Archive for category LiveJournal

Data dump: Australian sport on LiveJournal and its clones

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 24 October, 2010

This post is another data dump. There are some numbers that changed here. (For interests where there were zero people and zero communities interested in it, I left it off this list. This was to make the list shorter than 500.) The Adelaide Crows lost both people and communities listing them as an interest. The Brisbane Broncos also lost a person. My guess is that these losses were less a result of loss of interest in a team than account deletions because of LiveJournal policy changes. If/When they shifted to say Dreamwidth, they may not have listed the same interests or reccreated all the communities that they had belonged to. On the other hand, this could be a bit moot as the Melbourne Victory and North Melbourne Kangaroos both gained one person listing them as an interest…


Service League Team Interest Date checked Communities People
LiveJournal Super 14 ACT Brumbies ACT Brumbies 23-Oct-10 1 17
LiveJournal AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 7-Jun-10 6 69
LiveJournal AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 23-Oct-10 4 68
LiveJournal A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 12-Feb-10 10
LiveJournal A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 31-May-10 10
LiveJournal A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 25-Jun-10 1 10
LiveJournal A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 24-Oct-10 1 10
LiveJournal A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 24-Oct-10 1 10
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Albicelestes Albicelestes 22-Jun-10 3 3
LiveJournal A-League A-League A-League 25-Jun-10 3 21
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Azzurri Azzurri 22-Jun-10 27 154
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Bafana Bafana Bafana Bafana 22-Jun-10 2 2
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Beli Orlovi Beli Orlovi 22-Jun-10 1 1
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Black Stars Black Stars 22-Jun-10 1 46
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Blue Samurai Blue Samurai 22-Jun-10 0 1
LiveJournal NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 2-Jan-10 42
LiveJournal NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 13-May-10 41
LiveJournal NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 2-Jun-10 5 40
LiveJournal NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 7-Jun-10 5 40
LiveJournal NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 23-Oct-10 5 40
LiveJournal AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 7-Jun-10 6 59
LiveJournal AFL Brisbane Lions brisbane lions 23-Oct-10 6 59
LiveJournal A-League Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar 31-May-10 2
LiveJournal A-League Brisbane Roar (Queensland Roar) Brisbane Roar 25-Jun-10 0 2
LiveJournal A-League Brisbane Roar (Queensland Roar) Queensland Roar 25-Jun-10 3 10
LiveJournal NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 3-Jun-10 5 28
LiveJournal NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 21-Jun-10 5 28
LiveJournal NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 23-Oct-10 5 30
LiveJournal NRL Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Canterbury Bulldogs 23-Oct-10 3 27
LiveJournal AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 7-Jun-10 5 18
LiveJournal AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 23-Oct-10 5 18
LiveJournal A-League Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners 31-May-10 2
LiveJournal A-League Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners 24-Oct-10 1 2
LiveJournal A-League Central Coast Mariners Football Club central coast mariners 25-Jun-10 1 2
LiveJournal AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 7-Jun-10 4 23
LiveJournal AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 23-Oct-10 4 23
LiveJournal NRL Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks cronulla sharks 23-Oct-10 4 16
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Die Mannschaft Die Mannschaft 22-Jun-10 1 18
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer El Tri El Tri 22-Jun-10 7 62
LiveJournal AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 7-Jun-10 5 52
LiveJournal AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 23-Oct-10 5 52
LiveJournal AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 7-Jun-10 3 39
LiveJournal AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 23-Oct-10 3 39
LiveJournal AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 7-Jun-10 5 22
LiveJournal AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 23-Oct-10 5 21
LiveJournal AFL Gold Coast Football Club Israel Folau 24-Oct-10 0 1
LiveJournal NRL Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast Titans 23-Oct-10 2 3
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Guaraní Guaraní 22-Jun-10 1 2
LiveJournal AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 7-Jun-10 4 14
LiveJournal AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 23-Oct-10 4 15
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Albirroja La Albirroja 22-Jun-10 1 1
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Celeste La Celeste 22-Jun-10 0 2
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Furia Roja La Furia Roja 22-Jun-10 9 59
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Nazionale La Nazionale 22-Jun-10 1 4
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Roja La Roja 22-Jun-10 2 13
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer La Seleccion La Seleccion 22-Jun-10 10 62
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Les Bleus Les Bleus 22-Jun-10 8 57
LiveJournal NRL Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles manly sea-eagles 23-Oct-10 2 1
LiveJournal NRL Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles manly sea eagles 23-Oct-10 1 10
LiveJournal Women’s World Cup Soccer Matildas Matildas 25-Jun-10 1 6
LiveJournal Women’s World Cup Soccer Matildas Matildas 24-Oct-10 1 5
LiveJournal AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 25-Feb-10 26
LiveJournal AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 13-May-10 26
LiveJournal AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 7-Jun-10 5 25
LiveJournal AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 23-Oct-10 5 25
LiveJournal NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 2-Jun-10 5 25
LiveJournal NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 23-Oct-10 5 25
LiveJournal NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 10-Jan-10 25
LiveJournal NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 10-May-10 25
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 27-Feb-10 24
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 27-Feb-10 24
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 13-May-10 24
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 31-May-10 24
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 25-Jun-10 1 25
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 1-Jul-10 1 25
LiveJournal A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 24-Oct-10 1 25
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer National Mannschaft National Mannschaft 22-Jun-10 0 4
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Nationalmannschaft Nationalmannschaft 22-Jun-10 18 107
LiveJournal NRL New Zealand Warriors new zealand warriors 23-Oct-10 3 4
LiveJournal A-League Newcastle Jets Newcastle Jets 25-Jun-10 2 5
LiveJournal A-League Newcastle Jets Newcastle Jets 24-Oct-10 2 5
LiveJournal NRL Newcastle Knights newcastle knights 23-Oct-10 5 74
LiveJournal AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 7-Jun-10 0 12
LiveJournal AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 23-Oct-10 0 13
LiveJournal NRL North Queensland Cowboys north queensland cowboys 23-Oct-10 5 20
LiveJournal A-League North Queensland Fury FC North Queensland Fury 25-Jun-10 0 1
LiveJournal A-League North Queensland Fury FC North Queensland Fury 24-Oct-10 0 1
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Oranje Oranje 22-Jun-10 14 95
LiveJournal NRL Parramatta Eels parramatta eels 23-Oct-10 3 47
LiveJournal NRL Penrith Panthers penrith panthers 23-Oct-10 4 34
LiveJournal A-League Perth Glory Perth Glory 25-Jun-10 2 13
LiveJournal A-League Perth Glory Perth Glory 24-Oct-10 2 13
LiveJournal AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 7-Jun-10 4 10
LiveJournal AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 23-Oct-10 4 10
LiveJournal A-League Queensland Roar (Brisbane Roar) Queensland Roar (Brisbane Roar) 17-Feb-10 10
LiveJournal A-League Queensland Roar (Brisbane Roar) Queensland Roar 24-Oct-10 3 10
LiveJournal A-League Queensland Roar (Brisbane Roar) Brisbane Roar 24-Oct-10 0 2
LiveJournal AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 7-Jun-10 4 18
LiveJournal AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 23-Oct-10 4 17
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Seleção Seleção 22-Jun-10 1 6
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 14-May-10 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 15-May-10 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 28-May-10 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 3-Jun-10 6 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 17-Jun-10 6 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Tim Cahill 17-Jun-10 7 59
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 22-Jun-10 6 101
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 24-Oct-10 6 101
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Tim Cahill 24-Oct-10 7 59
LiveJournal NRL South Sydney Rabbitohs south sydney rabbitohs 23-Oct-10 4 14
LiveJournal NRL St George Illawarra Dragons st george illawarra dragons 23-Oct-10 2 7
LiveJournal AFL St Kilda Saints St Kilda Saints 7-Jun-10 4 16
LiveJournal AFL St Kilda Saints st kilda saints 23-Oct-10 4 16
LiveJournal AFL St Kilda Saints st. kilda saints 23-Oct-10 1 4
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st. kilda 26-May-10 12
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st. kilda saints 26-May-10 3
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st kilda saints 26-May-10 16
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st kilda 26-May-10 94
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 7-Jun-10 1 3
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st kilda 24-Oct-10 6 91
LiveJournal AFL St. Kilda Saints st. kilda 24-Oct-10 3 11
LiveJournal A-League Sydney FC Sydney FC 25-Jun-10 2 25
LiveJournal A-League Sydney FC Sydney FC 24-Oct-10 2 26
LiveJournal NRL Sydney Roosters sydney roosters 23-Oct-10 5 41
LiveJournal AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 7-Jun-10 6 102
LiveJournal AFL Sydney Swans sydney swans 23-Oct-10 6 100
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Taeguk Warriors Taeguk Warriors 22-Jun-10 0 2
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer The Red Devils The Red Devils 22-Jun-10 2 7
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Three Lions Three Lions 22-Jun-10 2 14
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer USMNT USMNT 22-Jun-10 6 71
LiveJournal A-League Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix 25-Jun-10 0 1
LiveJournal A-League Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix 24-Oct-10 0 2
LiveJournal AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 7-Jun-10 3 99
LiveJournal AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 23-Oct-10 3 98
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 25-Feb-10 21
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 1-Jun-10 5 22
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 1-Jun-10 2 2
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 2-Jun-10 5 22
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 7-Jun-10 5 22
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 24-Jun-10 5 22
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Julia Gillard 24-Jun-10 5 13
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 24-Jun-10 2 2
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 23-Oct-10 5 23
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 24-Oct-10 2 2
LiveJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Julia Gillard 24-Oct-10 5 14
LiveJournal NRL Wests Tigers wests tigers 23-Oct-10 4 24
LiveJournal W-League W-League W-League 1-Jun-10 1
LiveJournal W-League W-League W-League 25-Jun-10 0 1
InsaneJournal AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 24-Oct-10 0 3
InsaneJournal AFL Brisbane Lions brisbane lions 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 24-Oct-10 0 2
InsaneJournal AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal NRL Newcastle Knights newcastle knights 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal NRL North Queensland Cowboys north queensland cowboys 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 14-May-10 3
InsaneJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 24-Oct-10 0 3
InsaneJournal AFL St Kilda Saints st. kilda saints 24-Oct-10 0 1
InsaneJournal AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 24-Oct-10 0 3
InsaneJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 24-Jun-10 0 1
InsaneJournal AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 7-Jun-10 0 4
Dreamwidth AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 23-Aug-10 0 4
Dreamwidth AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 24-Oct-10 0 4
Dreamwidth A-League A-League A-League 25-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth A-League A-League A-League 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Azzurri Azzurri 22-Jun-10 0 2
Dreamwidth NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Brisbane Lions brisbane lions 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Die Mannschaft Die Mannschaft 22-Jun-10 0 2
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer El Tri El Tri 22-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer La Furia Roja La Furia Roja 22-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer La Seleccion La Seleccion 22-Jun-10 0 2
Dreamwidth NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 24-Oct-10 0 2
Dreamwidth NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 9-Jan-10 2
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Nationalmannschaft Nationalmannschaft 22-Jun-10 0 3
Dreamwidth NRL Newcastle Knights newcastle knights 24-Oct-10 0 3
Dreamwidth AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Oranje Oranje 22-Jun-10 1 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Schweizer Nati Schweizer Nati 22-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 14-May-10 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 28-May-10 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 7-Jun-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Tim Cahill 17-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 17-Jun-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 22-Jun-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 25-Jun-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 23-Aug-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 24-Oct-10 0 3
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos Tim Cahill 24-Oct-10 0 2
Dreamwidth AFL St Kilda Saints St Kilda Saints 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL St Kilda Saints St Kilda Saints 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL St Kilda Saints st kilda saints 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth NRL Sydney Roosters sydney roosters 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 7-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Sydney Swans sydney swans 24-Oct-10 0 1
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Three Lions Three Lions 22-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth W-League W-League W-League 1-Jun-10 1
Dreamwidth W-League W-League W-League 25-Jun-10 0 1
Dreamwidth W-League W-League W-League 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth W-League W-League W-League 24-Oct-10 0 1
DeadJournal NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 23-Dec-09 1
DeadJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 14-May-10 1
Blurty NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 9-Jan-10 1

