Well I'll bashfully admit, that I think this one shows promise:
www.vrifencing.org
But as I'm the webmaster, I'm probably a bit biased.
To try and answer some of your points -
Fencing is a tiny sport. It requires technique and training partners,
so it cannot be learned in isolation, and takes a long time to master.
These tend to keep the numbers small. Small numbers actually doing the sport
equates to less media attention, unless there is suitable spectacle or scandal.
The spectacle is hard, as fencing is too fast to make live viewing by a non-educated
audience exciting (or even comprehensible). Compared to say tennis, where pretty much anyone
watching can have a valid idea on the merits of each point, and can therefore get
more emotionally involved.
The scandal (for want of a better term) is also missing. You don't get the prospects
of horrid injuries ( boxing, car racing, australian rules, ... ), to excite the blood-thirsty. (Hey, even in this modern age, sport is about danger, adrenalin and flight/fight reflexes - even if just vicariously for most sports watchers, so lets not kid ourselves).
The perv factor is also limited, lots of the women are gorgeous, but there is too much protective clothing (beach volleyball anyone?), so that just leaves the attraction of the sport itself.
As for photos / videos - These chew up bandwidth and web storage something chronic. A few kbyte of html text can be downloaded millions of times for the same cost/bandwidth as a couple of Megabyte mpeg, only a few thousand times.
There is also the issue of copyright. Unless you (or your proud parent) are the photographer, it aint yours to publish, and most fencers would rather compete than watch/photograph. Me, I just whip out a camera, after I get knocked out, which unfortunately leaves plenty of fencing still to go, and rely on taking lots and lots of very bad photos, for that one good one.
So, If you don't like the current state of fencing websites, then hey, offer to contribute to or maintain one. In these days of open source content management systems, and gallery software, it can even be done very cheaply, and largely without coding (see "The Guild" subsite of vrifencing.org for an example).
Regards
AJ
Ram Freedman wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Part of the problem with fencing (as I see it) is the fact that many people
> are unaware of its existence.
>
> In our days one big advertising and information media is of course the
> internet.
>
> I surf the internet a lot and search for good fencing sites.
>
> Most of them are very simple or including lots of text and so on - but
> almost non
>
> Were beautiful or eye catching enough to hold down the one that don't know
> nothing
>
> About fencing that reach the site by mistake (or something like that).
>
> So what do you think?
>
> Do you know some good looking fencing sites?
>
> Regards,
>
> Ram
> 
Linear Mode
