Can we rank the Counties by their respectve Official Websites

[Elias]

Personally I despise Hoganstand (particularly the messageboard)

I think the majority of GAA web designers are still in the back ages in terms of design, astethic qualities ect.

And to the person who had the gripe about Tyrone's site because the use of flash, and it slowing the speed down - get a decent broadband connection.

[MacDanger]

I haven't had a look at too many of the other county websites but they mustn't be great if Mayo is topping Div 2.

The site looks well on the main page and the club results are usually up to date more or less but the last report from a county game is the League game against Cork. There is no list of honours for the county championship/league and no archived results for either club or county. I'm presuming there's even less on the hurling side of the board!! I don't even think that there's a forum on it.

I have to say the official Kerry site is excellent, you can get results going way back and the official forum was v good.

The unofficial mayo forum is pretty good though, mayofans.com.

[Fionntamhnach]

And to the person who had the gripe about Tyrone's site because the use of flash, and it slowing the speed down - get a decent broadband connection.

You talking to me? I have a ADSL broadband with a speed of around 4Mb!

[never kickt a ball]

The Tyrone one is I think a bit much, all that bloody flash on it takes ages to download and I had to download the latest version to watch it at all.

And to the person who had the gripe about Tyrone's site because the use of flash, and it slowing the speed down - get a decent broadband connection.

You talking to me? I have a ADSL broadband with a speed of around 4Mb!

Think he's talking about catweazle Fionntamhnach but at least you got the opportunity to showboat

[Fionntamhnach]

Forgot about catweazle!

I'm fortunate enough to have such a fast connection, many others are still on dial-up usually because broadband isn't a choice. This still happens in places in the north and is still common in rural areas in the south. By consequence I still think any website based for an Irish audience shouldn't concentrate solely for visitors with broadband connections unless they're aiming for an audience who will almost certainly all have it.

[lynchbhoy]

jeez - you poor impoverished northerners !

[never kickt a ball]

and is still common in rural areas in the south.

You poor impoverished southerners!!!

[Ball Hopper]

So how does the club results circus actually work? 

I had a gripe with one set of inaccurate club results and was told that the results were taken from hoganstand. Where do hoganstand get the data?  If they depend on rte's aertel service, no wonder things are screwed up fairly regularly.

Mind you, several years ago I had the opportunity to attend a Kerry County Board meeting that was trying to get results from lower division games from weeks and months prior.  Once I established a lot of our opponents had no delegate at the meeting, our win ratio improved a lot.  Ended up in third place out of 12 teams, when eighth was correct.  Made no difference for promotion or relegation, but that was the way it worked back then.

[catweazle]

And I was sitting back with my pipe laughing at Elias's criticism of poor Fionntamhnach. No broadband connection out here Elias, one needs to be slap bang in the city to get it. Flash at this stage is a no no in my opinion, search engines will not index it, takes a while to download for the guys without broadband (me) and the older machines have to go and download a flash player.

I dont think the average GAA supporter is concerned at their county board web site having lightning flashing around their stadium and the like, just a reliable and regular news service, up to date fixtures and results and current contact information.

So no while the Tyrone site is visually impressive, leave the flash movies to the boy racer car web sites, cutting edge design companies. No need for it in a GAA county board web site, I can see yer average 50 year old Club man going into check a news story and having to realise you have to click on one of those flashing news stories up in the corner. Even a click here for more might help them

The site is designed for a technology loving GAA supporter, with little consideration for its real target market.

[lynchbhoy]

And I was sitting back with my pipe laughing at Elias's criticism of poor Fionntamhnach. No broadband connection out here Elias, one needs to be slap bang in the city to get it. Flash at this stage is a no no in my opinion, search engines will not index it, takes a while to download for the guys without broadband (me) and the older machines have to go and download a flash player.

I dont think the average GAA supporter is concerned at their county board web site having lightning flashing around their stadium and the like, just a reliable and regular news service, up to date fixtures and results and current contact information.

