₦airaland Forum

You can hang shit out to dry, it will still be shit without the smell.

I am soooo disappointed in Eagles fans, we are sooo content with thrashing underdogs claiming there are no under dogs anymore,, it has come to times when we play teams such as congo, sudan, south africa, guinea and actually raise our shoulders high,

I have always known that when the big boys come to the field, we simply simper out of the competition,

Let's face it squarely, Nigerian football is not what it used to be, we should recognize this and stop hoping on individual talents to take our game to the next level.

The plain fact is that since Westerhof/Babangida, the NFA (Formerly No Future Ambition now No Fuc&$ng Future) known as the NFF have spent the past 2 decades with nothing to justify the huge monies spent yearly on funding football at all levels. Jamaica with a quarter of the population of Lagos fares better in Football than Nigeria, why blame the boys or referees or claim that CAF is playing politics, we are soo damned silly if y'd ask me.

Our football sucks mega duty ass. get the NFF organized with the right agenda, the right people and the right leadership, out football will soar.

Man i hate Nigerian football and fans

Get the ebook GoogleHack. or search google for 'googlehacks'

for all those who actually hoped Nigerian would go further than the first group, 10 gbosa for your head, I said it already, we will loser, if our preparations, our performances in recent times and the competence of some of our recycled PE teachers now call ed National coaches is anything to go by, we will always lose, illiterate coaches, illiterate players, illiterate spectators,

AS with all competitions where we (the fans) hope on a bunch of inconsistent coaches and field-play.

It'll pass, since we missed humiliation at the opening stages, we'll face devastating disgrace at the second stage.

We no go eva learn

Mata don finish abi, go back to work

I love Nigerians, I truly and faithfully love Nigerian people especially the way they reason, it is soooo surreal. you all ignore hard facts on ground and ride on sentimentality until the roof comes crashing down, that is when the scales fall off your eyes and you realize all the faults that should have been corrected in the first instance,

na waow!. i duff my hat for my people.

I have said it on these boards for at least 2 competitions, we will always crash out stupidly.

laughing sarcastically

@poster,  saving the Naira is too broad a mission for an economy in a state such as ours to undertake successfully (not that it is not possible at all), it is not possible until some 'key' economic enablers change for the better (not forgetting the external global 'forces' that affect the Naira sooo obviously)

Firstly, i am not a professional economist or analyst, my analysis stem from simply looking at the facts on ground and interpreting it as it turns (i.e what happened next after this event occurred)

1: Foreign Trade  (How much dollar exports are we doing with developed/developing nations compared to imports,  i doubt the balance is fair in any case)
2: Money Supply and Interest Rates utilizing either a progressive (start-finish) Monetary or Fiscal Policies to stimulate the economy to actually produce value that is directly related to the amount of money in circulation (a properly de-regulated economy and a managed inflation rate, but things go tight like in the UK)
3: Forex Reserves: The amount of dollars, pounds, cefas etc that the CBN has and uses to back the Naira (currently $50 billion)
4: Population: While not a readily measurable economic enabler, it's influence on the value of the Naira is undoubtedly strong


Let me Explain further.
In a 'flexible'  exchange rate system (as in what obtained during babangida/obj regime), Forex reserves allow the CBN to purchase Nairas (which is considered a liability for the CBN) This action can stabilise the value of the Naira. unfortunately i do not see other countries buying naira as much as we buy dollars, so this pitch is out of place

Typically  central banks throughout the world buy and sell official international reserves to attempt to influence exchange rates. (hence Forex Market)

The amount of forex reserves can change as CBN implements monetary policy. when CBN implemented a fixed exchange rate policy (abacha/era) it faced a situation where supply and demand pushed the value of the naira lower or higher (an increase in demand for the Naira would tend to push its value higher, and a decrease lower). In a fixed exchange rate regime, these operations occur automatically, with the CBN clearing any excess demand or supply by purchasing or selling the foreign dollars. Mixed exchange rate regimes ('dirty floats', target bands or similar variations) may require the use of forex operations to maintain the targeted exchange rate within the prescribed limits as it obtains today (somewhat) 

