What's all that stuff at the bottom of the post? - An Active Rain Tutorial

Since I noticed today that there are two new categories for flagging a post on AR (well, one is new and one was revived), I thought it would be worth informing everyone about this topic again.  Also, I have recently told people in comments that I flagged them for a featured post, and they are surprised, as they didn't know that this was possible. 

At the bottom of each and every post on Active Rain, just under the signature line and the indicator for the number of comments, you will see this:

If you click on the envelope, it will take you to a screen that allows you to input an email address and a personalized message about a post that interests you or that you find noteworthy for some reason and simply want to share with others. 

Clicking on "Bookmark" will place the post in your "Blog Bookmarks", which can be found at the bottom left of the "My Home" page:

This is a nice way to hang on to posts that have valuable information for your future reference.  It saves time, as you don't have to go hunting for it later.   

 Last, and perhaps most importantly, if you click on the flag, it will take to to this screen:

As you can see, these categories are really pretty self-explanatory. 

I do use the "Feature" flag somewhat regularly (probably a couple of times a week).  This category had disappeared, then it resurfaced today; I had been using the "Other" field and putting in a brief note about featuring the post.  Thanks to the AR gods for bringing this one back!

Does flagging a post guarantee that it will become featured on the main page of Active Rain?  No, but it does bring it to the attention of those charged with featuring posts and gives it a chance, just in case it was missed.  With the vast numbers of posts generated every day here, there are going to be some good ones (and feature-worthy ones) that get overlooked. 

I think I have only used the "Advertisement" flag once in the six months or so that I have been here.  Hopefully, this is not something that will be used very often.

I see that "hijinx and hilarity" is now a category, which is a welcome addition, to be sure.  I hope to hear that many of my own posts will earn this distinction.

My overall advice is to be discerning with the flag system, as we don't want to overwhelm the AR staff with busywork.  That being said, if you read something that you feel is worthy of further attention, whether good or bad, this is a great system feature that they put in place for the benefit of all AR members.

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to ask questions if you are unsure about something.  If I don't know the answer, I will try to help you find it.