Welcome to the new Let's Go Tribe! and SB Nation
Editor's note: Welcome to the new Let's Go Tribe! To help get everyone acclimated to the new site, here's a few words from Trei, one of the architects of the new platform.
Hey Let's Go Tribe!,
Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.
Before we begin, I want to let you know that Let's Go Tribe! is one of the first blogs in the SB Nation family to make this transition. We still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com.
Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:
- Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
- Once you're logged in, press your Z key in any thread with new comments
- Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
- Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
- Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Let's Go Tribe! from YouTube or images from Flickr
- Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
What Has Changed
SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change
Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.
You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.
To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.
FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)
We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.
FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.
The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.
IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.
Visual Redesign
This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Let's Go Tribe! and SB Nation network users. We introduced a navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.
Search
We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.
What's New
Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster
Let's Go Tribe! now has all the basic information about the Cleveland Indians and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.
Recommending FanPosts
Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.
Auto-refreshing Comments
You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.
As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.
Recommending Comments
Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.
Flagging Comments
To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.
FanShots
Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.
For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Cleveland Indians material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.
Archives
It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.
Avatars
Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.
Network Profiles
Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.
Network bar
The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.
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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.
And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.
8 recs |
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comments
Comments
What were we saying about content in the subject line?
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 2:11 AM EDT
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It is indeed. I used to have a million of those things, my mom threw them all out when the moved from Cleveland.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:29 AM EDT
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Stuff looks good, though. I can't even begin to imagine how nuts the game threads are going to get with auto-refreshing comments.
by zempf on Mar 26, 2008 1:52 AM EDT 0 recs
So far so good. I suspect the FanShots is going to be out of control.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on Mar 26, 2008 2:11 AM EDT 0 recs
Nice
Nice layout...We will all get used to it. BTW, MLB is on ESPN and I am in Japan. Its good to watch a night game at 7:40pm vice 8:00am like the playoffs last year.
by lesterjl on Mar 26, 2008 6:42 AM EDT 0 recs
Shiny...
Looks great. Plays better. This is going to be awesome.
Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?
by Brian Galliford on Mar 26, 2008 7:22 AM EDT 0 recs
As a web developer by trade, I just wanted to chime in and say I'm really impressed with this new platform. Very, very slick.
by mrich on Mar 26, 2008 8:11 AM EDT 0 recs
One thing still missing though is the ability to edit comments. This is something that was implemented relatively recently on BTF and it works well -- the latest comment you've made (and only the latest one) has an "edit" link for about 10 minutes or so after you've posted it, during which time you can click on it to edit. After that period of time has passed you can no longer edit it, and if you make another comment you can't edit any previous ones. That's a system that I'd like to see implemented here too, since quite often you'll make a comment and post it, and then immediately read it and see a glaring typo or something.
by mrich on
Mar 26, 2008 8:13 AM EDT
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I agree that a temporary Edit function would be a good addition to the spec, but the mandatory Preview step ought to help for the moment.
by Jay on
Mar 26, 2008 10:49 AM EDT
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we don't currently have any plans to implement editing comments
but the system you describe is probably the best one I've heard about and seems like a reasonable implementation of a feature that could otherwise be easily abused
I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation
by clockwerks on
Mar 26, 2008 10:51 AM EDT
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Like the new site, like the new header. Overall, there's only one thing to say....
Championship!!
by Nat on Mar 26, 2008 8:26 AM EDT 0 recs
If there's a subject line...
...we need to teach people to ignore it. Otherwise, testing - 1,2,3 - Testing.
Looks good. Tastes great and might even be less filling.
In principle I do agree with mrich on the 'edit post' thing - but it is part of the culture now to explain yourself too.
Now that the Bedard bandwagon has officially crashed into the Maritime Seas, solely the local "Barfield Bounces Back Believer."
by mjmarble on Mar 26, 2008 8:29 AM EDT 0 recs
And it's even dumbed down so people don't need to know their html code.
Now that the Bedard bandwagon has officially crashed into the Maritime Seas, solely the local "Barfield Bounces Back Believer."
by mjmarble on
Mar 26, 2008 8:31 AM EDT
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Like the look...
still playing with the features. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but the "C" function for new comments isn't working for me right now. Any thoughts?
"the most vehement Yankee-hating guy I know" - Jay
by mauichuck on Mar 26, 2008 8:49 AM EDT 0 recs
Actually
I was having that problem too, but then it worked. Not sure what changed.
by Voltaire on
Mar 26, 2008 8:55 AM EDT
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I really like the "Z" button. How it cycles through the new comments makes reading the new comments way easier.
by Nat on
Mar 26, 2008 8:58 AM EDT
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Yeah, I've been playing around with that, too. It's quite sharp. I also like how easy it is to post, and how the new comments pop up. I second the statement that game threads will be insane.
by Voltaire on
Mar 26, 2008 9:00 AM EDT
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That's sick!
