10 Ways to Enhance Your Pensburgh Experience

This post is sponsored by Samsung.

I know it's been a while since I've done one of these posts. I figured now that the Pens are well into the first month of the season and we've had a good number of new users sign up to Pensburgh during the offseason, it's only fitting to give a quick rundown of the site as a whole. Consider it a tutorial of sorts. Maybe even a reminder. Or perhaps you'll even pick up on a little something you didn't know about before.

Take the jump for the 10 ways to enhance your Pensburgh experience.

10. Make a username: We'll start with the very basics. Every day I see the traffic numbers for Pensburgh and the hits are always higher than the number of members. This isn't a bad thing by any means, and likely evidence to the fact that we're doing something right, but I'm always left wondering just how many people make it a daily routine to read the site but never set up a username to join in on the banter.   Alls I can say is don't be shy.  You could have a nice at-work, at-school or everyday distraction if you just start jumping in now.  Many users on the site have met up before or after games, gone out for food and drinks and actually become pretty good friends offline.  Which leads me to my next topic...

9. Comment: Yeah. Seriously. Jump in and comment. You're more than welcome to share your opinion on a game, player or subject surrounding the team, but please treat others as you wish to be treated. Please refrain from obscene language and pictures. All in all, just try and keep it fun for everyone.

8. Create a fanshot: Whenever you come to Pensburgh and you see one of those gold boxes front and center on the page, that is a fanshot. A fanshot is a quick and easy way to share a link, quote, picture or video with everyone on the site. Not all will get promoted to the front page, but that doesn't mean it gets thrown to the wayside. Since this site launched three seasons ago, there has been a total of 756 fanshots posted. In fact, the number may be even higher than that since switching over to the new servers two years ago. Nevertheless, the staffers here at Pensburgh may not always be able to break the news (even though we try). So if you see something worth sharing, toss up a fanshot and we'll get it up on the front page as soon as possible. Also worth noting about this section (and others): If you see a fanshot already posted, there's no sense in tossing it up again. It's nice to keep the convo all in one place. To view the full list of fanshots, click here.

7. Creat a fanpost: Much different than a fanshot, a fanpost allows you to write your own story. If you have a unique perspective on something, want to present a new argument or just want to share a huge collection of photos and/or a recap from the game, this is the place to do it. Similar to fanshots, these may very well be promoted to the front page to get you a little more recognition for your work. Given the front page promotion, please keep mind of spelling errors, punctuation and, of course, keep it clean. You can also create a poll for your posts and see how others match up. If anything the staffers here will jump into the article, fix up some mistakes (if they exist) and take care of business for you. In the three years that Pensburgh has been in existence, there have been roughly 746 fanposts added to the site. Check out the full list of fanposts.

6. Rec a Comment: Did you just LOL for realsies at something someone said in a game thread or story? Give them props by handing out a rec. Three recs will turn a comment green and get that laugh-worthy chatter some much-deserved attention. Alls you have to do is find the comment you like, click "actions" on the toolbar and select "rec." Done. Oh and if you change your mind and decided that maybe you didn't really laugh all that hard as you wanted to, you can unrec a comment the same way.

5. Follow Pensburgh on Twitter: The Official Pensburgh account is managed by yours truly, although each story that passes through the site will similarly pass through the account. So when Hooks tries to get all smart and make fun of me in my own tweets, this is how he does it. Following Pensburgh on Twitter also gives you a chance to find other Pensburgh users around the interwebs and connect with them on there. I know a good number of Pensburgh users have done just that, so feel free to jump on board and play along.

4. Retweet: If you really like something on the front page you can retweet it right to your own account. (If you really hate it then send Hooks your hate mail.) Just click the button that says "tweet" below the story and SBN will automatically shrink down the URL and add it to your account's status box. All you have to do is Tweet it out. This currently is only available on the front page for stories specifically, but you can also retweet a fanpost or fanshot from the comment screen.

3. Follow Pensburgh on Facebook: What's that you say? Pensburgh is on Facebook too? Yup. Now you can really express your undying love for Pensburgh by "liking" us on Facebook. Just go to the official Pensburgh page and click like. Done. Actually no, you're not. Now tell your friends. And their friends. And help us take over the world.

2. Like a Story: This ties in with Facebook too. If you haven't already retweeted the story you can also "like" it on Facebook with the little "like" button below the story. Similar to Retweeting, this will ask if you want to add a link to the selected story to your Facebook news stream. It's a nice way of educating your friends on the finer elements of the Internet and it also gives them something to read if their work computers are heavily guarded by Big Brother.

1. Go Mobile: If all else fails and you're trapped on a deserted island, somehow manage to have a cell phone signal and just enough battery life to make one call, you don't want to waste that time calling up your friend to get an update on Pens news. Instead, just type in Pensburgh.com into your mobile browser and the mobile site will kick in. This is also pretty cool if you find yourself looking to kill a little time during intermission at the game and want to check in with a comment or have to avoid heavy personal computer useage during your work day.

1A. Join a Game Thread: I lied. There's really 11, but this one is worthy of a number AND a letter. During the game, hows about your pop open your lappy and jump into the conversation on Pensburgh? Talk about the game, the fight, the goal, KatieLynn's undying obsession with Jordan Staal - hey, whatever works. This is an open conversation about the game. Just play by the rules and above all else, have some fun.