I hate to keep apologizing for a lack of new material but I have hit the summertime blues.  I have a few ideas for posts but just can't find the time or energy to put pen to paper.  If you have any ideas for posts than feel free to write a fanshot.

Since I haven't been writing anything new and the membership of the site is growing daily; I figured it would be a good time for a tutorial on all the cool tools they give us here at Die by the Blade.  I will try to take step by step through the sign up process and writing comments, Fanshots and Fanposts.  Feel free to help me out if I forget anything.

How to Sign Up

In order to become a full member of the Die by the Blade community you need to sign up for an account.  It's extremely easy to sign up and you can even use your OpenID or your YahooID to sign up.  Just click here and the rest will be easy to do.

Community Guidelines

Now that you're signed up you are ready to become an active member of the community.  The entire list of guidelines can be read here but all you have to do is show your passion and be polite to the other users and you'll be fine.

FanPosts and FanShots: What's the Difference?

There is a huge difference between a FanPost and a FanShot but what is the difference?  If you are surfing the web and find a Buffalo Sabres news item that you want to share with the community, it would be a perfect opportunity for FanShot.  A FanShot is used when you want to get a news item up right away and you don't plan on adding too much commentary to the news.

If you have an opinion to share on a news related item, you might want to write a FanPost.  A FanPost must be at least 75 words long and should be thought of as your own blog post.  The best FanPosts find their way to the home page so that everyone can read it without searching for it.  This is my favorite feature of the SB Nation platform because it goes beyond the comments and allows you to be a huge part of the community.

If you aren't a member of Buffalo Rumblings, I recommend heading over there to get an idea of how to best use FanPosts and FanShots.

How To Recommend Stories and Comments

The site has been growing at a record pace this off-season and the need for using the recommend feature is sure to become important.  If you recommend the best comments and stories, it will allow them to be featured on the page and separate them from the rest.

If you want to recommend a blog post or FanPost it will be located at the bottom of the post.  At the end of every post there are options for you to use.  If you want to recommend a post you click on the "Rec" and it will add a Rec that particular post.

To recommend a comment it is very similar.  At the bottom of the comment you click on "Actions" that should open up the options for you to rec the comment.

Tagging Posts

Tagging Posts can be important for people that are searching for posts about particular players or news items.  Be as specific as possible when tagging items.  If your post is about a specific player or team, make sure you use the proper tags.

The player and team tags are located on the right side of the page.  If you type a few letters the system will auto-find the player or team for you.

This is just a simple guide to some of the features here at Die by the Blade.  I would be happy to answer any questions you have.