An exchange rate target cannot be independent of an inflation target. Since our inflation figures are 'distorted' or unrealistic with the reality on ground, we can assume that cbn is operating a floating exchange rate, and this allows the market to set the exchange rate; therefore there are limits to the type and amount of forex interventions CBN can execute to save our dear naira. Even if the CBN strictly limit forex interventions, it recognizes that forex markets can be volatile and may intervene to counter disruptive short-term movements. (I doubt this crisis is for the short-term, so ditch any hopes of a stronger naira)

In order to maintain the same exchange rate if there is increased demand, the CBN can issue more Nairas and purchase more dollars, which will increase the size of forex reserves. In this case, the Naira's value is being held down; since the domestic money supply is increasing (money is being 'printed'), this may provoke domestic inflation (the value of the Naira falls relative to the value of goods and services).

Since the amount of forex reserves available to defend a weak Naira (since it is in low demand) is limited, a forex crisis or devaluation is the result.

We can thrash it out with different theories, but in the end the solution is not as simplistic as it seems as numerous other factors (domestic demand, production and productivity, imports and exports, relative prices of goods and services, etc) will affect the eventual outcome. As certain impacts (such as inflation) can take many months or even years to become evident, changes in forex reserves and Naira values in the short term may be quite large as different markets react to our distorted economy.

You can forget FDI's and the Private Sector, they actually do more damage to the Naira than good.

So in reply to your question, how can we save the Naira,  the truth is it will take more than ecomonic policies to save the Naira. we have to deal with internal productivity issues, power (electricity, fuel, gas etc), inflation, industry development, man-power development etc.

I ask you, from what you see happening in Nigeria today, do you think the Millenium Development Goals can be achieved within good time without been derailed by our atypical politicians and surreal leadership? 

AS with all competitions where we (the fans) hope on a bunch of inconsistent coaches and field-play.

It'll pass, since we missed humiliation at the opening stages, we'll face devastating disgrace at the second stage.

We no go eva learn

Who has played the the game Ayoo or Draft or chess. there is a situation where your opponent buys or forces your hand (u must play your turn from a particularly disadvantaged position even if it means you will take a loss from that position)

That is what is happening here, the Sharia institution reacts rather than act, when they act they are proactive rather than pre-emptive

What has happened is that the institution blissfully ties culture to religion, culture is always affected by societal change and external influences, religion is not. rather than cure the illness and rid the conditions that such illnesses thrive, they brutally prescribe drugs to temper the symptoms, unfortunately rather than call for a fora where issues such as female rights within the enclosure of a religious institution can be thrashed out and resolved in a mature and reasonable manner, they have sent out the brigade to quell
an embarrassing but real situation.

Now the Sharia institution must play its hand, you cannot just stub the leak in the dam with your finger, you must do something about it or else the hole will crack and the dam will spill like all other Islamic nations where the sharia institution were forced to back-down and revisit the issue of The Woman in an Islamic Culture in Modern times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia Women in Sharia

http://womenagainstshariah..com/ Women Against Sharia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/special/islam/3198285.stm Women and Sharia Law

http://insideislam.wisc.edu/index.php/radio/women-and-sharia Inside Islam:Dialogues and Debates - Women and Sharia


Nigerian Muslim leaders will be forced to play their hand from the rather uncomfortable position of being in the Public Eye (locally and Internationally) any guffaws or resulting plays after this will only strengthen the cause for Women's rights within a Sharia institution rather than lend credibility to their actions.

@FBS

Like a fella said, there are 2 ways to make changes in a country:
1. Either from the top. i.e good and transparent governance
2. A nasty revolution.

'NIGERIA MUST DIE!!!'

We act as if we had little knowledge that things will eventually end up this way, or is it that we did not believe it would happen in our time.

The fact is the global downturn in all ramifications (Energy, International Trade, Currency stability, Employment, Health, Education, Housing etc) is a threat to Nigeria's existence. WHY?

