Welcome, and War Eagle

Greetings. A few of y'all know us, but if you don't, we would like to welcome you to College and Magnolia, SB Nation's new Auburn blog and community. When an opening appeared for a new Auburn blog at SB Nation, we jumped at the opportunity, and we're honored to contribute to this network's already excellent SEC coverage.

We started our humble website back in late January with one goal in mind: to become the best damn Auburn blog on these here intertubes. We know we aren't there yet, but with the resources and network available thanks to SB Nation, we firmly believe that we will reach our goal. In addition to producing the best Auburn content on the blogosphere, we want this community to be something in which Auburn fans can take pride. For those of you that have been following us since our birth, we hope you'll take full advantage of all the community features -- comment threads, fan posts, fan shots -- and make your voices heard. If you are a long-time Track 'em Tigers reader, we understand that you might harbor some skepticism toward us, but we hope you'll give us a chance, and if you enjoy our content, join in on the discussion, too.

What should be expected at College and Magnolia?

• First of all, we're bloggers, not journalists. We will rarely break any news stories around here. Instead, we'll provide quality analysis and commentary on anything and everything Auburn-related.
• This isn't just a football/recruiting site. Yes, those subjects will be major pieces in our coverage, especially during fall, but we plan to give men's basketball and baseball the same treatment. And as far as the smaller sports go, we want to give you as much information as we can. We have specific contributors dedicated to swimming and gymnastics, and the rest of the writing staff will do its best to cover the rest of the non-revenue sports.
• This is not a paywall-style message board. Frankly, we don't care much for those things. The conversation usually devolves into name-calling, media conspiracies, rumor-mongering and other types of dumbed-down discussion. We want the conversation in our comment threads to remain intellectual. We don't care what topic is discussed as long as it remains somewhat civilized. Rival fans are welcome, but please don't come here just to troll. We wouldn't do that on your site, and we'll get angry if you do. Auburn fans, we'll get angry at you if you troll/personally attack someone just because they cheer for another school, so don't do it.
• Okay, there are a couple of topics that should not be discussed: politics and religion. There's no way a discussion on the Internet regarding either of those can end well, so just stay away from them.
• Heated debates are fine, even encouraged, but don't let them dissolve into personal attacks. If you wouldn't say it to someone's face -- or if you would but you think it would result in a physical altercation -- just don't say it. And don't use any racist, sexist, homophobic or other bigoted language. That will result in a quick strike from the banhammer.

Some of that may make it seem like we're a bunch of stuck-up moderators, but we really just want this to be a place for folks to share their opinions, have intelligent conversation and enjoy themselves. As long as that is happening, we'll be nice. Now that that's out of the way, we'd like to introduce ourselves.

Chris Fuhrmeister, managing editor (@WarmBeagle on the twitters) -- Chris will have his hand in a little bit of everything, but his writing duties will mostly cover football and baseball. He'll also edit the blog with Peggy.

Peggy Rossmanith, editor/staff writer (@peggyrossmanith) -- In addition to sharing editing responsibilities with Chris, Peggy will cover various aspects of Auburn athletics from the female perspective. She is currently located behind enemy lines in Tuscaloosa, where she will gather information for her "Undercover Barner" column.

Ross Collings, contributor (@rosscollings) -- Ross contributes to our football coverage, and he does it with a British accent. You may be familiar with his home base, A Brit of Orange and Blue.

Everett Duke, staff writer (@Everett_Duke) -- Everett will cover non-revenue sports and provide weekly information on exactly what is happening in terms of athletic events in Auburn.

Blake Ells, staff writer (@radiofreeblake) -- Blake will produce a weekly column during football season, sharing his unique #takes on the week's action.

Kim Hays, staff writer (@runyogasurf) -- Kim will cover her two great passions: basketball and tailgating.

Kevin Ives, staff writer (@AUPPL) -- Kevin joins us after years of running his Auburn baseball blog, Plainsman Parking Lot. He will head up our baseball coverage.

Maggie McDaniel, staff writer (@MaggieMcDee) -- Auburn has the best collegiate swimming and diving program in the country, and Maggie will give it the full coverage it deserves.

Dusty Miller, staff writer (@dmiller1856) -- Dusty will cover recruiting and baseball.

Brett Mixon, staff writer (@TrueBlueAU) -- Brett will cover baseball and football.

Thomas Murphy, staff writer (@murphtl) -- Murph will cover football.

Jared Robertson, staff writer (@wardamnjared) -- Jared will cover basketball and recruiting.

Andy Salser, staff writer (@AndrewSalser) -- Andy will cover NCAA compliance and legal issues related to Auburn and other major institutions.

Now that we've introduced ourselves, we'd like to welcome you aboard. If you enjoy what we're doing here, we'd love to hear from you. And if you hate what we're doing and have ideas on how to make it better, we'd love to hear from you, too. Like we said, our goal is to make this the best Auburn blog and community on the Internet, and we can only do that with help from our readers. Don't be afraid to share your opinion.

You can find posts from our old site integrated into the old Track 'em Tigers posts, and we'll begin posting new content in the next few days. With football season approaching, it's time to get to work.

On the rare occasions when you're not visiting College and Magnolia, you can keep up with the blog on Twitter and Facebook. And feel free to get in touch with good old-fashioned email.

Welcome, and War Eagle.