Appreciating what we have, and how to help keep it that way.

Arrowhead Pride is a great place for all of us to get together and share our love for our NFL team.  Chris and Joel have done a fantastic job of running the place, and our editors, moderators, and contributors are top notch.  We are considered to be the top of the the class of SBNation blogs, and we owe that to the outstanding team of people we have here.  Let's help to keep it that way.

I know we're going through rough times as fans.  Times like these bring out lots of negativity, which leads to negative FanPosts and comments.  Chris posted about that here.  I'd like to help remind everyone (or introduce some) to some general FanPost guidelines that have been made in addition to that to make these guys' work easier around here.

1.  Don't Duplicate Posts.

We're a big blog right now.  Lots of people have some great ideas and comments about our team.  The last thing we want to do is stifle someone else's ideas, especially ones that are well thought out and those that have a lot of work put into them.  However, we're watching FanPosts slip into the archives at an alarming rate (10 hours).  There are some fantastic posts that are not being read/getting recognized due to the swarm of posts per day.  This is a casualty of a bigger blog, of course...but before you post something, make sure it hasn't been done (especially if it's been done recently).  We're all passionate about our Chiefs, but well-written posts have been knocked off in hours by repetitive ones about Mock Drafts, Free Agent Acquisitions, Benching/Trading Players, etc.  There's new ones every day that your views can be discussed in the comments section.  Use them, and if you like them, reccommend them so they'll stick around.

2.  Make sure it qualifies as a FanPost.

Do you have a good idea?  Great.  Is it longer than a handful of sentences?  If no, put it in the FanShot section.  We've got many who use the "quote" button as a way of expressing a short and sweet idea/emotion.  It's a great way to tell us a quick hit or something you're aggrivated/excited about that may not fit as a comment.  We all still read them, and they get rec'd the same way.  Stuff like highlight reels, round-by-round mock drafts, rumors about coaches/players we may acquire should go into a FanShot...especially if there's little analysis done by the poster.

3.  Keep it fresh.

The end of the season is arriving, and many will be looking forward to next season.  We all want change for the better for this team, and most of us have ideas on who/what should be fixed first.  There will be FA suggestions, mock drafts, and calls for coaching changes.  Before you do it, think about what others have said regarding the situation.  Did you agree with most of a previous post, with some slight tweaks?  Did someone in the comments of a previous post say something you agreed with?  Most importantly, are you coming in with old, previously stated information?  If those are "yes" answers, it helps to comment in the appropriate FanPost, rather than creating a new one.

4.  Remember the "Recently Active"

Sometimes a discussion gets going on a certain topic, and continues for awhile.  This post by kcskip hit 324 comments last week.  Some agreed with it, some didn't.  It was healthy conversation, but it didn't get reccommended enough times to go "to the top".  When it disappeared off the front page, a couple new, similar posts went up regarding the subject.  The discussions/debates were still continuing in the other post, but because they weren't on the front page anymore, it was lost by some.  Make sure to click the "FanPosts" button at the top of the page and click "Recently Active" to see where the posts are.  You can still continue the discussions long after the post has gone into the archives.  Also, for those that struggle to keep up with some of the larger commented posts, use these tools (thanks Chris):

Press C to tab through new comments, Shift-C to tab backwards, X to mark a comment as read, and Shift-A to mark all read. Z will simultaneously mark and tab forward, and R will reply to the comment that has focus.  If you're going to respond to a particular comment by another user, you'll want to hit "reply" underneath that comment instead of just posting from the main box. That way, the conversation will be much more organized.

5.  Try not to let your emotions write a FanPost for you.

We're not doing well as a team right now, and yeah, it's hard to watch sometimes.  We all share that sentiment.  However, defaming coaches/players with little or no statistical/factual evidence, or rambling on about how much you've hated "decision x" and "decision y" without analysis of the decision does little to help out the community.  Not only does it come off negatively on the poster, chances are good the community will respond negatively as well.  Suggest a different decision, backed up by facts/analysis, and you'll typically get a favorable response.  "Haley sucks" or "Why I hate Matt Cassel" posts have been done to death, and if you write them with little to no facts/statistics, there's more than likely going to be a backlash.

*****

As I stated at the beginning, Chris and Joel do this for fun.  They have created one of the best Chiefs site on the 'net.  They do a good job of keeping the clutter down, but as we get closer and closer to the end of the season, there's been a lot more of it around.  Please keep them in mind before you post.  Thanks.