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FanPosts / FanShots — Make your voice heard

(with the new season here and a growing group of interested fans hanging out around the site, I thought it woudl be good to repost this story from earlier this year — jpf)

There’s a wide and diverse community of Lightning fans out there on the Internet, spanning the globe.  Everyone’s got a different take, or a different news tidbit that they may want to share.  A different perspective or a different argument regarding any number of aspects with the Lightning franchise.

And the thing is, you’re able to do more than comment on posts that we put on the front page here at Raw Charge.  You’re able to create your own blog posts as well.

They are called FanPosts.

FanPosts are story entries put together by members of the community — that means you — the person reading this right now.  The software behind Raw Charge and SB Nation, much like other community blog sites, allows you to create your own blog story for the world to read.  And depending on what you’ve written and how good the post is, it may just be promoted to the front page.

Of course, there are some things you need to know about FanPosts first:

  1. FanPosts should be original content. Don’t just copy and paste a story from another source (like many do on message boards). If you want to highlight a news story, a quote or a video, that’s what FanShots are for (more on FanShots at the bottom of this post).
  2. FanPosts should not be one-line stories. Or only two-line stories for that matter. If you only have a short comment to make, you should wait for an Open Thread on the front page to share that comment.
  3. FanPost’s should be relevant to the Tampa Bay Lightning or hockey in general. This does not mean Off Topic posts aren’t allowed, as the off-season is a slow time for hockey talk, but they need to be tagged as such in the title. Absolutely no political stories will be allowed.
  4. FanPosts (and FanShots) aren’t places for unsolicitated bulk advertisements (SPAM). Posting advertisements as FanPosts/FanShots may lead to your FanPost/FanShot being deleted and your account suspended/banned. This doesn’t mean blog-authors can’t cross-post their content on Raw Charge, this does mean you can’t just waltz in here and say “Take a look at my post at my site” with a link to your story.

Excellent posting tips about writing a FanPost can be found on Dallas Stars blog Defending Big D.

For more help on FanPosts (how to do it), check out this tutorial from SB Nation.

What are FanShots?

FanShots are promotion of single images, videos, links, or quotes in posts.  The difference between a FanPost and a FanShot is the amount of content.  While FanPosts are supposed to be lengthy stories, FanShots are quick-hit posts.  They are a great means to share breaking news, or highlight quotes from players or columnists or other blogs.

For a more at-length definition of FanShots and usage, take a look at Gaslamp Ball’s post about FanShots which provides a good how-to.

Much like a great FanPost, depending on how good or pertinent a FanShot is, it might very well be promoted to the front page.

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