This study explores the character of an online discussion, with a view to determine whether it tends to be social or democratic. The examined discussion revolves around sports whose discourse normally exhibits no explicitly expressed political aims. The study also attempts to  determine to what extent concepts developed within political theory are applicable to nonpolitical contexts, namely sports. Adapting Schudson’s (1997) model that distinguishes sociable conversation from problem-solving democratic talk, I conducted a content analysis of 3993 postings on the web site hvfantasten.com. This web site is a venue for HV71’s fans, one of the top clubs in the Swedish National Hockey League. Since the sociable talk, according to Schudson, tends to occur between like-minded others, there are reasons to believe that the discussion mostly tends to be a social conversation. The results, however, seem to contradict the assumption. The discussion would not have been feasible without media, with regard to both its range and performance. Ostensibly, it looks spontaneous but in fact it is rather structured due to both an open and hidden, but fully accepted, thematic agenda. Taking part requires knowledge about the norms governing the discussion which can not be said to rest upon egalitarian conditions. The media dependency, the civilized structure, and the fact that it is norm-governed indicate that the discussion first of all tends to be problem-solving democratic, and then sociable. The study shows that concepts from a political context, at least in this case, are applicable to a nonpolitical context. The reason might be that the political goes beyond its traditional reaches.