How to FBB: A user’s guide for Washington Nationals fans...

Welcome to Federal Baseball (aka FBB), a Washington Nationals support group and credentialed site (since 2010) covering the Nats.

We've been hard at work under the current management covering the Nationals since mid-August of 2007.

[ed. note - "This is an updated version of this post which we put up every season on Opening Day as a sort of orientation for the site."]

Heading into our tenth season as part of the SB Nation, we've added a few new and talented writers who will be contributing on a regular basis, so we thought it made sense to reintroduce ourselves and provide some hints about how to use the site.

FanShots, FanPosts, the comments section, our Twitter page, Facebook page, our live GameThreads, where the readers can talk during games, link posts and our Nats Nightly podcast. So how do you FBB?

Comments Section:

This is where the discussion on Federal Baseball takes place, especially during the GameThreads. Helpful hints? Check out the first image below while you read this.

If you want to reply directly to something someone has said, hit that "reply" button and you won't have to apologize for a "reply fail" and you'll also keep the individual threads for particular comments going.

If you like something you read, "rec" it as you see with the first comment there.

Enough people rec a comment and it turns green.

Want to skim through the new comments on a story in rapid fashion? Embrace the "z" key.

When you click into the comments section, the "z" key will change your life, it allows you to skip through the comments in high-speed fashion...

You can also add images and GIFs (though a lot of them tends to slow high-comment GameThreads, so use them judiciously, please) to add some color to the threads, see instructions below...

You can "flag" comments too if someone's trolling or getting personal or offensive...

Comments Pt. 2: Images, links, etc.:

Across the board under the subject line: B = Bold, I = italics, then strike to cross out any words you choose, and block quotes for, you know, quotes, bullet points for lists, I guess, numbered lists for lists with numbers, pictures, links, spoiler windows, which blacks out the comments so you have to scroll over it to read the content, and, finally, emojis.

Have fun with all these, abuse them if you like.

Also, you can preview comments before you post and edit afterwards, though only for a short time, so type and then edit quickly.

So now you know how to comment, right? What if you have thoughts, images, tweets or something else to share?

FanShots and FanPosts:

This is your place to shine and share your thoughts on all things Washington Nationals.

Have a comment that's too much/long for the comments section? Create a FanPost!

There's an entire section for them on the right side of FBB if you scroll down below the Top 5 stories on the front page and we created a group that stays on the front page now so that they're not as far down the page.

Turn those thoughts and long comments into posts of your own and if they get a good response (and don't have copyrighted material, profanity, etc.) we'll promote them too.

We're going to make yet another concerted effort to promote FanPosts this season as the frequency and quality of them has increased in recent weeks, so if you want to get your opinions out there, that's the place to go.

If you want to just share something fun with the rest of the Nats fans here at FBB? See below...

FanShots?:

You may have noticed that there are more FanShots on the front page these days. That's part of an effort on our part to get more shareable, interesting items from around the internet in front of your eyes.

See a story, video, Tweet, or image you like? Create a FanShot. We're on top of a lot of the news and we've added a couple people to our staff to find this stuff for you and share it on FBB and on our Facebook page. But we can always use your help, because sometimes (not often, we're so on top of stuffs) we miss things.

If you want to catch up on all the latest FanShots, they're on the front page now too as you can see above in the Welcome to NatsTown section.

We'll keep the FanShots and FanPosts up high in the "river" as the stories below the Top 5 are referred to behind the scenes at FBB, so that you can find them quickly.

TWITTER:

We're on Twitter @federalbaseball where we tweet live updates during the game for anyone who's unable to watch live or follow in the GameThreads.

[ed. note - "If you turn FBB on in your notifications, live updates will show up on your mobile device while you're out and about and unable to keep track of the game action."]

Anyone who is at the game and wants pitch counts and updates, follow us and turn on notifications for us and we also do our best to keep you up-to-date with all the latest Nationals news by retweeting everything we find that's worth reading.

Check out our Twitter feed below...

Tweets by @federalbaseball

FACEBOOK:

We have a facebook page too: (facebook.com/nationals.federal.baseball).

Make sure to go to the one above, because if you go this one here: facebook.com/federalbaseball, that is my personal feed which features Marcel Proust quotes and links to pop culture-y stuff that probably won’t interest you much.

We've made a concerted effort to pick up our facebook game in the last couple years, posting links to all of our stories and sharing everything that we find out there on the internets that's worth sharing.

The comments and discussion are picking up over there too, so if you’re not following us on facebook, why aren’t you following us on facebook?

NATS NIGHTLY: Our daily post game podcast...

Four or five years ago now, Dave Nichols from the District Sports Page, who is covering the Seattle Mariners in Idaho now and will join us when he can from now on, FBB’s Doghouse and I finally decided to make good on something we had been talking about for years and finally start doing a nightly Nationals-themed radio show.