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Which AFL team do Canberrans support in the Grand Final?

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 15 September, 2010

Canberra has traditionally been a place that people aren’t from.  Rather, it is a place that people have traditionally moved to.  When they move, they take their sporting loyalties with them.  For that reason, there is a conflicting mess of sport loyalties in the city.  If you went to see the Sydney Swans play the Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval this year, you could clearly see these different loyalties on display as it pertains to the AFL.  On the whole, I’ve generally found Canberrans to be pretty good with these loyalties: You can safely wear your team’s kit with out fear that some stranger is going to take the piss out of you.

The Grand Final is soon approaching.  Given the different sporting loyalties, it is interesting to see which team people in Canberra are barracking for.  Is one team more popular than another?  Do Canberran loyalties mirror national loyalties?

One way of measuring loyalty and team identification is to count how many people follow a team on Twitter.  All followers combined, Collingwood 7,381 followers, St. Kilda has 4,492 followers, Geelong has 2,153 and the Western Bulldogs have 1,554.  When Twitter followers for each team are filtered by location using time zones and user listed location, you can get an idea as to how many Canberrans are followers of the various teams playing in the Grand Finals:

Suburb Collingwood Magpies Geelong Cats St Kilda Saints Western Bulldogs
Barton 0 0 1 0
Canberra 62 10 28 17
Canberra International Airport 0 1 0 0
Capital Hill 1 0 0 0
City 0 0 0 1
Dickson 0 0 1 0
Gordon 0 1 0 0
Theodore 1 0 0 0
Total 64 12 30 18

It isn’t that big of a surprise that Collingwood is number one. Roy Morgan Research had them as the most popular Melbourne based team in 2009.  Beyond that, Canberrans on Twitter buck the popularity trend.  Roy Morgan has Geelong at number 2.  On Twitter, Canberrans are the least likely to follow Geelong.  Roy Morgan had the Western Bulldogs last.   Canberrans had them at third.  Overall, when compared to total number of followers for a team, Canberrans don’t  always follow the national patterns.  Again, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs are the ones that don’t match: More people follow Geelong on Twitter but more Canberrans on Twitter follow the Western Bulldogs.  It looks like Canberrans, who don’t have their own AFL team, follow a different drummer than the one that beats on a national level.

Another way to measure team loyalty and team identification in Canberra is to use Facebook.  Facebook says that there are 198,500 users who live in the ACT and 175,900 people who live within 50 miles of Canberra.  What Grand Finals teams do Canberrans like?

Area Collingwood Magpies Geelong Cats St Kilda Saints Western Bulldogs
Canberra – Within 50 miles 4,540 760 1,100 280
Australian Capital Territory 5,080 1,040 1,240 300

Well, not the Western Bulldogs, that’s for sure.  Canberran fans on Facebook much more clearly follow the national patterns as established by Roy Morgan.

Other social networks exist and Canberran sport fans are present on them.  One such network is LiveJournal (and its clones).  There are a number of fans on it who list their teams as an interest on their profile:   4 for Collingwood,  22 for Geelong,  16 for St. Kilda and 23  for the Western Bulldogs.  When broken down by city and state, there are two fans from the ACT who list Geelong as an interest and one fan who lists the Saints as an interest.  This pattern for the ACT does not mirror the pattern for the whole of LiveJournal.  It also doesn’t follow the pattern for team fandom size as identified by Roy Morgan Research.

