Sad to report, but SquashZAG really is down and out. There are a few additional last-minute postings on the site, but I can confirm that the site is truly shutting down. This is another blow to what could and should be a vibrant online community of squash enthusiasts, but for that to happen we really need more sites like SquashZAG. The ZAG was a very good site, and had a lot of offerings that kept people coming back to it daily. But to do that consistently, these sites need support.
I've already kvetched about SquashTalk.com, and I notice today that this site is once again on hiatus, not having posted any news since Aug. 19. But I can sympathize, because that site suffers from the same thing the ZAG suffered from, and that is minimal staffing (which is a nice way to say, only 1 person) and minimal support from squash companies.
I've already kvetched about SquashTalk.com, and I notice today that this site is once again on hiatus, not having posted any news since Aug. 19. But I can sympathize, because that site suffers from the same thing the ZAG suffered from, and that is minimal staffing (which is a nice way to say, only 1 person) and minimal support from squash companies.
There is still SquashSite.co.uk, a very nice site and the squash world's leader, but I would like to see some diversity out there. When the Olympic Committee, filled with money-obsessed nincompoops, analyzes the sport of squash and sees only one decent squash site, what does that say? To them it says, Let's move on, shall we?
I would love to see an English-language site from some foreign squash power, like the Australians, or even the Egyptians, since many of their squash players know English. But the most likely source of another site would likely be the US. Hell, didn't we invent the damn internet? Can't some slightly wealthy (that rules me out, sorry!) squash enthusiast bankroll a site that forces the squash firms to take notice? Or what about Squash Magazine, the minimally updated website for the print publication of the same name? The printed magazine is one of the benefits of membership in US Squash (now nicknamed USQ to the cognoscenti), but knowing what I know about the high cost of printing and distribution, couldn't this publication do more and better by focusing on the web, while ditching the printed publication, or perhaps publishing only an annual for the benefit of USQ members? Dunno, I'm just kvetching, but that smells like an opportunity to me.
"English-language site from some foreign squash power, like the Australians"
ReplyDeleteAre you for real?
You must have mis-read the blog.... I didn't write that Australians don't speak English, just that they are (for me at least) foreign. (I should add though that I have some experience listening to Aussie English, and I'll be damned if I can understand what the heck a lot of it means.)
ReplyDelete'I would love to see an English-language site from some foreign squash power'
ReplyDelete....have a look at
www.squashball.co.za
There's stuff happening there that no-one else is doing!!!! And it's being done by South Africans.
Did you have a knock on your head, slipped into a coma for a decade and just woke up?
ReplyDeleteJames was talking about the Aussie's ability to speak English. He was alluding to the fact that the Aussies have long lost their standing as a squash power.
Also, anyone who loves squash would know that PSA is doings its best for squash, even though making that ruling against PST is an unpopular decision. If you can't even see PST's devious ways of manipulating the issues, how can you even see the blistering pace of a squash ball in Court.