Each night, or at least as often as we can, and as soon as we can after the game is over, we get on BlogTalkRadio, post a link in the comments section of the night's post game report and talk Nationals for 15-20 minutes. What just happened, big news, trades, etc.

Doghouse and I will move on without Dave this season, and we’ve invited the other writers on staff at FBB to join us and help mix things up a little bit...

We cover it all, and the show is archived in a group at the bottom of FBB's front page and on iTunes.

Check it out, you can even call in and talk if you're so inspired. Admittedly, it's become my favorite thing that we do...

Now let’s introduce you to our staff. Most of them you’ll already know if you spend time at FBB, but we don’t want newcomers to have to wonder how all these people ended up here...

FBB's staff of writers new and old:

• Name: Patrick Reddington; Role at FBB: Credentialed writer, site manager, post game reports, Nats Nightly co-host w/ the estimable Doghouse.

Bio: Proust, Kerouac, Alain Resnais, Alan Moore and baseball.

That pretty much sums it up, but for the sake of a better intro and to expand on my official bio, I'm also obsessed with directors like David Lynch, Patrice Leconte, Terrence Malick (he's probably my favorite) and Wong Kar Wai (actually he's my favorite), poets like Gary Snyder, Basho, Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams and writers like J.D. Salinger (but obsessed in a positive way in that case), Yukio Mishima and Albert Camus and I'm a comic book/graphic novel fan (though not so much superhero stuff) who likes Will Eisner's work, Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Brian K. Vaughan and Brian Wood, and the art of J.H. Williams III; as well as music by Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Sufjan Stevens, of Montreal, the Olivia Tremor Control and Jim O'Rourke, just to name a few. I also practice meditation and I'm a vegetarian. But enough about me... BTW: the picture above is of me, Stan Kasten and Mike Rizzo (left to right) and yes that's a Montreal Royals cap. Big Expos fan growing up and I followed the franchise to D.C. and fell in love with the nation's capital.

• Name: Doghouse; Role at FBB: Partner in crime, Post game WPA Graphs, co-host of Nats Nightly.

Bio: "Doghouse grew up in Southern California, where he cheered for Rod Carew’s run at .400 with the Angels before drifting away from baseball for many years. The Nationals brought him back into the baseball fold in 2005, and he hasn’t strayed since. He’s been hanging around FBB since long before its first 100-comment GameThread, when he used to calculate wins-above-replacement projections using an abacus, a pointed stick, and clay tablets.

Now he just grumbles about all the Johnny-come-latelies, makes in-jokes for the other FBB grognards, and curates a selection of WPA (win-percentage added) highlights after each game.

Doghouse is also practically synonymous with DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Name: Will Kubzansky; (@WKubzansky on Twitter); Role at FBB: Wire Taps, sharable content, the occasional opinion piece and whatever else Patrick will let me do.

Bio: I’m Will, and this is my second season at Federal Baseball. I’m the chief Wire-Tapper, and also do Fanshots and other short pieces on sharable content, as well as some opinion/analysis pieces every now and then. I’ve been going to Nats games since 2005 (when I was four years old), and became obsessed with the team around 2011, when I started writing about the team and eventually ended up here at Federal Baseball.

Name: Matt Weyrich; (@CuzItMATTers on Twitter); Role at FBB: Staff writer, post games, opinion/analysis.

Bio: I’m one of those #millennials who talks a lot and spends too much time on the social medias. Right now I’m a journalism student at JMU (go Dukes) who writes about baseball, football and not much else. The Nats moved to D.C. when I was seven years old and I’ve been one of their most dedicated fans since. I saw Jayson Werth’s home run (you know the one) in person but was unfortunate enough to be in attendance during both the game before and game after each of the first two no-hitters in franchise history — but not the actual no-hitters. If you happen to enjoy the things I write you should check out my Twitter @CuzItMATTers for even more nonsense.

Name: Ryan McFadden (@RMcFadden15 on Twitter); Role at FBB: Staff writer, post games, opinion/analysis, and anything else related to the Washington Nationals.

Bio: I’m a DMV native and a DeMatha Catholic High School alumnus. Right now I attend school at Iona College, where I’m a journalism major and sports editor for the school’s newspaper The Ionian. When I’m not covering Iona College men’s basketball, I’m writing fun things about the Washington Nationals on Federal Baseball. I have been a D.C. sports fan all my life, so I have dealt with a lot of heartbreaking moments. I’m also known for getting myself into huge debates on the Washington Nationals and other D.C. sports teams.

So that's us... who are you?

Feel free to share any and everything you want about yourselves and ask any questions you may have in the comments section below! Let's Go Nats!