A few people have been asking lately about how photos work on B/R, especially since we’ve added the option to upload your own photos to your articles.

Right now B/R licenses images from Icon Sports Media. Premium, professional quality photographs add a lot to a story, and we think it’s important for our writers to have access to a great library of images, without having to worry about copyright issues. While the B/R photo library is by no means exhaustive, we try our best to continually update it with great, relevant shots. If there is a photo we don’t have that you want to use, you can email photo gurua Mike Eagan at photos@bleacherreport.com with your request and he’ll do his best to add it to the library.

Realizing that the photo library may not have exactly what you’re looking for, we also recently added the ability to upload your own photos to your articles, a feature that was in high demand from some of our best writers. This has led to a greater diversity of images on the site, and a more freedom for the writer when choosing how their work will be presented. However, there are a few things to consider before hitting the “Upload Photo” button.

The first consideration is copyright concerns. When uploading your own photos, you should either own the image or have permission from the copyright holder. If there is an image you’re dying to use that is copyrighted, you can usually find the contact info for the photographer or publication it was originally printed in and send a request for usage.

Or you can take your chances and post the photo if you feel that the image falls under the doctrine of “Fair use”. Fair use is an ambiguous concept, but generally if you’re writing about a subject and the photo you want to use adds to and/or is necessary for the commentary, then fair use generally applies.

The second aspect to consider when uploading your own photos is image quality. Bleacher Report writers take pride in the clean appearance of the network, and you should do your part to upload only photos that add, and don’t detract, from that quality. Uploaded photos must be at least 300px tall by 400px wide at 72dpi, and should not be blurry, low quality, or hard to identify.

Thirdly, photos should always be relevant to the article and tagged appropriately. Relevant photos add to the article text and, in some cases, amplify or augment the point you’re making in your article. Appropriate tags make the photos easily indexable in the library, and thus easier for other writers to find and use them when writing about similar subjects.

Finally, and this goes without saying, all uploaded photos should be appropriate for all audiences. Obscene or pornographic photos will be promptly removed and the members who upload them will have their accounts suspended.

Another request we get from time to time is for in-game photos, which we agree would be pretty freaking cool if added to the already powerful arsenal of the Bleacher Report writer. Rest assured, we’re currently working on a solution that will broadly expand our image library and include in-game photos in the offerings. Stay tuned for more news on that in the next couple months.

Any more questions on photos? Ask in the comments below.

Calling all Bleacher Creatures: a live chat room to discuss all things sport is now open for business!

Bleacher Report regular Greg Caggiano has taken the initiative and created the Open Source Sports Network’s first official chat room, courtesy of Meebo.com. Here’s the link: http://www.meebo.com/room/bleacherreport/

The chat room is open twenty-four hours a day—come visit to discuss your favorite teams and players with other Bleacher Report members.

To chat, you do not have to be a registered member of Meebo, though it is recommended. Once a member, you can create your own avatar…there are a host of great moderation features available, in addition to a private messaging system.

We plan on rolling out our own online chat solution right here on Bleacher Report sometime in the near future. This should hold all of you anxious Creatures over until then…

It was everything the Draft wasn’t: short, simple, to the point.

In the time it took the St. Louis Rams to decide on Mr. Irrelevant, you could have taken a crash course on the Top Five Games to Play During the NFL Draft. And to make it all the way to the David Vobora pick at 252, surely you must have been playing at least one of those games.

Out of more than forty entries, James Christensen authored the winning article in Bleacher Report’s 2008 NFL Draft Challenge. For his efforts, we’re sending James and a guest to the opening game of his choice this September.

Runner up honors go to Sean Crowe, who went for the sure thing… stoking the Raiders’ fire.

Good thinking, Sean. However, this is the NFL Draft we’re talking about, and even the best-laid plans have a tendency to backfire. Still, we’re sending an autographed, framed picture of Mel Kiper Jr. your way. He says you have “tremendous upside,” and are the odds-on favorite to win the 2009 Draft Challenge.