We have long lived as an 'Economy that defied all living and dead laws of Economics' we joked about it and blissfully accepted the 'Happiest People on Earth' Title failing to see the rhetoric in it.

As a matter of policy, we continually engage in poorly conceived (even worse, poorly executed) and dollar-intensive projects that bear little results to boost the economy. We are experts in laissez-faire Fiscal policies, that not only distort the real economy but distorts critical economic indicators in a global eco-system where slight shifts or changes in the economic weather can topple established governments. We all smiled gleefully when MEND activites boosted Oil prices temporarily (I am sure we did not see over the Ghana-must-go bags to notice the global credit crunch)

The real threat to Nigeria are Nigerians themselves, It is too late to come to terms with the reality on ground and adapt without severe casualties

The present and future governments of Nigeria cannot repair the damage early enough to become immune to or manage with the ravages of a global economic phenomenon, (unless we are as dim-witted as Robert Mugabe with his 1Billion Dollar bank note which is not enough to even buy a left slipper.)

The economy is facing real internal/external social and economic imbalances that will ultimately lead to a type of 'uncivil staggered-war'. All across the country, we are beginning to feel the results of decades of ethnic-driven, social-elitists, politically-motivated and corruption-founded legacies that have completely dis-franchised the common citizenry. ask yourself if you are on the same plane of reasoning with your local police (civil security) or your 'resident' military (national security) or your crime-fighting agencies (EFCC, ICPC, Fraud Unit, various, house-of Reps committees) or the SSS or DMI. or your Politicians (PDP, AC, ANPP, UPGA etc) these important civil structures are strongly perceived as THE ENEMY of common democratic dividends.

It is no surprise that millions seek identity through religious icons (Christ Embassy,Sharia leaders, Redeemed, MFM, Guru Maharaji, Rev. Doc. King and so forth) who do their best to shield them from reality and focus on a docility-driven agenda of 'Support Your Leaders, Support Your Country' in the face of grinding poverty, acclaimed corruption and base/immoral behavior peppered on the front pages of newspapers daily clearly, the Private sector makes the same blissful assumption that while it makes up for a healthy percentage of progress in this country, it is doomed to fail like a leaking tubeless tire,it cannot take you as far as the journey lasts. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio"

A new type of revolution has begun, one which has no clear leaders or spokespersons but has a clear purpose and enduring resilience. it shall not be a group of marginalized Igbos nor a band or merry MEND, nor a race of dis-united Yorubas, nor horde of over-zealous fanatics, nor a herd of Military insurgents and definitely not a tribe of bible-carrying preachers and evangelists unleashing holy fire with reckless abandon.

It shall be unannounced and it shall be virulently violent and as it shall be completely heartless.

It shall be as a mother trapped with her child in the face of drugged-up robbers (Nigeria), she will stand-up and fight if not for her life; (The Present) at least for her child (Our Future)

tsk, tsk, tsk,  

We citizens of Nigeria make volatile assumptions that begin to take on solid substance which bears little relation to what is on ground, We make baseless comments and attempt to give it some semblance of civility.

Forgive my approach but it is necessary to clear our minds of any bias or cultural leaning when we attempt to rationalize Fashola's actions with regards to "cleaning-up" Lagos and turning it into a model city.

For every geographical space, there is a visible trend that its economy grows at a healthy pace when skilled and unskilled labor moves in to support growing industries.

The result is that over time there is a boom which follows with an attraction of mostly unskilled labor adding to the already swelling ranks of brick-layers, truck-pushers, mai-guards, miscreants, beggars, houseboys and housegirls, prostitutes, thieves, robbers, okada riders, face-me-i-face-you residents, road and rail-side traders and all other wannabe lorry-traveling, jeans and electronics-selling, cd-pirating and fake-drug selling hustlers from all parts of Nigeria.

What has happened is that the proportion of skilled labor to unskilled labor is probably (most-probably) 1-10 against an internal economy that has a budget, has a security issue, has a housing/transport/health/infrastructural issues to deal with.