Over on 43 things, there is one Canberran who has a goal related to an AFL team.  It just isn’t a team in the finals.  (The Canberran has a goal of buying a Sydney Swans jumper.)  On bebo, there are 18 people identified as being from the ACT who list an AFL team as an interest, four of which list a Grand Finals team as an interest.  Two support Collingwood, one supports Geelong and one supports St. Kilda.  This pattern mirrors the national one as established by Roy Morgan Research.  On Blogger, there are four people from the ACT who list an AFL team as an interest.  Of these four, only one lists a finals bound team: Geelong.

What does tell us?  Canberran AFL fans are most likely to be found on Facebook.  Their support of their clubs is similar to the national club support though there are differences.    Different social networks attract Canberrans fans of different teams.  It shouldn’t be that hard to find a like minded fan who will support your team if you’re here for the game.  The easiest time of doing that will probably be for Collingwood Supporters but Bulldog fans shouldn’t be that worried either.  Just go on Twitter Doggies fans and reach out to your fellow Canberrans.

Most of the raw data referenced in this post can be found at csv.ozziesport.com/.

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Has there been a population shift for the AFL on Dreamwidth Studios since June?

Posted by Laura on Monday, 23 August, 2010

I wanted to feel a bit productive this afternoon so I thought I would go back and look at one of the easily measurable populations that I have. In this case, I chose Dreamwidth Studios. Was there a population shift since June when I last recorded how many people listed a team as an interest? Nope. Data below.

Service League Team Interest Date checked Communities People 23-Aug-10 23-Aug-10 Difference Difference
Dreamwidth AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 7-Jun-10 0 4 0 4 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 7-Jun-10 0 1 0 1 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 7-Jun-10 0 1 0 1 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 7-Jun-10 0 1 0 1 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 7-Jun-10 0 1 0 1 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Football Club 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 7-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL St Kilda Saints St Kilda Saints 7-Jun-10 0 1 0 1 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Gold Coast Football Club Israel Folau 17-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 17-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 24-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs Julia Gillard 24-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 24-Jun-10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 23-Aug-10 0 4
Dreamwidth AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Football Club 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL St Kilda Saints St Kilda Saints 23-Aug-10 0 1
Dreamwidth AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Suns 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Gold Coast Football Club Israel Folau 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs jason akermanis 23-Aug-10 0 0
Dreamwidth AFL Western Bulldogs Julia Gillard 23-Aug-10 0 0

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Socceroos: A creative research data dump (part 3)

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 12 June, 2010

This is the third post in a series of creative research data dumps that relate to the Socceroos.

LinkedIn

League Team Name URL Owner Members Type Access Created Date checked
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Australian Socceroos – Supporters in Business http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1155907 Luis Aleixo 6 Networking Group 1-Nov-08 15-May-10
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Australian Socceroos – Supporters in Business http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1155907 Luis Aleixo 6 Networking Group 1-Nov-08 3-Jun-10

LiveJournal and clones

Service League Interest Date checked People Communities
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 102
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 3
Blurty World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
InsaneJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 3
DeadJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 1
JournalFen World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
scribbld World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
Inksome World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 15-May-10 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer australian national soccer team 15-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer aussie national football team 15-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 102
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 3
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 3-Jun-10 102 6
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 7-Jun-10 3 0

This table looks at activity patterns for LJ comms…

Service League Interest Date checked Community name Created on Last updated Comments received Account type Journal entries Tags Memories Virtual gifts Userpics Maintainers Members Watched by
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 the_socceroos 23-Jun-06 Never updated 0 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 tim_cahill 18-Nov-05 1-Jul-07 83 Basic 26 0 0 0 1 1 29 25
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 ozsoccer 1-Jun-06 20-May-08 620 Basic 78 0 0 0 3 1 76 65
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 harrykewell_7 4-Jan-07 3-Nov-08 271 Basic 137 13 0 0 5 1 72 68
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 tim_cahill 18-Nov-05 1-Jul-07 83 Basic 26 0 0 0 1 1 29 25
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 the_socceroos 23-Jun-06 Never updated 0 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4
LiveJournal AFL Brisbane Broncos 1-Jun-10 brisbanelions 30-Apr-05 30-Apr-05 1 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 6

MySpace

Service League Interest People Artists Music Videos Albums Songs Videos Images Date gathered
MySpace World Cup Soccer Socceroos 20 12 1 1 1 66 500 14-May-10

Age break down of some accounts’s friends…

League Team Account Date checked Total friends Age: 18-24 Age: 25-29 Age: 30-35 Age: 36-40 Age: 40+
World Cup Socceroos socceroos 28-May-10 769 303 125 42 11 66
Women’s World Cup Matildas matildasonline 28-May-10 8 5 1 2 0 0

Orkut

Service League Team Interest Users Communities Topics Date gathered Notes
orkut World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 36 14 628 5-Jun-10
orkut World Cup All Whites "All Whites" 14 1 319 5-Jun-10 Not all references are to the football team.
orkut Women’s World Cup Matildas Matildas 14 2 124 5-Jun-10 Not all references are to the football team.

Twitter
Looking for growth information…

Service League Team Account Date collected Total followers
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 8-Mar-10 353
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 8-Mar-10 1 099
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 28-May-10 1 952
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 29-May-10 1965
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 30-May-10 1 998
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 30-May-10 1 668
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 1-Jun-10 1907
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 1-Jun-10 2077
Twitter World Cup Socceroos GGArmy (unofficial) 2-Jun-10 357
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 2-Jun-10 1 701
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 2-Jun-10 2 165
Twitter World Cup Socceroos HalfTimeHeroes (soccer fansite) 9-Jun-10 293
Twitter World Cup Socceroos GGArmy (unofficial) 10-Jun-10 390
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 10-Jun-10 1 775
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 10-Jun-10 2 661
Twitter World Cup Socceroos HalfTimeHeroes (soccer fansite) 10-Jun-10 293

YouTube

Service League Interest Videos Date gathered
YouTube World Cup Soccer Socceroos 1 760 14-May-10
YouTube World Cup Soccer "All Blacks" 13 200 14-May-10
YouTube Basketball Australia Australian Boomers 98 14-May-10
YouTube Basketball Australia Australian Opals 538 14-May-10
YouTube World Cup Soccer "All Whites" 429 14-May-10

Related Posts:

Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 20 May, 2010

A copy of this can be found in PDF form at : ozziesport.com/storm.pdf .  The pdf version that includes footnotes that explain the methodology used and contain additional links.


Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy

By Laura Hale, University of Canberra

On April 22, 2010, the news of salary cap violations on the part of the Melbourne Storm broke online in such publications as the Fox Sports, on television including ABC news and on multiple social networks including Facebook and Twitter. By April 23, the news was available in various print publications including The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald. During the news coverage, NRL fans learned that the team had been fined $1.8 million, stripped of two premiereships and were not eligible to earn points towards 2010’s premiership. (“Melbourne storm stripped,” 2010) The team was being punished for salary cap violations over the past five years, where the total cap violation in that period was $1.7 million with $400,000 of that total cap violation occurring in 2009. (“Melbourne storm stripped,” 2010)

Early in the coverage of the Melbourne Storm, several issues were discussed including the impact this would have on the fan base for the team, the subsequent economic fallout for Storm and other clubs in the league, and if the players would try to leave the club or lower their performance level. The consequences that people feared have yet to bear out: The fan base for the Melbourne Storm has grown, attendance has not fallen, membership is up and players have not left the team and the team continues to win.

This article will examine the online response to the Melbourne Storm controversy. Specifically, it will look at the interest patterns on several networks, follow patterns on Twitter and Facebook, and activity levels on 43things, wikis and Yahoo!Groups. It will prove that, on the whole, the controversy has not eroded the online fanbase for the team and has resulted in an increased profile for the team in ways can have a net positive for the team and their sponsors.


