The Beginner's Guide to RBR

Considering that we have so many new readers here at RBR that have been asking a lot of questions lately about the site, we felt that it would be a good idea to author a beginner's guide to the blog. Consider this a primer for all of the newbies on how things work around here:

In general, participating here at RBR is pretty simple stuff, so don't overthink this. Just register, and after 24 hours you can comment on posts, vote in polls, and write fanposts and fanshots. If you want to make your own post or ask a question, simply write a fanpost or a fanshot. If it's anything of length (75 words or more), put it in a fanpost, but if it's just a quick blurb such as a quote, an image, a video, or a link, put it in a fanshot. There is really not a whole lot more to it than that.

If you wanted to sum it up for a few basic rules to go by, here goes:

• Put at least a tad of thought into what you post
• If you write something stupid, offensive, or with very poor grammar, expect to be called out on it
• Don't post any obscene images or copyrighted material (e.g. pay site articles)
• No politics, religion, etc.
• No spam or other ads unless first cleared with the site authors

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the history of this blog? RBR was originally created back in 2006 by Nico2.0, and has grown ever since. Shortly after it's creation, Todd came on board as a writer, and OTS joined just prior to the start of the 2007 season. The following year Pete Holiday and Kleph were added, and most recently Matt Dover became a site author focusing on the basketball program. Since its inception, the content has remained about 99.9% football-related, and that will continue to be the case moving forward, although we also now provide plenty of basketball coverage during the offseason as well.

Why the name "RollBamaRoll"? Easy... because The University of Alabama owned the legal rights to every other blog name we could think of. 

What is SB Nation? SB Nation is short for SportsBlog Nation, and it is a network of fan-centric online sports communities based in Washington D.C. In real terms for you, SB Nation has a blog for basically every major team / sport known to man that you can read and participate in. All content here at RBR is written by the site authors, but SB Nation provides software, hosting, design layout, tech support, and all of the rest of the stuff that we have no clue how to work. 

What is "Yea Alabama"?: "Yea Alabama" is the annual Alabama football preview magazine that the site authors publish through Maple Street Press. It's 128 glorious pages of photos, analysis, and commentary of the Alabama football team. If you ever see it in stores, buy all of them and threaten management to picket the store in protest if they don't order more.

What about language? For the most part, we generally try to maintain a PG-13-ish vibe throughout the blog, with the occasional exception. During gameday threads, however, anything goes. As OTS wrote recently,  "We're not your parents, and we're not trying to protect all of humanity from the moral and cultural horrors of the F-bomb like we're the FCC." So, in the normal discourse of the blog, keep the tongue somewhat in cheek. On gameday, though, let it fly. We adopt the rule that Jim Mora Jr. set for his coaching staff while he was with the Falcons, "nothing said during the game counts."

What is the flagging system, and how does it work? The flagging system is a feature in the SB Nation software that allows readers to either recommend comments they like or flag comments they deem inappropriate. If a particular comment receives a certain number of recommendations, it will be highlighted in green in the comment field. If a particular comment receives a certain number of flags, it will be highlighted in red in the comment field and it will be brought to the attention of the site authors.

What is a "rec"? A "rec" is short for recommended, a feature of SB Nation's flagging system that allows you to recommend a comment or post you enjoy.

Should I post a fanshot or a fanpost? If you just have a quick blurb, literally a few lines, post it in a fanshot. If you have something of any real length, post it in a fanpost. As a good rule of thumb, SB Nation imposes a 75-word minimum for the fanposts, and if you don't have enough words to meet that requirement, post it as a fanshot instead.

What if a troll posts something? Then for the love of God don't feed the damn thing. Just flag the comment as inappropriate, one of the site authors will see it, and we'll ban immediately. It takes all of two clicks and two seconds to forever purge whatever they posted, so it's an easy issue on our end. Also, remember, if a troll starts some massive comment exchange hijacking a thread and taking up everyone's time, he has accomplished his goal. And as a practical point, when we ban a troll all of his comments -- and all of your comments in reply to his -- will be deleted, so it's pointless to even respond in the first place. Just flag it and ignore.

How do I get my fanshot on the front page? The RBR site authors can "bump" a fanshot to the front page if we feel it is particularly humorous or newsworthy, just make sure it is in the proper format. For articles, just pick a money quote, paste that into a quote fanshot, and credit the source. For images, just paste the image URL into the fanshot, and credit the source. Same goes for videos. We'll handle the rest. 

Do RBR readers gather anywhere on gameday? Sort of. Nico2.0 is usually the only site author to consistently be able to attend games, but occasionally the rest of us do make it to Tuscaloosa. However, you can routinely find RBR members before, during, and after the games at Egan's bar on the Strip. RBR reader chinesedentist is the bartender there, so hit him up for some gameday libations.