The proportion of available jobs to the skilled economy is even less favourable .02 jobs- 10 skilled workers (Are you doubting that as well, unless you want to believe there is employment everywhere in Lagos)

We are living in a Lagos where there are soo many people who cannot afford to live in Lagos but decide to stay anyway, they form slum communities, they do not pay tax in any form, they pose all forms of security issues to tax-paying Lagos, they make sure Lagos is always dirty and ready for all manner of diseases and ills. Yet they do not like it that Roads are repaired for the better, Employment schemes are put up to support near-skilled labor (at least beyond O-level) and Transportation problems are being tackled.

In the end, like all Big Cities that promise the Good Life, you must deserve it to live in it. Do you think Living in New York or London na come chop? there are other areas of Lagos where the thick of the poor can go and live reasonable well, Sagamu, Badagary, Ayobo, Agege, Iseri, Shasha, Ikorodu etc. the point is, they should clear the path for modern progress to sift in and give comfort to us who came to Lagos on the backs of Lorries and made a better life for ourselves. no insult intended.

I can give u a website for free, guaranteed. just send your details such as
About us
Our Services
Our Products
Contacts etc and i will slap it on any one of millions of free site templates out there. for N1,000. better than build one for free. and it looks swell too

Lef matter for rainy day

It sounds like something similar i heard from a guy in a barber shop i was at in surulere.

He kept fidgeting while he had his hair cut. before he was done he got up and turned to me and asked for advise. he said his father in the village couriered land title deeds and his travel documents with a VISA he barely managed to get (at huge costs) from Abuja UK Embassy and that the name of the Courier company is Fedex Local Services International and wanted to know if I had heard of them, more confusing was that he also knows the agent in Lagos who was supposed to have picked up the package, but he needs a witness because the money involved is huge. (supposedly part-payment from land sales)

@migghel sounds like one of them, besides. why does he type his message in CAPITALS. (IMHO, warnings signs that he is a scammer)

Leave this matter for a rainy day

you have not finished yet, give them another N60,000 and your ATM details, they are very good

cos they are only posting the best sites (in their own opinion) that they have built themselves

at least 90% are

in the village of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

The Web-Jurist is doing the right thing, let's just say they have a poor pool of candidates to work with. so while all sites ranked might fail more stringent or simple best practice tests, they will come up tops in a class of dunderheads.

But they sure are whipping up action in the right direction.

@afam

Your idea is necessary as it is important. but you might be running ahead of your shoes here and,
I love it that you are PROACTIVE (taking action in anticipation of a situation) on this, shows commitment and will. but i can suggest that we become PREEMPTIVE (Thinking about what action to take in anticipation of a situation)

1: Epayment is only part of the eBusiness Eco-system which involves payment technologies/platforms, distribution/delivery, Recordkeeps, Regulations (government type) as well as a Legal model that ensures that the same way you resolve cash-payment issues when a purchase goes south is as painless or (painful) as the e-cash one

2: You may be thinking of first doing a Business Case that clearly shows (a) Feasibility (b) Risks/Challenges (c) Benefits/Costs (d) Recommendations (e) Requirements from all stakeholders involved (Developers/Businessmen/Banks/Courier/Customers/Platform Providers/ISPs/Merchants)

3: You will need some switching system in place (sort of like Interswtich) to ensure that people setup as merchants get paid and banks pay out into naijapal account etc

4: You shall need sponsors (Government, Bank, ISP) and a stash of funds to get it rolling

tis bad coding owing to the fact that i know diddly squat about Javascript.
I have placed it in within the head section (the first script to run actually) and guess what? it works

Just paranoia worrying me

@yawa

I would go a step further and say they should be executed publicly, at a shooting range. Start with the legs so they feel the pain they have caused, then slowly work it to the shoulders. If they are still alive after that, then you shoot them in the head.

with our justice system (somewhere between a rock and a hard place) they'll probably ask you to prove if the fraudster would not have become rich if he had not engage in yahoo-yahoo. that it what obtains in Nigeria, besides i can swear that some Rights Group will come into the fray to make the fraudster look like a victim (Nwude AKA Brazilian Billionaire)

Step One - Commit the Fraud --> http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article1055200.ece
Step Two - Get Caught --> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/21/nigerian_fraudsters_jailed/
Step Three - Pretend you are a victim of government harrassment--> http://allafrica.com/stories/200801220417.html

He should be assassinated not just killed

@rickky421

Site like paypal, online stores and auction sites require a certain amount of personal honor.

