As you may have noticed, one of the features in our new rebuild (progress still ongoing) is The Feed. It appears right beneath the main stories of the day. For those of you who hearken back to days of yore on site, it’s pretty much the equivalent of the old Fanposts, once featured prominently, less so as time went on. The concept is back with a vengeance and it’s for you, our readers, to take part in if you wish.
The basic idea of The Feed is that this is one of the places you can contribute, alongside
the comment sections in our main posts. In those major stories, we choose the topic. In the Feed, you get to talk about everything else you want to that we haven’t covered. Ultimately it’s going to take the shape of our community, but here are some initial thoughts that might get you started.
Here are some things you might consider posting:
- BREAKING NEWS! Remember how people used to put links to hot news that we hadn’t gotten to yet in the comments section of the top post on site? Now it can have its own highlight in The Feed. We will be watching for any news you find and we might adopt it onto the main page too! The only thing I’d say is, if someone has already posted a link, we don’t need six of them all at once. See what your fellow readers have found. If they haven’t, post away!
- LONGER COMMENTARY—We want to keep most discussion on main post stories in the main post. It’s more rewarding to make a comment and know everyone is seeing and reacting to it than have comments spread over many posts. But sometimes you have an original, in-depth, or just long thought that doesn’t fit comfortably into the comment section. Post that essay in The Feed and let people see it!
- VIDEO HIGHTLIGHTS—It’s hard to make main posts out of video highlights alone. The Feed is a perfect place to drop your awe-inspiring dazzle reels. No further commentary required!
- OTHER NBA TOPICS—We try to cover big stories around the league, but we’ll never get to anything. If you want to bring up news or an event that nobody is talking about, make a Feed post!
- INTRIGUING OFF-TOPIC THOUGHTS—Getting to know each other is part of the fun of a site like this. We’re cool if you want to make the occasional non-basketball Feed post too! Maybe read the room and see what’s going on that day. If it’s slow, tell us more about yourself or bring up an off-topic question. Please steer clear of things that will inspire flaming and comment wars. Other than that, have at it!
Here are a few things we probably won’t want to see as much:
- SPAM—If you see any, tell us. Also please don’t dominate the feed by repeating the same posts over and over, nor use The Feed to sell your multi-level marketing business or whatever.
- DUPLICATING MAIN POSTS—This is a fine line. As we said above, if you have a lengthy reaction that, in essence, should be its own post, Feed away! But generally speaking, if something is already covered in a main post, we want to keep discussion in that post. We don’t want to create 16 different communities. It’s much nicer for people, especially new readers, if they know where to post their comments and if they get a healthy reaction on same.
- THINGS THAT VIOLATE SITE RULES—We don’t want The Feed to be completely apart from site culture. They’re supposed to complement each other. Racism, sexism, attacks on people of different nationalities or orientations, pornography or links to same…those things are never allowed. Also we’re a non-swearing site. Finally, we don’t allow overt ad hominem attacks on others. A Feed post about how so and so is a stupid, clueless jerk without any other point to it will probably be taken down.
We don’t want to say much more than that. Make The Feed your own! Just follow the old campsite rule. Leave it better than you found it and we will all be able to enjoy hearing more from each other and learning more about each other!
