I was going to post a thread with a different tone, but then I realized I wanted to get some opinion on a sort of precursor question. Do you think that the forums on VN are representative of our fanbase? Why or why not?
I think most of the folks that fill the stadium on Saturday are well-meaning and good people who love the Vols. But I'm not sure most can discuss football or hoops at anything more than a cursory level. When I had season tickets and sat around some of the same people from week to week this becomes pretty obvious. So I think VN is a pretty accurate portrayal of the fanbase generally. A minority who have nuanced and reasonable arguments and a lot of plain old "fans" whose analysis can't hold up to a lot of scrutiny. But I think this is true of most fanbases, by the way.
What I've noticed more is just how generally simple minded, redneck, & hardcore Christian-conservative they are. I move around the country, and have stopped defending our fan base from being labeled rednecks. Because they are.
Not at all. Message boards are only a fraction of the fan base, and those who join and participate are definitely not the same type of "casual fan"
Not really, there is no accountability as it is an anonymous message board and often times the lowest denominator is protected on volnation. This leads to a more vocal closed minded community and creates a herd mentality.
I agree with this. While our average fan will not be mistaken for a nobel laureate, my experience with 'real' people--even some that aren't that bright--tells me that most of our fanbase is more reasonable than the nonsense over there.
Ohio State may have the one fan base with a message board contingent that is more sane and generally smarter than the average fan.
This board is still in its infancy, but it has the foundation to be built around logical and reasonable debate here.
I'd change that to humans. When i travel i don't notice a lot of bright people outside this country either.
I haven't seen too much, but I'm a member of one which I don't post on too much, and I've browsed some others in the past. They're not necessarily brilliant on the boards, but from what I've seen, they aren't as delusional as many of the actual fans. If I had to guess, I would say that a good amount of the Buckeye fans that post on message boards do so because they are unable to have a reasonable discussion with typical fans.