By now most people have surely noticed this. Don't worry, they'll be back as soon as possible, but there are some technical problems that have crept into the SBNation platform that are being addressed as we speak.

Fanposts are still available to read and write at the Fanpost tab near the top of the page, so they haven't gone away, they have just been taken off the front page for the time being while the aforementioned technical issues are resolved.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

Those of you who hang out here a lot know a2d2 as one of the better commenters on the blog.  She is also always making great FanPosts, locating superb links and videos for FanShots, and is generally as knowledgeable a Kentucky fan as we have.

We have decided that it's time to bring her up to the front page to help the A Sea of Blue team cover Wildcats football and basketball, and help us provide the high quality and relevant content you have all come to expect from this site.  She has been a member since March of 2009 and has consistently raised her game, and we are thankful to her for being ready, willing and able to help us bring the Wildcats to you.

So please join me in welcoming a2d2 to the front page, and in wishing her continuing success in bringing the fan perspective to A Sea of Blue.

As you know, A Sea of Blue is dedicated to the Kentucky Wildcat fan, and we are always looking for ways to improve this blog and the product it presents to our faithful readers, and to the Kentucky Wildcats blogosphere.

You may remember Alex Scutchfield as the owner and operator of the UK Football Fan blog.  I am very pleased to announce that Alex will be joining us as an author, and although his "beat" will be primarily about football, he will also be writing about everything else related to the Wildcats, just like the rest of us on the front page.  We don't have "basketball" authors and "football" authors, we just have authors.  But Alex brings a particular expertise in football to A Sea of Blue.

Alex is a passionate UK fan, and we have linked his writing several times  here when he was writing on his old blog.  He has done a great job covering Wildcat football, and although we here at A Sea of Blue make a good effort to do this as well as possible, I think our football coverage needs to improve, and Alex is the first step in bringing that improvement to our outstanding membership.

So please welcome Alex to A Sea of Blue, and expect to be seeing him around and our football coverage get better.  You can follow Alex on Twitter at @UK_Football_Fan.

Heh.  Sorry about the open thread and poll that popped up 24 hours before it was supposed to.  Sometimes even the best software is useless in the hands of an incompetent operator.

There will be an open thread tonight to discuss the 2009-10 men's basketball schedule.  In the meantime, please excuse the error.

While everyone has been fascinated by all the neat, new features of the SBN 2.0 platform, I want to briefly mention a few other things, including a few old things that are new again.

One "old" thing that is back is the Google news shared items.  It is located on the right sidebar just below the FanShots.  I update that thing pretty often with stories I think might be interesting.  They aren't always UK related, but most of them are.  By clicking on the "Read More" link at the bottom, you can get all the stories that have scrolled off the box.  I purge that thing about once ever couple of weeks, so you will sometimes see just a few items there.

Also, the FanShots thing is very cool.  Like FGM said in this earlier post, you can put in pictures and links to videos.  But you can also put in things like links to articles, chat transcripts, lists of things and quotes from people.  All the little things that usually wind up as an unrelated comment in a regular post can go there, and get "front page" treatment.

Finally, the Bio section of your account is something you should all consider writing a paragraph or two about.  If you don't want to disclose your identity or whatever, fine, but if you find the time, do write something about yourself in there.  It's always a great thing to learn a little something about that member who just made a brilliant comment.  It can be anything others might be interested in -- why you chose your avatar, what you do for a living, how you fell in love with the Cats -- whatever.

Enjoy!