Knave
18 Mar 2005, 02:53 AM
DC United Supporters in Diaspora: Let's talk about this board.
So we’ve got this board. Maybe we should talk about it a little. I’ve got some ideas about how this board could be used coming out of my own experiences in California, but I wanted to get some feedback and ideas from others around the country.
One of the things that really sucks if you’re a DC United supporter who’s moved away from DC is that it’s hard to find like-minded fans. And sometimes you just want to be around like-minded fans. If DC United is in town, then I want to sit with other DC United supporters. That, to me, is when it really hits you. I’ve been to games where I feel like I’m the only DC United supporter around. That can be really tough. But when you’re sitting with other supporters - what a difference that makes! Or even if there’s just a really big game on TV, I don’t really want to watch that alone. I want some other supporters around to share the experience (and to talk me out of varieties of self-destructive behavior if things go really badly). But all that can be pretty hard to come by if you leave DC. You all know this though, so I’m not going to drone on about it.
I wanted this board because I thought it might help DC United supporters in diaspora find each other, set up networks, and organize events a little more easily.
It's simple for a supporter in DC to hook up with other supporters. There's a steady stream of opportunities to become involved. But it's more difficult for a supporter who moves far from DC. Often they don't even know who's out there. As it was, threads catering to non-local supporters got lost very quickly on the board. So if you were a non-local supporter looking for other DC United fans in your area, you’d have a pretty tough time tracking them down. I thought it’d be really nice if some displaced DC United supporter could just stumble over to BigSoccer, and easily find out if there were any other supporters in his or her area.
We needed an archive, and maybe even an index. I think this sub-forum can serve both purposes. It’s going to be slow paced to begin with. Because of that it should be much more of a browse-able archive than the main board. That alone will help people find one another. I’d also like to set up an index thread with links to various regional threads.
There are already threads on Atlanta, Florida, Colorado and New York. (We should set one up for California. Or maybe two, northern and southern.) I hope others will pop up in time. I know that Philadelphia, Chicago, Texas, and the Carolinas all feature enclaves of DC United support. And there’s ursula in Portland too. So if there’s not already a thread for your area then please post one. It’s not in vain even if you don’t get any responses right away. It’s enough reason to post a thread for your area, just in order to set up an archive.
If you do live near an MLS city, and the DC United supporters clubs don’t regularly organize road trips there, then I hope you’ll step up and try to organize whatever support you can for DC United when they come to town. In California we’ve had good success, particularly at HDC, doing that these last few years. Usually the supporters clubs step up at least for games against the Metros, the Revs and Columbus. But out here in the hinterlands, there’s often no organized support for DC United. Maybe this board can help to change that. That too is something we perhaps can talk about here.
So that’s about it for my ideas. What do you think? What would you as a supporter "abroad" like to see here? How can this board help you?
The floor is yours.
Post away …
So we’ve got this board. Maybe we should talk about it a little. I’ve got some ideas about how this board could be used coming out of my own experiences in California, but I wanted to get some feedback and ideas from others around the country.
One of the things that really sucks if you’re a DC United supporter who’s moved away from DC is that it’s hard to find like-minded fans. And sometimes you just want to be around like-minded fans. If DC United is in town, then I want to sit with other DC United supporters. That, to me, is when it really hits you. I’ve been to games where I feel like I’m the only DC United supporter around. That can be really tough. But when you’re sitting with other supporters - what a difference that makes! Or even if there’s just a really big game on TV, I don’t really want to watch that alone. I want some other supporters around to share the experience (and to talk me out of varieties of self-destructive behavior if things go really badly). But all that can be pretty hard to come by if you leave DC. You all know this though, so I’m not going to drone on about it.
I wanted this board because I thought it might help DC United supporters in diaspora find each other, set up networks, and organize events a little more easily.
It's simple for a supporter in DC to hook up with other supporters. There's a steady stream of opportunities to become involved. But it's more difficult for a supporter who moves far from DC. Often they don't even know who's out there. As it was, threads catering to non-local supporters got lost very quickly on the board. So if you were a non-local supporter looking for other DC United fans in your area, you’d have a pretty tough time tracking them down. I thought it’d be really nice if some displaced DC United supporter could just stumble over to BigSoccer, and easily find out if there were any other supporters in his or her area.
We needed an archive, and maybe even an index. I think this sub-forum can serve both purposes. It’s going to be slow paced to begin with. Because of that it should be much more of a browse-able archive than the main board. That alone will help people find one another. I’d also like to set up an index thread with links to various regional threads.
There are already threads on Atlanta, Florida, Colorado and New York. (We should set one up for California. Or maybe two, northern and southern.) I hope others will pop up in time. I know that Philadelphia, Chicago, Texas, and the Carolinas all feature enclaves of DC United support. And there’s ursula in Portland too. So if there’s not already a thread for your area then please post one. It’s not in vain even if you don’t get any responses right away. It’s enough reason to post a thread for your area, just in order to set up an archive.
If you do live near an MLS city, and the DC United supporters clubs don’t regularly organize road trips there, then I hope you’ll step up and try to organize whatever support you can for DC United when they come to town. In California we’ve had good success, particularly at HDC, doing that these last few years. Usually the supporters clubs step up at least for games against the Metros, the Revs and Columbus. But out here in the hinterlands, there’s often no organized support for DC United. Maybe this board can help to change that. That too is something we perhaps can talk about here.
So that’s about it for my ideas. What do you think? What would you as a supporter "abroad" like to see here? How can this board help you?
The floor is yours.
Post away …