Hello,

I'd like to know what new features you think we can add to the Nairaland Forum that will attract your friends, family, and colleagues and make them want to join the forum and visit more often?

Thanks,
Seun.

I will think about this, and come add my input.

well i too have got to give this one a through thought

nairaland is a forum we all know that, but what makes or justifies the amount of traffic that there is would be the more things we could do on it. I feel nairaland should have extra stuffs like

Hot polls
member of the week
most replied post et all.

a good interface would do the forum a great deal too, stufs like directories, event calenders, blogs . also i think a chatting room would not be a bad idea. ill add more stuffs after i get to see more comments from other people

Timmy, we have an event calendar built into the forum. So what might we use if for?

For other posters, I want you to specifically ask your friends what they would like us to add to the forum that would impress them so much and make them join!

the best thing that can attract people to nairaland is if there is a chat room and a free download just down load from free download site and put it in your site and allso if you can have a tutorial

lolz i hope seun has that much bandwidth.

I guess I could put up a free download section. But what is it that people would want to download, really?

songs. hehe .

Concerning the downloads, I believe Seun just said not too long ago that the server ran out of parking-space .

Any way if you want to download Christian rock, you could call on me to give what I have freely.

i do not know whether my friends could be interested in nairaland because i found it by accident, but i have a few suggestion for increasing the membership of nairaland.

1. negotiate a link with the nigerian embassies world wide
2. negotiate to have a link in every entertainment related website that will accept nairaland link
3. distribute literature

i will send email to all my friends about nairaland. that 's a start.

avatars! this forum needs avatars! this is the only board i know without avatars.

avatars add more color and expresses more about an individual's personality. it's something that'll attract nigerians cos most nigerians like to show off.

i guess seun's response would be a typical programmers response - that the pics would slow down the page-loading but hell.... other forums have it. if a member's connection is slow, he/she should find and alternative.

Good point. I like the avatar one. Nah if the images are cached, and the page is properly optimized, that shouldnt be a problem.

Hum freebies such as free african music, downloads, etc would attract a lot of traffic, that everybody knows. About the space , there is a trick arround it .

Actually, the reason I don't support avatars is that they can be distracting. Yes, at first they seem cool but on the long run distracting avatars and signatures reduce the value of the community. And once I allow avatars I won't be able to remove them again, so I need to be sure that it's the right direction.

Yes, it would be lovely to offer downloads of Nigerian music tracks but, man, how do I purchase the rights to these works? They aren't mine!

Download songs ke? Where do u put publication rights? Its risky o!

I think avatars would make the forum more beautiful. All fora i know use it.
It doesnt cause no distraction.
Its ok this way anyway.

Maybe we need to vote on the use of avatars

I was on this other Nigerian Forum recently and this girl's avatar included a prominent display of her "twins". I can't remember what the discussion was about, but I sure do remember her avatar! Now isn't that what you call distracting? And there's another forum I know where all the men have pictures of hot girls on their avatars, with pictures of their backsides/"twins" on display. It's just not not worth it. In my experience, they are definitely distracting!

Seun never allow avatars pls.

I've been to other fora too which use avatars it's rather too clumsy and distracting.

Once you allow it be sure Nigerians will abuse it.

Personnally I hate avatars, causes low quality of the forum.

avatars - distracting? i don't think so. avatars don't distract - they actually make things more interesting. why don't you start a poll here on nairaland and see for yourself. 85% of forums on the internet can't be wrong.

Seun, i dont' even see you having problems with your strict forum policies. if you don't like the avatar, u can ask the owner to remove it or u could do your thing and remove it yourself.

the forum would have default avatars. the users should not be allowed to upload any pics - they should just provide a link to the picture. this picture should have a maximum size and dimension limit.

There's one exception - www.webmasterworld.com is one of the world's most popular forums. They do not allow signatures, avatars, or even links and yet they are so popular that they have 3 google representatives and one yahoo representative, and activities on the forum are regularly reported on news channels. How about that?

Seun no worries. nairaland is going places.

But don't allow avatars.

