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The Miami Dolphins will open training camp next week, welcoming new players like Arian Foster for the first time with the team. That said, we are a wee away from actual football, so we wanted to take a moment and welcome our own new members to the site. We currently have 18,453 registered members on the site. We also have 7,634 Facebook likes and 9,381 Twitter followers.
(Sidenote: Why aren’t you following us on Twitter or liking us on Facebook? Click here to check us out on Twitter and click here for the Facebook page.)
Even with those numbers of registered members, likes, and followers, there are still a ton of you out there that read the site, but do not necessarily have an account or comment. We are inviting you to change that today. Go ahead and make an account (it’s free and easy - just use the button down in the comments). Then, tell us why you picked your username, or how you found the site, or why you are a Dolphins fan. Really, just tell us anything - join the site now so we can welcome you into the Phinsider Community as we get ready to ramp up for another season.
This is not for just the newcomers, however. Even if you have been here for a while - or one of the “old-timers” who has made a return recently - re-introduce yourself. Let us know who you are, when you joined, and anything else you want to share.
With that, I guess I should start. Obviously, my name is Kevin Nogle. I found the site in 2008 when I was deployed with the Army to Iraq and needed to get a Dolphins fix. I lurked for a few months, then decided I wanted to join the site and start commenting. That turned into writing FanPosts, including a series I started called “Perspective” and the offseason “Historical Perspective.” (If you are interested, here is the first “Perspective” FanPost I wrote back in November 2008.) At this time, I was known as “Mosul_DolFan” because, when I found the site, I was in Mosul, Iraq, and I am just that overly creative. Anyway, MattyI, who founded the site in 2006, started putting my FanPosts on the front page (including that first Perspective), and ultimately asked me to become a contributing author for the site. Then, five years ago this month, Matty had to step away from the site and SB Nation reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in running the site. I’ve been here ever since.
As for how I became a Dolphins fan, it was an arduous task of being born. My parents are from Florida - I am an Army brat, so the only time I really lived in Florida was during college - and my mother is a huge Dolphins fan. I have known nothing else - and would never want to know anything else.
(One last note, thanks to Bleeding Green Nation for the idea for this type of post.)
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