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From BigSoccer Wiki

Contents 1 Early History 2 Recent History 3 Forums & Community 4 Moderation 5 Culture 6 External Links

BigSoccer.com is one of the most popular football (soccer)-related websites in the United States. The site has nearly 100,000 registered users, and had over 1.2 Million Unique visitors during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. BigSoccer is the de-facto home of American soccer, where fans not only come to meet, but also where industry executives can often be found. The site is self-stated as the most widely read and regularly read soccer publication in the United States, excluding retail catalogs. In addition to (or in spite of) its popularity in the United States, 40% of the site's traffic comes from outside the United States, with the site having particular popularity in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.

Early History

Founded as personal hobby in 1995, and originally located at www.inch.com/~huss, the site was created in 1995 in the wake of the successful 1994 World Cup in the United States and in anticipation of the launch of Major League Soccer (which eventually was delayed from 1995 to 1996). The site was used to post links to MLS and US Soccer related news, with a particular focus on his local MLS team in New York (soon to be announced as the MetroStars, now known as the New York Red Bulls).

In the beginning, a significant number of BigSoccer posters came from the North American Soccer (NAS) listserv. In the early to mid-90s, the NAS list was one of the best sources of information and one of the only opportunities for community for supporters of the United States men's national soccer team. With the advent of MLS, the NAS list soon sprouted listservs for many of the teams in the new league as well. As the "bulletin board" technology advanced, the listservs soon faded away.

The site evolved in two directions, becoming two distinct sites, MetroFan.com and SoccerBoards.com (which evolved into the current BigSoccer.com). While MetroFan continued to focus on the local MLS squad and eventually evolved into MetroFanatic.com, SoccerBoards invited other MLS fan clubs to join an interactive forum where they could share news, gossip, opinions, etc. about their local MLS side, the league, and US Soccer, as well other soccer teams and leagues around the world.

This new online community grew rapidly, as it was one of the few (if not the only) place for American soccer fans to turn to find fellow fans with like-minded interests.

SoccerBoards continued to be a hobby for its founders until 2000, when, with financial backing from StarMedia Network, the business was renamed BigSoccer and became a full-time endeavor. The company acquired Matchday USA, a soccer magazine and online retailer, later that year. Though the magazine was subsequently shut down, the retail operations have grown substantially and today the BigSoccer Shop, in partnership with 365 and Eurosport, carries over 10,000 products from dozens of countries and hundreds of teams.

In addition to NAS, many smaller online soccer communities migrated to BigSoccer. These include Soccer America Graffitti.

Recent History

In 2002, BigSoccer partnered with News Corporation's Fox Sports World (now Fox Soccer Channel) to become their official online community provider. That relationship was terminated in 2004.

In August 2006 BigSoccer launched a partnership with Major League Soccer where they became the official supplier of online community tools to the league's and teams' official websites.

Forums & Community

The community uses the following hierarchial structure: forum category (e.g. Americas), forum (e.g. Canada), and topic (e.g. Canada vs Mexico). There are 385 forums.

The forums are organized in 'pyramids' by region, which each level and section of the pyramid having a community. Regions are subdivided into countries, countries are subdivided into leagues and national teams, leagues are subdivided into divisions, and divisions are subdivided into teams. Some teams are further subdivided by supporters club.

Additionally, forums are organized for general discussions including FIFA, international tournaments, business and media, and dozens of non-soccer related areas

The oldest forum is New York Red Bulls (formerly MetroStars). The most popular forums are (in order) Politics, Manchester United, Mexico, DC United , Major League Soccer, and Yanks Abroad.

The popular Mexico forum contains Mexico NSR, Mexicans Abroad, and Mexico Clubs (Cruz Azul, UNAM Pumas, Club América and Chivas) subforums.

Moderation

BigSoccer currently has 361 moderators and administrators, whose job is to keep the forums clear of spam and to keep arguments from getting out of hand. Moderators are selected from users who have contributed to discussions in a positive manner. Depending on their role, moderators may be responsible for just one team forum, or a region.

A senior level of moderators, called Super Moderators and Region Moderators, can punish users who break BigSoccer's rules and Terms of Service with an escalating series of disciplinary actions, starting with a warning, then followed by a yellow card (cannot start threads or edit posts for a certain amount of time) or a red card (an outright forum or site ban).

