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Content Zone
Fri 27-Jun-2003 21:51
More from this writer..
Chronicles
Dis Great
Cyber
Asssosheeayshun Of Ours
With the first of - we hope - many gatherings of the 'Hurlers On The Web' taking place in Hayes's Hotel, in Thurles, on the eve of the Munster senior hurling final, this is as good a time as any to consider the current state of Dis Great Asssooosheeayshun Of Ours in cyberspace, writes An Fear Rua …
Curiously enough, the GAA's own official web site has always struggled to command the respect and affection of fans. To an extent, this may be just a modern version of the old Irish tendency to be 'agin' anythin' ofeeshal'. Equally, though, the site itself leaves a lot to be desired in terms of user friendliness, design and layout. In the world of official sites, however, great credit is due to Tipperary man, Ed Donnelly, for developing a worthy series of county and provincial council official web sites, backed up by an excellent range of daily e-zine updates. The best place to contact Ed and get on his Lists is probably the official Tipperary GAA web site.
Leaving aside the official ones and the club sites, GAA web sites appear to fall into four main categories: news and information, discussion boards, on-line shops and - increasingly - good quality comment and humour. In the news and information category, An Fear Rua takes his hat off to those indefatigable Kells boys who churn out so many news reports and match reports on Hogan Stand.com. Even to this day, veterans of GAA cyberspace speak nostalgically of the old free and easy style GAA Discussion Board which ran out of bandwidth umpteen times because there were so many postings on it, before finally transferring to a new format that has reduced its appeal. The Dubs have their own popular Discussion Forum, tightly run by veteran moderator, Graham Rush. Clare Hurlers is much more of a discussion board than a web site and has become almost a surrogate home for hurlers from other counties, as well as the Banner folk. Eastwards across the Shannon, Premier View does an excellent job on the content side, with a discussion board that seems to be becoming increasingly popular. As regards the on-line shops, unless things have changed since the last time we looked, the less said about them the soonest mended.
Once, there was just An Fear Rua trying to pioneer a new, more enjoyable and eclectic mix of expert comment, humour, off beat features and plenty of fans' involvement through a discussion board and on-line polls. This month, we are receiving more than a thousand individual visitors a day, and they're coming to us from all over the world. These are visitors, not
visits
, as our tracking software records Visitor IP addresses on only the first time they login for the day.
Now, however, we are glad to say that we have been joined in cyberspace by a number of relatively new sites that offer a compelling brand of comment, humour and fans' involvement. In our view, the best GAA web sites are those that seek to go outside the narrow confines of county, discussion or mere factual reports to offer readers something with more universal appeal. For example, though Sheep Stealers.com was conceived as a site for Roscommon football fans, the sheer professionalism of its presentation, its variety of interesting features, the quality of its writing and its wit - make it essential reading for
all
GAA fans. This site is matched in excellence by Reservoir Dubs, in their case serving the legions of Dub fans. Hill 16 is another good site that serves the Dubs very well.
A recent arrival in GAA cyberspace that must be visited and bookmarked for frequent re-visits is Richard Behal's veritable
tour de force
Gaelic Gazette.com Most sporting web sites evolve as a result of selfish desire. For example, the incredibly successful Football365.com was born of a father and son's frustrations. They wanted - but couldn't find - a resource for the football statistics and up-to-date news they dearly loved, so they put it together themselves. How many other webmasters found themselves in a similar category?
In GAA terms, Richard Behal, certainly did. GaelicGazette.com is the product of similar frustrations for this Tipperary man. Every day, he trawled the Internet searching for GAA news, web site to web site, mailing list to mailing list, message board to message board. What about one web site carrying all the news?
'Hmmm,' he thought. Examining his idea further he asked questions about the standard of GAA writing. He wanted to know more about the GAA writers and their relationship with the GAA. He wanted to celebrate the great GAA writing, but also to criticise the poor. But most of all he wanted to provide a service to people he was sure found themselves similarly frustrated, for them he wanted a little electronic community.
GaelicGazette.com is the result of his efforts.
Although parts of the site may appear that little bit flippant in nature, a brief read of Richard's mission statement in the 'About' section reveals how serious he is about his project. GAA writers are profiled, there's a huge collection of the above average articles (Classic Articles), a centralised resource for all the latest GAA news (The Jist), a History section, a vast GAA Links directory, Chat Room, Forum, a formidable GAA quiz (highest result so far a mere 'B') and then most crucially there's an email newsletter.
Issued each Saturday, the newsletter contains a weekly column from Richard as he reflects on … well whatever he feels like, a digest of the GAA news, predictions for the weekend schedule of matches, a summary of updates to his site, and a small celebration of the efforts of other GAA webmasters.
GaelicGazette.com remains one of the most selfless online GAA endeavours, well deserving the compliment of a visit.
Related Topics:
"Tis" like Hurlin" without the Shtick!..."
Sites mentioned in this Chronicle:
Gaelic Gazette
Hurlers On The Web
Official Tipperary GAA web site
Hogan Stand
GAA Discussion Board
Clare Hurlers
Premier View
Sheep Stealers
The Dubs Forum
Reservoir Dubs
Hill 16
Official GAA site
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