So no while the Tyrone site is visually impressive, leave the flash movies to the boy racer car web sites, cutting edge design companies. No need for it in a GAA county board web site, I can see yer average 50 year old Club man going into check a news story and having to realise you have to click on one of those flashing news stories up in the corner. Even a click here for more might help them

The site is designed for a technology loving GAA supporter, with little consideration for its real target market.

the web designer/administrator is obv more after awards than the communication of interesting or vital information to the county GAA folk

[never kickt a ball]

Brilliant!!! Feedback from the grassroots. Are you listening county Boards? Hello.... Hello......

[flairgun]

I don't think the average GAA supporter is concerned at their county board web site having lightning flashing around their stadium and the like, just a reliable and regular news service, up to date fixtures and results and current contact information.

So no while the Tyrone site is visually impressive, leave the flash movies to the boy racer car web sites, cutting edge design companies. No need for it in a GAA county board web site, I can see yer average 50 year old Club man going into check a news story and having to realise you have to click on one of those flashing news stories up in the corner. Even a click here for more might help them

The site is designed for a technology loving GAA supporter, with little consideration for its real target market.

This is a common enough mistake made by web designers, I despair sometimes when I'm looking for info out on the web and come across one of these sites with the fancy flash intro page and bits moving around all over the shop.
It's a substance versus style issue. There's enough tools out there now to make putting a decent enough looking website together relatively easy. The issue is gathering content for the most part.
In my opinion any county PRO who hasn't taken charge of their website isn't doing their job properly and should be taken to task for it. A once a week update isn't too much to ask for surely? They should have stuff like fixture lists and results in some format anyway, getting them online should be a simple step with a proper system in place.

[Maroon Heaven]

Lets rank them in divisions. Anything with old news on it cannot be division 1.

A county with a good website and e-communication structure surely shows progressing with the times and a modern approach to the way they go about their business. I know with my own club we send out emails on a weekly basic in relation to training, while we have an intra-net for talking to one another.

I bring this up as I raised it with my own County Board and PRO, who does a good job in relation to print media, about 4 years ago and even offered to contribute financially, yet nothing has been done about it.

The Westmeath site is http://westmeath.gaa.ie/frame.htm and I would give it 1.

3 years on nearly from when I first posted this thread and Westmeath GAA still have no website for the County. I did rank the website above with a 1 for effort. I wish to withdraw that 1 point now as they have gone backwards

[screenexile]

Lets rank them in divisions. Anything with old news on it cannot be division 1.

A county with a good website and e-communication structure surely shows progressing with the times and a modern approach to the way they go about their business. I know with my own club we send out emails on a weekly basic in relation to training, while we have an intra-net for talking to one another.

I bring this up as I raised it with my own County Board and PRO, who does a good job in relation to print media, about 4 years ago and even offered to contribute financially, yet nothing has been done about it.

The Westmeath site is http://westmeath.gaa.ie/frame.htm and I would give it 1.

3 years on nearly from when I first posted this thread and Westmeath GAA still have no website for the County. I did rank the website above with a 1 for effort. I wish to withdraw that 1 point now as they have gone backwards

You're being a bit harsh there aren't you??

http://www.westmeathgaa.ie/

[Maroon Heaven]

Lets rank them in divisions. Anything with old news on it cannot be division 1.

A county with a good website and e-communication structure surely shows progressing with the times and a modern approach to the way they go about their business. I know with my own club we send out emails on a weekly basic in relation to training, while we have an intra-net for talking to one another.

I bring this up as I raised it with my own County Board and PRO, who does a good job in relation to print media, about 4 years ago and even offered to contribute financially, yet nothing has been done about it.

The Westmeath site is http://westmeath.gaa.ie/frame.htm and I would give it 1.

3 years on nearly from when I first posted this thread and Westmeath GAA still have no website for the County. I did rank the website above with a 1 for effort. I wish to withdraw that 1 point now as they have gone backwards

You're being a bit harsh there aren't you??

http://www.westmeathgaa.ie/

Bloody Hell.....

How have I missed this.....

You can give me a boot up the hole.