Hey all!

sorry for posting this a bit late...long weekend to say the least! My practicum project is to pick a special interest, then join a discussion board, a blog, and a Facebook group about it. My "special interest" is basketball. It is kind of a broad topic, so I chose to mix it up a little bit between the different communities.

My discussion board site is www.wishoops.net, which is a Wisconsin based website for people to discuss WIAA girls/boys basketball, College basketball, recruits, tournaments in the areas, etc. I spent a lot of time on this site when I was in high school, and did a fair amount of contributing then. This time, I made a new username and started with a clean slate.

The blog I chose is www.basketball-reference.com/blog. This is an NBA based site, with one main blogger, Neil Paine. Lots of people comment on his blogs, ask questions, etc. Neil responds to people frequently and engages in the conversations to keep the blog going.

The facebook group I chose is called "College Basketball." Pretty basic. People post on the wall, and others are able to comment on it. There is a discussion section as well, which obviously begins wiht a broad topic that people break down and debate over.

So, I guess I've never really been a huge contributor to forums/blogs/etc like these...however, I do enjoy reading them and looking at the arguments that are being made. I also love/hate those people who say such ignorant things just to stir things up a bit. I especially love how annoyed the "regulars" of the forum get with these people.

My question for you...I'm sure most of you have read some sort of discussion board about a topic you enjoy...but have you ever contributed? And to what extent? Are you a passive "community" member, an outspoken one? And have you ever felt like you've developed some sort of relationship with another person in a blog? hmm.... ponder that and get back to me tomorrow.