FalcFans Forums

May I ask questions?

For a decade there's something I've noticed prevalent on message board sites. Fans of an NFL team with a history of losing tend to congregate together.

From the old Prodigy Classic's boards to this one, probably visiting in ten years a geusstimated two dozen or more sites, fans of the Chargers, Bengals, Falcons and Saints seem to find a niche in which they are most comfortable posting.

There's one sight that's completely void of members except a bunch of Bengals fans and in another forum, there's over,...3000 Saints fans!,...whom post in one forum! Can you imagine trying to keep up with that volume of posts? And that's the extent of that site's activity.

On another site that has a couple Redskins fans, both mods, a Jets fan and a Colts fan,...and then there's over 400 Chargers fans that post in just one forum, their forum.

Falcons fans are just the same.

The AJC has a lot of posting traffic as does the Falcons website's boards. Ummm,...take note,...you can't post anything negative about the Falcons on their website's boards,...it'll disappear.

But if you go to the myriad of MB sites on the web, you'll see a void of posts in their Falcons forums. And it's not just the Falcons forums that are void of activity, that's not the point. Point being that very few Falcons fans, like the other fans mentioned, tend to avoid striking it out on their own on boards and stay safe at the usual watering hole,...just like all those Saints fans.

Maybe we represent a small segment of the NFL fans population. Maybe all those Cowboys, Niners, Packers, Patriots, Steelers, Eagles and Raiders fans that seem to saturate most MBs outnumber us, skewing things.

Answer these two questions honestly please,...have you ever been, in any way even momentarily,...embarrassed to be known a Falcons fan?

Do you avoid other MB sites because of the attacks that always seem to come from other NFL fans? You know, the Vick this, the Vick that stuff?

no and no...As far as I'm concerned this is the only true Falcons board...the others are Vick Sites. Though that may have changed some with the recent developments.

This is the only true Falcons board? Your sentiment wasn't such two years ago. But I grant,...we all change, grow, develop and all that good stuff.

So you choose not to post in other sites, not because you're afraid of being dog piled on, but because you prefer to be in familiar company. Okay.

I find this fascinating as it's a fact that Falcons fans orbit familiar posting sites like this one,...I could name more but that's not kosher.

Vick sites? I suppose there's no Manning sites out there. Now we're getting somewhere,...it seems Falcons fans aren't as unified as other fans. One guy hates Vick, the other guy adores him. Yes, I have seen that recently after the water bottle incident.

Please keep on enlightnin'!

I'm not sure PB about the unified statement. In 2005, because the Falcons-Packers game was coming off a bye, I got to spend a lot of time at a Packers site and forum.

I think every team/forum has its own polarizing topics once you get enough posters. For the Packers, it was about Favre (whether he was done or not), Sherman (and how crappy a coach/Gm he was), and Ted Thompson (if he was going to be any better than Sherman).

I'm sure if we had studied a Colts forum over the past few years, there were topics such as whether Peyton or Dungy could win the big game, whether Dungy should be fired because the defense was consistently bad, whether dumping Edge was a good move, etc. topics that had strong opiniated viewpoints and polarizing positions among those fans.

Interesting you mentioned that.

For a time when Fassel was coaching the Giants a few years ago, there were these NY fans that were calling him FASSel,...and they were winning games.

What I'm noticing is that many Falcons fans get together in their own forums and rarely venture into a site that has few, if any, other Falcons fans posting there. I've also seen, through personal experience, that if you're a Falcons fan posting alone on some of these sites you become a target of ridicule.

Maybe that explains why Saints fans congregate in protected sites to post. Believe me,...they're worse than we are. But then there's the Bengals and Chargers fans that have thier own bee hive,...it's just fascinating.

My two cents are simple. I was on the ESPN board for years before it became nothing but spam and trolls. I'm fine with tangling with opposing fans but not endless amounts of trolls and spam.

I especially like FalcFans because it is low volume. I don't spend but 20 minutes on here any given day and can't keep pace with high volume boards.

So the place you wish to post has the least amount of trolls, which is the best point made so far.

There are dozens, into the hundreds, of message board sites and the ones that offer forums for discussion for each and every NFL team are void of Falcons fans. As said, there might be a cluster of Chargers fans, sometimes Redskins fan, other times Saints fans but the only place I've ever found a huge congregation of Falcons fans are in sites such as the roost and this one and the "Vick sites" as BB noted which I assume is the AJC boards and the Falcons website's boards.

What I'm trying to find out,...is why there are no Falcons fans that go and make a stand into some of these general boards. That's why I asked if we've ever been embarrassed to admit we are Falcons fans. That's why I asked if some of us are afraid to post on other, general MB sites.

Because,...there are no Falcons fans posting in those sites,...just wondering why.

Not sure what sites you are referring to...but i go to 30-50 different sites per day during the season (info gathering for my wagering)...and there are always Falcon fans there. In the off season i visit maybe 15 or so and they too have many fans there. The ESPN chats for example always have a few Falcon fans who ask questions. I don't think anyone on the net is ashamed of anything really.

At least it's my opinion, but on the general NFL boards, they are nothing but trolls. IMO, what makes a solid pro football forum, is a central topic/subject to focus on. Here, it's obviously the Falcons. At another site, it's the Packers or Lions or Chiefs or whatever. Even at forums that are simply about the draft, IMO those are better than the forums that are just for fans of every team to congregate. Because IMO, those forums promote trolling. One member/user has no reason to have a sense of civility or brotherhood to another, becuase they are fans of opposing teams.

I think of like this. Put 32 drunken football fans (all fans of different teams) and have them watch ESPN News 24/7, and I can guarantee you by the end of the day a few fights would have broken out and animosity would linger. Put 32 Falcon fans (or fans of a single team), and I won't say fights won't break out, but I can guarantee you the number of civil conversations and high-fives that occur in that room will be 10x more than it would be in the other room.

Not everyone is well-liked here, but at the end of the day, you realize everyone here is a Falcon fan and that means everyone has at least 1 thing in common here.

We all know BB wouldn't win a popularity contest on this board, but I'm sure that if a troll of a nother team came on here and started attacking him, at least half the people that are vocal about their lack of love towards him would attempt to back him up.

man, that's beautiful Pudge. Now I'm gonna have to get sentimental on this subject,...Da****!

Yes,...if I caught any fing troll fing with BB, I'd kick his ass. BB is a hard ass but if he's a Falcons fan, he's my brother. Yep,...even though we've been at each other's throats, I'd kill for you BB if someone *outside* the family attempted to smack you.

Pudge, you are a peacemaker.

You all have been wonderful answering these questions.