A month ago we rolled out something we’ve been building towards for years: the new SB Nation app (which you can find here or by searching SB Nation in your app store of choice) and I want to express a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has downloaded it, even to try it out, and a special double-big thank you to everyone who has used the app as a tool to comment more frequently, interact with our content more, and just generally continue to build Lookout Landing as a community.
For anyone who has had their
phone steadily heat up like a fireplace brick while trying to comment on a game thread, I know this app has been a game-changer for you. The goal with the app wasn’t just to save you from getting third-degree burns, though; it was to create a richer community by making it easier to join, comment, interact with others’ comments, and create your own posts, while creating a more integrated experience that reflects changes in how people absorb information to make sure nothing got buried “below the fold” on the home page.
As someone who was involved with testing and giving feedback about the early stages of the app, it’s been gratifying to see how successful it’s been and how much people are enjoying it. We set a new all-time record for comments this past month across all of SB Nation’s communities, and I hope to see communities continue to grow (and maybe even some new ones to pop up! Paging Adam Silver). Even with the Mariners’ putrid 2026 season, our commenting numbers remained strong, and I want to express special appreciation for that.
I hope you’re enjoying the new game chat feature. It’s been a workflow adjustment for us on this side – who knew toggling a switch that says “mark as game thread” would be so hard to remember to do – but it’s worth it to make the game thread experience easier and more fun. The game threads are really at the heart of what we do and the faster load times and notifications have, I hoped, improved your game day experience even when the Mariners themselves were committed to making it miserable.
I also want to thank those of you who have interacted with the Feed, posted to the Feed, fed the Feed, whatever. Like many of you, I wasn’t sure what to make of the Feed at first, but I feel like we’ve figured out how to utilize it now, and it makes a lot more sense to me now that I see how it integrates in the app. I’ve appreciated it as a place to put little tidbits about the Mariners that don’t fit into traditional articles – things I’d normally post on social media and then re-post here in a comment, which cuts out the middleman, saves me from having to interact with various social media platforms, and also helps the info stay more visible to people who actually care about Michael Arroyo taking reps in left field.
But I’ve also really enjoyed seeing your posts which have called things to my attention I’d have otherwise missed in the hundreds of comments on a Moose Tracks post each day; you all have done a really good job of naturally sussing out what makes for a good Feed post vs. what can just be a comment, and I hope we can continue to build on that so we can streamline conversations and get more voices in the mix.
Of course, if you prefer just reading our traditional front page articles, there’s an option at the top of the app to do that.
I know change isn’t always people’s favorite thing, especially in long-established communities like LL, so I wanted to express my deep gratitude at how willing so many of you have been to embrace the app and change how you interact with the site. I know we haven’t always rolled out things perfectly here and there was good cause to be suspicious of yet another New! Innovation!, but I am encouraged by both the resources that have been poured into making the app successful and its actual functionality. I hope we can continue to work together with this exciting new tool to keep building LL into one of the richest communities – not just in baseball or in sports, but online in general.
So, one month in, thanks for making us part of your routine. If you haven’t checked it out, you can get it for iOs or Android. And if you’re not an app user, that’s okay! We’re glad to have you following along in whatever way makes you most comfortable.
