₦airaland Forum

Drupal is prefered by most geeks

mambe,

I am not a geek, neither am I a nerd, or whatever variation you want to come up with. I am just little old my2cents who seeks to maximize profit with little effort. So I guess I won't be using drupal any time soon

smith,

I think it is kind of hard to notice the clean layout with a giant brown curtain over it. When I first saw the site, all I could see was big, brown, curtain. It was only after I visited again that I saw what was beneath the curtain

Unless I am missing something, I don't see anything but a website which I wouldn't call a software demo.

1) What's ur URL?
2) What kind of bandwidth do you have associated with your account?
3) What other scripts do you have on your site?
4) Where do you browse from (home or cybercafe)?

I have a google search bar on www.akwaibomnewsonline.com and I have never noticed a lag. People in Nigeria who view the site don't seem to have any problems with it either. NL also uses google search bar and it has never been slow for me.

URL please.

lol,

cactus u r being very political with your last post. Look at the last part of the first paragraph of what you quoted above and tell me where I said you didn't call a spade a spade. Also, as for "the weaker sex" you know where I was going with that. Sure, there is equality of the sexes now but I am pretty sure if u r approaching a door and there is a lady behind you, you step aside, open the door and let her through. Or don't you? That's where I was coming from.

If this were a post on looks, I would say okay, harsh but you made your point. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, this is a post on website design. Of course, this goes both ways, so I am not exactly endorsing gamine's response either.

smith,

sure, but it is amongst Nigerians (with a few Africans and other internationals I am sure) at home and the diaspora. Go to Alxexa for example and see where this forum stands among Nigerian sites then see where it stands worldwide.

Again, I only said what I said based on your "Facebook + yahoo + etc" statement above which led me to believe you are gunning for a worldwide audience, not just Nigerians, but I guess I am wrong. Either way, it's a good effort and I salute it. Anything for the advancement of Africa as a whole.

I hope that is not your pic on the page because it looks like one of my chinese friends though she is cuter than the person in the pic, i could have given the person pts but not up to par

Cactus, as much as I like beef I must say especially considering she is of the weaker sex, the above comment was uncalled for. Besides, we need to stick to the issues, otherwise how can we learn? Your comments though frank and truthful could have been said another way. I don't like the design but I have said so without actually saying so.

I always say that there is a way you criticize someone such that they not only do what you said but ten times more. On the other hand, you say the right thing the wrong way and you totally turn off the person.

smith,

I wish nauna luck but I have a concern, if I may: I have noticed that so far, you stress Africa in your posts whereas facebook and myspace are worldwide. With a focus on Africa, isn't that narrowing the field? I ask especially because of you saying its a combo of different existing business models.

Thanks for the info nero, but I knew that

Let me explain where I am coming from (sorry for not doing that earlier):
I am very lazy when it comes to coding. I discovered a long time ago that in coding, I don't have to prove myself to anyone but me. I don't like re-inventing the wheel (if there is a solution out there, I obtain it, study it for my own benefit, understand it, tweak it to fit my needs and deploy it. Why crack my brain when someone else already has? ) and prefer automatic processes (as in fantastico) to doing things manually. To this end, when I code, I don't even have/use a local dev environment. I create a subfolder on my account, do my coding then once done, move that to my root folder. Why? Again, I am very lazy. Why go through the trouble of installing stuff on my box, as simple as it may be, when someone else has already done it for me?

I know, it's weird but so far, I'm not complaining

what i don't like:
"coming soon" sites

what I do like:
the curtains. It has definitely put a spin on the "coming soon" phenom. It's got me hooked. Now, I will most definitely visit everyday in hopes of witnessing the curtains being pulled back

there there children,

make una chill. Otherwise popsie go take koboko deal with una

As people respond, help them to get the products out into the website. And use other methods to get the word out too. People need to use very innovative approaches to selling themselves.

