SB Nation User Blog: BrianL

Larry Stone Wants Junior Back

BrianL — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:12:33 -0000

Larry Stone Wants Junior Back

Larry thinks Junior will be better next season because his knee got worked on. In other words, same story we heard last off-season.

Sounder at Heart: A New Blog for Sounders FC Fans

BrianL — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:07:14 -0000

Sounder at Heart: A New Blog for Sounders FC Fans

Sounder at Heart is SBN's latest Seattle-based blog. Thanks to Graham and Jeff over at Lookout Landing for pointing it out.

SBN Layout Upgrade

BrianL — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:14:45 -0000

As you no doubt have noticed, SBN underwent a layout change overnight.

This update contains little or no actual function changes, but rather is mostly about the visual presentation. Please use this fanpost to courteously post your feedback regarding the changes. From what I understand the SBN devs are hopping from blog to blog to see what people think.

A few thoughts of my own:

The new layout seems too bright and it would be nice to get our old color scheme back in place
I would prefer if article titles could go back to being center-aligned instead of left-aligned
Load times do seem to be much improved

The good folks at SBN Headquarters have worked hard on this format and do care what all of us have to say, so in the comments feel free to give them some feedback.

Be Thankful For What We Have

BrianL — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:47:07 -0000

Jordan Babineaux had a pretty good game Sunday afternoon. As John pointed out in his recap, today Babs finally began to look like a legitimate NFL free safety.

Here's an old friend of ours who still doesn't look the part. Gif under the cut!

(H/T to Torx)

Bruce Hines Axed

BrianL — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:26:37 -0000

Bruce Hines Axed

Lost in the Kenji shuffle is the fact that the front office just dismissed third base coach Bruce Hines.

At least we've still got video of him awkwardly doing the "suck it" after Ichiro hit that game winning blast off of Mariano.

Seahawks Anonymous

BrianL — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:45:00 -0000

Okay, so we've covered things we like, things we hate, and things we ued to like but now hate.

This week, we are covering things we used to hate but now love. Here's my list:

Classical music
Cream soda
Soccer
King of the Hill
Adrian Beltre
Dave Sims
Cheers

As a reminder, keep your post-game bitching in here. Failure to do so will result in your comment being deleted and increased moderator blood pressure.

He's No Longer Our Problem

BrianL — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:43:17 -0000

Animated gifs below the cut.

Best I could do in ten minutes.

Boom.

It kind of looks like Brian Russell wants to give his old teammate a big bear hug but Justin's not going to have it.

Fun fact: Justin Forsett's NFL.com page lists him at 5'8", 194 lbs.

Seahawks Annonymous

BrianL — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:21:14 -0000

Your bitching goes here. If your bitching is found in other threads, it will be deleted.

Last week we talked about things we didn't like. This week we will talk about things we like. Here's my list:

Crisp autumn days
Jazz music
Tasty treats made from pumpkins
Ichiro!
Touchdown Jesus
Bioware videogames

And here's a video. Did you know you can recreate every pop song ever with just four chords?

SBN and You: SBN 101

BrianL — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:32:04 -0000

Hello new members of Field Gulls. If you haven't noticed yet, our gracious SBN hosts have a rather unique system in place to facilitate commenting. It's a powerful interface, but can be fairly confusing at first. Don't you fret, I'll step you through the basics of the SBN system.

Field Gulls Front Page

Let's start out with content. As you've no doubt seen, featured stories, articles, breaking news, and other content are located in the center of the Field Gulls home page:

Clicking on the black headline will take you to a page where you can read the entire article and will also lead you to the comment section (which we'll cover in a moment). Remember, if you ever want to get back to the front page of Field Gulls, all you have to do is click the FG logo at the top-left of the page.

Readers at Field Gulls can also submit content for others to read and comment on. Over on the right-hand side of the page you'll see two sections called "Fanposts" and "Fanshots." Simply click on the hyperlinked title to read the content.

Rule of thumb: Fanposts are geared towards longer discussions/questions while fanshots are for brief quotes or Seahawks and general football links and pictures.

You may have also noticed that the SBN system keeps tabs of the number of comments in a thread as well as the new comments you haven't read yet. To go straight to the comment section to check up on the latest discussion, just click on the new comments hyperlink below the fanpost/fanshot title and poster username.

Navigating Comment Threads

The stories and articles are only half the content here at Field Gulls and other SBN blogs. As a member of this community, you can participate in the discussion by taking part in the comment threads.

