Pickaxe And Roll

Welcome to the new Pickaxe And Roll and SB Nation

clockwerks — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 06:06:51 -0000

Hey Pickaxe And Roll,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
Once you're logged in, press your Z key in any thread with new comments
Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Pickaxe And Roll from YouTube or images from Flickr
Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Pickaxe And Roll and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Pickaxe And Roll now has all the basic information about the Denver Nuggets and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Denver Nuggets material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Nuggs/Celts Recap

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:41:15 -0000

I'm driving to the game with my buddy Adam. We make our pregame predictions, Adam says 110-107 Nuggets, I say 104-98 Nuggets. Adam and I are confident in a Nuggets win tonight. Every time Adam and I have gone to a Nuggets game together, the Nuggets have won. God help the NBA if we ever get season tickets. We also predict that 35-40% of the crowd will be Celtics fans. We have no idea what is about to happen.

Pregame:
Do they really need cheerleaders and a dance team? I mean, how much peppy dancing do we really need? Wait a second, they just rode each other like ponies. Yes, we need both.

Najera is goofing around a lot during warmups, I think he might be drunk

Initial predictions were low, it looks to be 40-50% Celtics

Q1
The game begins. KG looks fired up, almost gets a quick steal after the Nuggets win the tipoff. Kenyon Martin is in the starting lineup and is looking lively. He's off to a quick start, with a couple of monsterous dunks. He's Adam's early pick for the game's MVP. The action is heated early on, both teams are playing at a high energy level, neither team backing down. Pierce is hit with a quick technical, and keeps jawing at the refs. The Nuggs fan next to me succinctly sums it up, "We're not lucky enough to have Pierce get kicked out in the 1st." The Nuggets are going after the Celtics, being the aggressors, and the C's are having trouble keeping up. However, Jesus Shuttlesworth is showing he can still hit open jumpers. Might want to guard those.

Q2
The action gets sloppier. The Nuggets have lost a bit of their initial energy, and are having some problems stopping the Celtics transition offense. During a timeout, Rocky pulls off a Dwight Howard superman impression. Nice. Someone hits a big 3 (sorry, game was getting too good, notes became less complete), leading me to wonder if there is anything stupider than T's For 3's, DiGiornio. I don't think there is. This half begins to become a sign of things to come, as the refs start showing their Celtic pride. We've god a blatant no-call on an over the back when JR Smith should've had an easy rebound. This is immediately following by a BS foul call as time expires in the half. Karma saves the day and Rondo misses the free throw.

The halftime show is astounding. It's some acrobat lady on a unicycle. She is stacking bowls on one foot, balancing the unicycle with the other, and then using her foot to throw the bowls onto her head. I cannot adequately explain it. We begin to wonder how somebody learns this talent. We finally decide that the answer is simple: There is no spoon. That's right, I've timewarped back to 1999 and just made a Matrix reference.

Q3 & Q4
Now, up to the point, I've been taking notes. But it becomes clear that these next two quarters cannot be experienced with pencil and paper in hand. The Nuggets and Celtics battle back and forth, neither able to hang on to a lead for very long. Every time the C's get a two-point lead, we begin hearing the Boston Bandwagoners. Obnoxious as hell, and complete idiots. But their banter energizes the Denver crowd. The 3rd and 4th quarters blur together as the score creeps ever higher. The refs seem intent on handing Boston the game. At one point in the 4th we notice that Melo has 5 fouls, 4 of which were called as offensive fouls. The score remains close, but a couple of clutch threes from Kleiza have this place rocking. The Nuggs fan next to me reiterates that he doesn't want to give up Kleiza in order to get Artest. I point out how much Artest would help the defense, and how games like this are exactly why I want to see Kleiza join my Kings. The entire crowd is now standing, this is now far more than a basketball game. These teams are battling for the souls of a city. Camby hits a clutch 3, and the place erupts. There's a late timeout, maybe 2 minutes remaining, the Nuggets are trying to pull away, and the place is pumped. The energy dies down, and folks return to their seats until the action begins. But then we see a familiar site. A site you see at every Nuggets game. The clip from "Network". A clip which usually falls flat, but tonight is different. "So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'" Tonight the crowd rises, and the Nuggets are loving the energy. The vibe is reminiscent of a playoff game. The Nuggets manage to pull ahead as time slips away, and Celtics fans begin bolting for the exits. My voice is hoarse, and I can't remember the last time my hands hurt from clapping so hard. But it's not over. Not that easy. The Celtics start hitting threes and fouling immediately. The Celtics pull within 4 points, but the Nuggets are clutch at the line. The victory is sealed.

I feel like I am unable to truly explain what it was like in that building last night. If you were there, please chime in. I can only describe the game as being truly epic. Now that, my friends, is what basketball fans live for.

On the subject of Ron Artest

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:25:15 -0000

Allow myself to introduce ...my...self.

I usually post over on Sactown Royalty, and am a true Kings fan. That being said, I like the Nuggets, and tend to follow them as well since I live in Colorado.

If the Nuggets traded for Artest, the city of Denver would love him. Read any of the posts over on StR. Kings fans can't make a true decision on whether or not it is best for him to leave. It was only after he began publicly asking for a trade that the tide turned against him. Sure, he's crazy as all hell. But he's also a damn likeable guy. He goes out there and he busts his ass every night. Sometimes his game turns, something clicks in his mind, and he stands pounding his chest like King Kong and chatting up every fan in Memphis. But usually he is a solid contributor. And who are we kidding, Denver already has its fair share of loco. He'd fit right in.

In Jeremy's Post All Star Break Outlook, he mentions he would rather have Mike Miller. Take a look at the Hollinger breakdown on both of these guys. ESPN has this as Insider info, so subscription is required.

Miller:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playe...

Artest:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playe...

Artest has a higher True Shooting %, more Points per game, Assists per game, Steals per game. He's pretty much better across the board. If you like Mike Miller, you might as well hold onto Kleiza.

Welcome to the Pickaxe and Roll Diaries

Jeremy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:51:21 -0000

The diary section that is available to the members of the Pickaxe and Roll community will allow everyone to be able to create their own content on any subject that interests you.

They are intended for you to have the opportunity to express more in depth thoughts and opinions than you could through the comments section.

The only rule is to make sure that you treat everyone with respect no matter how dumb you think they are and please post your get rich quick schemes and fat burning solutions somewhere else.

The Diaries are your blog-within-the-blog so we can create our own Nuggets community.

The more you guys write, the better the community will be so get going!