You got that right!

smith,

Such sites exist. I bet you, if you did a search of the programmer/webmaster sections of this forum, you will see at least 5 of such sites that have been submitted for review. You might even be able to find such sites in the Jobs sections too.

The problem (or at least, part of it) lies in the fact that we don't advertise such sites either due to lack of money or disbelief in the benefits of advertising.

saddik,

no offense but seeing you have started the show with 3 fields, I say you are on the right track. Why not list the fields you have in mind and then on our end, we tell you whether or not they make sense?

gamine,

To me, the design is good, but for the print media. For a website, I would be very concerned about page download times with respect to graphics in particular, and screen width real estate.

I say you dump the excess graphics for a grid approach. You can always have a print version of your site for those who may want to download it.

As always, my 2 cents.

u might want to look into the following (and yes, I know "some sections are not yet completed" ):

1) missing images. case in point: http://www.nigerianebusiness.com/newimage/ARROW2A.gif

2) Long response time b/w pages- might have to do with your DB. (Thinking off the top of my head) You might want to check your queries. Also, have you done any load/stress tests?

3) Why implement the state search links as an image map?

4) There seems to be a lot of info squeezed into a tiny space. Case in point: categories under the states image map. Also, I had to squint to read content.

5) Images don't appear to be optimized. Case in point: on http://www.nigerianebusiness.com/showc.asp?cno=040345UYPCS2E664TOW734U26C752YY7, the water cooler size is not the same as what i see when I 'view image': http://www.nigerianebusiness.com/store_images/s040345UYPCS2E664TOW734U26C752YY7/040345UYPCS2E664TOW734U26C752YY7-1.jpg

6) Under browse categories, it might help to tack on the number of items available. That way, I don't hv to actually click on the links only to find out there is nothing there

7) when i conducted a search, I typed "TV" but was told it was, "too short or less than 3 xters". y not let the user determine what is too short? besides, what if I don't know how to spell television? Worse case, take me to a page that offers suggestions as far as what i am searching for. I am thinking Amazon here.

I would move "other categories", "gold suppliers" and (especially) "advertisers" up to the top, preferably in a right column. For the latter, I would want to believe that advertisers would want to pay you to place the ad where people would see it

I hope these help.

Personally, I first of all see software moving from desktops to the web (and becoming more "rich" and interactive in the process). What's the point in waiting a year or more for an upgrade to office 2007 when I can get daily upgrades via a web app (I am thinking www.37signals.com here)? I also see it going mobile. The latter has already begun in some respects. I however don't see it being the only platform. Trust mankind, something else will be invented that will make our kids say, "Dad, you used mobile? Man, that's soooo 2008! "

As far as deprecation, that has also already begun - think of C code written in the 60s when memory was a big deal and think of code now. Having said that, I see software being more english-like (I am thinking Ruby here). Whether this makes "everyone and their uncle's donkey" an app builder is another story.

Finally, as with other human inventions (mechanized agriculture, industrialization, etc), I see software going back to its roots - in the past, US farmers did practice leaving land fallow. Due to industrialization, they started using fertilizers. Now that those same fertilizers have been linked to cancer and pollution of water tables, to mention but a few, many farmers are now talking about returning to, "the old ways". I see software following the same trend. We will do all we can to it but at some point, critical mass will be reached and someone somewhere will say (and make a ton of money off of it too ), "man, something is fundamentally wrong here! we need to get back to the basics".

As always, my 2 cents.

skima,

yep, Joomla is indeed powerful. however, as I tell pple, it has its place. So for example, if you are going to build a site that tops, gets content changed once a month, there is no need to use it. However, if changes are going to be made on a regular basis and at that, by non-technical people, with the right training, Joomla (or whatever CMS tool you want to use) is the best way to go.

