organization (as voted on by you, the community!), then continued our promise to deliver the best Rockies minor league content anywhere with "Back Fields" Bobby DeMuro providing exclusive coverage throughout spring training.

Simply put, you've come to expect the best Rockies prospect coverage from us, and we'll be taking steps to make that even better this year. In addition to our daily Pebble Reports (summary of minor league games and performances), we'll have a week-in-review series for each affiliate and the organization as a whole. Given the Rockies' strong farm system (ranked as high as third best in baseball) there's never been a better time to follow the organization at every level, and we're going to ensure that you're able to do so on a daily basis.

Really, we'll have so much minor league coverage that we're confident each and every one of the readers will be an expert on the Rockies' farm system by the end of the season. That's our goal, and we'll do all we can to live up to it.

Game coverage. Our aim for game coverage is to be not only quick, accurate, and detailed, but also fun. That's why we're dialing it back to one recap for most games (as opposed to the two we did last season), and instead of following it up with an "extended" recap later on, we're just going to cover the important moments -- whether it's big homers, hilarious bloopers, or anything else in between -- during the games. You'll see this in the form of gifs and videos in our Rockies Quick Hits section. We hope you'll enjoy it.

Of course, game previews and threads will be included in our daily coverage. Our game threads are unrivaled in the Rockies community; nowhere else will you find the passion, knowledge and, let's be honest, hilarity that you'll find on Purple Row while our purple-clad heroes are in action.

Rockpile/Scaling the Rocks. The morning Rockpile links post, usually up around 7 a.m. MT during the season, is where all baseball-related discussion takes place -- at least, until other articles are posted later in the day. You can expect a Rockpile and ensuing Scaling the Rocks post, which takes the biggest story of the day and expands on it using the detail, knowledge and analysis you've come to expect from our staff, on a daily basis.

Know Your Foe. Ryan Schoppe will provide comprehensive previews of the Rockies' opponents prior to the first time Colorado faces each of those clubs this season. Expect solid analysis and, in some cases, even better humor as we break down Colorado's foes.

Weekly features. From Isaac Marks providing a weekly Rockies review every Monday to Marv's Baseball Ghosts on Sundays, and even to Connor's ridiculous Football Friday series, we'll add more layers to our in-season content with the ultimate goal of covering the Rockies from all angles (even made up ones sometimes!).

Purple Dinosaur Podcast. Tyler Maun (MiLB.com) and Anthony Masterson (Fox Sports) are back for their third year of shenanigans! The PDP guys provide unique analysis and always have top-shelf guests on the show. You can listen right here on Purple Row or look for the show on iTunes and Stitcher. PDP is required weekly listening for all Rockies fans just as Purple Row is required reading. Subscribe today!

In addition to the above topics, we'll provide our usual brand of breaking news and ensuing fallout. We also may add a surprise staff member or two at some point, with additional content plans accompanying them. As always, stay tuned.

What to expect: Community

We've always been proud of our community. Its diverse interests, deep knowledge and passion for the team and continuous hilarity have been a huge part of our operation from the start. Whether you're already part of the community or would like to join, here are a couple of quick rules taken from our community guidelines:

  • Practice civil discourse. This means don't be a jerk.
  • Remember: Purple Row is a place for Colorado Rockies fans. Nobody wants a complete and total curmudgeon being a Debbie Downer in every thread.
People are going to disagree about the way the team is constructed or about whether Player A is overrated or about if Jeff Bridich and Walt Weiss are truly the guys for the job. While you're doing so, remember these two rules and you'll be fine. You can bring up concerns you have with the team (let's face it, there are a lot of those), but don't start fires in the comment threads just because a fellow poster is exhibiting positivity or giving the front office and coaching staff the benefit of the doubt.

We want this to be a place for everyone. Whether you're a numbers person, an eye test-reliant fan, an eternal optimist, or a dire pessimist, it doesn't matter; you're welcome in our comment threads. Take the temperature of the conversations, don't attack anyone for their interests or line of thinking, take care of one another, and enjoy baseball. If we all do that, our community will never be stronger.

FanPosts. We always encourage community members with thoughts that go beyond a simple comment in an article to use our FanPost function. The rules are outlined in Purple Row's Rules & Regulations. One thing to consider: To some degree, we're always looking for writers. A good FanPost is a great way to make yourself stand out not only to us, but perhaps to other prospective sites or publications.

Party Deck. Just as the Rockpile is centered on baseball conversation, the Party Decks (found in the FanPosts section) are for off-topic discussions. Enter the Party Deck at your own risk; unlike in the baseball threads, just about anything goes here. See the Rules & Regulations for more details.

PuRPs voting. We publish our top 30 Rockies prospects lists twice a year, and your input is what makes the rankings happen. As promised above, we'll give you all the tools necessary to make your decision on which prospects should be ranked where. So, pay attention and take notes, and when the time comes for PuRPs voting, your list will be the best of them all.

Rockies Roster. Born from Project Libra (from all the way back in Purple Row's early days), Sage Farron's RockiesRoster.com is an invaluable resource for Rockies fans, media members and, quite possibly, even the team itself. It's that good. Need to know how many options a player has remaining? Rockies Roster will tell you. Want to keep up on every single major or minor transaction throughout the organization? Look no further than Sage's brilliant creation, which is now operated by Tim Zappe.

Meetups. Given that most of our staff is located nowhere near Coors Field, we'd like to get together and talk baseball and life with our community members whenever we have the chance. We're trying to make the home opener a tradition, but on occasion we will try to schedule in-person meetups during other times throughout the year. Keep an eye out.

★★★

If you have any questions or comments about the site, staff or community, don't hesitate to email me (Bryan Kilpatrick) at bryan.c.kilpatrick@gmail.com. I can also be reached via Twitter at @PurpleRow and @purplerowBK. Otherwise, let's make 2016 a year to remember (in a good way, of course!), regardless of what the Rockies do on the field.

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