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As I was sitting at my desk this evening thinking about what I might want to write, I realized that if traffic numbers continue trending the way they are right now, and we grow as much percentage-wise this season as we did a year ago, there are going to be quite a few newcomers to ODB in the next few weeks. That got me thinking about what it might be like for someone who just stumbled across ODB or any other SB Nation site and had no real idea what was going on. So tonight I'm going to go through the basics of ODB and how our platform works and talk about what we plan to do this coming season.
1. Community Participation
Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a post laying out the basics of the SB Nation commenting system, fanposts, fanshots, and everything of that ilk. Rather than type it all out again, I'll link it so people that are unfamiliar with how these things work can read at their leisure. In case you don't want to do that, here are a couple of examples from today of what Fanposts/Fanshots are and how our members can use them.
Fanposts: Just a few minutes ago, I promoted to the front page a fanpost written by Grizzly79er about the best opening day performances in Baylor history. That is a fantastic example of what our platform allows a talented, passionate fan who doesn't happen to be a contributor, do. You can do it, too. We've had a veritable explosion of great fanpost content here at ODB over the last year, and I couldn't be happier to see it. Several prominent fanposters have actually become contributors, as well, so if you want to try your hand at writing, that's a great place to start. Anybody who is a member can write fanposts.
Fanshots: Opinions differ behind-the-scenes on the value of fanshots, but I use them when there's something worth linking or showing that maybe isn't enough for a full-blown post. An example from today is the tweet I linked about Brady Heslip signing his contract with Minnesota. I wanted everyone to know about it, but it's not a big enough deal (arguably) to warrant a full post. Fanshots can be links, lists, quotes, images, or videos, and anybody who is a member can post them.
2. OurDailyBears Hubs
When I posted the other day about keeping the front page clean, it became obvious that people really don't know how many hubs we have at ODB. Hint: it's a lot. I'm obsessed with hubs. Bookmark these if you need them.
Major Sports:
Baylor Football
Baylor Men's Basketball
Baylor Women's Basketball
Baylor Soccer
Baylor Baseball
Baylor Softball
Football-Only:
Baylor Football 2014 Season
Baylor Football Recruiting
Baylor Football Position Previews
ODB Community Projections
Baylor Football Uniforms
Basketball-Only:
Hype Videos and Gifs:
Baylor Hype Videos
Baylor Gif Posts
ODB Stuff:
ODB Site News
OurDailyMailbag
OurDailyPodcast
Daily Bears Reports
Friday Afternoon Videos
Big 12 Stuff:
SB Nation Stuff:
I think that's it. Is that it?
3. Football Season Coverage Schedule
Over the last two seasons, ODB has built a schedule of sorts for content that goes up on a weekly basis, in addition to the DBRs that go up every day. With a few variations, this schedule should be what you see every week of the season, though we might miss a day or two here or there or put things up out of order. This is the schedule you'd see with a game on Saturday. The links are to examples from last season, where they exist.
SUNDAY:
Morning After -- heavy links post with reaction and stats from the day before
Sunday Morning QB -- Grin & Bear It -- recaps the week that was in the Big 12 Conference
Rankings -- as new AP and Coaches polls come out, we'll talk about them. Same for CFB Playoff stuff.
Podcast Recording -- I don't think this is set in stone yet, but last year we did Sunday podcasts wrapping up the previous game.
MONDAY:
Podcast Post -- Maybe, see above. You know what these look like.
Trench Warfare -- imahammeru -- post grading the offensive line performance
Gif Post -- Ted -- If he's up for it.
SB Nation Selection Committee -- This isn't an ODB thing, but we'll have it on the board.
Big 12 Power Rankings -- New post from Matthew Tennant ranking the Big 12 for that week.
Predict the Score -- thermhere -- weekly prediction contest, new this year
TUESDAY:
First Look -- Seymour -- first general look at the opponent that week.
Advanced Stats: Big 12 Conference -- Seymour -- what the stats say about the conference as a whole
Baylor Offensive Stats/Projections -- Seymour -- how Baylor's offense is trending
WEDNESDAY:
Statistical Preview -- Seymour -- Heavy stats look at the opponent of the week.
Podcast Recording -- Podcast crew -- will go to Wednesdays if we do 2x a week.
THURSDAY:
Preview/Prediction Thread -- Final preview/predictions for that week's game.
Podcast Post -- Peter -- If we record Wednesdays.
FRIDAY:
Big 12 Preview -- Fankhauser -- Big 12 preview for that week's games.
CFB Schedule/TV info -- Seymour -- Pretty self-explanatory
SATURDAY:
Game Day Post -- Seymour -- latest info about that day's game
Game Thread -- Whoever -- Game thread for discussion and watching.
Post-Game -- Whoever -- Celebrate/commiserate the results of the game.
Thoughts - Seymour -- Might be Saturday or Sunday.
I think that's about it. If I left out anything critically important, please forgive me. Contributors, if you have an idea for something not listed, please feel free to share. Members, too, if you think something else would fit.
NOTE: These are just the regular features. Everything else you see on ODB will still happen. That means recruiting, breaking news, whatever. That's not included here. Also, this schedule may vary from week to week.
4. The ODB Blog Roster
We've grown quite a bit in recent months, adding new contributors that I think you're really going to enjoy. I plan on doing a post soon introducing everyone and laying out how things should work. For now, if the contributors want to share a bit about themselves in the comments, they can. If not, that's cool, too. I'll go first:
I'm Aqua/Mark Seymour, the Managing Editor of OurDailyBears.com. I write about basically everything that happens in Baylor Athletics, and if you email OurDailyBears (at) gmail (dot) com, you'll get me. I'm also the one behind the @OurDailyBears twitter account when it's not tweeting links to posts here on the site.
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If I failed to explain anything or forgot something completely, throw it in the comments. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.