₦airaland Forum

It is good to know that many Nigerians are beginning to realize the many advantages of using the internet both for business and personal use.

Owning a website is easy these days, the quality of websites being developed is improving even though there is still a lot of room for improvement.

In the past we saw some PTOs charge as much as N150,000.00 for less than 10 pages static website while asking for up to N15,000.00 to add a picture to a web page.

How time flies, today with a fraction of that you can own a complete CMS (Content Management System) that will allow you to add, edit and remove content anytime you want without having to break the bank.

Many people now own personal websites in the form of blogs without even having to spend a single naira as some service providers offer free blogs to the public, the only problem here is that the content on your blogs is owned by the service provider and not you because the service provider can decide to delete your account at any time, without any warning and you cannot do anything about it. This is why it is important for you to carefully read the Terms and Conditions of Service before clicking the I Agree button when subscribing to anything online.

If however, you choose to register your own domain and setup a web hosting account then you can talk about being in control of what you have on your website.

A major cause for worry in the web development industry today is the web hosting where individuals and companies have embarked on a price war in a bid to attract customers.

Unlike tangible goods where fierce competition will result in forcing the price down, on the internet it is a different ball game as the reliability of servers depend on just more than disk space management and bandwidth available. The number of websites on any given server has a direct relationship to the reliability of the server itself. So a server with just 500 websites will be more reliable than the same server with 50,000 websites.

Unfortunately, many will choose the cheapest options around and one can never tell which is better until you actually pay and experience first hand the performance of your website.

The number of web programmers is increasing which is really good news as these are the people that make things happen on the web. A good web programmer can web enable any business process and believe me this is usually the most difficult part of any dynamic web project.

The job of web designers has been made simple these days thanks to thousands of templates out there. These days one only need to take a look at a good looking template and from there come up with a very nice design of his/her own. Apart from the abuse of Flash, the average web designer in Nigeria is doing ok.

Content is one area where many website owners completely miss the point. A very nice looking website without content the visitor is looking for is pretty useless because people don't just visit your website to praise it but to achieve a task. And remember that people do not have all the time in the world online, just give the average visitor a puzzle to solve on your website and he/she will hit the back button pretty fast.

A good and functional website is easy to setup and manage and should meet the following criteria

1. The web pages must load fast. Websites that take a lot of time to come up don't do well because a lot of people will not even wait until it comes up. 5 to 30 seconds is a good time frame not 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Graphics, audio or video must be properly compressed and added to the web pages in such a way as not to hinder the smooth browsing experience of the visitor.

3. The content on your website must be readable. Color combinations must not be harsh to the eyes. Black text on white background remains the best combination for majority of people.

4. Consistent page layout and logical navigation are very important. Links should be descriptive and not misleading or meaningless. Visitors to your website at all times should be able to tell where exactly they are relative to the other sections of your website. All the pages on your website should have a consistent layout even though major sections may have minor changes (but nothing drastic).

5. Your website must be task focused. Remember that people do not aimlessly browse the internet just to randomly see websites. People visit websites to look for information on products, services, deals, news etc. Information that is useless to the visitor shouldn't be on your website.

So, the best websites out there are websites that allow visitors to complete the tasks they have come to complete in shortest possible time.

And they are bold enough to have the regular bulb that is being phased out in favor of energy saving ones on the homepage.

@debosky,

Please, kindly list the wrong premises one at a time so that we stop going round in circles.

One per line would do.

Scam emails based on location - Nigeria as a country is not notorious.

Scam emails based on nationality - Nigerians are definitely in the minority.

These are the foundations of my positions.

I am certainly not playing politics with this and won't be playing the game of supporting or opposing the West on this one.

Get rid of the mindset and discuss the issues raised based on the merits and demerits lest we derail abeg.

Nigerians do not like being wrong but rather than based their arguments on facts they allow sentiments over rule their sense of reasoning when when they are proven wrong they take offense.

Again, I beg you I need you to enlighten me on the wrong premises based on the article.

NB: By the way the link you sent to me is focusing on Nigeria, I don't know if you expect any objective analysis on that. 419, being the relevant section that deals with Advance Fee Fraud in Nigeria is now being internationalized and you are pointing me to a website that specifically focuses on 419. Na wah ooo.

@bibiking1,

Again the issue is being turned into bashing of the West and unfortunately if this is the only prism through which you see this then you will never understand the simple and unambiguous message.

I agree with you that we are the problem because there are Nigerians that are ever ready to sacrifice Nigerians while absolving the Western world of any wrong doing. I do not have such mindset but you are free to tow that line of reasoning if it pleases you.

If you cannot base your comments on facts then you have no case. This is no supremacy contest between Nigeria and the West so do not waste time there.

@debosky,

I will appreciate it if you based you rebuttals on facts.