Profile Interest

One way to quickly gage online interest for a team is to check the number of people who list them as an interest on social networks that include that option. The level of interest on a network will, in general, increase over time. Including an interest is a rather passive activity that most people do at the time that they signup on a service. They may update their interests once a year when they do an overhaul on their profile. Other factors may result in an update of interests, most notably a desire to associate or disassociate with certain people and organizations. The latter can generally require a certain amount of rage and disillusionment and does not happen that often. For adding interests, it can require a certain degree of wanting to stand in solidarity with some one or thing in the face of perceived oppression. Adding or removing an interest will generally require a large emotional response in people to motivate them to change their interests on social networks where an individual has not been active in the past six months. These conditions mean that numbers for interests are relatively stable or increase. A big shift downward is possible but unlikely.

Did the Melbourne Storm controversy result in people being motivated to update their interests to include or exclude the team? Yes and no, many people added them as an interest on Facebook but the numbers remained level across several other networks.

As of January 9, 2010, 17,020 had listed the Melbourne Storm as an interest on Facebook. By May 9, 2010, this number had increased to 41,240, or 24,220 new people. From January 9 to May 9, 2010, there was also an increase of roughly 120 fans within fifty miles of Hobart adding the team as an interest, going from less than 20 to 140. Canberra saw a similar increase in fans, going from 140 on January 9 to 1,020 by May 9, 2010, an increase of 880 new people listing the team as an interest. For fans within fifty miles of Cranbourne, there was an increase of 5,540 fans going from 7,140 fans on January 9 to 12,580 fans on May 9, 2010. Some of this increase on Facebook can be possibly attributed to a change in Facebook in mid-April, where people were encouraged to add their interests as likes of fanpages and vice versa. (Albanesius, 2010) It cannot entirely explain the shift as the official Melbourne Storm page is a user page, not a fan page so the interest to liking will not be automatically converted. At the same time, the number of people listing the team as an interest is roughly ten times as many who follow the Storm’s official Facebook profile and suggests that interest listing is independent of following the official team presence.

In addition to the Melbourne Storm interest on Facebook, there have been two new interests related to the storm created in the wake of the controversy: “Shame On You Melbourne Storm” with fewer than twenty people listing it as an interest, and “Sucked In Melbourne Storm Haha” with 3,240 people listing it as an interest. The latter definitely connects to a Facebook fanpage with the same name, which has 8,432 people who like it.

While Facebook saw an explosion in growth of people listing the team as an interest, other sites allowing interest listing on profiles remained stagnant or saw limited growth. This includes bebo, where there has been no change as of April 28 and May 9 from 402 people that was originally recorded on March 18, 2010. Blogger saw some growth for the number of people listing the team as an interest. As of January 18, 2010, four people had listed the team. By May 9, 2010, six people had listed them as an interest. As the time frame is wider than that of bebo, it might be possible to account for the increase as a pre-season boost, rather than in response to the controversy. Either way, this was an increase of fifty percent for new people listing the team as an interest.

LiveJournal saw no growth in people listing the team as an interest between January 10 and May 9, 2010. Of the 25 LiveJournal accounts listing the Melbourne Storm as an interest, only five have updated since the controversy broke. LiveJournal’s clones including Dreamwidth, Blurty and DeadJournal also saw no growth as of May 9. This contrasts to the Brisbane Broncos on LiveJournal, where one person removed the team as an interest during a similar period. Dreamwidth had two users listing the team as an interest as of January 9, Blurty had one user as of January 9, and DeadJournal had one user as of December 23, 2009. None of the people on LiveJournal’s clones who list the Storm as an interest have updated their journals since the controversy happened. The most recent updates occurred on Dreamwidth, taking place in early March 2010. The other account last updated in April 2009. The Blurty account last updated in November 2005 and the DeadJournal account last updated in January 2006.

One or two smaller niche networks have limited interest for specific teams or where people only list the NRL as an interest. This includes BlackPlanet, generally targeted at African Americans inside the United States. There was one person who listed the NRL as an interest on the network as of February 15, 2010. This has not changed as of May 9. Care2 is a social networked targeted at people who wish to make the world a better place. As of March 20, 2010, no one had listed the Melbourne Storm as an interest. This changed by May 9, when three people listed the team as an interest. Given the names, limited profiles and join dates, it is possible that these accounts are all tied to one individual. Gaia Online is a small, niche network for role players. As of March 11, 2010, no one had listed the Melbourne Storm as an interest. There is interest in the NRL on the network as people listed the Brisbane Lions, Canberra Raiders, Parramatta Eels and Sydney Roosters as interests. There has not been any change for any of these teams as of May 9. The limited growth and lack of pull back could suggest that larger interest in the NRL has not been diminished on smaller networks as a result of the controversy.


Wiki Activity

Wikis are, at their most basic, web sites where visitors can easily edit the content of the site. Sometimes, there are limits to who can edit put in place by the creator of a wiki. These include requiring users to register or confirm an e-mail before they edit, or to get their account approved by the admin before they can edit. Some wikis have policies when breaking news happen or an article gets trolled to lock down the article so only registered users can edit or wiki admins can edit. The culture of editing on specific wikis thus develops around the who can edit process as locking down wikis to prevent edits can effect the frequency that an article is updated.

For comprehensive wiki articles, the ideal is to have to have editors who approach the topic from different perspectives, where there is inherent conflict in the content and perspective being presented. If this situation does not exist, an article can be highjacked by one or two editors who seek to push their own perspective. The more edits and people involved in contributing to the article, the less likely the article will be biased. This also makes vandalism less problematic as people are incentivized to quickly remove that material.

Wikis can be a good tool for gauging interest in a particular topic over time as most wiki software keeps a record of all edits to a page. For some of the big wikis, like Wikipedia, data also exists for how many views an article has over a certain time period. This can help track more passive community interest in a topic.

Wikipedia’s English language article about the Melbourne Storm is probably the most visited wiki article about the team and appears third in Google’s search results for the team. The article, found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Storm , was created on May 23, 2004. As of May 9, 2010, the article had 1,732 total edits made to it. The controversy involving the Melbourne Storm broke on April 22, 2010. 1,471 of the edits were made prior to that. In the period between the article’s creation and the day before the controversy broke, an average of .681 edits per day were made to the article. In the eighteen-day period since the controversy broke, an average of 14.5 edits per day were made to the article. The vast majority of these edits were made in the first three days, with 90 edits made on April 22, 56 edits made on April 23 and 69 edits made on April 24. On April 24, in response to repeated vandalism, the article was semi-protected; this meant that only registered users who had confirmed their e-mail could edit the article. The protection had the effect of reducing the total number of daily edits to the article. After that, peak editing days included April 26 and May 3 with seven edits, and April 25 and May 5 with six edits. There were zero edits on April 28, May 6, May 7 and May 9. The controversy certainly caused an increase in the number of edits. If the day that the controversy broke and the next two days are excluded, the average number of daily edits is 3.06 edits per day. This is still higher than the period prior to the controversy and the trend will probably continue at least until the end of the season.

The article views per day mirrors the total edits by day. Based on data provided by Henrick (2010, May 1 and May 9), there is a correlation of .904 between the total daily edits and the total daily page views. According to Henrick (2010, May 1) during April 2010, the article was viewed a total of 49,540 times. Of these views, 40,355 views were between April 22, when the story broke, and April 30. The peak day for visits was on April 22, when the article was viewed 14,800 times. The average page views between April 22 and April 30 was 4,482 views per day. If this period is extended out to include data provided by Henrick (2010, May 9) for May 1 to May 8, the average views per day is 2,700. If the three days around when the controversy first broke are excluded, the average edits per day drops to 1,143. This stands in contrast to the period between April 1 and April 21 where the average page views per day was 438. The above average page views trend appears to be continuing. There has not been a decrease in overall interest in the Melbourne Storm on English Wikipedia.

