They manipulate the careers of coaches from their basements, cubicles and breakfast nooks while wearing suits, curlers and khakis.

They boot up to take down rivals using D.S.L., dial-ups and wireless magic as they tap out rage, rumors and revelations.

Do you know No1Fan636 or MyTeamJoe or MustWin10? Masked by the mousepad, they wield fantasy-camp-like powers via the online message board ? a venting place that provides cyberfanatics a chance to toy with the lives of sports figures they loathe and love.

First, the loathing. Over the past three months, Mike Price's strip club escapades as Alabama's coach, the N.C.A.A. basketball pool fiasco involving Washington's Rick Neuheisel and the party-on side of Iowa State's Larry Eustachy all began as tragic flaws that were ratted out on the Internet.

Certainly, the coaches are responsible for their mindless actions, but as the rumors of each misdeed spread unchecked online, as their missteps became uncontainable with the reach of the Internet, they couldn't combat the venom delivered without a name. Neither could university officials.

"The Internet has changed the landscape," said Jeremy Foley, athletic director at the University of Florida, who routinely ignored pleas lodged on FireRonZook.com last year. "You dismiss a lot of it as malicious and ignore it because it could be coming from anyone, like an opponent, but, yes, if something credible comes up, you do have to check it out."

Now, the loving. Over the past three weeks, the Kobe Bryant devotees who have defiantly defended their hero's character against sexual assault charges have turned the accuser's anonymity into a sham and her reputation into a passage fit for a bathroom wall.