I decided to join the Houston Rockets’ fan site, Clutchfans.com. I had heard of the site from a couple of friends but, until two weeks ago, my role was nothing more than a lurker. Clutchfans.com reposts news articles about the basketball team and also has a forum section for Rockets fans to participate in discussions. The language on the site was pretty easy to pick up; no weird abbreviations. The biggest social context cue I had to learn was the general netiquette for posting to “threads” or topics. For instance, if I wanted to say something about the team that was a little off topic, then I would need to start a new thread. Tangents are typically frowned upon.
People are identified by their labels on the left hand side of their posts. The labels include their “handle” or pseudonym, how long they have been a member of the site, how many posts they have made since joining, and a green status bar that increases the more they post and the more people respond to their posts. The label also includes ones rank. Ranks increase from “rookie” to “member” to “contributing member.”
Another feature of this particular forum is the general use of proper grammar. A few posters, usually “rookies,” will use “texter slang” (i.e. “lmao”) but for the most part people tend to write as though they are sending an email. The site has monitors too, which look out for people trying to start flame wars or are just belligerent in general. They act as a virtual bouncer, kicking people out of the forum who are socially unsavory.
Wood and Smith, in citing Jones’ “Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” (1997), lists four qualifiers in defining a website or forum as a virtual community: minimum level of interactivity, variety of communicators, common public space, a minimum level of sustained membership. Clutchfans.com’s BBS is a common public space which allows people to post anything they want (minimum level of interactivity). The site has over 40,000 registered members (variety of communicators) with about 1,000 members who post on a daily basis creating a level of sustained membership. Thus, Clutchfans.com is without a doubt a virtual community.
From my experience in radio, I know that many teams and organizations tend to look down upon sites like Clutchfans.com. Athletic Directors, General Managers, coaches, players, etc. view them as overzealous fans with a tendency to be overly critical (I suppose they want them to be lap dogs who accept anything an organization says as gospel). They are referred to as “superfans” but thought of in the same light as bloggers: overweight, thirty- to forty-somethings, living in mom’s basement. The truth is, however, their cultural impact is far more positive. They provide an outlet for like-minded individuals (in this case, fans of the Houston Rockets) to come together and discuss their team as though they (we) are in a virtual bar with friends, having a beer and talking sports.
Truth be told, had it not been for this assignment, I never would have joined the site and most likely would have stuck to my role as a lurker. I have a pretty good group of friends who enjoy hanging out and talking sports, so that void in my life is fulfilled. However, since joining, I have enjoyed the outlet to voice my opinions with potentially 40,000 other Rockets fans. In fact, some of the topics discussed in the forum have given me things to discuss with my friends offline thus helping my social status within our sports conversations.
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