An Fear Rua - Gone!!!!!

[turk]

Hi folks,

I read the article in the examiner today. Looking back An Fear Rua did not take off until the clarehurlers.com site ended. CH.com had picked up a lot of contributors with some great banter on it. Someone with a better memory than me might remember dates etc but I think CH.com went from about 98/99 to 2004?? Previous to that I do remember An Fear Rua coming onto the previous incarnations of this site inviting contributors to check out the discussions on An Fear Rua. This often rightly did not go down well. When the numbers picked up on An Fear Rua there were often some great discussions on it and it did have a great set of contributors, some who were here infrequently, some who were not.

Looking back to the start and from reading the article you had an individual willing to devote a lot of time and investment into providing an internet site for GAA fans and you also had an internet community (here) that struggled for a few years to get a permanent home as it was migrating between various free sites. I think if he had been ready to launch prior to Clarehurlers taking off and at a time when this site was struggling to get a home he would have had a massive web presence. As it was he didn't do too badly over the years but it must have been torture in the last few years to try to moderate the site with the amount of lads going on a deliberate windup.

I'm sorry to see An Fear Rua gone and I hope it all works out for the admin.

[waterfordlad]

I was a regular user of anfearrua for over 10 years, mostly reading there but posting as well and it is a pity to see it go but things move on. A few gaa forums have closed recently like upthedeise and kilkennycats. I can understand why the people running the site close them now after seeing Liam Cahill's closure notice.
I googled gaa discussion and this one came up so I decided to register here after lurking for a few days. Hopefully a few more from Anfearrua will come over here to add to the discussion.

[AZOffaly]

As I said above there, it'd be great to see a few AFR lads give an auld injection of new blood to the forum. This forum tips along grand, peaks and troughs, but an influx of good posters to the hurling side especially would be great. More than welcome.

[Main Street]

I don't mind really what happens on the hurling side,
isn't it a good thing to have that discussion forum fenced off?

[Bord na Mona man]

Hi folks,

I read the article in the examiner today. Looking back An Fear Rua did not take off until the clarehurlers.com site ended. CH.com had picked up a lot of contributors with some great banter on it. Someone with a better memory than me might remember dates etc but I think CH.com went from about 98/99 to 2004?? Previous to that I do remember An Fear Rua coming onto the previous incarnations of this site inviting contributors to check out the discussions on An Fear Rua. This often rightly did not go down well. When the numbers picked up on An Fear Rua there were often some great discussions on it and it did have a great set of contributors, some who were here infrequently, some who were not.

Clarehurlers.com started roughly around March or April of 2000.
I also think the domain name was bought for 4 years and it expired in Spring 2004 because it didn't get renewed.

Hence the migration to AFR.com and the main reason for the traffic surge experienced in 2005 by AFR.

I remember well the days when AFR was on here trying to promote his site.
Typically a plug would pan out like this.

Someone asks:
"Does anyone who know who won the Wicklow county final yesterday?"

Reply from AFR:
"I don't know who won the final, but read what AFR has to say about the new Wickla crest in his latest chronicle <Link to article>"

Then a load of lads here would go ape and tell him where to go.
I think fellas like Sid Wallace, Michelin Man, Fred Titmus and First Touch Joe Cooney took the most umbrage to him.

In fairness to him, the site was a labour of love and he put a huge effort into getting off the ground.

[iorras]

Seeing that there was barely electricity in most places never mind the interweb when Mayo last won the All-Ireland, GAA forums are closing down as a preventive measure against the meltdown that will occur if Mayo win with all the revenge posts Mayo folk will be writing in the forums for the millions of slights and jokes they've suffered over the last 60 years both online and offline.

Chalk it down, I have 5 pages of a manifesto going back to when Charlie refused the Monsignor for the runway the first time (I manage to relate that to a slight on Mayo footballers) ready to be unleashed on the world come just after 5 next Sunday.

[bp]

.....ready to take off, so to speak 

[deiseach]

Didn't realise Kilkenny Cats was gone. Now there was a site where every contributor thought that coming from the same county as Henry Shefflin meant that each and every one of them was the joint-greatest hurler ever. Painful stuff

[joe bloggs]

I don't mind really what happens on the hurling side,
isn't it a good thing to have that discussion forum fenced off?

I would feel the same about the bigball game.

[turk]

Hi folks,

I read the article in the examiner today. Looking back An Fear Rua did not take off until the clarehurlers.com site ended. CH.com had picked up a lot of contributors with some great banter on it. Someone with a better memory than me might remember dates etc but I think CH.com went from about 98/99 to 2004?? Previous to that I do remember An Fear Rua coming onto the previous incarnations of this site inviting contributors to check out the discussions on An Fear Rua. This often rightly did not go down well. When the numbers picked up on An Fear Rua there were often some great discussions on it and it did have a great set of contributors, some who were here infrequently, some who were not.

Clarehurlers.com started roughly around March or April of 2000.
I also think the domain name was bought for 4 years and it expired in Spring 2004 because it didn't get renewed.

Hence the migration to AFR.com and the main reason for the traffic surge experienced in 2005 by AFR.

I remember well the days when AFR was on here trying to promote his site.
Typically a plug would pan out like this.

Someone asks:
"Does anyone who know who won the Wicklow county final yesterday?"

Reply from AFR:
"I don't know who won the final, but read what AFR has to say about the new Wickla crest in his latest chronicle <Link to article>"

Then a load of lads here would go ape and tell him where to go.
I think fellas like Sid Wallace, Michelin Man, Fred Titmus and First Touch Joe Cooney took the most umbrage to him.

In fairness to him, the site was a labour of love and he put a huge effort into getting off the ground.

I remember being in a pub in Miltown Malbay in July 2000 and there were two lads who had printed off about 50 pages off Clarehurlers.com. One would read out a few lines and the two of them would fall about the pub laughing - some of it was good stuff!

These days people would just show the other lad on the phone.
What was the admin's name - Matt wasn't it?

[Dag Dog]

Hope this doesn't alter the balance of posters too much but might be of interest to some given ye are on the subject... http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/post-the-sad-news-an-fear-rua-is-gone-207669.html

Maudlin shite.

"Throughout 1998 and 1999 there were large companies and if you had a website going for six months they'd buy it for two or three million quid. That was in the back of my mind but that option went completely because six weeks after I left Intel and set up An Fear Rua, the dot-com collapse happened."

So he set up AFR to make a quick buck!

[Hardy]

That was always well understood, I thought. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but Liam is an entrepreneur, not a philanthropist.

[Dag Dog]

That was always well understood, I thought. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but Liam is an entrepreneur, not a philanthropist.

Ok, sorry. I am newer to the scene and wouldn't know the history behind these forums.
I did get banned by him for no good reason.
It must have been because I had a low net worth!

[Hardy]

No need to apologise! I meant to refer to the more general tendency to view the demise of AFR's discussion board as a social tragedy occasioned by a tireless charity worker reaching the end of his tether.

[deiseach]

Ok, sorry. I am newer to the scene and wouldn't know the history behind these forums.
I did get banned by him for no good reason.
It must have been because I had a low net worth!

Hmm. And who were you on AFR? I don't recall any 'Dag Dog' but I do recall plenty of Home and Away trolls who never seemed to get canned