The View From The Bleachers

Thanks for taking the time to read the site. If you’re new here, welcome, we’re glad you’ve stopped by. This page is designed to make you aware of all that is available to you while you’re here. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us:

1. The Diary System - This system is designed to give the reader a chance to participate in the site by giving the whole community the chance to read their thoughts. Do you have things to say about the Cubs or the game of baseball, but just don’t think you’d want to start a blog? Why not piggy back off our readership that has already been established and share the thoughts on here. It’s easy. The only requirement to be able to post a diary is that you are registered as a user of the site. You can sign up by clicking the “Contribute” icon located in the right sidebar. This will take you to the sign up screen where you will choose your login and enter your e-mail address. From there, we will send you an activation e-mail for you to activate your account. Doing so will send me an e-mail saying that you registered and will send you an e-mail with your temporary password. We have it set to default to marking you as a subscriber, which means no diary privileges. When I get notified of your sign up, I’ll contact you to assure you are not a spammer. Once you reply back to me, I will list you as a contributor and you will be free to post diaries as often as you like. All the diaries are listed in the right sidebar in the diaries section.
2. Subscribe to the site - There are a number of ways to make sure you never miss a new post on the site. We all live busy lives and it’s tough to remember to click on sites we like each and every day. It’s much easier to have all the posts delivered right to your electronic door step. We offer a few different options for you to do this. RSS Feeds are a great way to subscribe to internet content. We have an RSS feed for the site as a whole, only the comments, only the diaries, and each individual author and category. To subscribe to the first three, take a look at the left sidebar in the subscribe box and click the RSS Icons of your choice. You’ll need a blog reader (i.e. Google Reader, Bloglines, etc). If you have no idea what I’m talking about, take a look at this explanation, complete with video.Another option for subscribing would be to have all the new posts delivered via e-mail. This is a service that Feedburner provides us and it’s quite nice. Just enter your e-mail address in the left sidebar and click subscribe. Each day you’ll get the posts right in your e-mail so you never miss a thing. The overall goal is that you don’t let life get in the way and can still have access to all the posts without missing something.
3. Post Comments - It sounds obvious, but don’t forget that you can leave direct comments on the posts or anything else on your mind by clicking the comments link at the base of the post. We encourage good feedback and discussion in these threads. Don’t be afraid to get involved in the mix.

That is just a small summary of the types of things available to you in addition to the links to other good sites, resources, and things of that nature. As mentioned before, we’re glad you’ve stopped by and taken the time to read this. We hope you enjoy your stay and continue to come back often.