The areas I focused my write up on are precise and I will welcome any contrary view on those areas.

The first point in your reply supports the view that statistics favor Nigeria and Nigerians so I don't know how such a premise could be seen as wrong.

Conclusions are usually made based on arguments for or against a position. Statistics are usually depended upon to categorically conclude on certain things especially when other alternatives like subjective and biased analysis are not enough or acceptable.

However, when it comes to the issue of online scam the International Community may have chosen to do a way will all manner of rational reasoning, respect for facts, statistics and reality as far as Nigeria is concerned in the issue of online scams.

Granted, Nigerians (very few people from Nigeria) are involved in online scams just like the citizens of USA, UK, Russia, South Africa, Netherlands, Spain etc.

Anyone that has an email address and takes time to even use it would have come across scam emails regardless of any filtering algorithm email service providers may employ as scammers and spammers are always looking for ways to get their messages across.

Any honest person that wants to comment on the origin of many of these scam emails (from the physical location of the email servers to the nationality of the email originator) will come to terms with one undeniable fact - Nigeria as a country is certainly not a home to these email servers where the scam emails emanate from. A conservative estimate would be less that 2% of the email servers out there.

Nigerians (regardless of their physical locations in the world) do not account for the majority of these scam emails. A conservative estimate would be less than 5% of the scam emails out there being sent by Nigerians.

So, what is the basis for the International Community disparaging Nigeria and Nigerians for crimes that are usually committed by the citizens of other nations?

Apart from the fact that Nigerians are in the minority as regards the number of online scams being sent out on a daily basis Nigeria as a country is perhaps the only country in the world that has dedicated an agency to fight online scam to a standstill (though I have reservations of some of the tactics used).

Even the USA (which by the way accounts for over 50% of these scam emails) is doing nothing in the area of tackling online scams. The best we can get from the US government is in the form of travel advice or general advice to its citizens when dealing with business propositions from Nigerians. Nothing is said or done about its citizens that constantly bombard unsuspecting people with scam emails on a daily basis.

If every single country decides to take a cue from the US then the Nigerian government may as well advice Nigerians to avoid doing business with the Americans due to the high number of scam emails coming from that country.

But kudos to the Nigerian government that set up an agency to tackle online scam, a noble task that other nations would not do, rather they use every single opportunity to blame Nigeria and Nigerians even for crimes being committed by their own people.

Many people have opined that Nigerians travel a lot and as much could easily be found in any part of the globe hence the easy reference to Nigeria. I do not believe that this is enough reason to blame Nigerians for what other people do and the only sensible way to apportion blame here is to rely on facts and statistics and on this issue facts and statistics favor Nigeria and Nigerians.

The EFCC, Ministry of Information and other relevant bodies should as a matter of urgency take steps to correct this erroneous impression being created by the International Community that online scams begins and ends with Nigeria.

Today, even people that have never had any contact with Nigeria or Nigerians talk about Nigeria and its people as if they have dealt with them first hand, thanks to the sustained misinformation about Nigeria all these ways without the Nigerian government doing anything to reverse this ugly trend.

Remember, even lies when told all the time may begin to look like truth especially when nothing is done to challenge the lies.

After all these nations willingly accept looted funds from corrupt Nigerians, use the same funds to develop their nations and turn around to accuse Nigeria of having corrupt leaders. If this is not hypocrisy then I wonder what it is.

That Nigeria is bold enough to accept responsibility of the actions of a few Nigerians and has taken steps to tackle the problem should not be seen a a blank cheque to the world especially the West to pretend that they are innocent of the crimes being perpetrated by their people.

Even if the West does not want to tackle the problems themselves as Nigeria is currently doing they should at least be bold enough to acknowledge the criminal activities of their people

oldie:
What has this got to do with us now?
We are Nigerians!

Helep me ask am abeg, it seems he has run out of ideas

He hates muslims and islam and the hatred has blinded him silly.

Big B1:
@Afam:
You think you know what you're talking about, but you absolutely have no clue.

Have yourself a magnificent Xmas!

Compliments of the season to you.

Big B1:
Afam the Taliban want to be; I've been told many times that your thinking level is very close to MAMAJAMA's; and it has been confirmed after reading your latest post.

My question for you is: How low could you go?
I lost all the respect for you, my man.

@BigB1,

The problem with people like you is that you are always surrounded by sycophants so you hardly know what the reality is at any point in time.

@vigasimple,

I don't know where you got the idea that energy conservation is about managing things and being shortsighted.

A regular 60W bulb today is equal to 6 nos 10W energy saving bulbs and these bulbs are brighter and saves a lot on energy consumption. This is as a result in improvement in technology and not about crayfish bending due to condition.

I communicate with Inyang quite often and the issue of energy conservation is something that must be embraced. You may need to look at his site very well to understand where he also preaches energy conservation.