Culture

In eleven years BigSoccer has developed its own unique culture. Some areas of note include:

• B@W - Bored at Work: Posters in the "Free for All" forum start threads of this title. They use these threads to carry on random discussions each day in an attempt to pass time while at work. Before page limits on threads, this was BigSoccer's largest running thread and carried the name "The Daizygrl & Redchick Bored at Work Thread" in honor of the founders of the thread.
• BSSM - BigSoccer Senior Members: Along with B@W, the oldest of FFA threads/groups. Originally started as a joke poking fun at BigSoccer's old titling structure (you had to have a certain number of posts to achieve "senior member" status), threads of discussions ended at 1000 pages. Most other long-running FFA threads branched off from this one. Some of the largest arguments among the participants have involved the "Deadly Sins": Rice, religion, women, art, Nirvana and BBQ. And don't even ask about XBox vs. PlayStation.
• CPC - Cheap Post Credit: A group of posters who meet in BigSoccer's Supporters Club forum. The group has a variety of cliques and many personality clashes.
• FFA - Free For All section. The original home of "off topic" threads which has grown into a large community of posters, some of whom don't actually venture out onto the regular BigSoccer boards.
• Freddy Adu - A hot topic amongst the fans. Adu has been built up to be the next best player of the world, but many argue that at his age he has accomplished little to live up to these expectations. Discussions run wild about Adu, from his party habits as a youngster to his play (or lack there of) with Real Salt Lake to which country he will choose to play for (US or Ghana). Regular posters joke about whether he has put his Hoho in JoJo, or that each time discussion turns to Freddy, God kills a kitten.
• Giuseppe Rossi - The New Jersey-born, USA and Italy-raised, player for Manchester United and potential player for the Italian national team, or unlikely the US national team, creates the second-largest stir on BigSoccer, next only to Adu. Consequently, regular posters joke about how each time discussion turns to Giuseppe, God kills a puppy (the canine equivalent of Adu).
• I Like Cheese - A common response from long time posters when a new poster creates a thread about an over-discussed topic on the site. Many subjects, Adu for example, have been talked about to the point where meaningful conversations about it are virtually impossible. A response of "I Like Cheese" is an attempt to stop the thread before it starts.
• Stupidface - The regular user term for a Moderator. As with any situation in life, the person of authority is often disliked because they try to keep order.
• The Great Crash - During World Cup 2002 BigSoccer had a major server crash. This caused all of the pre-existing posts to be lost forever. Many excellent threads and posts were lost in The Great Crash.
• Trolling - Trolling is banned by the BigSoccer Terms of Service and is the most common reason, along with spam, that posters are banned from the site.
• Plastic - Messageboard lingo that is used to describe individuals that are bandwagon fans. An example of this might be someone from a country, that roots for a country that he/she has very little connection to (like someone from Canada supporting Portugal because their parents are from there, or an American who supports Italy for the same reason, etc.). "Plastic" fans tend to migrate towards whichever team is the most popular at the given moment and are also known as "glory hunters".
• Promotion/Relegation Posts - Probably considered the number one contentious topic in Big Soccer. This issue is considered a dividing line between those that believe the current soccer organizational (MLS, USL, etc) structure is appropriate for the US soccer market versus those that consider that the US soccer organizational structure should use a promotion/relegation system, as used in the English FA Premier League, Italian Serie A, etc.
• Eurosnob - A term used to describe posters who live in the U.S. but exlusively follow European club soccer. Arguments between Eurosnobs and Major League Soccer fans can be fierce and sometimes personal. These most often originate in threads discussing subjects such as promotion/relegation, in which Eurosnobs usually advocate for the system and MLS fans defend the current structure of the league. Many diehard MLS supporters loathe Eurosnobs, but most will admit that attracting them to the league is key to its long-term development if it is ever to evolve on a scale comparable to that of the major European leagues.
• Reputation - Pros, cons, social and behavioral impact. Psychological basis behind support or resistance to the concept. Possible effects to family and friend relationship discussed.
• Drafts - many forums on BigSoccer hold mock drafts where a group of posters get together and draft something, whether it be current soccer stars (the World Draft), past greats (The All-Time Draft), music (Music Draft), movies (Movie Draft), and even animals (The Animal Draft).

External Links

BigSoccer Shop