That is why it won't work even if it is Nigeria-driven. we need a security framework that is designed around our social/economic/technology ecosystem. scammers are still scamming with an ordinary piece of plywood with '2-bedroom Flat' and 'Plot in Ajah' available. you want to know bring all that online with an epayment system, my guy Fear God oohh

@Bossman
Financial Institutions in Nigeria are still coming to grips with 'Old technology' spending billions yearly on indian contractors to deploy (not develop) and maintain a banking software (forget that it is called Enterprise). Even Nigerian institutions that have attempted Etransact and Interswitch, you mean to tell me you have not had horrible experiences with our payment systems. the Banks do not exactly have a unified platform or framework or strategy for ePayment infrastructure. they simply think in terms of Bottomline Risk - Bottomline over a Financial Year. they are not looking long-term unless you can guarantee them value (more money) minus excessive risk (fraud). when Banks say the Invest Billions in Technology, do not mistake that for technology that advances our lot. it is just for their Banking systems.

@yawa

For one, you have a js function right abv ur doctype.

Ahaa, the Mystery function, it is a lifesaver. the menu system is actually in demo mode and if you choose to use on a web server, it pops up this annoying this menu is an evaluation please buy the full version at $XXXX at www.coolestmenus.com.

the function just about cancels out any alerts or function that displays messageboxes, cool huh?

@dhtml

Thanks for pointing that out. there's a menu system that requires the xhtml declaration to get its css/dhtml to work properly. the repetition of code at the top and bottom is just me being paranoid. I have had nail-biting and hair-pulling episodes when some web-server or some client's intranet or Proxy caches my sites (or worse, internet explorer of FF caches) and all my changes never seem to reflect when i want them to.

I learned that most browser rendering engines do it from top-to-bottom and until the page is fully rendered, and displayed, the headers are simply skipped by web-caching proxies. my approach makes sure that when the render at the bottom, they still read my headers and skip caching altogether.ve i

I love it when a page validates, but when it does not perform as i want, i resort to guerrilla tactics, which means it won't validate, but it sure will render.
But if you have any ideas how to resolve the 'caching-pyramid' problem (web-hosts cache-->ISP cache-->Client Intranet cache-->Browser cache) I am more than willing to change

graphic?! naa, , I am just a mashup guy, you'd be surprised how many ideas from various sites are in there.

@yawa
The good thing about having others review your site is it starts to make more sense.
The globe-holding guy stays only on the home page and will disappear so the content space is more visible (it is actually random, just have not created the other banners so it displays 1 image).

Thanks for the suggestions, getting back on it

Long Live VB6

The site is about to go to the client for 'internal review' and lauched this week

please be gentle.

http://www.meristemwealth.com/default.asp

@dhtml

Has something to do with z-index positioning

Fails with Flash Content in front of DHTML/Javascript menus so y'see they sometimes have to be forced behind using 'transparent' techniques

a better suggestion will be to set a law that gives 30yrs imprisonment for online fraud or a fine of N1million regardless of the loss incurred by the victim and a death sentence by hanging if the person is a second time offender.  I hate fraudsters with their expensive phones, cheap and phoney yankee accent, stupid swagger and cool rides.  

