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Joey Votto loves FanShots, and he wants you to love them too!

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Since SB Nation announced the Yahoo partnership, we've seen some serious growth in our traffic a Red Reporter.  We've hit all time highs for unique visits in each of the last two months, and we're on pace to do it again this month.  And while not all of you who are new to the site are signing up for accounts, those of you who have chosen to step into the fray have been excellent additions to the site.  So, welcome to all of you, whether you are new or old, lurking or active.  The other writers and I appreciate that you find this site worth visiting on a regular basis!

That being said, I do want to remind all of you of the purpose of FanPosts versus FanShots.  FanPosts are intended to be an area where you can express longer, more involved ideas.  Consider it a blog within a blog, where you can bring up a topic that isn't being discussed on the site already.  There is a minimum word limit on the FanPost for a reason though.  If you have something you want to talk about, but don't want to put a lot of thought into it (eg. you just want to ask a question of the group or drop a link that you found), it's likely that your post would fit better in a FanShot or simply as a comment in an existing thread.  As a rule of thumb, if you are intentionally babbling in your post in order to fill the space requirement, consider putting your thought somewhere other than a FanPost.

FanShots are there for when you simply want to post a link to something cool you found on the net, or perhaps post a picture, video, or quote that you want everyone to know about.  The beauty of the FanShot is that you don't have to put any thought into it.  And there are no minimum word requirements.  It's like the best of all worlds!

I know most people may not make it down to the FanShots area as much as they'd like.  So, in order to encourage readers to look at the FanShots, we're going to put a section within our regular Red Reposter feature where we update you on the latest FanShots that have been added.  That way, if the scroll feature is broken on your web browser, you won't be left out of all of the fun that the rest of us are having in the FanShots.

So please, continue to use both FanPosts and FanShots to add your voice to the site.  I love it when we get a well written FanPost from one of you that really makes me think.  It's what makes this place more of a community than just a plain old blog.  And please don't hesitate to drop your favorite links or videos or images in the FanShot area.  It makes it easier for the rest of us to find it too!

Last week we looked at how to fully utilize the tools given to us by the SBN devleopers while reading a story and comments on Red Reporter.  Today we're going to talk about something that is much more unique to the SBN community compared to your typical blog - FanPosts and FanShots.

As you know, these two sections are what make Red Reporter a community driven site rather than just a typical blog.  FanPosts are where you, the average joe living in his mom's basement, can post 1500 words on why Alex Gonzalez is teh awesome!  And FanShots give you a spot to post that super neat-o picture, link, or video that you can't seem to fit in the comment section anywhere.  Now it's time for you to learn how to use them.

(Special thanks to TheCheat at South Side Sox, from whom I pretty much stole this entire article)

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I've noticed a lot of questions over the last couple of days about what this means or how to do that, so I figured I'd compile them all into a few posts for reference later on in life.

Today we'll start with the basics, reading the site and commenting.

When you come to Red Reporter you will see a 3 column set up, with links to various items on the left and and right sides and the primary site content down the middle.  That middle area is where the magic happens.  That is where you'll find our daily updates as well Game Threads, Reviews, and other fun stuff like this article.  Okay, it probably doesn't need to be this dumbed down, does it?

One thing you may find in an article on the front page is a link that says "Continue reading this post »" at the end.  Be sure to click that to get to the remainder of the article.  If you miss it, you may miss the key to life.

If the link is not there, just click the "Comments" link to start reading the comments.  In this article's case, click the "Continue reading this post »" link.

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