How to FBB 2018: User’s guide for Washington Nationals fans...

Welcome to Federal Baseball (aka FBB), a so-called Washington Nationals support group and credentialed media 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 each and every season on Opening Day as a sort of orientation for the site."]

Heading into our eleventh 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, which is still alive, but currently undergoing upgrades. 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 S to cross out any words you choose, and block quotes for, you know, quotes; bullet points for lists, I mean, I guess; numbered lists for lists with numbers; pictures, to uh, add pics; links, for links to things; 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?

FANPOSTS/FANSHOTS:

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

Have a comment that's too much/too 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 6 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 (see above).

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 in a long history of concerted efforts to promote FanPosts again this season, so if you want to get your opinions out there, that's the place to go.

If you want to just share something quick and fun with the rest of the Nats fans here at FBB? See FanShots 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 6 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 games for anyone who's unable to watch live or follow in the GameThreads.

[ed. note - "If you turn FBB on in your Twitter 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 Nationals podcast (currently under construction)...

Five or six years ago, Dave Nichols from the District Sports Page, who is covering the Seattle Mariners in Idaho/Washington now and will join us when he can, 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 could over the last few years, we’d get on Blog Talk Radio after the game, 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 Dave moved on to better things [sad face emoji], and we’ve invited the other writers on staff at FBB to join us and help mix things up a little bit... we are still deciding on a format and a schedule for the podcast this season, but we do plan to revive the show at some point in the near future.

We cover all we can on our modest [non-existent] budget for the podcast, 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. Check out the archive here:

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 fine 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 host; Proust enthusiast

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 movie 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, everything Alan Moore, Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware (current obsession for the last few years) 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 for the record) and yes that is in fact, actually a Montreal Royals cap I’m wearing in the pic. Big Expos fan growing up and I followed the franchise to D.C. and fell in love with the nation's capital.

Name: Audrey Stark (@HighSundayStark on Twitter); Role at FBB: Analysis; opinions; Wilmer Difo enthusiast

Born and raised as a St. Louis Cardinals fan, while studying at GW I found it was easier to love the Nats than to hate them. (I may or may not own a Pete Kozma jersey.) You’ll find me at the ballpark often, likely somewhere near a hot dog stand. My all-time favourite baseball player is Chris Carpenter. To quote a fellow Cardinals fan, “I believe there should be a constitutional amendment outlawing AstroTurf and the designated hitter.”

Here at FBB I write sabermetric pieces, opinion pieces, and take every opportunity to write about Wilmer Difo.

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 third (!) 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, where we’ll get to cover an NLCS one of these decades.

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

Bio: I’m a junior journalism student at JMU with a passion for baseball and pretty much anything having to do with sports. Originally from Northern Virginia, I grew up rooting for the Nats and have made some of my favorite memories among the crowd of Nationals Park - including Jayson Werth’s Game 4 walk-off home run in 2012. Follow me on Twitter @MattTalksSports for links to all my articles and sports commentary with some slight bias toward my favorite teams: the Nats, Wizards and Saints.

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!