Through the hard work of all the authors before me, DRaysBay has developed a smart, vibrant online community. I don't like to toot our own horn, but I'll never get tired of praising the intelligence of all you folk reading our work and engaging with us. It's not often that you find an online forum that has this deep a knowledge base and to me, it's one of the things that makes hanging out on the site so enjoyable. Also, simply put, this site wouldn't exist as it does today if it weren't for our readers. Right now, six of our eight staff writers started off as readers on the site, and our readership provides a constant pool of depth to draw from when need be. You, our readership, make this blog run.
And so, to put that talent on display, we're starting a new feature: a FanPost of the Week. Every weekend, we'll choose at least one FanPost from the previous week that we feel deserves recognition and promote it to the front page. If there are no worthy FanPosts, we won't promote one, but I hope this gives people a bit more incentive to put the work into creating a thought-out article. This is a chance for you to flash your stuff - show the community what you've got.
That begs the question, though, what makes a FanPost "quality"? These tips can all be found in our community guidelines, but for a quick refresher:
- Back up your Argument: We don't care what opinion you have, just as long as you support yourself with facts (for a great example, see this). These don't have to be numbers - scouting reports work great too - but be careful of treating your opinions as facts. If you just want to express your opinion, write a comment.
- Ask a Question and Try to Answer It: The best articles are started this way. Great articles dig deeper than primary observations or opinions, and the best way to do that is to start asking questions.
- Try to Make it Look Pretty: We don't expect everyone to be English professors here, but proper capitalization and punctuation aren't hard to do. Correct spelling and grammar help as well.
I don't expect every FanPost to be front-page worthy, but I do at least expect them to contain more than emotions and reactions. Let's celebrate the wealth of talent in our community.