New Website Feature Preview - Dashboard

In the continuing series explaining the new SBNation blog features, I now look at the administrivia of the new blogs.  At the very top of every new SBNation blog, you'll see a dark grey strip a few buttons: SBNation, Profile Page, Dashboard, My Blogs, and Log Out.  SBNation sends you to SBNation's home page.  Profile Page shows your public profile, your last few comments, and your blog memberships.  My Blogs gives quick links to any blog you're a member of.  Log Out, well, duh.  That leaves one button to explain.

The Dashboard is very similar to the ones used in WordPress blogs.  If you've ever used those, the Dashboard will be second nature.  If you haven't, it only takes a minute to figure out anyway, so no worries.  This is typically a "one-and-done" kind of deal.  Once you set things up the way you like them, you'll probably have no need to change them.  Here is a rundown of the options in the Dashboard:

My Dashboard:
Remember how I said that you can save drafts of your FanPosts and FanShots?  Here, you can see all the FanPosts and FanShots that you in progress.  One click allows you to go back to editing, and one click brings up the option to delete them.  This shows you all of the drafts for every SBNation blog you are a member of.  It's instant organization.

Edit Profile:
You'll probably want to stop here early on.  This is the place where you upload an avatar, write a little ditty about yourself, and adjust most of your public setting.  You can also identify your favorite teams or athletes in a host of different leagues.  You can see all these edits in your Profile Page (here's mine.)  (You can also access this on the Profile Page.)

Edit Settings:
This allows you to modify how the SBNation blogs look.  The most important one is to check the time zone settings.  If you have EST selected, for example, even Pacific Coast blogs will give timestamps in EST (assuming you're logged in).  This really helps you figure out how long ago a Story, FanPost, Comment, whatever was made - no translating for time zones.

Edit Account
Here, you adjust the core settings our your SBNation account:  name, private email, change of password, and whether you want SBNation to email update notifications to you.  Additionally, if you have a blog account at an old SBNation blog under a different name, you can claim it and attach those comments to your new SBNation account.  For example, if I had an account on the Kentucky SBNation blog with the handle "LoftonPassedYouBy", I could claim that name and all those comments.  (Technically, this also allows you to claim blogs with the same handle, but you probably already did that when you first got your SBNation account.)

Remember, SBNation is now  global across the different blogs.  That means that your login and account information are the same for all blogs you sign up for.  If you're a multiblog junkie, this is an enormous time-saver.  The Dashboard is the place where you fine-tune the engine under your SBNation blogging hood to your liking.

Photo by glutnix