Spreading the Love: A How-To, of sorts

Love: some argue it is patient and kind, while others assert that it can be likened to a battlefield. We like love. Sometimes we even think we love love. But love cannot be patient or kind, nor can it be a battlefield, if it is not shown for all to see. After all, the Geneva Conventions require legal combatants to wear fixed identification that can be recognized at a distance to be considered a legal combatant. You want to be a legal combatant, right? Trust me, you do. Otherwise, no prisoner of war rights for you. You may as well just be some house pet that has accidentally stumbled upon Bolts from the Blue. 

As SBNation has grown around us, our mediums of showing love have diversified. Back in the Aughts, all we had to show our love of any particular piece were recs. Rec is short for Recommend, meaning you "recommend" the piece in question. Recs can be awarded to nearly any type of post; stories, news posts, FanPosts (like this one, hint hint), FanShots, and even individual comments. The rec is your way of saying to the author, "Hey, I like this and I would like to make it known." As a blogger, when you get recs, it feels good, man. You know there's a like-minded individual out there that's like your very own secret admirer.

Recs hold more weight in the FanPost and FanShot section because if a particular piece gets enough recs to pass the magical threshold, it will stick atop of its column for an even more magical period of time of about two weeks. This will alert new members and accidental house pets that this is the type of content that you, the community, have voted to be some of the best and most important content on the site. If you think that's cool, grandpa, then you should try crossing the magical rec threshold for a comment. This has been known cause an effect that I assume is exactly like photosynthesis, filling the comment with chlorophyll, turning it green, putting a little green thumb on it, and converting solar energy into delicious sucrose, but more importantly, alerting the aforementioned newcomers and house pets that this comment is worthy of attention. Try it out on the next comment that makes you smile. Or laugh. Or derive any enjoyment whatsoever. It's your duty as a citizen of the Bolts from the Blue nation and you are bound by Internet Law to comply. And you don't want to cross the Internet Police. They've got ED-209s. 

The next way of showing your love is one of great importance. It's the Facebook 'Like' button. 

Just like the days of ancient Rome, you can extend your thumb upward towards the heavens and show your support for Stories, FanPosts, and FanShots. I'm not exactly sure of what happens next, something about getting Jesse Eisenberg laid, I don't know. All I know is that it is of particular importance that, if you've already joined that massive advertising network/farm simulator that's really just the LOST button, you click the Like button on each post you Like. Somehow, this will inject profits into the profit cycle as well as letting dear, sweet John Gennaro know that you care. After all, it's just common courtesy that you thank the host. Plus, grandma needs to know about DVOA and DYAR. 

The last way to show your love is the Tweet button. 

The Tweet button will prompt you to connect to your Twitter account and instantly alert all your trendy little Justin Bieber fanclub friends that there's something they need to see RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT. "Hey Biebz, check out this kawaii pic of Nate Kaeding on BFTB," you'll say... or tweet, and he'll click the link and be all like, "Supa kawaii, you! I lurve BFTB!" Then he'll come here and click the Rec and Like buttons and the whole cycle will start over until every single person on the planet knows how wonderful this place is for Charger fans. 

If you've got any other questions, by all means, feel free to contact John Gennaro with any questions or direct comments you don't want appearing on the site. Don't worry, he doesn't bite unless he smells lilac while the lights are dimmed.