Because really - community is one of the great things about SB Nation. You, the fan, are able to let your opinion be heard in an open forum by commenting and participating in live game threads. Other ways you can share your voice on the subject of women's basketball is by contributing fan shots (in the form of links, quotes, lists) you find around the web or pictures that you've taken. If you're feeling highly adventurous, you can even write your own fan posts on the relevant topic of your choosing. [learn about all these things here - beware the screenshots will look way different now, but the basic instruction information is the same]
YES - we want you to create your own account and post a comment! In fact, why don't you start today? Go try out one of our new StoryStreams and tell us what you think about the WNBA Playoffs (which start tonight, by the way) and who you're rooting for or maybe what's going to happen with the four WNBA Draft lottery teams!
YES - we want you to keep on keeping on by posting various things you find around the web that would be interesting to the community as a fan shot!
YES - we want you to branch out and contribute your own musings fan post style!
But now with the amazing new redesign of Swish Appeal as part of SBN United, we have another very important task for you to undertake. And honestly, you can almost still hold onto your lurker card if you so desire (not that we want that, but I know some of y'all are shy little things).
We need you to use the rec button!!
When you are signed into the site and read a story, fan post or fan shot that you love (or really even just like a lot) and think others should read, recommend it! You see, with the new system sidebars, items with more recs get bumped to the top of the list. Same goes for comments in posts - though rec'ing doesn't move the comment, it will highlight it a fancy green so everyone knows it's worthy of taking a look out - which is particularly helpful in posts with a lot of comments.
Like this (I've combined the front page and inserted a rec'd comment from a post in the bottom right corner - i.e. the green box down there):
As you see in the red sidebar above, the posts with three and four recs are up at the top, while the newer posts with less recs are relegated below, keeping the most liked posts more visible for longer.
Aside from just highlighting these items, recs give another form of boost, an ego boost of sorts. It's a way to show your love and appreciation to the contributors in the community. Everyone likes to know their hard work is getting noticed, right? Soooo....when you notice it and appreciate it, rec it! Even if you're not the commenting and posting type, c'mon, be the rec'ing type - pretty please! And don't even play that you don't "like" and "retweet", so it's about time to start doling out recs.
To all of our community - from those who have been reading for years to those who have been reading for minutes, thank you. Without you, there is no us. And without us, there is a lot less women's basketball coverage floating around.
I'm offering you yet another chance to uncloak yourself right here on this post, give us feedback in the comments below. What do you like about Swish Appeal? What could you do without? What do you wish upon the night stars that we would start doing? We really do want to know and grow our community!