New Ways to Post on Yardbarker

Yardbarkers, thanks for all the feedback so far! Please keep it coming. We know change can be difficult, but hopefully you like a lot of what you see in the new Yardbarker. And if there are things you still don't like, please let us know! We are still making changes to the site and are listening to what you're saying.

One thing you may be wondering about is how to post. For Yardbarkers who were using the old site, you’ll notice that there are new ways to post. To get started, sign in to your account and click the “Post Now” button at the top of the page. This will show you the two ways to post on Yardbarker.

1) Post in the new Forums section
We’ve added a Forums section where any Yardbarker user can post a new thread or respond to an existing one. The hottest forum discussions appear on their respective sport and team Yard pages as well as the homepage, and you can always catch all of the discussions on the main Forums page. The Forums don’t have to be just for simple posts – you can add photos, videos, links, and more to a Forum post. Many of you will use the Forums much the way you used to post articles on the old Yardbarker.

2) Post in your own blog (coming soon!)
For those of you who want to express yourself even more, we will be offering customizable blogs. Any Yardbarker user will have the option to create their own blog where they can write articles with photos, videos, and links, just like articles on the old Yardbarker. You will also be able to customize the look of your blog by uploading custom headers, choosing your formatting and color schemes, and more. We are building this brand new blog platform for you, and it is coming very soon, so stay tuned!

If you’re looking for articles that you had posted previously on the old Yardbarker, those all appear on your user page in the My Forum Posts section. Once we launch the new blog platform, if you choose to create your own custom blog, your old Yardbarker articles will be moved into your custom blog.

We hope you’re excited about these new options for posting on Yardbarker. Although you will no longer be able to post an article the way you currently do, we hope you’ll enjoy posting in the Forums and on your new customizable blog. We apologize that the new blog platform was not ready in time for the launch of the new site, but it will be coming very soon. In the meantime, everyone will be able to post in the Forums.

Click here for more information about the new Yardbarker. And let us know what you think in the comments below or by emailing us at feedback@yardbarker.com!

-Yardbarker Team

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Welcome to the new Yardbarker!

Welcome to the new and improved Yardbarker BETA, where everyone’s an insider! We’ve been working for months on the new site, which we’ve dubbed “YB3” here at the Yardbarker offices. There are a lot of improvements and new features, all made with the Yardbarker community in mind. Continue reading below for a few highlights of what’s new. There are also links to more detailed information about all of Yardbarker’s features.

Please let us know what you think of the site by emailing us at feedback@yardbarker.com. We are in the BETA stage right now, which means we know we still have work to do. If you were a user of the old site, it may take a little while to get used to some of the new features, but check our FAQ page if you get stuck -- and if you still have a concern, drop us a note. We will be continuing to make improvements and smooth out any lingering wrinkles and we appreciate your help in that process.

Now here’s a look at a few things that are new!

FORUM DISCUSSIONS

Yardbarker now has message boards for every major team on the site. Any Yardbarker user can start a new discussion thread or chime in on an existing discussion. The hottest forum discussions will appear on their respective sport and team Yard pages, and you can always find any forum from the main forum page. We know Yardbarkers love to discuss and debate, so we created the forums as a place where conversations can thrive and get noticed. If you’ve got something to say, bark about it in the forums!

CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG (coming soon!)

Every Yardbarker user will be able to create their own blog right here on Yardbarker! You can post articles with photos, videos, links and more, just like you did on the old site. But now you will also be able to customize the design of your blog with your own headers, colors, formats, and more. Yardbarker users who had posted articles on the old site will have their old content imported into their blog automatically to give them a head start. This feature is coming very soon, so stay tuned.

I want to post an article, photo, video, list, or quiz, what do I do?
Where are all my old posts?

IMPROVED HOMEPAGE

As always, our editors will handpick the best stories from around the web and feature them on the homepage of Yardbarker. We hope you like the new eye-catching design, which has room for bigger photos and even more stories than before.

How can I suggest an article for the homepage?

READ AND DISCUSS AN ARTICLE DIRECTLY AT THE SOURCE

Reading and commenting on stories has now become easier too! Clicking on a headline will pop up a Preview box so you can see the source of the article, the first few sentences, and sometimes an additional Yardbarker editor’s note. You can then choose whether you want to comment on Yardbarker about the story or read the rest of the story at the original source. If you go to the original source, an i-frame will follow you there so that you can easily see the Yardbarker comments, add your own comment, or get back to Yardbarker.

DYNAMIC USER PAGES

We’ve updated your Yardbarker user pages to make it easier for everyone to see your latest activity on the site, your photos, and more. You can also find your full news feed here, making it easy to stay on top of your favorite sports, teams, and the activity of your favorite Yardbarkers. Other users can also bark about you on your page – it’s kind of like stopping by to leave you a note.