In addition to the English language article about the Melbourne Storm on Wikipedia, there are articles in two other languages: French and Italian. The French language article, http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Storm , was created on March 1, 2006. Since the controversy started on April 22 and May 8, there have been 35 total edits to the article. Unlike the English language article, total edits per day peaked on April 24, 2010 with 19 with the second highest editing day occurring on April 23 with 7. The average total edits per day during this period was 2.1. In April, prior to the controversy, the average edits per day was zero. Also unlike the English language article, it was not locked because of vandalism. According to Henrickhe (2010, May 1) peak views per day happened on April 23 and April 24 with 59. The next day with the greatest number of views in the period between April 22 and May 8 is May 8 with 34. The average viewed per day in the April 22 to May 8 period was 17.4 and the average viewed per day in April prior to the controversy was 3.4. The correlation between the total edits per day and views per day in the period between April 1 and May 8 is .7740. The French Wikipedia article saw an increase that was proportionally bigger than the English article but the total views and edits were much smaller on the French article.

The Italian language Wikipedia article, http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Storm , was created on December 21, 2007. The article had two edits in 2008 and one in 2009. Since the controversy broke on April 22 and May 8, there have two edits to the article. These two edits are the only edits made during 2010. According to Henrickhe (2010, May 1) , the total number of article views from April 1 to April 21 was 30. According to Henrickhe (2010, May 8), the total number of page views per day was 58. The day with the most views was April 23, with 14 views. The next day with the most views was May 3, with 8 views. The Italian Wikipedia article saw an increase in the total number of edits and page views as a result of the controversy. It might have been larger but the Italian interest in the team is much smaller to start with than the French or English language communities.

Outside of Wikipedia, there are a few small wikis that focus on the NRL and Rugby League. These wikis generally lack detailed information on the daily total page views but still provide information on the editing history. One such wiki is the NRL Central Wiki that is hosted on Wikia. It has an article about the Melbourne Storm located at http://nrl.wikia.com/wiki/Melbourne_Storm. The article was created on August 13, 2009 and was last updated on October 10, 2009. It has not been updated since the controversy. The wiki the article is hosted has only had three non-bot edits in the past 30 days so the lack of updates is not surprising. A few other wikis have articles that mention the Melbourne Storm. Most of these are institutional wikis where article histories are not available or where content is posted by its creator and never intended to be edited by a wider audience. There does not appear to be a movement by wikis to create additional content in response to or to try to capitalize on interest in response to the controversy.


Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging service. Users can post 140 character messages , called tweets, that are shared with anyone who chooses to follow them. Twitter is one of the most well known and popular social networks in Australia.

There are two main ways to measure Twitter activity. The first is to keep track of the total followers an account has. The second way is to monitor the total number of daily tweets posted about a topic posted across the whole network and by specific accounts.

The Melbourne Storm have an official Twitter account at @MelbStormRLC . There is an unofficial Melbourne Storm Twitter account run by a fansite at @MelbourneStorm_ . As of March 9, 2010, the official account had 458 followers. This contrasts with @MelbourneStorm_ which had 605 followers as of March 8, 2010. By May 10, about nineteen days after the controversy broke, the official account had 1,037 followers and @ MelbourneStorm_ had 720 followers. That was an increase of 579 and 115 followers respectively. The situation has not hurt growth for either account and people are still interested in keeping up with the team and what they are doing.

When compared to the official Twitter accounts for the NRL, Gold Coast Titans, Manly Sea Eagles, North Queensland Cowboys, Parramatta Eels, Canberra Raiders, South Sydney Rabbitohs and New Zealand Warriors, the follower growth for the Melbourne Storm suggests a potential connection to the controversy creating additional interest or a fanbase that has become much more interested in Twitter in a short period of time. (Table 1) The only account with a greater increase in total number of followers is the NRL, which picked up 942 followers. The Melbourne Storm saw a fifty-five percent increase in the new followers. The next closest team of the aforementioned in the same period was the Canberra Raiders who saw a forty-two percent increase. In this context, it reaffirms that additional interest in the team was likely generated by the controversy.

Table 1

Twitter Follower Counts by Official Club Accounts and Date
Team Account
9-Mar-10

10-May-10

Difference

% increase
Gold Coast Titans GCTitans
1,616

1,950

334

17.13%
Manly Sea Eagles manlyseaeagles
888

1,073

185

17.24%
Melbourne Storm MelbStormRLC
458

1,037

579

55.83%
North Queensland Cowboys northqldcowboys
1,403

1,588

185

11.65%
NRL NRL
4,231

5,173

942

18.21%
Parramatta Eels parramatta_eels
618

780

162

20.77%
Canberra Raiders RaidersCanberra
202

349

147

42.12%
South Sydney Rabbitohs SSFCRABBITOHS
761

1,139

378

33.19%
New Zealand Warriors thenzwarriors
434

507

73

14.40%


Detailed statistics regarding the total number of references for the Melbourne Storm by day on Twitter are not available. It makes it harder to determine the total daily volume of conversation involving the team in the days surrounding the news leaking about the salary cap violations. People were interested in the Melbourne Storm as the team was briefly trending on Twitter when the story broke. Manual counting can be done but Twitter search only goes back around one week What can be more easily tracked is the posting volume per day of specific accounts related to the Melbourne Storm to compare their activities before and after the controversy broke. In the case of the @MelbourneStorm_, the account does not update regularly with about twenty tweets made during the past year. Their last tweet was on March 24, 2010; they have not posted since the news broke. @MelbStormRLC has posted several tweets since the controversy and has mentioned it. From April 22 to May 9, eighteen days after the story broke, the Storm have made eleven total tweets. Prior to that, the team had made thirteen tweets. The difference in tweet totals is inconsequential. Neither account made changes to their Twitter posting in response in to the controversy.

Searching through Twitter, it is very clear that people are still tweeting about the team and, as of May 10, are tweeting about them at a comparatively higher rate than other teams in the league. One popular way of indicating a tweet is about a certain topic is to include a hashtag in front of a word. This makes the whole phrase easily searchable on Twitter. For example, a person who is tweeting about the Melbourne Storm may include #melbournestorm to indicate the tweet is about the team. There generally fewer of these tweets as a great many accounts on Twitter come directly from RSS feeds. These feeds were not originally created for Twitter and are absent some of the cultural practices and do not use coding tools to help make finding posts easier. Thus, tweets tagged with a # are fewer and more readily countable in search. This allows for comparisons to be made between teams over a short period. For the period between May 3 and May 8, 2010, #melbournestorm beat out all the other teams that were sampled for most the most discussed NRL team. (Table 2) There were twenty-one references for the team on May 5. This is sixteen more than #manlyseaeagles on the same date and the only other team with five or more tweets with a hashtag on a single day. The controversy can likely be seen as the cause for the increase in the number of tweets when compared to other teams in the league.

Table 2
Hashtagged Marked NRL Team Tweets
Team Keyword
3-May-10

4-May-10

5-May-10

6-May-10

7-May-10

8-May-10
Brisbane Broncos #brisbanebroncos
0

0

0

0

0

1
Canberra Raiders #canberraraiders
0

0

0

0

0

1
Gold Coast Titans #GCtitans
0

0

0

1

0

0
Gold Coast Titans #goldcoasttitans
0

0

0

1

0

0
Manly Sea Eagles #manlyseaeagles
0

0

5

0

0

0
Melbourne Storm #melbournestorm
0

2

21

2

3

1
Newcastle Knights #NewcastleKnights
0

0

0

0

0

0
North Queensland Cowboys #NQCowboys
0

0

0

0

0

0
North Queensland Cowboys #NQldCowboys
0

0

0

0

0

0
North Queensland Cowboys #NorthQldCowboys
0

0

0

0

0

0
North Queensland Cowboys #NorthQueenslandCowboys
0

0

0

0

0

0
Parramatta Eels #ParramattaEels
0

0

0

0

0

0
Penrith Panthers #PenrithPanthers
0

0

0

0

0

0
Sydney Roosters #SydneyRoosters
1

0

0

0

0

0
Wests Tigers #WestsTigers
0

0

0

0

1

0



Facebook

Facebook is one of the largest social networks in Australia and it arguably has the largest population of Melbourne Storm fans online. Outside of interest monitoring, the easiest way to monitor the activities of fans is to examine the fan community’s growth on official pages and groups, and activity levels on these groups.