Seun:

There's one exception - www.webmasterworld.com is one of the world's most popular forums. They do not allow signatures, avatars, or even links and yet they are so popular that they have 3 google representatives and one yahoo representative, and activities on the forum are regularly reported on news channels. How about that?

that site is for geeks. geeks dont care much about eye candy. normal people do.

An anonymous young scientist posted this extended list of suggestions:

---

LIVE CHATTING
If you can put live chatting in your site like yahoo it will attract people. We Nigerians likes chatting with each other. It will enable all the members interact with [each other] easily and make friends. We can also use it to ask ourselves question concerning we Nigerians.

PUTTING PICTURES IN YOUR SITE
If there are pictures on the site it will make it look more beautiful. Not too much pictures, maybe advert pictures. Take yahoo as an example (go for adverts so that you can make more money).

ELECTIVE POSITION
If you can have 3 or 5 elective position it will be great so that we the members can vote for our leaders (later you can start collecting money for it). You can give these leaders small jobs to do, maybe making them take some decision with you like punishment for offenders (you should think of a way that you and [the elected members] can interact more frequently and easily).

GENERAL NOTICE BOARD
This should be a news board where every body can get the latest news, good news. Let it be that you alone can post news there, news like directing us to a site for what might interest us may be job opportunity like latest news in Nigeria etc.

MARKET PLACE
There should be a marketplace where people can buy and sell in naira. You can also have free download here.

AWARD-GIVING
Do not for get to award some of your members who do good (the result of the award could be increasing their tenure that is when taken money from people to be a member)


FUTURE
In future, you can form groups e.g. technology group, religious group, health group etc which ever way you want it. This group can have their own heads too so that every group they can discourse how to improve Nigeria.


NOTE:
*You should not allow "anyhow" topics anymore!

---

I'm impressed by this young scientist. I'm impressed that he took the time to think and type all of this out. What are your reactions to his suggestions?

Ha! Seun we should not throw away these suggestions.
They are too good to be ignored.

Very good thought oo Seun.
Let's start considering it now one by one.

But let me allow others to react before I start making judgements.

Hmmph, Young scientist did a great Job. I soo do not know what to say. But i am gonna go againts everything that had to do with members and money. There are so many free Nigerian websites. If you start collecting money, hello...Not good.

Se iwo o mo pe obe to dun owo lo pa ni?

Money is the achitect of a good thing.

Seun:

An anonymous young scientist posted this extended list of suggestions:

---

LIVE CHATTING
If you can put live chatting in your site like yahoo it will attract people. We Nigerians likes chatting with each other. It will enable all the members interact with [each other] easily and make friends. We can also use it to ask ourselves question concerning we Nigerians.

PUTTING PICTURES IN YOUR SITE
If there are pictures on the site it will make it look more beautiful. Not too much pictures, maybe advert pictures. Take yahoo as an example (go for adverts so that you can make more money).

ELECTIVE POSITION
If you can have 3 or 5 elective position it will be great so that we the members can vote for our leaders (later you can start collecting money for it). You can give these leaders small jobs to do, maybe making them take some decision with you like punishment for offenders (you should think of a way that you and [the elected members] can interact more frequently and easily).

GENERAL NOTICE BOARD
This should be a news board where every body can get the latest news, good news. Let it be that you alone can post news there, news like directing us to a site for what might interest us may be job opportunity like latest news in Nigeria etc.

MARKET PLACE
There should be a marketplace where people can buy and sell in naira. You can also have free download here.

AWARD-GIVING
Do not for get to award some of your members who do good (the result of the award could be increasing their tenure that is when taken money from people to be a member)


FUTURE
In future, you can form groups e.g. technology group, religious group, health group etc which ever way you want it. This group can have their own heads too so that every group they can discourse how to improve Nigeria.


NOTE:
*You should not allow "anyhow" topics anymore!

---

I'm impressed by this young scientist. I'm impressed that he took the time to think and type all of this out. What are your reactions to his suggestions?

