Soccerpulse.com is one of the most popular football (soccer) related websites on the internet at present. The site has more than 90,000 registered users, and maintains an alexa ranking of 11,130, as of 9 May 2008. The site draws the majority of its traffic from the United States and United Kingdom with 16.2% and 7.1% shares of the total traffic respectively, as of 9 May 2008, but also boasts substantial popularity in a number of countries, especially in Europe but also including countries as varied as Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, being within the top 3,000 visited internet sites in each of the aforementioned countries..

Soccerpulse In The Football Community

Soccerpulse has a long standing relationship with various sectors of the greater footballing community, in recent times it has been gaining in prominence within the media, twice being referenced in traditional print based media in the United Kingdom, showing its influence within the global football internet community, a post by Soccerpulse member BlitzR was published in the February 2008 issue of Four Four Two in an article on fans response to a top 100 players list the magazine had compiled and later in 2008, another post from the forum, this time by member Barca4Life was published on the website of the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Star, this time in reference to a leaked list of English Premier League player's wages.

The site has also played host to representatives of the boot manufacturers Hummel and Nomis in the past, with quality assurance exercises and question and answer sessions being participated in on the forums.

History

Soccerpulse was started in 2002 by student Chris Meisner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, initially intended as a personal site, the site soon became host to a wide variety of posters and content, mainly catering to the English Premier League, the sites' predominately North American user base creating a niche that was yet to be filled online, a place for North Americans to discuss European leagues, in contrast to rival forum BigSoccer's americentric approach.

The site has not been without struggle during its existence and in its history has endured one crash and one hard drive failure, both crippling the forum and the site's growth for many months after they occurred, in May 2004, and November 2007 respectively.

The exponential growth of the site, especially in recent years has led to attempts by competing websites to purchase the website.

Forums and community

The community uses the following hierarchial structure: forum category (e.g. Soccer Europe), forum (e.g. Spanish Soccer), and topic (e.g. Real Madrid vs Barcelona), there are currently 230 forums on the website, ranging from topics such as English Premier League to the Australian A League.

Additionally, forums are organized for general discussions including international tournaments and many non-soccer related areas. The most popular football related forums on Soccerpulse are (in order) Soccer Video, English Soccer and Spanish Soccer, all of which feature numerous sub forums.

Moderation

Soccerpulse currently has 53 moderators and administrators, whose job is to keep the forums clear of spam and to keep arguments from getting out of hand. Moderators are selected from users who have contributed to discussions in a positive manner. Depending on their role, moderators may be responsible for just one team forum, or a region.

A senior level of moderators, called Global Moderators, can punish users who break Soccerpulse's rules and Terms of Service with an escalating series of disciplinary actions, starting with a warning, then followed by a final warning and ultimately outright banning for the good of the community.

References