Brian Leggett started what is now redbirdfan.com in 1995. The Normal resident and longtime supporter of Illinois State thought it would be a good idea to launch a Web site where ISU fans could discuss the fortunes of Redbird athletics.

Exactly how good of an idea that was would be debated by those who work within the ISU athletic department.

What possibly could be the down side of a cyberspace gathering place for your fans?

Well, the conflict begins when a school's supporters aren't so supportive.

"The conversational tone depends a lot on how things are going," Leggett said. "This year the (basketball) conversation was pretty good. The previous few years (with Porter Moser as basketball coach), there was a lot of anger and bitterness over how things were going. That's to be expected."

ISU basketball coach Tim Jankovich said his daily routine - or any routine - does not include a visit to any message board or chat room.

"I barely know what they are. I hear about them, but I wouldn't know how to get on them," said Jankovich. "What I hear is they are very anonymous. I think everybody giving a public opinion should be accountable."

Message boards generally do not require that those who post give their real name. Nicknames or screen names are used. On redbirdfan.com, Leggett is "birdfan."

Jankovich recommends his players refrain from any form of media, including message boards.

"If it's real positive, the effect might make you feel satisfied or complacent. If it's negative, the effect might make you frustrated," he said. "To me, neither are positive for our players. It's healthier for them to ignore all that and try to stay focused on the things they can control."

A Bloomington High School graduate and ISU basketball player Brandon Holtz is no stranger to message board speculation.

"People are always saying 'check this out on the message board.' But we all pretty much stay away from it," said Holtz. "It's all just a bunch of talk anyway. It's just other people's opinions. Being on the team, we all know what's going on anyway. So it's not something we're really interested in."

ISU football coach Denver Johnson was a popular redbirdfan target last fall as the Redbirds finished a disappointing 4-7.

"There were probably good intentions when all this started. But good intentions are almost always hijacked by those with malice," Johnson said. "That's kind of where it's gone. It's just space age gossip and gossip has never been fruitful. It's always been hurtful both to those who gossip and those they gossip about."

Leggett, who has 849 registered members on his site, believes scrutiny and criticism are part of the job for college coaches.

"I know the coaches don't like it. But criticism happens. There's not much you can do about it," said Leggett, who works in the technical department at Growmark. "We're all armchair coaches. People just want to express their feelings. If they weren't expressing them on redbirdfan, they would be somewhere else expressing them.

"People love to get their two cents in. This is just another way to get their two cents in."

Leggett rarely polices the discussion on redbirdfan, but he will delete any posts with "R-rated or X-rated conversation. And I don't want them delving into people's personal lives. Other than that, I sit back and let the conversation happen. I disallow very little stuff. People can be pretty rough, but you can't stop that."

Johnson said he can handle the online critiques, but bristles at the anonymity of the attacks.

"I almost wear it as a badge of honor," he said. "I don't know if I could express to you how little I think of people who would do that. I'm not going to let those people ruin my day.

"But I read about friends and other coaches here and other places I've been and I hurt for them and I hurt for their families. I just don't think it's good. When you enable the worst in people to come out without rebuff or reproach, it usually does. At the same time, I appreciate that we have people who care. I guess it cuts both ways."

The Internet place to chat for University of Illinois fans is illiniboard.com. Site operator John Brumbaugh has a similar philosophy to that of Leggett.

"The goal is to allow for an open discourse between the Illini fans and fans of other teams visiting the message board," said Brumbaugh. "As far as drawing a line at where the negativity is allowed toward players and coaches, there is no hard, solid, hand-drawn line.

"Basically, if you can make your point in full, coherent sentences, and sometimes those aren't even required, and your point can spark conversation between the visitors on the site, it is a post that is welcomed on the illiniboard, no matter the positivity or negativity of the point being made."

Illini basketball coach Bruce Weber is well aware of the interest in message boards.

"We have a very passionate fan base, and I know that they are active on a lot of the sites that cover Illinois basketball," Weber said. "I tell our players not to pay attention to them. But we do have people that monitor those sites. And the reason we do is because there is a lot of misinformation out there.

"So when wild rumors and other misinformation show up on those sites, we are reacting to that and trying to get the correct information out. The good thing is it shows there's a lot of interest in our program. I'd rather have fans that maybe care too much than fans that don't care."

Neither Leggett nor Brumbaugh have received direct feedback from their university or its athletes.

"They are welcome to provide me feedback. My e-mail address is on the bottom of every page on the site," said Brumbaugh. "But I don't get many e-mails or comments from people that don't post on the message board."

"I don't actually catch heat, but I catch negative energy from some of the people at ISU," Leggett said. "You get the inference, but I've never heard anything bad about it directly."

The message board phenomenon is not limited to Division I.

D3sports.com is a portal to separate sites that provide information and chat rooms on Division III basketball, football, baseball and soccer.

Illinois Wesleyan basketball fans are a large part of making CCIW Chat on d3hoops.com among the site's two most popular boards.

"The tone is generally very positive. Fans come to discuss CCIW basketball-related topics and, most of the time, show a lot of respect towards each other," said Wesleyan fan Bob Quillman, who posts as Titan Q but his identity is commonly known. "Most of the contributors end up meeting at games, and I think that face-to-face real life interaction leads to a better level of discussion than a lot of Internet message boards.

"During the season, when things heat up, things can get a little chippy on there on occasion. But I'd say that overall it's a very positive forum."

Quillman began a Web site in 1998 devoted to IWU basketball. His iwuhoops.com averaged 1,752 hits per day from Dec. 1 to March 1.

"I have thought about a message board," the 1993 Wesleyan graduate said. "But I think CCIW Chat is a better option. It brings together a lot of people from around the CCIW and Division III. I think that's a good thing."

IWU basketball coach Ron Rose, like many of his colleagues, struggles with the anonymity message boards offer.

"I'm really against anything where you can type up whatever you want without any accountability to the truth," said Rose.

While recruiting is an extremely popular chat room topic, neither coaches nor posters believe such sites influence recruiting.

"For the most part, I don't think comments on CCIW Chat affect recruiting," said Quillman. "I just don't think high school players follow d3hoops.com or the site's message boards."

"I have never had a recruit in the entire time I've been recruiting ever say anything about a message board," Jankovich said. "I guess they don't bother with it, either."