New Site Policies

The Rays' recent run of success has brought this site a high volume of new traffic, and a lot more user activity to go along with that. This has manifested itself in more comments, more FanPosts, and more FanShots. That's an absolutely wonderful trend, and I'm very proud of how this site has grown since I began writing here almost three years ago.

However growth comes with its pitfalls, and I believe our existing site policies are not really geared to handle the amount of growth we have received. We've sort of allowed everyone to go in their own directions and post according to their own preferences for a while, regardless of the rest of the community because up to this point we've been small enough that this hasn't negatively impacted the user experience. That has changed.

So to help adjust, R.J. and I have agreed to some basic new initiatives and the re-emphasis of some older, forgotten ones in order to make this site run more smoothly:

• The 75-word limit on FanPosts is there for a reason. It might be annoying to some, but it is there to remind people that FanPosts are supposed to be substantive. Posts that say "OMG, GARZA SUCKS", followed by an outdated picture and filler are not substantive. (not that I'm going after anyone specifically) We've gotten to the point where half a dozen or more FanPosts are popping up each day, and we only have room for ten on the front page. That means that some deserving FanPosts are being bumped after less than two days because someone felt the need to write a two-line post expressing their distaste for Joe Maddon. Again, this isn't meant to be holier-than-thou. We've all done this before and we've all complained about the character limit, but at this point it's a matter of fairness to those who took the time to write insightful posts.

• For those of you perturbed about the above inconvenience, there is an alternative. If you're merely posting a short rant, or a picture, or a quote, or a video, or a link, FanShots are the way to go. Not only do they allow an additional forum through which members may express themselves, but they're also really easy to use. It's so easy to post a link, text, image URL, quote, etc, and you can use the quote feature when you want to do a mini-rant of your own. Generally, if you find yourself having to use filler, the FanPost you're making should probably be a FanShot. Sure, it is a little bit farther down the page, but R.J. and I aren't shy about bumping FanShots to the front. So if you're reporting an important transaction or posting something noteworthy before the site staff has gotten to it, you'll be bumped and featured anyways. Otherwise, this is just a good way to differentiate content and allow more users more opportunities to be featured in both the FanPost and FanShot categories.

• To go along with that point, we want to encourage in-depth discourse here. We're the largest Rays weblog on the Internets and we'd like to have a level of conversation here that befits our standing. As such, I'd like to have us take advantage of a few tools bequeathed upon us by SBN 2.0 that have not been emphasized, namely the 'Recommends' button. If you've noticed, there's a toolbar below this and every other FanPost. On the far right of that toolbar, there are two buttons. One says 'Flag', and the other says 'Rec'. If you think a FanPost is particularly deserving of adulation, hit the 'Rec' button. If a FanPost gets three or more similar recommends, then it will be a "Recommended FanPost". That means that it goes into its own subcategory at the top of the FanPosts section and will remain there for an extended period of time, sort of a "showcasing". You may also want to Recommend a FanPost for the conversation taking place in the comments. Other, larger SBN sites use this feature and it has proven to be quite useful. You can repeat this process for FanShots as well, using basically the same procedure and with basically the same results. You can recommend or flag comments by clicking on the "Actions" button on the toolbar under each comment and then clicking on the appropriate action. I think this process is a great way to showcase the best of what our site has to offer.

• Last thing, and this is the most minor issue of all since I haven't seen it become too much of a problem yet. However please, regulate what you say outside of Game Threads. We have a wide berth of what we'll allow under the guise of Game Thread emotion (just see the LL invasion threads), but that's where the most unruly stuff should stay. Promiscuous cursing should not be occurring anywhere else, most certainly not in the body of any FanPost or FanShot, and let's avoid calling each other names and sniping at each other in the midst of arguments. I think we all want to allow for freedom of speech as much as possible, but certain levels of decency need to be adhered to.

Thanks for your attention and cooperation with the above. Again, I'm very proud of how much our community has grown. And I look forward to a great season with all of you as the Rays break out.