Making More of the Wilderness: FanPosts Wanted

We all know why you come here. You have good taste, you want the best Wild site on the web, and you just want to be around the cool kids. Or, you just want a reminder that it is Valentine's Day and you forgot to buy flowers. All of this is fine, and you are always welcome here. Just don't try and sit at our table. You're not that cool, and you make us look bad. 

What we would like to do is offer a reminder of some of the other aspects of Hockey Wilderness that (in my opinion) are going criminally under used. With the final result being you getting to sit at the cool kid table, we offer a series of posts highlighting some of the other ways you can be involved, should you so choose.

Today, we look at the all powerful Fan Post and the equally useful Fan Shot. This is your chance to be heard, to tell your fellow fan what your point of view is, to share an great link you found, a funny picture or video, etc. It is also your chance to show them all how much cooler than them you are.

Make the jump for a little bit on how a FanPost works. (It's really simple. JS, used to do it...)

The following is a reposted message, originally posted on Feb 25, 2009, with some timely edits.

Thanks to our friends at Bleed Cubbie Blue for an outstanding template on posting at SB Nation.

First, for new members of Hockey Wilderness, take a look at the basic SB*Nation Welcome Guide. After that, read below for a more in-depth guide and specific expectations for Hockey Wilderness.

Sure, Hockey Wilderness is a blog with a couple of main authors, but unlike some blogs that talk at you, we offer FanPosts and FanShots where you can drive the conversation.

FanShots

FanShots are quick posts, links, images or videos from around the internet - it's not just for photos. There are several different types of things you can put in a FanShot.

When Should You Post a FanShot?

How Do You Post a FanShot?

1. Click "New FanShot" -- Seems simple, right? While logged in, visit any page of Hockey Wilderness and click the handy "New FanShot" button. Enter the link or pic URL in the proper place.

2. Use the FanShot Bookmarklet -- Clicking and dragging the "Share on SB*Nation" button (which you can find here at the top of the FanShot section, right underneath the top ad bar; just click "FANSHOTS" on the front page to get there) to your bookmarks bar (the area under your address bar in your browser) will allow you to post to Hockey Wilderness (and all your SB Nation blogs) quickly and easily while browsing the internet.

Once you have a "Share on SB*Nation" button in your browser, you have one-click posting of FanShots at your fingertips. Clicking the button will bring up a dialog box that looks like this:

Just select the type of FanShot you wish to post, apply the proper tags (more later) and hit publish (that "Front Page" check box is for me as the site admin, to put it on the front page if I choose -- you've seen the blue box posts on the front page; those are FanShots that I've posted).

FanPosts

FanPosts are just like front page stories, except they're written by you, the Hockey Wilderness reader. You can help keep the best FanPosts on the list longer by recommending them using the "Rec" link at the bottom of the post. Four recommendations puts a FanPost on the rec list.

What makes a good FanPost?

The tech team at SB*Nation has built a powerful WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. However, if you know how to format using Microsoft Word, you can make a perfectly formatted FanPost here at BCB.

● Start by opening Word.
● Write your post completely in Word, making all your formatting adjustments there.
● Highlight and Copy your work.
● Click New FanPost
● Click the "Paste From Word" icon (upper right icon in the WYSIWYG editor)
● Paste your content into the dialog box.

Give it a Descriptive Headline -- "Question" may, in fact, be what you are posting, a question you want us to consider; but that doesn't exactly inform us what the topic is about. Your headline should be informative, above all else, with bonus points for creativity.

Examples:

Poor Headline: Last night's game
Good Headline: Why the Wild lost to the Kings again

Poor Headline: Playoff Chase
Good Headline: The Wild and the Stanley Cup playoff run

Tagging

To the right of the text area in both FanPosts and FanShots you'll find the area for tagging your posts, as shown in the illustration above. Tagging is important because it helps your content show up in searches and in dynamically-rendered content areas, such as on a player page or in the new "More from Hockey Wilderness" box at the bottom of each post. It helps increase your post's exposure.

Tagging is simple. Just type the topics of your post into the area cleverly labeled "tags." Use commas to separate tags, as shown above. If you type a tag that's already been used at Hockey Wilderness, it'll begin to autocomplete.

Players and Teams have their own dedicated area, which will help link your posts to the proper Player and Team Pages. These fields also auto complete, just begin typing the player's name and it should fill in, as shown above; I typed "niklas back" and Niklas Backstrom's name appeared. When this happens, just click on the name and it'll stick with the post.

If you want to have a poll with your post -- click "Attach Poll". The options that come up are self-explanatory; just remember to save your poll when you're done. The "Attach Event" option allows you to tie your post to a specific game. Clicking the "Attach Event" button will bring up a box that lists the Wild's past and future games -- click the drop-down box to select "completed", "upcoming" or "in progress". Clicking the Add button will make sure you post appears on the page for that specific game.

Editor's Note: Please avail yourselves of the FanPost and FanShot options. While we like to think we do a fairly good job of bringing you the goods, we are not perfect (Bryan being a clear exception). We want to hear from you. Honestly, truthfully, we want to hear from you. We value the opinions of every one of our readers, even if we may disagree with them. 

If you ever need help with a FanPost or FanShot, send us an email. We are around, and we can help you make your FanPost the best it can be. Also note that if the commentariat attacks you in anyway (other than disagreeing with you) they will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. We are not asking you to stick your neck out and get kicked. We've got your back.

Don't be shy. Speak up!