The fine technical staff over at SB Nation have done it again. They have hooked you guys up yet again. The truth is, I was already planning on putting up one of these "business" posts anyway to let you guys know about some of the different things I have added around here and welcome some of the newer members. Then I got a bunch of emails telling me about all the cool stuff SB Nation has been working on too. Some of it has been around a bit and you may have already noticed it and some of it is brand spanking new. Without further ado, let me show you around some of the new digs.
First of all for some of the newer members be sure to check out this very old Tour of CSC post I wrote a while ago. Some of it doesn't apply anymore but I guess it's worth the read.
On to some of the new stuff!
In the very top right corner you will see a revolving list of headlines from around the sports world. It also alerts you of new SB Nation features. Feel free to click on those if they interest you. Always remember that there is coverage of almost every sports related story right here at SB Nation.
I have moved the FanShot section up so it now sits just below the FanPosts (wink, wink to whoever suggested that). For those of you who don't know, that is where I usually put links to stuff about the Saints from around the web. I usually give it to you as a quote to intrigue you. Click on the link to read the entire article. Sometimes I put them on the front page just to break up the regular posts. However, they are not just for me, they are for you too. If you find a funny video on YouTube, you can just copy the embed code in a FanShot and it goes right up. If you're reading an article about the Saints and it hasn't been posted on CSC, open up a new tab and just put up a quick FanShot. It takes literally seconds. Hook everyone else up. The power of numbers people. Moving on.
On the left side you will find our new RSS feed. Remember two seconds ago when I told you about how I put everything I find up as a FanShot and I encourage all of you to do the same? Well if you grab the FanShot section feed, it's like having a feed to almost every story about the Saints out there. Cool!
You will also see a link to all of our other great SB Nation blogs. Just click on the sport and the list will magically appear. There's my email address and all that stuff below that.
On the left side I also added a Canal Street Chronicles widget. This one is cool. Please listen carefully as this can really help CSC grow. I put this up for you guys. For those of you who have webpages, including other blogs, MySpace pages, Facebook profile, etc. you can grab that widget and put it on your pages or profiles. This way any Saints fan checking out your site will see the latest headlines from Canal Street Chronicles and just maybe they might click on it and love it! To add it to your website, just click on "Get Widget" and follow the instructions. That would be awesome!
I don't know if any of you have noticed this, but on the left sidebar there is a list of current Saints player injuries. Below that I also put the injuries of the upcoming Saints opponent. Good idea huh? Speaking of future opponents, you might have noticed the countdown clock on the right hand side. I don't suggest starting, it only makes it go slower.
If you are getting bored of all this technical mumbo jumbo, maybe you would prefer to get your Saints news from this exciting guy! Hold on to the edge of your seat before pushing play on this one!!
Back to work...
You might have noticed I added a new video widget. That will automatically update with random Saints related videos it finds from around the internet. More coolness.
Also, Canal Street Chronicles and all of SB Nation is now mobile! That means whenever you're not near a computer at home or work, you can get on your handy dandy iphone, itouch, blackberry or other mobile internet device you may own and easily read your favorite website. You can't comment from your mobile device yet, but that is coming very shortly.
This last one is probably my favorite because it's something I personally wanted to see so pay attention. You know how I always keep saying that the FanPost section is really just a glorified message board. Well now it is!! Click on the FanPost button on the top navigation bar (just below the banner ad and to the right of the CSC logo) or click on "All FanPosts" at the bottom of FanPost section. Cool right!? It's a message board! You can sort the board any way you like, but I suggest doing by "Most Recent Activity."You can always look at it in good old fashioned Full View.
The reason I'm excited about this is because I have high hopes that this will increase participation. This section is what makes this site so cool. I only post every so often but you guys are always out there and always checking in at all hours of the day. Lots of activity in this section will always keep it fresh. Take advantage of it. Do fun stuff like a player look-a-like post for each weeks upcoming opponent, take a poll (you can do that!), write a rant, give everyone your keys to the game, talk about something funny you noticed during the game or bash Tony Kornheiser (this one is coming on Tuesday morning I can feel it!). It might be frustrating if you don't get a lot of comments on something you write but it will come.
Some other random notes to remember:
- If you like something, rec it. When something receives 4 rec's, it gets promoted. If a front page post gets rec'd enough it becomes a featured story. You can even rec individual comments to highlight them! Let others with not a lot of time know where to go first.
- Buzz the heck out of my front page posts. That is a traffic generator. The more a story gets buzzed, the more people will find it. Help us grow.
- Always feel free to email me with anything. Even with technical aspects.
- I encourage you guys to tag anything you post with the appropriate players and teams. It helps with search engines.
- I write all my posts in Wide format. That may effect the look if you are in Narrow.
- This post will permanently be found in the Tour of CSC section for later reference.
- My final point is important. Do anything you can to help spread the word about CSC. If you participate in other Saints/sports message boards or blogs, let them know about us. Tell all of your friends. Put us in your profiles. Buzz the stories. Tag your posts. Every little bit helps! The bigger this community, the better.
Thanks to all of you out there who make this fun for me to do. I promised myself I wouldn't get emotional. I have to go...