EVEN MORE NEWS & RUMOR ARTICLES

Yardbarker was already aggregating news and rumors from our 600+ blogs and sports sites in the Yardbarker Network. Now we have added several thousand more sources. We are pulling in feeds from all the best sports blogs, local and national news sites, team and league sites, Twitter feeds, and more. Check out the Yard of your favorite sport or team by choosing it from the navigation bar and see the breadth of content we now offer.

How can I suggest a source to include?

PHOTO GALLERIES

Yardbarker has partnered with PicApp to offer a constantly updating collection of sports photos for you to browse. Check out the photo collections on your favorite sport, team, or player page. Clicking on a photo from the Preview of a homepage story will also take you to a photo gallery page.

RE-DESIGNED ATHLETE BLOGS

Yardbarker’s roster of professional athletes all got a blog makeover! Click on the Athlete Blog page to visit your favorite athletes’ blogs and check out their new looks. Every Yardbarker athlete also has a user page like everyone else where you can see their latest activity, view their photos, bark about them, and more.

We hope you enjoy exploring the new site. Please do give us your feedback by emailing us at feedback@yardbarker.com. And stay tuned because we have much more in store for this ever-improving site. Now get barking!

-Yardbarker Team

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Yardbarker Will Be Down for Maintenance... Stay Tuned for the Exciting Re-Launch!

Attention Yardbarkers! We have some good news and bad news for all you Yardaholics. The bad news is that the site will be down for maintenance starting around 1:30pm Pacific (that’s 4:30pm Eastern). We will try to keep the downtime to a minimum, but it may last as long as several hours. We apologize that Yardbarker will be unavailable during that time. If you try to access the site, you will see a maintenance message.

The GOOD news is that when we come back later in the evening, the site will be brand new! We are re-launching Yardbarker with a new look and tons of new features. We’re very excited about the new site and we hope you will be too. We will explain everything that’s new once we launch. And as always, we’ll want to hear your feedback about what you like and don’t like because we’ll be continuing to work on the site long after Thursday’s launch. Stay tuned!

-Yardbarker Team

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Attention SF Bay Area Yardbarkers...

YB is partnering with the 2nd annual Styling the Modern Man event, taking place at the W Hotel, and we want you there! The opening gala will be tonight, Thursday, April 9th, from 7pm to 11pm. One of the hosts of this party will be our very own athlete blogger, 49ers TE Vernon Davis. (Look out for footage of this on Vernon's blog later on.) Tickets are $75 and available here: http://stylingthemodernman.eventbrite.com/.

Friday's events will be FREE and open to the public. Sneak away from work and come on down to the W on 3rd and Howard to get pampered. Yes, we know you're all macho sports fans, but I'm sure every one of you could use a free massage, haircut, and *gasp* eyebrow clean-up (trust me, it'll be a big hit with the ladies). You'll also be able to check out the latest styles from Artificial Flavor, On the Fly, and Wrath Arcane, as well as celebrity hair guru Kevin Josephson ($15 fee) and hot furniture designer David Mast, all of which will hold presentations throughout the day. The schedule of events is below, but you should check out the event website (www.stylingthemodernman.com) for more details.

Hope to see you there!



FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2009
Location: W San Francisco
3rd Floor 'Great Room'

11:00 AM
Celebrity Hair Guru Kevin Josephson who has been featured in the pages of Vogue, Genlux, 944, on E! Entertainment, Art Rocks Radio & Bravo TV will teach tips and tricks about grooming, hairstyling and other secrets of the Hollywood elite. (Cost $15.00) Guests will receive a VIP goody bag with tons of great products!

12:30 AM
Co-sponsored by California Modern Home + Design Magazine, leading interior designer David Mast will give a talk on modern design and how it influences the modern man's life.

2:30 PM
Fashion Presentation by ON THE FLY

4:00 PM
Fashion Presentation by ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR

5:00 PM
Fashion Presentation by WRATH ARCANE

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Win a Dozen Custom March Madness Tees!

Hey Yardbarkers, it's that time again! We're teaming up with 1800clothes.com to give away 9 sets of 12 March Madness t-shirts. The tees will be custom printed with your design and delivered in time to wear for the tournament.

Just go to the link below, create your own March Madness t-shirt design, and save it as "Yardbarker MM" (without quotes). You can upload your own custom images or use the website's fonts and graphics to create your tee. Designs will be judged on humor, creativity and general awesomeness. The winners will be chosen on March 9th, so get your designs in by Sunday, March 8th!

A couple of notes:

• Please do not use any team logos or other copyrighted images. Any entries containing such images will be disqualified.
• Only use a plain tee (no long sleeves, etc.) and limit your design to the front of the shirt.

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