CSR How-To Guide: Fan Posts and Fan Shots

Ever since I posted my first CSR How-To Guide way back in July, I've been meaning to post another one to show new members how to post fan posts and fan shots in case anyone has a lingering desire to share information with the rest of CSR but just doesn't quite know how to do it. Well, today was the perfect combination of my desire to take all the screenshots and actually having the time to do it, so I decided to go ahead and post a second edition of the How-To Guide to explain with screenshots how to post fan posts and fan shots to newer members who may not understand the nuances of posting at CSR.

If you've been around long enough to know how to do the stuff covered in this guide, please just move along to something else. If you didn't know how to post fan posts and fan shots, it's my hope that this guide is a helpful tutorial for you.

Anyway, on to the screenshot tutorial...after the jump.

Before I start the tutorial, I'd like to give a brief instruction on the difference between a fan post and a fan shot, and advice on when to utilize each feature on CSR (or any other SB Nation site).

If you have a story or analysis to share that's 75 words or more in length, then a fan post is the tool you should use. Fan posts are there for fans who aren't members of the Editorial Staff so they can share articles with the rest of CSR. Once the fan post is published, it appears in the fan post section on the right sidebar of the website. Fan posts are listed in chronological order, and the fan posts that receive three or more recs are listed in a separate box at the top of the sidebar. If your fan post is constructed well enough, and has pertinent information about a topic that hasn't already been covered, a member of the Editorial Staff could potentially move it to the front page of the blog. (Note: Each editor has different standards for what goes to the front page, so you're really at the discretion of the Editorial Staff for front page promotion.)

On the other hand, if your fan post isn't 75 words in length, it cannot be posted. If you post nonsense words at the end of your 45 word thought just to meet the minimum word requirement, your fan post will most likely be deleted. (FYI, I always delete them when I see them.) If you don't have at least 75 words to say about a certain topic, then your best course of action would be to use the fan shot option instead, or posting it as a comment on a relevant fan post or front page article.

If you have something you'd like to share, whether it be a link to an article or a funny picture of a Panthers player, and you don't want to post it as a comment in another thread to get mixed in with 500+ other comments, then a fan shot is the appropriate tool to use. Fan shots allow users to share things that don't require a lot of text so the fan post list on the right sidebar isn't overcrowded with things that really don't belong there. There is a section on the right sidebar below the fan post section for fan shots, and they are shown in chronological order just like fan posts are.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. On to the tutorial. (Note: all images can be clicked to enlarge).

I. Posting Fan Posts

Okay, you have a statistical break down of last week's game that you want to share with everyone, but you're not quite sure how to do it. That's where the fan post comes in. To write a fan post, you have to click the fan post link in the upper right corner of the home page, as seen in the picture below:

Once you've clicked the fan post link, you will be taken to a new screen in your browser that will look like the image below:

After you've typed your fan post, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see the Auto Tag & Link button, the Add Poll option, and the Preview/Publish buttons. Below is a screen shot of what you will see when you scroll down:

Now, if you'd like to include a poll, then all you have to do is click "Attach Poll". Once you click it, you'll see a pop up box like the one in the picture below:

When you click "Add new option", you will see a space to add your poll options, as seen in the picture below:

Be sure to click "Save Poll" to ensure that your poll is seen by your readers.

Now, all you have to do is make sure you have everything included in your fan post, and click the publish button. I highly recommend utilizing the preview feature before publishing. You don't know how many times I've previewed a story to find typos and other various errors in my work prior to publishing articles. The preview feature is a lifesaver.

Once you've hit publish, that's it! You've posted a fan post for all of CSR to see! It's really that simple. (The hard part is coming up with something to talk about.)

That's all you need to know about posting fan posts (at least the technical side of it anyway). Now, let's move on to fan shots.

II. Posting Fan Shots

Now that we've covered fan posts, let's take a look at fan shots. If you don't have at least 75 words worth of content, please use the fan shot option instead of the fan post option. To post a fan shot, simply click "Fan Shot" instead of "Fan Post" in the upper right corner of the home page (see Photo 1).

You have several options for posting fan shots: link, quote, image, video, list, and chat. Most people only use the first four choices, and those are the only one's I'm going to cover in this tutorial.

To post a link as a fan shot, click "link" from the choices on the screen. A picture of what you'll see when you're posting a link fan shot is below:

To post a quote as a fan shot, choose "quote" from the choices on the screen. This is what I use when posting quotes from Twitter about player/team updates. A screenshot of what you'll see when you select quote is below:

To post an image as a fan shot, click "image" from the choices on the screen. A picture of what you'll see when you're posting an image fan shot is below: (Note: to post an image, it must be hosted online. You can't post an image from your computer. Also, please do not post an image that would be considered NSFW.)

To post a video as a fan shot, click "video" from the choices on the screen. A picture of what you'll see when you're posting a video fan shot is below: (Note: please do not post a video that would be considered NSFW.)

Once you've posted your link, quote, image, or video; all you have to do is click "publish" and your fan shot will be published for everyone to see. That's it...easy as pie.

And that, my friends, is how you publish a fan post or a fan shot. It is my sincere hope that this tutorial is helpful to you and encourages you to start sharing your thoughts with the rest of us. If you still have questions, please don't hesitate to ask, and I'm sure someone here will be willing and able to answer your questions for you.

(Note: if you have questions about how to post images in comments, how to rec/flag comments, how to do blockquotes, or how to post links in comments; please see the first How-To Guide that's linked at the beginning of this article.)