That out of the way, the paypal problem is just a symptom of a much larger and more difficult problem called 'Nigeria'
1: We have a credibility problem - owing to the corruption industry, so that brings up a credibility issue since we have taken time to spread our talent for fraud globally
2: We have a Brand problem - rather than look inwards to institute a framework for better business with tighter financial checks and balances, we have opted for a vociferous information minister to shout how many good nigerians exists compared to bad ones (there will be more sinners in hell than the righteous in heaven). You cannot shit in plain view under the sun then run to the shade of a bush to wipe your arse and not expect the shit to be dried-up to you butt-cheeks   We need to look inwards and solve the social problems that cause our technology problems
3: We have a knowledge problem - and what did Japan do after the atom bomb? , they went back to school, abroad!! we sit here with hundreds of scientsts who grow grey-haired and old by the second recommending Nuclear technology when the senate is barely getting to terms with fuel generators that kill hundreds in lagos yearly.

Our satellites willalways crash and our SAT 3 cable break, and our national website go down until we solve our core problems first
1: Food
2: Housing
3: Security

with that you can get better education (read without hunger in your stomach) and be sure that some Secondary-school dropout will not accidently discharge an AK-47 bullet to end your illustrious NYSC year in a giffy

You might want to freeze construction at this point and i hope you have not reached roofing stage because you will most definitely need to knock down , well, everything (including the foundation) take am easy, no vex

1: take care of SEO issues, build it into the page right from the start because this type of business is requires a lot of convincing (to the rich) to move well so you might want to add this into the head section

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<title>Decporis Nigeria Limited » Corporate home page</title>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<META http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="No-Cache">
<META http-equiv="Pragma" content="No-Cache">
<META NAME="Title" CONTENT="Decporis Wealth Corporate Website">
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="your name here -- who knows who is watching">
<META NAME="Publisher" CONTENT="SomeCompany Limited">
<META NAME="Copyright" CONTENT="Decporis Nigeria Limited 2009">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="bathrooms, kitchens, bath tubs, sinks, toilets, tiles, etc">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="">
<META NAME="Abstract" CONTENT="Decporis Nigeria Limited is an established name as an importer and supplier of bathroom, toilet and kitchen Products and accessories. We are engaged in delivering superior quality wide range of bathrooms, toilet and Kitchen products and accessories.">
<META NAME="Page-topic" CONTENT="Decporis Nigeria , Corporate home page">
<META NAME="Revisit" CONTENT="After 5 days">
<META NAME="Language" CONTENT="English">
<META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="INDEX">
<META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="FOLLOW">
<META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="All">
<META NAME="audience" CONTENT="All">
<META NAME="rating" CONTENT="General">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106">

2: Get straight to the point I think IMHO, the purpose of this site is to sell products (niche products i'd say) so design the site to immediately show prospective customers what they should expect from the store. maybe use DHTML and some Jscript to do a slideshow that displays pictures of the products.

some samples rather than the real ones taken by an every-day photographer
https://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/sb10066530i-001.jpg?v=1&c=CFW&k=2&d=F17FEDBB42360E78F94037F67BF7A534C45C2EDA5518D3AB

Make it take up the entire top banner because that is where most people will look at, so that is your best bet at capturing the customer's interest

You might also want to do a gallery for each product, that people can scroll to. also add an icon to display latest price list

here is a similar site for some ideas http://www.heritagebathrooms.com/

3: Split and Relocate the Navigation menu to top and bottom as so.

TOP menu items - Products, Buy Now and Contact us (you might include shipping and delivery because i am sure the owner has personalized services)
BOTTOM menu items Contact us, About and Terms and Conditions

4: Since the text content is not as much, it makes the whitespace look like a desert with one oasis (it looks scanty) a more appealing approach might be to add a background border around the content so you can layout other elements without having soo much whitespace (I use 800X700)

That's all i can say

out-dated as in. if you know how much junk code i would have had to patch to get to this level of coming at a solution as the ones presented here, you will ban me for life.

@joge77

Niggers, just 4 ur info!

is surely in bad taste but no sweat, we all do what we want online.