The Melbourne Storm has an official user profile on Facebook. The profile is for their mascot, Storm Man. It has a limited profile view so only people who have friended the account can view posts and interact with content posted by Storm Man. When the profile was checked on April 6, 2010, the account had 3,203 friends. Checked again on April 28, the account had 4,154. On May 9, the account had 4,401 friends and on May 10, it had 4,494 friends. While the total new friends for their account was fewer than other clubs such as the Brisbane Lions over the same period (Table 3), the team had the largest percentage increase in: 28.7% versus 13.5% for the next closest team, the North Queensland Cowboys. The controversy did not cost the team any friends and resulted in a higher percentage gain when compared to other teams. It has resulted in a net momentum gain that continues almost three weeks after the controversy first broke out.

Table 3
Facebook Fan Counts by Club and Date
Official Facebook account
6-Apr-10

10-May-10

Difference

% increase
Melbourne Storm
3,203

4,494

1,291

28.7%
North Queensland Cowboys
2,428

2,806

378

13.5%
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
14,895

17,044

2,149

12.6%
Wests Tigers
14,078

15,911

1,833

11.5%
Gold Coast Titans
18,032

20,204

2,172

10.8%
Sydney Roosters
12,204

13,570

1,366

10.1%
Newcastle Knights
12,766

13,774

1,008

7.3%
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
9,502

10,229

727

7.1%
Canberra Raiders
2,583

2,775

192

6.9%
Brisbane Lions
45,327

48,228

2,901

6.0%


Facebook Fan Pages are created by teams and by fans. The person who created the Fan Page can post to the wall, control else who can post to the wall, control the type of content posted to the Fan Page and create a unique landing page. Members of a Fan Page can comment on wall posts and indicate they like the post. There are many Melbourne Storm fans that have created Fan Pages and many more have joined, commented and liked posts made to these Fan Pages. A quick search on Facebook for Fan Pages dedicated to the team using the keywords “Melbourne Storm” results in over 500 pages about the team. By looking at a sample of the individual Fan Pages to check the daily posting volume of wall posts and the number of likes and comments to those posts, an idea of how the controversy effected fan interests can be determined.

For this, three Fan Pages were chosen. These were the top three Fan Pages in search that were not created in response to the controversy. They are Melbourne Storm, Best team in NRL.. Melbourne Storm ! and melbourne storm :) . The total posts per day by the person who runs the Fan Page, and comments and likes per post associated with the post for the day were recorded for the period between April 1 and May 10, 2010. (Table 4) When comparing the total posts in the period between April 1 and April 22, 2010 to the period between April 23 to May 10, two of the three Fan Pages had more posts made by the maintainers before the controversy. (Graph 1) Two of the three groups saw an increase in the total comments made after the controversy. For Melbourne Storm, a Fan Page with over 40,000 members, the increase was massive going from 54 comments to 803 comments. The increase for Best team in NRL.. Melbourne Storm !, a group with 281 members as of May 10, was much smaller. It went from 252 to 257 comments. For all three groups, there was an increase in the number of likes after the controversy took place. While posting levels by Fan Page maintainers may not have increased, the level of engagement and interest in the team for the fan population did. The controversy has created a climate where fans are more engaged with posts.




Mailing lists

During much of the 1990s, mailing lists were one of the most popular tools for fans to use in order to communicate with each other. The creation of mailing lists became much easier when sites like egroups, coollists, topica, Yahoo!Groups and Google groups were created. They largely automated the process of creating mailing lists, provided web based archives and removed barriers of having to understand majordomo syntax in order to join a list.

Australian sports fans actively used these services to participate in their team’s fandom. Some leagues and teams were more popular than other leagues and teams. Amongst the fan communities utilizing mailing lists were Melbourne Storm fans. Most of the lists dedicated to team were on Yahoo!Groups, where there are currently eight lists. These eight lists include melbournestorm2, melbournestormrugbyleague, melbournestormsupportersclub, Storm_Squad, StormSupporters, MSSC-Storm-Mailouts and melbourne_storm_supporters. Many of these lists are no longer active. There are a variety of reasons for this including absent list owners, large volumes of spam content posted on list, people switching to different services in order to express their fondness for the team or fans losing interest in a team. If spam content is not counted in total posting volume by month, the peak posting month was February 2001 with 59 total posts across all eight lists. January 2001 had the next highest posting volume by month with 50 posts. Given the always small and inactive community, it is not surprising that there have been zero posts on these lists since the controversy broke out. These lists have also seen zero growth in membership since their totals were last checked on February 20, 2010. The controversy had no effect on the Storm’s mailing list community.


43things

According to Robot Co-op (2010), 43things “is the world’s largest goal-setting community.” Members of the site set goals for themselves that are published on their profiles and on lists of others who share the same goal. Members are also encouraged to blog about their efforts in trying to complete their goals. Other members are encouraged to cheer people on as they work to complete a goal. When a goal has been completed, people change the goal status to “I did this” and it appears as completed on their profile. This site is relatively popular; according to Alexa Internet, Inc. (2010), the site is ranked the 2,549th most popular website in Australia.

There are a number of people who have set Australia related sports goals on 43thing. This includes playing for certain clubs to attending the finals to seeing the team they barrack for play. On April 1, 2010, the site was searched for any goals that connected to the Melbourne Storm. Only one goal related to the Melbourne Storm was found. It is “Go to a Melbourne Storm Game.” Two people, erynne and mmcpharlane, had listed this as a goal they were working towards completing. When checked again on May 10, no one had added any additional goals related to the Melbourne Storm. No movement had been made towards completing the existing goal: Both individuals still listed themselves as working towards it and neither had updated their blog to indicate they were any closer to accomplishing this goal. The controversy has not had any measurable impact on people’s goal setting and efforts towards accomplishing their goals as they pertain to the Melbourne Storm.


Conclusion

The controversy involving the Melbourne Storm’s salary cap violations and the subsequent punishment of rewarding them zero points for the season has not resulted in a loss of people interested in the team or resulted in a drop in activity level on the part of fans. Across smaller and less popular services and web sites, there has been no behavior change; the controversy has had a null effect in that no one removed content or interests, nor created content and added interests. For larger sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia, there has been a gain in followers, viewers and interactions. Eighteen days out from the initial incident, a long tail increase in views and interactions exists when compared to the period prior to the controversy. While some of the initial burst of activity and interest could be a consequence of negativity publicity, the long tail interest two to three weeks out is much harder to attribute to solely to wanting to watch a controversy for the sake of entertainment. If interest continue to stay elevated, the club should be able to leverage to increase club membership and sponsorship deals, especially as they apply to their online presence, because they have successfully used the controversy to grow their fanbase. The behaviors of fans demonstrate that have been incentized to express their loyalty and solidarity with the team.

