First off, if you are new to Revenge Of The Birds, welcome. And if you haven't created an account yet, go here, create a unique name, add an avatar, and join the site today. A few weeks ago, SBNation agreed on a deal that would feature all SBNation blogs on Yahoo! Sports. The deal has certainly increased traffic on the site. Another popular sports site, SI.com has also featured RotB as well. We did give a nice welcome to all new readers at the time, but now we want to explain how to use SBNation blogs and why this is the best place to be if you are an Arizona Cardinal fan.
The Introduction: 
Revenge of the Birds is an unofficial Arizona Cardinals blog. Yes it's true, you have found the best Cardinals blog on the internet. There isn't another Arizona Cardinals blog on the web that can compete. This is the best site to talk about your favorite team and get information and in-depth looks at your favorite players. Like yourself, we are all hardcore about our redbirds. Although the Super Bowl loss was a tough blow, we are still here to support our team. Here, we like to do community projects such as building our own mock draft, an NCAA tournament pick-em, we do an NFL Pick em when the season starts and we do give prizes. We also do fantasy football. To go along with that, we feature detailed looks at players, minicamps, games, and a lot more.
As you can see, my name is Andrew. I joined the site back in October and because I actively commented and created posts, I was given the opportunity to become an editor for the site. The main editors are myself, Hawkwind, and CG, and you can see us listed on the bottom of the site. We also have a lot of regulars who provide a lot of feedback.
I remember when I was new to the site, I actually waited a while before posting my first comment or story. I've done this on other blogs, where I would just read them and not participate in the conversations. So to avoid this, we'll address any important information you will need to know:
ROTB Rules:
Click here to see the "official" community guidelines of ROTB.
There are very few "rules" on ROTB. ROTB is intended to feel primarily democratic, and most of the "unwritten rules" come by way of self-government by the community through Recommended Fanposts, positive and negative feedback, peer influence, etc. The few official Community Guidelines exist for a singular purpose: they exist to help make ROTB a place that is safe and enjoyable for the entire community.
Free Speech on ROTB
We believe strongly in free speech and in celebrating a diversity of people, and of ideas, on the site. Users are, in general, free to express their opinions without fear of retribution. The diversity of personalities, beliefs, and styles is appreciated as being part of what makes ROTB strong. ROTB's committee of moderators all operate within this belief system.
However, ROTB is a community, and free speech does not mean "the right to say what you want, when you want, how you want," without being sensitive to, and respectful towards, the community as a whole. In a community, speech is not "free"--it comes with responsibility.
The following are simply not acceptable on ROTB (except, in some cases, for obvious humor between people with an existing rapport); if they violate ROTB's Community Guidelines, and are subject to sanction as outlined below:
- Personal attacks on community members, directly or through sarcasm/belittling, e.g., "You're an idiot," "You don't know what you're talking about, dumbass," "Apparently, you've never seen a football game, or you'd know...", "My dog knows more about football than you do," etc.
- Comments that are intolerant or prejudiced (sexist, racist, homophobic, etc.) in nature, e.g., "Why don't you go play with your dolls?", "The Card's shouldn't sign black players," "Doesn't Matt Hasselback look like a fag?", etc.
- Relentless negativity will not be tolerated. What constitutes "relentless negativity"? It's simple: simply posting the Card's suck 100 percent of the time without reasoning or proposing solutions. There is nothing helpful about someone who constantly says that their team "sucks" and complains. We're all fans and we all get frustrated when the team doesn't perform or has bad luck, but regurgitating the same venom over and over again doesn't help anything or anyone. ROTB is aiming to be better than that. If you continue to do nothing but post negativity, you may lose posting privileges without warning. There's a difference between someone who aims to point out flaws and be constructive and someone who is destructive. 10 Fanposts, or 10 comments, in a row about how the Card's stink with no reasoning or proposals is basically trolling and that's how it will be treated. The goal is to make this community fun for everyone.
