Last week, we tried a few Member-only game threads on the site. They were pretty well received, so we’re going to host them each day of the postseason going forward. Our Member community is made up of thousands of incredibly knowledgable baseball fans, and we think this is a great way to follow a game with like-minded baseball enthusiasts.

If you didn’t happen to check out the first couple of game threads, here’s a quick overview:

• Only Members can participate, but anyone can read the game threads.
• These are similar to game threads you might have seen on other sites or a Discord server, but unlike a Discord server, it’s hosted here and you just need to be signed in with your FanGraphs Membership.
• We’re using the same chat interface our staff uses for moderated chats, but your messages be posted immediately.
• Speaking of our staff, many have participated in the threads. But remember, our Members are driving the conversation.
• Please be courteous to your fellow Members, or you may find your chat privileges revoked.

We’ll open each game thread 30 minutes prior to the first pitch of the first game that day and leave it open until the final out of the last game. So for today’s games, the chat start will start at 5:30PM ET. You’ll see the thread announced in the site banner, with a separate post for each thread.

We’ve integrated many of the standard features you’d see in any chat or messaging tool, as well as a few interesting additions:

• You can reply to any message. We’ve kept the threading one level deep, so the conversation doesn’t branch too much.
• You can also edit your own message.
• You have the option to view the messages in a thread or chronologically. I recommend a thread, but you can view new messages as they come in if you prefer.
• We recently added reaction emojis, so people can like or emote to messages.
• Because these chats happen in real time, but streaming services aren’t reliably synced, you can delay chat updates up to three minutes to avoid spoiling the game action. You’ll see your messages immediately, but any other messages will be delayed by your specified amount of time.
• We have polls at the top of the chat. Even if you don’t have a lot to say, please vote! It’s fun!

We are still experimenting with how best to create a great experience for our Members as they discuss postseason baseball, so things in the interface might change. Please let us know if you have any feedback. We look forward to seeing you the rest of this postseason!