Beautiful contribution, interesting and challenging.
I just wonder how this project is maintained financially and i feel if something is not done urgently to keep it, we might get up from sleep one day and find this dream gone.God forbid.
I appeal to all users of this project to make sacrifices to keep it going.........maybe pay a paltry subscription fee of N20 monthly for those in Nigeria, and $2/£1 for those in US, Europe and others.
This fee entitles each subscriber to his personal website, where he can post his pictures and other personal information, plus an email address.
However those who are not members can have limited access to the site .
Members should also attract adverts for a commission to be mutually agreed with the site administrators.
We should also have a hard core s-x thread restricted to adult membership at a higher subscription fee. The world over it is a money spinner, believe it or not.
Seun keep working hard, more palm oil to your armpit!

I did so let us contribute to this topic meaningfully so as continue enjoying the site unlimited.

But i will add if we continue paying then census will be minimal and subscribers will always have their say and rights.
There will be terms to be agreed upon by both subscribers and the operator(s.)

Well even if there'll be payment, it shouldn't be a must. If you feel like donating, then you should donate, but your name will have donator beside it. And ermm, u might have some features like ability to skin change of nairaland.

Here's my own reaction to these suggestions:

I am not convinced about the idea of live chatting, but we can organize conferences on Yahoo Messenger for special events like special group meetings or e-parties.

I don't mind having colorful local adverts on the forum, but the hassle of dealing with advertisers is just too much for me. Local advertisers typically want you to leave your site to come to their premises and schmooze with them. They like to make numerous calls and negotiate special agreements. All of these things will distract from the actual work of managing the forum, so I currently use an advertising network. Contact me if you're interested in serving Nairaland as an ad broker in exchange for a generous commission.

As for the issue of elective positions I do not agree that a popularity contest (voting) is a good way to choose the most capable people for particular posts.

On the issue of general notice board I thought the front page and the administrator PMs already served this purpose?

On the issue of marketplace, companies like Interswitch still believe that a full-time webmaster like is too unimportant for them to reply my e-mails, so I'm not going to bother myself with anything relating to e-commerce, e-business, e-payment yet. Maybe when Mastercard and Visa start accepting Nigerians webmasters as their merchants? So let that be at the back of our minds!

Award-giving? This will be resumed when Nairaland has more money.

Subgroups? Sure, I support that 110%, but how exactly do we implement this?

Well I was actually thinking that all was said. Its really very easy in terms of supporting nairaland. If you think Nairaland deserves your dollars, just contact Seun and I am sure he would accept your generous contributions. And that can really help with the promotion part.

On the Issue of interswitch vs e-commerce application, there are other ways to do that. If you really do want to explore that.

On the issue of chat, I say Nope. that wouldnt be a good idea. If members really want to chat, let them chat in yahoo msn, aol or even icq. whatever client they feel comfortable with.

It is a good concept to start a membership system, but the implementation requires a lot of work, and that is way too hard and I would say that its not as easy as many of you guys are suggesting. Seun would agree to that.

My advise to Nairaland is to keep with whatever plans it has for now and change accordingly to accomodate any condition whatsoever that might come up in the future. I don't think attracting friends is what is needed now. I think what is needed now is more of the rich, useful contribution by present members.

Well this is my opinion.

I am not convinced about the idea of live chatting, but we can organize conferences on Yahoo Messenger for special events like special group meetings or e-parties.

I think there is a demand for this. On some of the threads, you see the kinds of posts that are more like the kinds of brief messages that you would see in chat rooms. If nothing else, it would mean that these kinds of posts ended up in the chat room, leaving the board with a higher percentage of 'meaty' posts.

Contact me if you're interested in serving Nairaland as an ad broker in exchange for a generous commission.

Good idea.

On the issue of general notice board I thought the front page and the administrator PMs already served this purpose?

I'm also not sure about this point of this. The news, jobs, etc. forums do a good enough job of this already.

Award-giving?  This will be resumed when Nairaland has more money.

Awards don't have to be monetary - you can just create any number of titles and promote/demote people as necessary using your own special criteria.

Subgroups?  Sure, I support that 110%, but how exactly do we implement this?

Don't the specialist forums deal with this already?

I'm looking forward to Nairaland having 5 times it's current daily traffic (unique visitors) in the very near future. I will need your suggestions and beyond advice, your help and I hope the results will be worth the effort!

Nice contributions, everybody. Thanks. Let's have more, more, more!