SBN uses a nested comment system to help facilitate discussion amongst regular users. In the screenshot above you'll see that each new reply is indented from the previous comment, signaling a continuation in the discussion. You'll also notice that some of the comments are white, while others are highlighted in yellow. The comments in white are comments that you've already marked as having read, while the comments in yellow are new comments.

To navigate through the comment section, you can use the following keystrokes:

Keystroke - Command
C - Cycle forward through comments
Shift+C - Cycle backwards through comments
X - Mark comment as read
Z - Cycle forward and mark previous comment as read
Shift+A - Mark all comments as read

Another nice perk with SBN's commenting system? No need to manually refresh the page! New comments will be displayed automatically in the thread you are viewing. A pop-up box at the bottom-right of the page will inform you when new comments arrive.

Commenting

Ready to take the plunge and post a comment here at Field Gulls? If so, let's get familiar with the comment box.

At the bottom of each comment section is a comment box that you can use to start a discussion of your own.

The textbox at the top is the Subject Line. Use of the subject line is encouraged here at Field Gulls because it helps promote good comment flow and helps the moderators do their jobs. The comment line also allows for large comments to be collapsed (which can make it easier to follow a discussion). It doesn't have to be much, just make sure you have one.

The textbox below the Subject Line is the main body of your comment. Write out the rest of your comment here. As a courtesy to your fellow Field Gulls friends, attempt to use proper grammar and spelling. We don't demand perfection, but we do appreciate the effort. Anything you can do to help make the comments as a whole easier to read is swell.

Below the textboxes are two buttons, preview and post. Hit the preview button to take one last look at your comment. Keep in mind that you can't go back and edit your comments once they are posted, so be sure to take advantage of the preview function. Satisfied with what you see? Hit post and your comment will appear at the bottom of the comment section.

Now, this isn't the only place where you can see the comment box. Remember the nested comment threads we talked about? Here's how you get there.

Let's say you've found a neat comment and you've got some insight you want to add. At the bottom of the comment, you'll see this:

The second hyperlink from the right is the "reply" function. Click this button and it will open a comment box right below the comment you are replying to. Simply follow the guidelines we talked about above, preview your comment, and hit post. Your reply will appear nested under the comment you were responding to.

One more feature at the bottom of each comment you may find useful is the "up" hyperlink. Click this and it will take you to the previous level of the nested subthread.

There are some other features of the SBN system that we'll cover later, such as posting pictures, quotes and links in a comment as well as posting your own fanposts and fanshots. I recommend you hold off on that a bit and get used to the interface here at Field Gulls first.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask myself, John, Scruffy, or any of the other mods.

Enjoy your time here at Field Gulls!

NFL Sympathizes With You, Still Blacks Out Your Games

BrianL — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:02:14 -0000

From the Consumerist, a pro-consumer blog

Let's face it, times are tough for a lot of people. For many, it's just not within the realm of possibility to find money to go to an NFL game in person. At least you can watch your team on television. Right?

As most of you are aware there's an NFL policy concerning home market broadcasts and sold-out attendance. In short, if the game hasn't sold out, you don't get to see your home team on television in the home market. This policy has always drawn criticism, but now the grumbling has increased in intensity. Time Magazine chimes in:

Fans in long-suffering Detroit, however, don't need to look at the stands to know something is wrong, both with the hapless Lions and the city as a whole. With unemployment hovering around 30%, it's not easy for folks in the Motor City to shell out a few hundred bucks to attend a game and cheer on the first team in NFL history to finish the season 0-16, as the Lions did last year. So it's no surprise that the Lions are having trouble selling out their 65,000-seat stadium. But should laid-off GM workers, who just want to watch their Lions as a form of Sunday escapism, be punished for these dreadful circumstances?

"We get screwed over," says Sean Yuille, a University of Michigan student who runs Pride of Detroit, a Lions fan blog.

On the surface, these blackouts seem overly punitive, especially in the current economic climate. Don't expect things to change, though.

"No consideration is being given to changing the blackout policy," says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. "It has served us well for decades, and we think it would be a mistake to alter it."

But hey, at least the NFL is still thinking about you as the Consumerist reports. You can still watch your games on the internet! For free! At your convenience!*

*For a period from midnight on the day of the game until 72-hours following the initial availability. Games are not broadcast at NFL.com in real-time.

The NFL and the teams believe that these blackout rules have helped to encourage fans to go to the games and have been responsible for the league's growth over the decades. Do you all think this is true? Is it time to revisit the NFL blackout rules?