I'm not superstitious, I'm just a little stitious.
by jakesinger777 on
Mar 26, 2008 9:14 AM EDT
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I agree, Voltaire. I'm jealous.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:30 AM EDT
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Thanks to the both of you. I really couldn't believe my good fortune to be clever enough to come up with it.
by Voltaire on
Mar 26, 2008 3:01 PM EDT
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I'm suprised people like the look
I actually strongly dislike the look. I wish there was more contrast between the various segments of the blog. The fact that everything sort of has a white/light background makes it all kind of run together. Hopefully I'll get used to it or we'll add some darker shades.
Of course the additional bells and whistles are damn fine
by world dictator on
Mar 26, 2008 6:28 PM EDT
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Uh, sure, but in the old platform, practically everything was white, and hardly anything was differentiated at all.
It'll be interesting to see how we all feel about it in a week, once we're accustomed to it.
by Jay on
Mar 26, 2008 6:30 PM EDT
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Just testing. I'm as un-web-savvy (?) as they come so the new toys are nice. Looks great.
by bogey021 on Mar 26, 2008 8:55 AM EDT 0 recs
Going to take some getting used to for me to lurk properly, but I like it.
by The DiaTriber on Mar 26, 2008 9:05 AM EDT 0 recs
I hopped on this morning, hoping to find out we'd traded for Jason Bay and instead, whoa, I find this. Mercy.
I think we all agree it's nice but my question is; do we deserve it?
by NickFantana on Mar 26, 2008 9:06 AM EDT 0 recs
did anyone else opt to turn off auto-refresh on new posts?
by Brick. on Mar 26, 2008 9:17 AM EDT 0 recs
No. why did you?
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 9:57 AM EDT
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yeah. resisting change as much as possible i guess. i don't want to have a new reply pop up yellow up above while i'm looking below then turn white before i read it. i don't know if that's how it works, but i like refreshing then scrolling down the whole thing for new stuff so i don't miss anything. i just see it impossible to keep up in a game thread. maybe it'd be easier. i'll try both.
by Brick. on
Mar 26, 2008 10:28 AM EDT
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I think the yellow posts don't clear until you manually mark them as read, using the Z key or the X key.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 10:37 AM EDT
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thanks. i have to admit i haven't read the whole explanation of new features yet.
by Brick. on
Mar 26, 2008 10:43 AM EDT
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Very cool. I like using "z" to cycle through comments and the auto-refresh is nice, too.
by RachelAnn on Mar 26, 2008 9:18 AM EDT 0 recs
thankfully my extra brick image from my signature line is gone from new posts. all my old posts still carry it over from sbricker
by Brick. on Mar 26, 2008 9:20 AM EDT 0 recs
the being forced to preview comments should make typo teusdais less busy
by Brick. on Mar 26, 2008 9:21 AM EDT 0 recs
Looks around, nodding head ..."Jay, Ryan love what you've done with the place."
"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.
by Harry Doyle on Mar 26, 2008 9:54 AM EDT 0 recs
I think I like the comment system a lot better.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on Mar 26, 2008 9:57 AM EDT 0 recs
Where is the appropriate venue for feature requests? I'd like to be able to collapse entries on the front page to 5-or-so line summaries with links to the article and the comments section directly.
The reason I want this is because the front page is kind of long (full of awesome content!), and I frequently scan the articles after I've read them to see if there is active conversation anywhere. If the front page content can be condensed, I don't need to scroll (or scroll as much) to see if there is a new post that I might want to read or respond to.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on Mar 26, 2008 10:17 AM EDT 0 recs
I suppose what I'm looking for is partially available in the righthand column where recent activity on the site is broken out, but its still a little bit annoying to see a huge post on the front page eat up so much real estate after you've read it. Its not just that I'm lazy (though I am by nature, any programmer who isn't lazy probably isn't good :) but its an aesthetic issue as well. I'd rather see headlines and snippets in the center column than the full content of articles.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 10:41 AM EDT
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I think I'll go start a Diary -- excuse me, a FanPost -- for feature requests.
I think the 5-line summary is something you can do with an RSS feed reader, maybe you'd prefer that.
by Jay on
Mar 26, 2008 10:52 AM EDT
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There is also the option of using the intro paragraph / entry body when authoring stories and fanposts. When you use that, only the intro paragraph is displayed on the front page and you can click a 'continue' link to read the rest of the post.