References

Albanesius, C. (2010, April 19). Facebook makes ‘connections,’ adds community pages. PC Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362825,00.asp

Alexa Internet, Inc. (2010, May 10). 43things.com – site info from alexa. Retrieved from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/43things.com

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 1). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 49377 times in 201004 . Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/en/201004/Melbourne_Storm

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 1). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 276 times in 201004. Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/fr/201004/Melbourne_Storm

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 1). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 276 times in 201004. Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/it/201004/Melbourne_Storm

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 9). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 5561 times in 201005. Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/en/201005/Melbourne_Storm

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 9). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 91 times in 201005. Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/fr/201005/Melbourne_Storm

Henrik, Initials. (2010, May 9). Wikipedia article traffic statistics: Melbourne_Storm has been viewed 19 times in 201005. Retrieved from http://stats.grok.se/it/201005/Melbourne_Storm

Melbourne storm stripped of two premierships for salary cap breach. (2010, April 22). Fox Sports, Retrieved from http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,27022196-5018866,00.html

Robot Co-op. (2010, May 10). List your goals on 43 things. Retrieved from http://www.43things.com/

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Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 23 March, 2010

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

I’m trying to make a map of Australian sports fandom across various social networks.  This is going to take a long time and require a long explanation to understand exactly what you’re seeing.  This map isn’t intended to be all comprehensive.  I’m still collecting data and will likely continue to collecting data for a long time.    That’s why a long explanation is needed.

Country League Rugby: Group 21 is represented exclusively by the Facebook group SCONE THOROUGHBREDS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB. Location was identified the location of the school network members listed themselves as belonging to.

For the NWBL, amongst the social networks I’ve checked so far, only You!Tube had people who listed the league.  And that was one person.  There were several people on Facebook who belonged the Wollongong Roller Hawks group and listed a network which I could affiliate with a city.

The AHL is represented by a Facebook group for the Tassie Tigers and three people on bebo. There were no fans on LiveJournal’s clones or blogger.

The AFL includes full data from 43things, bebo, blogger, eacademy, Daniel Jackson – TIGER TUFF!, Law Hawks and No matter how bad they are, I will still barrack for the Richmond Tigers! groups on Facebook, Gaia Online (but no one was an AFL fan who listed a city), LiveJournal and its clones, only Collingwood from MySpace profile search, only Brisbane Lions, Collingwood Magpies and Carlton Blues from orkut, only the scrapheap_afl mailing list on Yahoo!groups, and only the Geelong Cats on YouTube.

For the NRL, the following Facebook groups were included: Matt Johns to coach the Newcastle Knights in 2010! , Wests Tigers NYC and Melbourne-based Wests Tigers Fanatics. Only the Brisbane Broncos were looked at on 43things. Every team was searched for on bebo, blogger, Gaia Online, LiveJournal and its clones. The sample is much smaller than the AFL. (Though the community on bebo is much larger than AFL community on bebo. It might sort of make up for that.)

WNBL totals came from YouTube, MySpace, eacademy, bebo and LiveJournal clones.

For the NBL, only the Brisbane Bullets were looked at on 43 things. On Facebook for the NBL, unlike for most leagues looked at, an attempt was made to find every group connected to the team. Thus, the following groups and fanpages are represented: Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles, Adelaide 36ers, Adelaide 36ers are the greatest team of ANY kind EVER!!, Adelaide 36ers Fan Zone, Bring Allen Iverson to the Adelaide 36ers!, Bring Dusty Rychart back to the Adelaide 36ers ~ beg, plead, grovel ;p, Cairns Taipans , Croc Nation, Early 90′s Perth Wildcats appreciation group, Gold Coast Blaze, Melbourne Tigers, melbourne tigers are the best team, Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club, Melbourne Tigers cheer squeda east and south ends , Melbourne Tigers NBL HUMMER CHAMPIONS 2007/08, Melbourne Tigers NBL supporters, New Zealand Breakers, Official Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats (Catties Fans), SAVE OUR MELBOURNE TIGERS NBL TEAM , THIS SEASON., Save Our South Dragons:www. saveourdragons.com, South Dragons 2008/09 Nbl Champions, South Melbourne Dragons, The Melbourne Tigers Fan Group, The Official Adelaide 36ers Page, Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks. If this was done with other clubs and leagues, the representation for the AFL and NRL would probably be much, much bigger. Every team was looked at on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. It also includes members of melbournetigers on Yahoo!Groups.

For the VFL, only the Geelong Cats and Coburg Tigers were checked. On MySpace, Frankston Dolphins , Sandringham Zebras , Werribee Tigers , Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats were checked. All teams were checked on LiveJournal and its clones, blogger and bebo.

A-League is represented by a search of all teams on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. Orkut was searched for Melbourne Victory fans. It might not show up on the first version of this map because after about seven layers, the mapping software gets slow.

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

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Popularity of Australian sports leagues across various social networks

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 13 March, 2010

I’ve been checking the number of people who list a team as an interest across a number of social networks.  Yesterday, for networks where I had information on 215 teams I have on my list, I added together the number of people who listed a team as an interest in various leagues.  I got the following table.

League Total DW DJ JF IJ Blurty Inksome CrazyLife LiveJournal Blogger Facebook Twitter Gaia Online
AFL 266883 7 3 4 13 7 1 5 613 168 239480 26582 1
AFL Canberra 2 1 1
A-League 73559 90 44 69060 4363 2
ANZ Championship 2200 5 860 1335
Australia Athletics 83 83
Basketball Australia 326 326
Brisbane Netball Association 21 21
Claxton Shield 1615 1580 35
Commonwealth Bank Trophy 3 2 1
First class cricket 34573 1 1 3 29 22400 12140
Gridiron Australia Nationals 66 66
NBL 7899 1 1 1 30 5 4220 3641
Netball Australia 1651 1580 71
Netball New South Wales 22 22
NRL 180242 7 7 2 8 411 78 167585 12138 6
NSW Premier League 316 1 4 311
Plenty Valley Netball Association 20 20
Rugby League/State of Origin 61519 1 1 18 61320 179
Super 14 49838 1 1 1 85 5 37460 12284 1
VFL 208 3 1 204
Victorian Amateur Football Association 1 1
WNBL 38 9 29
Women’s Flat Track Derby Association 760 760

Interesting to see what networks have what populations.  The WNBL is only really an interest on 2 networks while the AFL is present on every network.  These networks all have different population sizes so total numbers is really apple to oranges in some ways.  I then decided to rank the leagues by how popular they were on each network.  The most popular league ranks 1, the next most popular league ranks 2.  If there is a tie, they share the same rank.  The results of that are in the following table:

League Blogger Blurty Crazy
Life
Dreamwidth Dead
Journal
Facebook Gaia Online Inksome Insane
Journal
Journal
Fen
Inksome Live
Journal
Twitter Average
rank
Total people
AFL 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.30 266884
NRL 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 4 1.77 180242
First class cricket 3 2 6 1 1 6 3 3.14 34574
A-League 3 3 2 3 5 3.2 73559
Super 14 4 3 3 3 5 3 4 2 3.37 49838
NBL 4 3 3 3 7 5 6 4.42 7899
Rugby League/State of Origin 3 4 2 7 11 5.4 61519
NSW Premier League 3 10 9 7.33 316
AFL Canberra 2 13 7.5 2
Basketball Australia 8 8 326
ANZ Championship 10 9 7 8.66 2200
Commonwealth Bank Trophy 6 12 9 3
VFL 6 11 10 9 208
Netball Australia 8 13 10.5 1651
Women’s Flat Track Derby Association 11 11 760
WNBL 8 16 12 38
Claxton Shield 9 15 12 1615
Australia Athletics 12 12 83
Victorian Amateur Football Association 13 13 1
Gridiron Australia Nationals 14 14 66
Netball New South Wales 17 17 22
Brisbane Netball Association 18 18 21
Plenty Valley Netball Association 19 19 20

This table is a bit more interesting.  Across most networks, the AFL is the most popular league.  The NRL is the second most popular league.  First class cricket, compromising state cricket teams, is the third most popular.  The A-League and Super 14 are close behind.  When you get down near the bottom, patterns become interesting.  The WNBL is not as popular as Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.  This is largely a result of the large number of fans on Facebook.  AFL Canberra is also more popular than the VFL.  This is because of the high rank on JournalFen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues lists the attendance by league for six Australian sports leagues in 2009.  I cannot find a better list of attendance data for Australian sports league, especially the minor leagues.  That makes the rest of this analysis a bit problematic but moving forward anyway… This data is then put into the following table:

League Average rank Total people Total attendance 2009 Average attendance 2009
AFL 1.30 266884 6370350 36195
NRL 1.77 180242 3084481 16065
Super 14 3.2 49838 2021376 21504
A-League 3.37 73559 1166966 12966
NBL 3.14 7899 644976 3665
First class cricket 4.42 34574 308590 18153

For total number of people attending during the course of a season, it certainly seems to track with the average league rank on the social networks in this sample.  Total people and total attendance seems to track some too.  I ran the correlation to confirm these observations:

Total attendance 2009 Average attendance 2009
Average rank -0.892632665 -0.511836009
Total people 0.949552518 0.769754845

Total attendance does correlate meaningfully.  Average attendance isn’t as meaningful but the correlation is still relatively strong.  There is a relationship there.

