Please Read: Welcome New Readers!

This was originally published at the beginning of March but it's a nice refresher for the newbies.   -Primetime

In the last couple of weeks, we've seen a huge surge in the number of visitors, comments, FanPosts and FanShots at Arrowhead Pride. This is a combination of a lot of new readers and commenters coming to us via Yahoo! Sports and SI.com. Our previous record for traffic in a month was about 91,000 visitors in October '08. In January and February alone of '09, we've had over 450,000 visitors. Plus another 73,000 already 363,000 in March.

We're blowing up like the Chiefs 2007 roster.

Long story short, we have a lot of new commenters who need to be acclimated to our community. Below are some tech tips mixed in with some things that are make our community hum.

Please add in your own thoughts in the comment section.

Commenting Features

Okay. So you've registered for an account and now you're ready to really dive and maybe even start commenting yourself. Let me mention our comment quick keys here as well, which are really cool if you get into using them.

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.

Community rules

As far as etiquette goes, I think we are more polite than your "average" message board (I hate saying that because there isn't really an average board but I think people know what I mean).

Cursing has its place, especially on game day in the open threads. But keep it limited if you can. Search the site for those words to see how often they've been used. Less than I thought I have to say.

The main requirement we have is no insults of any kind. Choose to ignore someone rather than insult them. If you think something may be an insult before you post it, don't do it.

When you signed up for an account at Arrowhead Pride, you agreed to not insult any other commenter. Nothing will kill your credibility or the mood of the thread faster than that. Don't roll in here and type "thats the stupidest idea i've ever read lol you moron." Effort is key here in the comment section. If you don't want to make that effort, there are plenty of other place you can go to talk about the Chiefs.

You'll be warned once, then twice, then banned if necessary. We've had less than 5 bans in the two and a half years of this blog so it's something that doesn't happen often. Lately though, I've been tempted more than ever to ban a few people who flipped out in a post within days of signing up for their accounts. Remember- this is a sports blog. Take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard if you are genuinely angry at a comment on here.

The "regulars" around here enjoy some leniency because they've shown over time to be respectful and intelligent commenters. Over time, you'll notice who they are and pick up on the vibe they and AP generate.

Keep your comments intelligent and you'll be welcome with a vigorous and respectful debate.

Writing your own FanPosts

So you've made a few comments, now you're ready to do your first FanPost. Here are a few tips. Make the topic interesting. Put some thought into what you're writing. We have a character minimum (300 I think) which means that you can't just throw out one line (unless it's really long). You'll be rewarded with a good stream of comments if you make the effort to proofread and fill it with good info.

Do not post entire articles from other sites. A link, which is always necessary to any article mention, and a snippet of the article is the max you can do. We can get in trouble for reposting entire pieces. Always link to an article or source you mention. Like I said above. It's part etiquette and part requirement.

Entertain questions from commenters and follow on what they say. Defend your new turf with vigor but while still following our commenting guidelines.

Utilize the formatting buttons above the text box. Use paragraphs. The quotes are for highlighting text and converting to a nice shaded background blockquote. The picture frame is for images, which are always nice.

Never write a FanPost or comment  in ALL CAPS or without formatting paragraphs. You may have just written a great post but if it's a huge block of text with no formatting, nobody is going to read it.

Finally, once you're writing a FanPost, you'll see Show Editor Help on the bottom left of the text box. Click that and up pops a great users guide that goes into much more depth than I am now.

Here are a few more tips about FanPosts:

• Browse the FanPosts already written to see if you are covering a topic that's already been posted about. Do your best not to duplicate topics in the FanPosts. Unless you have a unique angle on the subject, join in the current conversation on another post.
• Try harder than "Here are 8 one liners about what I think about the Chiefs" without any thought or analysis behind them. You'll generate more conversation and it will benefit everyone. How else are we supposed to kill time at work?
  
• Utilize the "Rec" feature which is on every front page post, FanPost and FanShot right above the begining of the comments. If you like what you're reading, hit the "Rec" button. Once that FanPost or FanShot goes over a certain number of recs (which we can change at any time) it moves in to the "Recommended" section.That way, the best posts don't get lost in the shuffle.
• Before you post, check over your writing for typos and other errors. If you use the browser Firefox, there are add ons you can get that will put a red line under misspelled words, making it really easy to pick out typos.

FanShots

Basically, FanShots are quotes, video, pictures or snippets of chats that are posted via a bookmarklet. If you don't have the bookmarklet installed, it's really easy. Click here and drag the link to your bookmark section.

Then, let's say you found a cool Chiefs YouTube video. You go to the YouTube page of the video you want, click the bookmark link you just made in your browser and a window will pop up.

You'll see that the bookmarklet automatically grabs the code for the YouTube Video and allows you to send it to Arrowhead Pride, in the upper right hand corner. It does the same for pictures.

If you want to do a quote FanShot, simply highlight the text you want on the page you want it from, and click the bookmarklet. It will automatically fill in the link information and you can send it on to Arrowhead Pride.

Here are few more points about FanShots:

• Use FanShots for breaking news and make sure you quote the most relevant section of the article you're linking.
• If you have a thought that doesn't meet the 75 word minimum of a FanPost, put it in a FanShot.
• Click here right now and take two seconds to drag the FanShot bookmarklet to your browser's favorties. Once you do that, you'll begin using the feature a lot more.
  

In conclusion

Have fun on here. I liken this place to an online sports bar, where you come in, see who all is around, and start talking about the Kansas City Chiefs. No insults, no pressure. Just Chiefs fans talking about the team they love.

Have fun. Read. Comment. Dream about a Chiefs Super Bowl with the rest of us.

GOOOOOOOO CHIEFS!!!!