Taking Advantage of the New Comment Format

There are a lot of things that make Blueshirt Banter the amazing place that it is. In my opinion the best part of this place is you guys and what you bring to BSB in terms of discussion, humor, and the sense of community we have here. Now that I have given you guys a spoonful of sugar, it is time for the medicine. So open up baby birds, it is time for some pre-digested worms.

There is something you can do to make this place better. I know, I know, "Better Digger? You must be shitting me. I talk to people like Moshe and Caerid more than I talk to my wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/sibling/imaginary-friend-named-Himmer." What we are asking for here isn't a lot gang, we're just asking for you guys to take advantage of the tools that are available to you as members of the community.

In addition to making SB Nation sites a lot more accessible and user-friendly from mobile devices, SB Nation also recently updated the way comments work and have given us some more toys and tools to play with, so let's check them out!

One of the things I am talking about using the "rec" option when you like something so that the guy who makes a great point can have his comment highlighted for those people who just browse through comments. When someone makes a great point or makes you spit out your drink laughing, it is only nice to let him know you appreciate him/her being awesome. Now, don't just throw recs around like candy corn and the other crap candy you tried to push on other kids the day after Halloween, but we should all be using them more than we currently do.

Another thing you can all do to help out is to "flag" inappropriate comments that you think the Editors should know about. When you flag comments it lets us know that they need to be removed or if someone is developing a disturbing trend of saying and/or posting inappropriate things. Using the "flag" feature is a lot more effective than insulting a guy because he insulted someone and just throwing more fuel on the fire. It is hard to catch everything, we really try to do our best but it is a heck of a lot of comments to read. Any help you can give us by flagging inappropriate comments really goes a long way in helping us keep this place running smooth and as drama-free as possible.

How do I "rec" and "flag" comments you ask?

When you look at someone's comment you'll see a grey star and something that looks like a list, these are the symbols for "rec" and "flag". Before SB Nation's update on Thursday, it was a lot harder for beginners to rec and flag things because you had to click the "actions" button to bring them up as options, but things are a heck of a lot easier now when they are out in the open in the new format.

When you flag something it will ask you if it was spam, someone being a troll, or if the comment was inappropriate and there will be some room for you to leave a comment if you'd like to. Just fill it out as much as you feel is necessary and submit it. All flags are anonymous. The only people who can look at flagged comments and what you said about them are moderators. Please don't do "joke" flags or ones that aren't serious, flagging a comment should only be done when a comment truly is inappropriate, trolling, or spam.

You can also now use an option called "Spoilers" that enables you to hide your text until someone drags their mouse over it. Other than countless and repetitive humorous uses, we can use this tool to hide scores or the ends of popular movies from one another... I guess.

If you have ever been curious how to type in what is widely known as "sarcasm font" all you have to do is book-end (with no spaces) whatever you want in the font with "@". @It should look like this@ when you type it out in the comment box.

And finally, the last thing I'd like to ask of you guys is that you all familiarize yourselves with our Community Guidelines. When you notice that someone is new and seems to be causing a lot of drama and headaches, just throw them a link to the Guidelines and hopefully they will straighten up and fly right.

Any questions, suggestions, or least favorite Halloween candies? Let me hear ‘em in the comments.

Let's go Rangers! Everybody love everybody, and don't worry about having an imaginary friend, it's totally normal breh.