Why should I be using say 10 x 60W = 600W every hour when I can use 10 x 10W = 100W every hour? And why should I claim that my energy requirement is 600W per hour when in fact 100W can take care of my energy needs?

@BigB1,

Stop ridiculing yourself with your position on IBB and OBJ.

As long as you continue to cover up, deny or question real looting and institutionalization of corruption by IBB any comments you make concerning OBJ belongs to the trash can.

Learn to have some decency abeg.

Big B1:
This is typical Afam in action!
So, because what PDP is currently doing is 100% better than what IBB did as a head of state, IBB shouldn't have said anything?

What a Dumbo mentality.

Typical why Nigeria can not move forward and the main reason why Nigerians are being raped by politicians on a daily basis.
My man, a little thinking will not hurt, trust me!

For someone that believes that IBB needs to be given an opportunity to rule Nigeria again so he can apologize to Nigerians it is easy to see who is not thinking here.

I guess being the son of IBB has so much blinded you silly that you do not even understand what people think of him. It seems that he has created a small world in your family and you assume the world begins and ends in your house.

Get real and talk like a human being.

Why do we keep talking about 50,000MW of electricity when a little energy conservation strategy could reduce this to less than 25,000MW which is easier to generate?

I predict that Nigeria may overtake the US in everything come January 2008.

Now what is the difference between my prediction and the one made by the mumu about Yar'adua? None because they both use the word MAY.

Since the likes of Tunde Bakare and Adeboye of Redeemed Christian Church of God have withdrawn from the business of making false prophecies new comers are getting into the game.

May ko, may ni.

Wonders shall never end. What PDP is doing is 100% better than what IBB as a head of state did so what is he really talking about.

I believe it is not a bad idea to buy the same make and model of cars for our senators. The idea of senators choosing the make and type they like does not seem right.

In this regard the comment may appear unreasonable but in reality makes a lot of sense when compared to what obtained in the past.

Na government job you dey look for abi na wetin?

@Mckren,

It is not the job of the EFCC to hand down sentences or to specify the number of years anyone should serve.

Their job is to investigate and prosecute and they have been doing their own part of the job.

Can someone just ban this guy before his level of kolomentalness gets too high?

I don't worship Satan so excuse my reference to God abeg.

Iyke-D:
And I suppose Ibori has settled you already as your recent posts may be
indicating. . . at least we now understand what "rule of law" means to you.

I cannot believe posts coming from babasin as they are more in support of corruption than they are against them. God help us.

We must thank the US and Israel for showing the world how to respond to terrorist attacks - attack the nation for something done by a handful.

babasin:
exactly. you were paralysed by the analysis. it is faultless.

It is obvious you don't understand the meaning of analysis paralysis.

babasin:
to deal with americans, you need someone that thinks like them:

So, you believe you think like the americans? God have mercy.

Analysis paralysis. Continue.

babasin:
And OBJ already did this if you don't know. The US had an army-base close to Abuja airport for almost 4yrs.

@babasin,

Please, what is an army base?

Media? Forget them. They make more money when they sensationalize issues or heat up the polity with pure fabricated stories.

It is not about how good he is, it is about the allegations against him. Guilty or not?

If I rob Mr A and use the money to grant scholarship to child B does that make me innocent of my robbing Mr A?

@BigB1,

Why must you associate yourself with the bad aspect of the explanation as regards perception when my post was an either/or scenario?

Clear conscience they say ,

@BigB1,

I hope you understand very well that I am not a politician so I will not be playing politics with you on this issue.

My position is clear and based on facts. I cannot remember stating that you are a bad person so don't see why I should look for 2 or 3 reasons to justify your being bad.

For your information I do not hate IBB so you can sell your cheap lie elsewhere.

My positions on the middle east issue are based on facts and respect for truth.

Don't tell stupid lies just to defend anything because I will respond to every single one of them. Stick to the issues on ground or if you so desire spread the net, I am game.

Hi BigB1,

I admit my use of the word sycophant was not precise enough.

Though I still maintain that your position on IBB, OBJ, Ehindero is certainly not based on consistency my comment on sycophant has everything to do with people you deal with as I cannot see A and call it B.

So, in essence the use of the word sycophant has more to do with people that relate with you than you as a person.

My position on your ratings of our leaders as regards corruption is crystal clear.

I hope there are no doubts whatsoever now.

@BigB1,

One thing you don't have control over is one's perception of you. If someone thinks you are good based on what you show you can not blame him just as you can't blame him if he thinks you are bad based on what you show him.

So, live your life as if no one is interested in being a sycophant.

You don't apologize for the sake of it, you apologize when it is absolutely necessary to do so.

Take care.

Can you stop talking about Nigeria's image improving online as this has nothing to do with it.

Put your picture any where you like but please, leave the image of Nigeria out of it.