Congratulations to James and Sean, and thanks to all who participated.

In a perfect world, publishing on Bleacher Report would be as simple as typing your article and clicking “Submit.”

In this one, things don’t always always go quite so smoothly.

The B/R Submission Module is generally pretty serviceable, and we’re always working to make it better—but snafus are bound to happen. When they do, three general tricks may just save you from throwing your laptop out the window in frustration…

1. Switch to Firefox

The B/R interface works best with Mozilla’s Firefox browser. If you’re running into functionality problems—e.g. you can’t add a picture or change tags—a browser switch might be the answer. Firefox is a free app and can be downloaded on the Mozilla website. (Open-sourcers of the world, unite!)

2. Do your formatting in the Submission Module, not your word processor.

Special formatting features—including ordered lists, block quotes, and tables—often translate improperly from word processor documents to the Submission Module. If you want to add bells and whistles, your best bet is to do so in the Submission Module itself, either manually or by using the buttons in the Editing Toolbar.

You may also find that line and paragraph breaks get mistranslated from the Submission Module to the live Article Page. In such cases, you can usually solve the problem by removing and then reinserting the line breaks in the Submission Module—i.e. delete the blank space until the first sentence of one paragraph is on the same line as the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, then press RETURN twice to reestablish the break.

3. Learn to love HTML code.

The vast majority of B/R formatting problems originate in an article’s HTML code, which can be accessed by clicking on the “HTML” button on the right side of the Editing Toolbar. If you have the time and inclination to teach yourself the basics, you’ll be able to hack your way through most issues—especially those related to line and paragraph breaks (and the corresponding <br /> and <p> HTML tags).

Anyone seeking to nurture his inner nerd would do well to start with this online tutorial…and to remember that pocket protectors are no more or less cool than the individuals who wear them.

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Of course, these are only general suggestions, and may or may not be applicable to your particular headache. If you have specific questions, please note them in the Comments section below. I won’t always be able to help, but at least you’ll know that someone else shares your technically challenged and hopelessly impotent cyber-angst.

And hey—that’s what the Internet’s all about, isn’t it?

We recently presented our NBA Community with a content initiative built around playoff coverage. The rules instructed Bleacher Report’s NBA contributors to choose a team and write an article about them before the start of the post-season.

If their team advances to the next round, so does the Bleacher Creature—who is then offered the opportunity to write another article in support of their chosen squad.

After the finals are over, the writer who’s contributions accumulated the most total hits throughout the playoffs will be awarded a $100 gift certificate at NBA.com.

Based on their initial submissions, here are the contestants and the teams they will be covering throughout the post-season:

Western Conference

Suns
Ian Zymarakis
Garrett Gonzales
Greg G
Jeremy Kaufman

Nuggets
Sean Stancill
Mike Bogacz
Adam Meiklejohn
Mick Smith

Rockets
Gerard Narendran
Rif Sunesara
Sonny Kung

Lakers
Jason
Andrew Kneeland
John Fatland
Jose Gonzalez
Michael Rippe
Chase Sagum
Lester Mora
Farid Foroughi
David Whitehead
Anthony Wilson
Jeff Little
Paul Peszko
Miguel Vazquez
Alex Tang

Spurs
Andrew Norman
Andrew Tonge
Dan Siegel

Mavericks
Andy Simpson
Taylor Gram

Hornets
Mark Hannie

Eastern Conference

Cavs
Chase Sagum
Michael Heller
Matt Bosley
Chris Varner
Garry Lloyd
Scott Miles
Tommy Balcetis

76ers
Jameson Fleming
Tom Dillard

Raptors
Mitch Thompson

Celtics
Stew Winkel
Michele Ann
Jim Sheldon
Sammy Benitez
Sean Crowe
Dennis White
Andrew Palumbo
Ron Johnson
Ken Foss

Magic
David Wunderlich
Steve Resnick

Pistons
Mick Miller

Keep an eye out for these talented writers as you consume what could be the most exciting playoffs in league history.