It was brought to my attention last week that somethings on HFO might be a little confusing to the casual, new reader.  In hopes of enlightening the masses, I’ve created this post to serve as our FAQ.  This post will remain tacked at the top of HFO for new readers to check out first and therefore enabling our first time visitors a better viewing experience.  If you have anything to add, please feel free to comment.

First of all, welcome to Hicks Family Online.  I hope the below material will better help you navigate our little corner of the world. 

• First and foremost, Hicks Family Online isn’t just a place for nefarious, nonsensical ideas from Kevin Hicks, I actually have an entire cast of characters on this venture.   Although your main source of material will come from Kevin Hicks and First Lady of HFO, Cindy Carter, you also have an entire cast of writers.  Kristen, Kurt, Bill, Dave, and Emma will all be bringing you copious amounts of ridiculously delicious bites of input.  On top of that, you will also be seeing videos of HFO’s next generation; Avery, Carson, Xavier, and our little girl to be named later.  To determine who you hearing from, you merely need to look at the top of a post next to the date and below the title.  The name of the author will be prominently displayed.  This should keep our readers from asking “Why is Kevin blogging about being a mom?”  I wasn’t, it was Cindy.  If you would like to read the biography for each of our writers and staff, please look to the right of the screen under “PAGES”.  The Cast will give you bios for our main family unit, and The Writing Staff is…the…uh…Writing Staff.  I really got creative on that one. 
• I know some readers say to me <whining>But Kevin, I feel like I have to come to HFO every day to see if you posted new material</whining>  Well, that has been solved as well.  If you look to the right of the screen, you will see an area where you can subscribe to HFO’s mailing list.  I promise you this is safe, and you will only get posts from HFO when there is a new blog, video, or audio blog.  If you subscribe, I don’t have any gifts like a hamburger phone or HFO wristwatch, but it’s free, and will only cost you the 10 seconds it takes to type in your email address.  
• HFO is a full participation website, and I strongly encourage everyone to get involved in the discussions.  Although we try not to get into to many forbidden dicusssions, we do enjoy hearing from our loyal readers.  Even if it’s just to comment and say “this blog sucks” or “Righteous thoughts dude!!”…whatever.  If you would care to join in to our discussions, there is a comment button at the top of every blog.  It is right next to the author name mentioned above and the date.  Click on that link and it will take you to a screen that I think scares the common surfer.   Please do not be afraid, it is merely a way to make sure you aren’t a droid, robot, or terminator sent back through time to ask me if I need to enlarge my penis.  I’m 34, does it really matter now?   Anyway, there are several ways to login.  You can click on any of the web based services (yahoo, facebook, google, twitter) and merely login using those already established accounts.  It won’t effect your account, it merely establishes you as a human with good intentions (we hope).  If you would like to actually own an account at HFO, you can click the register button on the right side of our main page under the “META” heading. 

I think that’s the main things to help you muddle your way through our media conglomerate. If you have any other questions, you can always comment on something and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Enjoy!