Just when we thought SB Nation couldn't get any better, they've gone and made things even easier for readers and users. Early this morning the SBN tech gurus rolled out an update to the FanPost editor, that improves just about every aspect of the the interface. It also now lets you share your FanPosts on your Twitter account.
I'd also like to invite new users and readers to join Defending Big D and share your thoughts on the Dallas Stars. Plus, signing up for Defending Big D also automatically creates an account for the entire SB Nation blog network, allowing you to easily join and contribute to any website on SBN. This is a network built upon the contributions of all of it's readers, and your voice can't be heard if haven't you joined up.
To sign up, either click on the "Start Posting About The Dallas Stars" button on the sidebar, or click here.
And for those that are new members but are hesitant to write a FanPost, FanShot or post a comment in a story, here are some good tutorials on all of the great features here at SB Nation:
FanPosts and FanShots How-To & Posting Tips
Defending Big D Community Guidelines
Finally, follow the jump for the official rundown of the latest changes from the SBN guys, via Blog Huddle.
Share on Twitter
When you publish a FanPost or FanShot let your friends (or followers as they're called) know via Twitter. We've built an easy tool into the FanPost and FanShot editors that automatically creates a short URL back to your post and lets you send that to your Twitter stream along with a quick message. You can set this all up from your account settings screen, or right within the FanPost and FanShot editors. See more detailed instructions below.
Redesigned FanPost Editor
We've made a few changes to the layout and features of the FanPost editor:
1) Bigger text area - more space to explain why ranking systems can't be objective or your GM should be fired immediately
2) Spellchecker - this isn't a spelling bee, it's a sports blog network
3) Draggable jump bar - we combined the intro and extended entry sections of a post and made it easy to decide where to split them
4) Sidebar inserts palette - tools to insert images, videos and quick, relevant, timely links in your post
5) Easy status + save - we made the auto-save message more obvious, combined it with the post status and made the whole thing a big button you can click to save as often as you want (without reloading the whole page)
6) Autotagger - adding player, team and game tags to your post helps everyone find your opinion on those subjects; we just made it super easy: write your post, click that 'run autotagger' button and we'll tag your post the most relevant players and teams + link them up as well. if you don't feel like clicking that button, we'll run that process for you when you publish.
A help box that explains all of this in more detail will open up the first time you try out the new FanPost editor. Now go fire it up on your favorite blog and try it out!
Twitter Instructions
1) LINK YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT: Login to SB Nation, click your screen name in the network bar up at the top of the page, then click 'Edit Account'. From there click the 'Associate a Twitter stream with your account' link and follow the instructions to hook it up.
2) SHARE FANPOSTS + FANSHOTS ON TWITTER: Now when you click 'New FanPost' or 'New FanShot', you'll notice a checkbox at the bottom of the screen that you can click to reveal a text area to write your tweet. We take care of generating the short URL. All you have to do is click the 'Publish' button. BTW, if you skipped step 1 you can link your Twitter account directly from the FanPost and FanShot editors. And we make sure you won't lose your work in the process.