How to Use This Site

Thanks for visiting Brewblog.com. We're glad you're here. We want to share with you a few bits of information that will make it easier for you to use – and participate in – Brewblog.com.

Putting Your Own Mark on "Brew"

We want this site to be the home of an active and informed dialogue about the American beer business. The best way that can happen is for you to share with us your opinions about the stories you see on Brewblog.com. Every story on Brewblog.com has an orange link that says, "Comments." To post a comment of your own, just click on that link. When you do, just fill in your name (or the nickname you'd like to be known by on Brewblog.com), your e-mail address, the URL of your own Web site (if you have a site and would like its address to show up with your comment) and then write whatever you want to say in the "Comments" field. As soon as we've had a chance to review your comment, it will appear on the site.

We use the TypePad service to create Brewblog.com. If you already have a TypePad or TypeKey account, you can just click the "Sign In" link, and you won't have to enter your name and e-mail address before you comment.

Subscribing to "Brew"

Our site offers you two different ways to "subscribe" to Brewblog.com's daily look at the beer industry: e-mail and a newfangled technology known as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication.

If you would like to get a daily e-mail summarizing the latest stories on Brewblog.com, just look on the right side of our home page for the text that reads, "Get 'Brew' Via E-Mail." Just enter your e-mail address in the box, then click on the "Subscribe Me!" button. This will take you to the Web site of Feedblitz.com, which is the service we use to handle our e-mail subscriptions. When you're there, all you'll need to do is enter the randomly generated text you'll see beneath your e-mail address. (This "image verification" feature protects Brewblog.com from spam e-mails.) You will then get an e-mail from Feedblitz, which will contain a link that says, "Click here to confirm your registration." Click on that link and you're done. If you ever decide to unsubscribe from Brewblog.com, simply go to www.feedblitz.com, log in, then click on "My Subscriptions." Click on the red "X" next to "Brew" and you'll be dropped from our e-mail list.

One additional note about Feedblitz: Some mail systems, such as Hotmail and Earthlink, may view FeedBlitz emails as potential spam. If there is no confirmation email in your in box after you subscribe to Brewblog.com, please be sure to check your junk or spam folders for mail from FeedBlitz. Add the FeedBlitz address – feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com – to your address book or list of permitted senders.

If you're the type who likes the latest and greatest technology, then you might already be using RSS reader (or aggregator) software. Every new Brewblog.com posting generates a new "RSS feed." RSS reader software grabs those feeds and lets you know when there is something new on Brewblog.com (or any other Web site that offers RSS feeds you want to read). If you work on a Windows computer, this article from About.com offers some guidance about different RSS readers. If you use a Macintosh, another article from About.com offers guidance about RSS readers that run on the Macintosh operating system.