- Comments that bring politics into ROTB (which is a non-political blog), e.g., "Bush/Clinton ruined this country by...", "Check out this link about the war in Iraq," etc. And just so that all ROTBers are clear, ROTB does accept political advertising as long as it is not offensive in any way, shape or form, but we subscribe to the belief that advertising and editorial are separate. So there will occasionally be political ads that run. Just like any other media outlet, just because a political ad runs, it doesn't mean we endorse or support whatever cause it happens to be.
- Whenever using another source for your information, you can just quote the just of it and link to rest.
Those are the main rules to the site. If you follow them(which should be easy), then you are more then welcome to stay.
The next few screen shots are numbered and have a key below them so you can understand certain aspects of the site. The first is the homepage:
Key:
The main page can be a little confusing at first. The middle of the site is where you will find the main stories that are posted by editors. The left and right hand sides of the home page feature widgets,fanposts and fanshots.
Click here to see the official SBNation welcome guide.
1. This part of the web site will direct you to the main SBNation home page. From there you can find other sports blogs.
2. This is your avatar, and will direct you to your dashboard. From here you can edit your settings and info about you.
3. This shows the blogs that you are currently a member of. It's a nice feature if you jump back and forth between blogs.
4. It's pretty obvious but this is a search engine. You can search RotB, the web, or all SBNation blogs.
5. This is one of the most important options you can use. A fanpost is a post by you, the fan. It will appear on the right hand side of the page so every member can view it. We strongly encourage you to use this as we are always open to new member's opinions. If it is relevant enough, we usually post it to the main page.
6. This part of the page is called a fanshot. If you are trying to post a quick story, this is where you want to be. A fanshot can be a chat, a quote, a link to another story, a picture, a video, or even a top 5 list of something interesting. If you discover any breaking news, this is how you want to show it.
7. The final part is our blog sections. It's pretty easy to understand but it helps when trying to narrow down information on the site.
Here is a screen shot of creating a Fanpost:
Key:
1.This is the name of your fanpost.
2. Tags are names of people, places or things that were mentioned in your post. It's important to list them here as they draw in other readers to check out your fanpost.
3. This is another way to draw in other readers. Whenever you mention a current player or team, add them here and it will tie your story with anything related to it.
4. Intro Paragraph is what will display on the main page if posted there. Entry body is the rest of your story. It's a good way to get a readers attention, by getting them to enter and read the rest of your story.
5. The three arrows here show some important tools. The first one looks like a chain...this is to link a word or sentence to the source that you got your information from. The next looks like quotation marks. For this, if you highlight a phrase or paragraph, then click this, it will put it in some unique-looking quotation marks. The last is bullet-point list and number list. When clicked, it will automatically put your thoughts in a list.
6. If you ever can't finish a post, click save and it will not post it till you come back to finish your story.
ROTB Mobile:
If you have a "smart phone", you will have ROTB available at your hands. It comes in a broken down version of the website, allowing you to see pictures and stories. If the browser on the phone is a full HTML browser, you can see the full site version and even post comments.
Tips and Side Notes:
- In case you haven't noticed yet, we use the abbreviation ROTB a lot on the site and if you are a slow one, it stands for Revenge of the Birds.
- We really want to stress on using you're own avatar. Its a great way to make yourself unique and stand out when posting comments. Here's mine ------------------------->
- When you agree with another member's comment, we like reply to it with a +1.
- Below each story, you will see links to Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo! We really want to emphasize the importance of clicking these. By doing so, you will be putting RotB out on the web and possibly bringing in more Cardinal fans.
- If you have a Facebook profile, MySpace page, Twitter account, or another website, please add our Revenge of the Birds widget that can be found on the left hand side of our home page. We do have a twitter account that will be added to the home page shortly, which you will be able to add.
- Always help us grow and spread the word about our community.
- You can sign up for any of our feeds over on the left sidebar.
- If you ever have any questions, concerns, or you are interested in writing for RotB, email us at revengeofthebirds@gmail.com.
- Finally, and not to sound corny, but enjoy being a member of RotB and don't be afraid to participate. If you haven't yet, click here and get signed up right away! That leads me to our next fanpost, why are you an Arizona Cardinal fan? Click here to give your reasons.
