The Stanley Cup and Online Communities :: Internet Web Essays

The Stanley Cup and Online Communities What I Know, Assume, or Imagine I will start off by giving a bit of background as to why I chose this particular topic. I consider myself an amateur in online communities, and in particular chat rooms. I have always considered chat rooms places people with no friends can go. I have plenty of friends, so I never really saw the need to chat. The few times I have gone into chat rooms, they are usually sport related. The problem I have found is that the conversation is usually on everything except sports. I still feel this way. The first part of my hypothesis is that chat rooms don't always stick to the subject. I am a huge hockey fan, and consider myself somewhat of an expert in certain areas. This is why I chose the Stanley Cup as my topic for my I-search. I think that combining something I feel I have good knowledge of with the Internet will help me weed out the facts from fiction. Here are some things I know about hockey. The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy in North American Sports. It gets passed from team to team, unlike some other trophies. In the NHL, the players play for the Cup, not for the championship ring, or the championship itself. The winning team gets it's names on the Cup for all time and each player gets to spend a couple of days with the Cup over the summer. The hall of fame provides a "Cup Keeper" whose job is to stay with the cup at all times. Most hockey players in the US and Canada have dreamt of hoisting the Cup since they first put on skates. (Simon) As you can see, I am very passionate about the Cup, and could write my whole paper on its rich history, which began in the late 1800's. I am sure there are other people like me on the Internet, so my goal is to find them. I will try to use message boards as well as chat rooms. I plan to ask them about stories they have heard about when the players had the Cup. I imagine I will get better results on message boards, so I will concentrate more on these than the chat rooms. Another assumption I have is that certain teams will be more receptive to answering questions from me.