I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation
by clockwerks on
Mar 26, 2008 10:54 AM EDT
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We've always had that option, but that's an option for each writer, not for each reader. It's an aesthetic question, whether to post most articles as all-front-page or as "read more inside." We generally do the former, mostly to get the point across to new readers (and old) that there's in-depth coverage here.
by Jay on
Mar 26, 2008 11:37 AM EDT
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true. it's your call as a blogger
I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation
by clockwerks on
Mar 26, 2008 12:07 PM EDT
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New site looks good. For us "older" types that resist change, it may take a while to discover all the new features. It's sort of like Christmas morning. :)
by shenvalee on Mar 26, 2008 10:19 AM EDT 0 recs
Ah...it looks even better than it did in the beta Jay & Ryan :D
Dawgs By Nature Your one-stop SBNation blog for news, notes, and nuggets on the Cleveland Browns (and, of course, the reasons why Pittsburgh still sucks).
by ChrisPokorny on Mar 26, 2008 10:19 AM EDT 0 recs
Strict XHTML 1.0 in the FanPosts? Nice! How completely standards based of y'all. Now, if we can only get Microsoft to play along in IE.
Maybe someday.
Free Andy Marte!
Pronk Needs You
by woodsmeister on Mar 26, 2008 10:44 AM EDT 0 recs
Holy crap. this is nuts. I love it!
Burn on, big river, burn on...
by Turkmenbashi on Mar 26, 2008 10:46 AM EDT 0 recs
I almost typed something in the subject line.
Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.
by Gradyforpresident on Mar 26, 2008 10:48 AM EDT 0 recs
Maybe it's just me, but it feels too busy to me. Just an initial growing pain I suppose.
Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.
by Gradyforpresident on Mar 26, 2008 10:57 AM EDT 0 recs
Not in that picture? The Chippendales on the bar.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 11:50 AM EDT
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I agree
It seems like there's a lot of unnecessary things clustered on the front page with little to blur between borders.
But the Z function is awesome!
by world dictator on
Mar 26, 2008 6:30 PM EDT
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I've been waiting to share this one for a while now. I like it even better, and I like your Jesus-on-a-Brontosaurus a lot.

Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:34 AM EDT
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this made an appearance before. the best part is that it looks like it's from a coloring book.
by Brick. on
Mar 26, 2008 11:36 AM EDT
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Shoot, I though I was being original. I would love to have the rest of that coloring book, if only to see what they call the other colors throughout. Omnipotent Yellow and Flesh of Christ would be some sweet crayons. Get Crayola on the phone.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:41 AM EDT
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We ruin our new toy on the very first day with a picture of Doucheton Pedroia? For shame.
I swear, next year is it.
by fwembt on Mar 26, 2008 11:12 AM EDT 0 recs
Wow ...
... I was skeptical of the toggling and live-updating ... but suddenly ... I am a live-updating, new-message-toggliing, mark-read-ing fool in this thread. It's kind of awesome.
For those who haven't gotten the hang of it yet, there's sort of a cursor indicating which Comment is currently "selected" -- it's a dark yellow line, hovering right above teh Comment after you toggle to it by pressing "C". That selected Comment will be marked read if you press "X", then you just toggle to the next one by pressing "C" -- or pressing "Z" is like pressing "X" and then "C" in sequence.
Crazy, but I think it actually works ...
by Jay on Mar 26, 2008 11:41 AM EDT 1 recs
I think so, too. Game threads are going to be great using this, way quicker and more "chat-like" than the old forum, without actually being a chat.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:43 AM EDT
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anyone else notice the little box which pops up and says "New Comment - APV (or whoever else)"
Can't wait for the first big play in a game thread when that box will get a workout
by APV on
Mar 26, 2008 11:45 AM EDT
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I'm using Z a lot. i still don't have a hang of when there's something new. just now i got like and I'm popup when you posted this and it linked straight here, but not when adam's just above came up. and now as i type this, adam posted again
by Brick. on
Mar 26, 2008 11:44 AM EDT
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I'm not getting the popups though. What browser are you using?
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 11:47 AM EDT
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internet explorer, but i don't always get them. i think it only works when you're IN the thread.
by Brick. on
Mar 26, 2008 11:52 AM EDT
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I haven't seen one yet, either. I use Firefox.
Il faut d'abord durer.
by CU Adam on
Mar 26, 2008 11:59 AM EDT
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What happens when a new comment appears but is threaded above your currently selected comment? Will Z take you up the page too?
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 11:46 AM EDT
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Asked and and answered simultaneously. Yes, it will.
Formerly known as "tribefan stuck in boston"
by BostonWahoo on
Mar 26, 2008 11:47 AM EDT
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What happens when we flag a post? Is someone notified? What is the protocol for flagging? Can I just flag every post that complains about Andy Marte?
by NickFantana on Mar 26, 2008 11:51 AM EDT 0 recs