Let us bookmark the site and come back in say June 30 2009 and review its performance
[list]
[li]Business-wise (did it make money to justify its existence)[/li]
[li]Value-wise (did it do more than what was expected)[/li]
[li]Legacy-wise (did it cause other similar, more advanced, better sites to emerge)[/li]
[/list]

@joge77, just a wild question, you would not happen to have been involved with MACTAYTAK in at some point in your life time would u.

@Dual Core

see why i hate talking to some Nigerian bred proggies, so much crap in yer filthy headz.
lord help u BSc boyz.

harsh but mostly true. cvbanc is a laudable project and is serving the purpose for which it was built, but it is mostly in Nigeria where there is such a concept as designing for the "Nigerian Environment" If you have worked with bespoke Accounting Systems (especially in the Stockbroking Business) you will know that 'Transactions' can be committed, uncommitted, reversed, modified, nullified, frauded, approved and finally posted in last years transaction logs (all outside industry standards and best practices for database design), but hey, the business goes on successfully since it has served its purpose.

Us Naija-bred proggies have come a long way (though the bus-stop is miles away) and yes we code our skills into our project (rather than look at what has advanced over the past 2 years) so the dearth of knowledge definitely shows through. Maybe the one-use only PIN is based on a revenue-generating model not a design consideration (or lack of) but surely if you know how to code a database, you will know at the most basic levels how to handle this sort of challenge.

@joge77

SUCH FUNNY LANGUAGE! AND WITH YOUR SUPPOSEDLY ''VERY HIGH' LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE? SHAME!! WE THANK GOD FOR US ''BSC'' BOYS. IF ONLY YOU KNEW, LOL

You have got yab talent, you might want to consider a career at Wazobia.com (part-time) but seriously, an issue was raised and rather that accept that some truth was put on the table, you have taken the matter in a biased way. so what if the PIN can no longer be retrieved, If MTN or GLO tried that on you everytime you needed to recharge your line, how would you react. I am just saying that the issue of NON-trieable (no yab my english cos no be my language) PINS is a playbook for the archives. things have changed so i am assuming that it is a deliberate design consideration (not a guffaw)

Granted the site is not a fraudulent venture i'd say it somewhat lays a bad (maybe lazy) example of how to code databases.

hmm. looks a tad-bit sensitive subject,

I am assuming that this sort of behaviour (scuttle designer B's efforts at delivering the client's website because designer A lost crediblity or did not do so well) is the norm in these parts.

not a peep from Nairalanders. well I hereby declare that

1: I shall not put obstacles (spiritual, mental and physical) in front of another web design contractor just because my client feels he needs to change or i suck at what i do
2: I shall submit all login details related to the client's project and also assist the new web contractor in explaining whichever hosting platform i have used and should he need to transfer the domain or website, i shall take care to tell him what parts will collapse without the presence of other parts.
3: I shall not lock the domain and make claims on outstanding payments that i have not informed the client of earlier or submitted an invoice for.

That is my submission

@switchmax8

you are the definition of a baldy-haired Hulk Hogan in 2009, (you take a licking and keep on kicking)

It is refreshing to know that some people take unreasonably undiplomatic, slash-you-neck criticism in a mature way.

1: I like the fact that the site is easy on the eyes, Question? have you decided the type of clients you wish to target? most i suspect are of the high-action type who want to see vibrance, color, splash and lights with some level of maturity. the color scheme though tame might not suit your purpose. pick some web-safe colors that show some vibrancy
2: I also like the fact that you have organized your navigation and placed it prominently on the right-side of the screen-estate. i feel there the buttons need to stand out from the background rather than blend in. and there is some cloud effect in there or is it steam
3: While you have used white space b/w content and other structural elements properly (sort of) you have ignored alignment of text and form elements so that they align rightly or leftly as you want it (proper alignment of forms and text make the site look cooler and mature than what you have done)

@switchmax8 like hulk hogan, will will win another wwf title (yet again)

Nairalanders. this has been an issue that has been a thorn in my butt-cheeks for over 6 years now. (with several clients and several fellow-web designers/developers/contractors)