I’ve found that similar relationships exist with American baseball teams.  The issue of course is: Cause and effect.  Does high fan attendance lead to more fans listing their teams as an interest on social media? Or does becoming interested in a team on social media sites lead people to attending games?  It feels like the first but I have no evidence either way.

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WNBL on LiveJournal and bebo

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 11 March, 2010

After I finished with my Yahoo!Groups look at the WNBL, I decided to look at the WNBL on other services.  They included LiveJournal, bebo, orkut, blogger, Facebook, Dreamwidth Studios, InsaneJournal, Crazylife, scribbled, JournalFen, blurty,  and DeadJournal.   Only LiveJournal and bebo had people listing a WNBL team as an interest.  Some of these teams have corporate names and possibly spelling variations.    We tried to use those variations to make sure that everyone who included them as an interest was included.  With the Australian Institute of Sports WNBL team, it is possible that some individuals aren’t interested in the team but rather the Institute itself.  (Which is pretty cool based.) The following table was produced when the search was completed:

WNBL fans on bebo and LiveJournal

Service Team Username Last updated Gender Age Year of Birth City State Country  
bebo Adelaide Lightning Olivia Smith   Female 31   Adelaide South Australia Australia  
LiveJournal Adelaide Lightning t2incorporated 171 weeks ago     1988 Brisbane Queensland Australia  
LiveJournal Adelaide Lightning abster7 265 weeks ago       Adelaide South Australia Australia  
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Rayno Ellis                
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Chris Roper   Male 22   Sydney New South Wales Australia  
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Blair H   Male 21   Bendigo Victoria Australia  
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Sam Pickett   Male 25   Noosa Queensland Australia  
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Lieke Schaap   Female 18          
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Daniel Walker                
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Ben Hall   Male 25   Adelaide South Australia Australia  
bebo Australian Institute of Sport Lauren Jackson   Female 28   Albury New South Wales Australia  
LiveJournal Australian Institute of Sport erg_grrl 183 weeks ago       Los Gatos California United States  
LiveJournal Australian Institute of Sport x_roxysnow82_x 282 weeks ago       Dundee Illinois United States  
bebo Bendigo Spirit Lisa Clark                
bebo Canberra Capitals Lauren Jackson   Female 28   Albury New South Wales Australia  
LiveJournal Canberra Capitals beloved_zara 1 week ago           Australia  
LiveJournal Canberra Capitals amyfoxyfox 2 weeks ago     1990        
LiveJournal Canberra Capitals the_seether_is 130 weeks ago     1984 Brisbane Queensland Australia  
LiveJournal Canberra Capitals kristenvealfan 176 weeks ago     1982 Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia  
bebo Dandenong Jayco Rangers Vanessa Lacey                
bebo Dandenong Jayco Rangers J-E-S-S                
bebo Logan Thunder Loganthunderisda   Male     Logan Victoria Australia  
bebo Logan Thunder Logan Thunder - Mens DLeague   Male            
bebo Logan Thunder Laura Mc Dermott   Female 22   Lismore New South Wales Australia  
bebo Logan Thunder Patty                
bebo Logan Thunder Scotty   Male     Logan Victoria Australia  
bebo Logan Thunder Emmyy                
bebo Logan Thunder Leisa C                
bebo Perth Lynx Tash Nichols   Female 18   Perth Western Australia Australia  
bebo Perth Lynx Liam Dunn Kellock   Male     Perth Western Australia Australia  
bebo Sydney Uni Flames Vlad Alava   Male            
LiveJournal Sydney Uni Flames lelak 8 weeks ago     1975 Sydney New South Wales Australia  
bebo Townsville Fire Rebecca   Female 20   Townsville Queensland Australia  
bebo Townsville Fire Reece Dowleans   Male 21   Townsville Queensland Australia  

The places were then put on a map.  The only hiccup was Noosa, Queensland.  It was skipped.  The United States was also left off because it seemed likely that those fans were not fans of the team, but rather the Institute itself.   The map seems to reinforce the idea from earlier posts that Australian sports teams largely come out of a regional fan base.

WNBL on Bebo and LiveJournal by Australian city
WNBL on Bebo and LiveJournal by Australian city
Overview map

WNBL on Bebo and LiveJournal by Australian city

3
2
1
0
Adelaide Lightning
Australian Institute of Sport
Canberra Capitals
Logan Thunder
Perth Lynx
Sydney Uni Flames
Townsville Fire

Regarding Facebook, I did check them using their advertising data that pulls from people’s interest lists.  There were none.  In fact, no one even listed the WNBL as an interest on Facebook.  There may be a number of Fan pages and groups on Facebook dedicated to these teams but this doesn’t look at them, just like when doing interest based research, I don’t look at LiveJournal or bebo groups.

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LiveJournal: Interest in leagues by location

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 3 March, 2010

I finally finished compiling a list of LiveJournal and clones users who list various teams as an interest. The issues in doing this and other maps have been discussed in earlier posts. Not all cities are picked up by the software, not everyone lists the city they live in are two of the big ones. People can list multiple teams in the same league as interests (and thus be counted twice) or the same team as an interest across multiple clones (again, counted twice).

While teams from many leagues were looked at, not all those teams had people listing them as an interest and where the individual listed their city of residence. The following leagues did though: AFL, AFL Canberra, A-League, ANZ Championship, First class cricket, NBL, NRL, NSW Premier League, Rugby League/State of Origin, Super 14, and Victorian Amateur Football Association. To make the map more readable, some of the least represented leagues were left off the map.

The following map was created using MapPoint:

Australian interest in leagues by city on LiveJournal

Overview map

Play by City

220
15
1
AFL
A-League
NBL
NRL
Super 14

The map clearly shows a geographic preference in New South Wales for the NRL.  Victoria clearly prefers the AFL.  The rest of the country tends to also support the AFL.  The pattern of geographic distribution for fans of these leagues appears to fit patterns I have seen described elsewhere.  It will be interesting to see if these patterns hold for bebo.

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Perth Glory on LiveJournal

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 14 February, 2010

Perth Glory are an A-League team from Western Australia.  The name is also shared with the W-League team, an affiliate team for the professional women’s team.   There are thirteen people who list the team as an interest. Unlike the Adelaide United, there is a bit less localization of the fanbase: Four are not from Western Australia.  (One does not list a country of residence.)  Two are from New South Wales, one is from Victoria and one is from the United States.  There is also a bit less range in ages of fans compared to Adelaide United fans on LiveJournal.  Of the three who list their year of birth, all list 1987.  Despite the lack of range, the average age is still comparable: 1987.3 versus 1987.  The blogger community on Perth Glory is older by about three years than the LiveJournal community at 26.5.

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