A Note to Lurkers

Do you read Niners Nation, but aren't a member?  No problem, that's cool.  But there's more to being a member than commenting, and it's surprisingly easy to sign up, since we accept already-existing Yahoo IDs and Open IDs.  What are those additional benefits?

• The number of new comments for front page Stories (and Fanshots and Fanposts) is listed next to the number of total comments on the front page and the archives page.  You'll always know when there's something added to the discussion without having to remember how many total comments there were last time you visited.
• When you're on a post page, new comments have a slightly yellow background and you can easily jump to new comments by hitting the "z" key.  You'll never have to scroll looking for new comments again.  Plus, new comments are added live, so there's no reason to refresh pages.This is especially helpful during our round by round coverage.
  
• If you are a member of multiple SBN blogs, there is a drop-down menu at the top of the screen that lists all your blogs and how many new Stories, FanPosts, and FanShots have been posted since the last time you visited each blog.  You can even select some blogs as favorites and they'll show up at the top of your list.

If you do decide to create an account and post a few comments, there are some additional nifty tools to help keep you organized.

• By going to your profile page (click on your name at the top of the screen) you can see the last fifty or so comments you've left across all SBN blogs and how many replies there to your comment.  It's a great way to keep track of conversations you've recently been a part of.
• Also on your profile page, you can click on Blog to see all the Stories, FanShots, and FanPosts you've posted across all SBN blogs.  This is handy for looking at other users' Blogs as well, if you're a fan of their work.  You can even RSS their stuff across all blogs in one feed.  This feature is useful even if you're not a member.

If you can think of any other reasons to join the site feel free to post them here.

(Hat tip to Brickhaus at Bad Left Hook (boxing) and Sky Kalkman at Beyond the Boxscore (sabermetrics) for putting this together first)