1: I market, propose and win a contract to design a website for a client (a large organization not one man)
2: the former web design contractor also registered and hosted the domain (and is also pals with the IT Oga)
3: former contractor makes life difficult for me by either refusing to give access to control panel or even effect feature changes requested (specifying security related issues) or even worse promises but continues to give half details and mistakes that cost me time and money
4: client (the organization) mounts pressure to accelerate work on site and the former contractor plays mind games with me.
5: contractor ends up suggesting that we submit project for uploads at their office so they can test to make sure it will not crash their servers

Unfortunately for me they have been really large organizations soo politics runs deep and I do not wish to make enemies of people i might meet in the future in this small and hard-to-make-money Lagos


Usually when the work is completed, everyone is happy, i am worn out mentally and physically, lost several other profitable jobs because this one took 4months rather than 1 and i now have a grudge list with some Web Development companies and their staff personally.

Please advise me on what steps to take, what anger-management tips and what relationship management guide i should use with such web design/developer contractors.

if any Nairalander has this habit please stop. it is no ones fault that the client wants to use another designer whether they came in through connection or merit. please do your job in the interest of unity and peace among developers/designers.

Site Review.

You have used a Drupal template to publish your site. there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. but here are a few things you will want to tidy-up before choosing this path.
[list]
[li]Your brand i.e logo and colors must not appear as strangers, they should merge or standout (which-ever suits your taste) with the site's general colors[/li]
[li]Your logo should allow viewers to intuitively know or have an idea what your site is about in the first few seconds (necessary if it plan for high-volume traffic. [/li]
[li] your logo, (though global in concept) clashes with the name Naijameets, you can decide for a text+graphic logo concept like google or facebook or or a simple name like nairaland does.
[/li]
[li]You should plan for a layout that gradually evolves in terms of what categories are available for users to make posts, that way the site looks like a lot going on, you can introduce new categories later. in my experience, sites like yours grow because people find it easier to occupy a spot they can claim as theirs when the terrain does not look so vast. in other words fewer categories makes for a tighter, fuller community[/li]
[li]Navigation is the blind man's guide dog on the web. it must be easy to understand, hmmn (i think i have confused myself). you should have prmary navigation which takes you to what you term as priority areas of your community (categories) [/li]
[li]You should differentiate between user-areas (registration, password, profile) advert areas, information areas and community-related resources (FAQ, Rules, active users etc[/li]
[li]Search is important but usually on a community site like yours, it should be posing in the back-bench, noticeable but not notice-me. you might want to consider using 1 searchbox that can expand to advanced options to search on community areas and the web (google search maybe)[/li]
[li]I think what is missing here is that your plan for content is not complete, yes it is community-driven content you want, but you have to tailor the site to display somethings of interest maybe on the side rather than the sub-navigation boxes[/li]
[/list]

Bottomline, ?

1: Organize your categories in order popularity (start with the most popular, Cheaters , then expand)
2: Organize your navigation, Site Resources, User Resources, Community Resources, Adverts (you can expand as the site grows)
3: Organize your brand, simple but memorable logo, simple colors that identify with Naija (green-white-green is public domain)
4: Organize your colors from page background and page elements

It would help to benchmark your expectations on popular community sites and filch some design ideas from them

Peace

@dexed.

Please do not be disappointed, regardless of the good work you have put in and the conviction to find it necessary to have your site reviewed by your peers (well some are not). It is only natural that reviewers will first look for faults then appraise what works and suggest improvements.

You see when something works (design and function-wise), the faults are not so visible in-fact they are negligible the reverse is the case when it is not.

The site reviewers on nairaland really give best-effort and it can be tiring most times doing so. i also skip reviewing sites that do not catch my eye in the first instance, (why buy Benz S-Class when it looks like a Tico).

What you can do in the future is add a poll so users who do not have the will-power will simply sum their comments in a poll, that should give you an idea of the general direction of thoughts. if you noticed, it had 59 views, so maybe a healthy screenshot of the main page might pique interests of viewers. and maybe a brief description of what the site does (its purpose)

Original link here https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-214507.0.html

No vex, it was not intended