Every year, Bless You Boys is infused with a crop of newcomers. Some days they trickle in, others they flood in. No matter how or when you found the place, we are happy for all of you.

With the opening day of another season upon us, I thought it would be a great time to review a few quick things with everyone.

The people

Managing Editor: Me! My role is to write most of the stories and represent the site to others whenever possible. All decisions made by my staff can be considered to be made by me. The buck stops here, as they say. I trust the people making the decisions.

Deputy editors: Allison (Allikazoo), Big Al, Rob. These folks are key to making the site run smoothly at all times. The site would not be as fun and great to visit without the effort of these guys. Allison is chief moderator, editor, and does about a hundred other tasks that generally fall under the umbrella of "keeping Kurt sane." Big Al is in charge of the podcast. Rob fills in wherever needed and writes links posts. Hopefully grad school will give him a chance to write even more than that. All three have moderator powers and keep track of things if I'm not around.

Contributing writers: Tigerdog1 (Patrick), Melissa and Matt Sussman. Melissa writes the hugely popular links posts three days a week. Patrick is "king of minutiae" because he knows a lot of the business-side rules. Matt Sussman recently joined us to write occasional pieces and film funny videos.

Moderators: NC Dee, 113194013 (David). There was a time when I was trusting enough not to spend every minute of my day supervising the threads. Of course the moment I'm not around all heck breaks loose. Dee and David round out our BYB team and know a troll when they see one.

The rules

You can find a copy of the rules here. The philosophy behind them is key as much as anything. I want intelligent conversation. (And don't worry, that doesn't mean you have to be a sabermetric. If just means you have to have a good reason for believing what you do.) I want people who can disagree vehemently with each other in one thread and have fun together in another. The key: I want BYB to be a fun place for Tigers fans to interact. People should feel safe to do so. I've worked hard to establish the culture here, and our members value that. It might not be the same culture as some other sites, maybe not as free-wheeling as others. But it's ours, it's a big reason BYB is successful, and we will defend it.

Finally, remember when you visit other SB Nation sites you represent BYB. Heck, even if you don't visit them you still represent BYB by what you say in the comments. Represent us well.

The toys

FanPosts and FanShots allow you to write your own stuff. FanPosts are for blog posts. Generally, these posts should be areas not already covered by Bless You Boys. Simply repeating areas of coverage we already do really doesn't benefit anyone and occasionally results in the FanPost being deleted. If you have a link, a photo, a video, share that with a FanShot instead. We always promote the best ones.

The best way to get started

Pay attention. Get a feel for the culture. But just jump right in! There's never a bad time to get involved, just do it. Introduce yourself and learn about others. Ask questions if you don't understand things. Share your thoughts. Talk about whatever in a game thread. Above all, just have fun.