Hi... I'm back. Some of you might have noticed that I haven't been writing for a month or so. I took a short hiatus from BTB to work on some big projects for SB Nation's NFL sites after the season was over. Got to make that money, food is a good thing. It's not like I was really needed here anyway, not with the job that Raf, Aaron and OCC do on the front-page. Give up a round of applause for those guys.

Those guys will also tell you I do a lot of administrative work behind-the-scenes here at BTB, so here is some general info .

If you're interested, make the jump, but be forewarned, there's no Cowboys news to be had, just BTB stuff.

• We'll be doing the training camp fundraiser again; BTB will definitely be sending some combination of writers to cover camp. We really appreciate the donations from last year, having a community willing to chip-in is a blessing. So be on the lookout for that soon. And if you get tired of us pestering the community about it over the next few months, just pull out your checkbook, send us a five-figure payment, and we'll call the whole fundraiser off!

• We'll be doing another Cowboys Annual for Maple Street Press this offseason. Now that we have some experience, this year's version should be even better than last year. I don't know any exact dates yet, but you'll hear about it once I know. If you bought one last year - thanks, truly. I hope you'll do the same this year, and I hope everybody here will consider the purchase.

• BTB has been working hard on its social media sites, mainly Twitter and Facebook. Our own long-time community member albyman32 is the true social media maven at BTB, he runs the show on that side. Big thanks to him! So join us on those sites, and if you're active on Twitter, feel free to re-tweet our stuff. On Facebook, definitely link our articles on your wall if so inclined. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're not alone! Just show up here daily, and it's all good.

A quick reminder for the old-school BTB'er, and good info for the new BTB'er, about FanPosts, FanShots, recommending items, commenting, etc.

• FanPosts are generally either breaking news - ex. Cowboys just signed player X - or more thought out ideas that are specifically Cowboys-related. They can also be shorter items, but they should at least be original, or interesting enough to drum up good commentary. If you read a FanPost and really like it, recommend it (link is at the bottom of the post). Those that get three or more recs. move up to the top box. FanPosts are crucial to what this site is about, this is a community and the FanPosts are content just like the front-page. So the more we get the better. Just make sure to put a little thought into them beforehand, and proper grammar, spelling etc. is always a plus.
• FanShots are pretty wide open. They can be a link to an article, a video without any written commentary, off-beat items, comedy, etc. I do ask that they stay Cowboys-related, or at least NFL-related. The FanShots are the quick items that you may find interesting and want to share with the rest of us.
• You can recommend FanPosts, FanShots, and articles on the front-page. You can recommend comments, and you can also help monitor the site for boorish or troll behavior by flagging inappropriate stuff in the comments.
• Speaking of comments, thanks for following the guidelines here at BTB. With such a large and active community, we've done amazingly well at keeping the level of discourse high. Rarely do we have flame-wars, inappropriate language or other problems that plague so many large community sites. Kudos to everybody for doing their part in making BTB a great place to talk Cowboys football, and not indulging in our baser instincts.

• Last season, we did some sponsored posts with companies like JCPenney/Van Heusen (the Hall of Fame voting) and Sprint (for NFL Mobile Live). BTB, as part of SB Nation, will probably be doing more of these as we go forward. Our promise to you, we won't over do it, we'll always tell you when a post has been sponsored by a company, and we'll always make them football-related. I just want to let you know that in order for SB Nation to maintain serving up free content on a daily basis on 240 sites, they have to sell ads and sponsorships. Bills have to be paid. So I hope you guys understand, and embrace what we're trying to do.
• In case you didn't know, SB Nation has a general sports site here, a page specific to the NFL here, and a page for the draft, here. Also, we have the year-round NFL draft site, Mocking The Draft. 

And finally... for better or worse... I intend to start writing again. Thanks everybody for supporting BTB, and for being so active in the FanPosts and comments. Getting great community interaction makes all the difference in being a successful Cowboys site.