Here is an example of what, in my opinion, amounts to CMS abuse:
http://www.cradletrust.com/portal/

Now tell me: How often will this site's content change? Moreover, you can tell the developers did a quasi-job in terms of customization. At the least, I would have expected them to buy a template if they couldn't do one themselves.

prodgal, how/wey u dey?

I am happy to hear this. I might be doing something with Joomla very soon and wanted to jump straight into 1.5 (based on my research, it is pretty cool) as I didn't want to spend the time learning 1.0.x only to abandon it probably immediately thereafter.

Unfortunately, as of last week, my web host (hostmonster), said they wouldn't upgrade to 1.5 until it became stable. Hopefully, with this information, I can hopefully entice hostmonster to upgrade now otherwise, what web host, that supports 1.5, would you recommend?

By the way, don't ignore the 2nd part of the first sentence in paragraph 1 in your response

about the site:
I can't really comment about it because it is still loading

LOL webdezzi,

good one!

niyyie,

Those 3 sites are definitely better than CAF's. In fact, I prefer the joyonline site better. Why (altogether now )? Simplicity.

Tis a pity when 3rd party sites are better than the main site. Oh well. I can go to sleep better tonight knowing I am not alone.

All:

Pardon my ignorance but isnt our coach, Berti Vogts, the same person who many yrs ago said fifa shd limit the number of african countries in world cup as we didnt hv what it took? Who made the deciision to hire him? Irrespective of how far we go in the tournament, don't we have better self-esteem? Any surprise he is "performing" the way he is?

That man is an outright bigot, plain and simple!! Besides, I am of the opinion that it's about time we start growing and hiring home-based Nigerian coaches. Or am I talking this way cos of the ganja I smoked this morning?

Hey guys, it's me again. Since, based on my location, I am at work and can't watch Nigeria/Mali live, I had to come up with something "productive" to while way the time

I decided to visit www.cafonline.com to see how the site has changed in light of our august event. The site took forever to load (I have a T1 connection at work). When the home page managed to load, I saw the link for ghana 2008. Again, it took forever to load. When I finally got there, I saw an introductory video which was cool. Above that video was a link that said, "watch highlights on caf video". I clicked it but for where? It's not even a link. Content is so packed on the page, I found it discouraging to look for the link. Photos were also blurry. I am not a flash guy nor do I claim to be an expert but I would imagine a little flash on the site wouldn't have hurt. From slide shows, to galleries to videos of interviews etc, I think flash would have done a good job.

Granted, as web developers, we aren't really concerned with response times, as it pertains to the server but come on! A little stress/load testing would have come in handy here before the event. Better yet, load balancing wd hv been good. I am sure someone somewhere knew that given the magnitude of the event, it is imperative that the site loads quickly. I mean during the world cup, the fifa site was loading pretty quickly.

So I decided to check who did the site. Bottom of the page said http://www.narsiltechnology.com/ but it was a dead link. Then I decided to do a "whois" and found out the company is based in Tunisia. I looked their site and said, "no wonder caf's site looks like this". Not to stereotype but I know us Nigerians could have done a better job

Anyone else notice anything or am I suffering from after-effects of "gimme d lighter, pass me d ganja"?

I have been on Nairaland pushing 18 months and at this point can confidently say that I can use the programmer/webmaster sections of Nairaland to paint a broad brush with respect to why companies aren't giving IT projects to Nigerians. Of course, though not specified, I will assume these companies are based in Nigeria (because if that is not the case, there is basically no argument here ). A few reasons:

[list]
[li]Most of us don't market ourselves. We code "in the dark" so to speak and hope that someone will discover us[/li]
[li]419 syndrome: how many people do you know who have paid for a service they didn't get or for a service whose delivery wasn't what they asked for?[/li]
[li]Poor customer service: Most business is via word of mouth. Treat A wrong and he will tell B, C, D, etc[/li]
[li]Unfortunately, there is a lot of stereotyping going on. If I do a google search for the Naval Institute of Nigeria for example, and see crap, without digging a bit further, chances are I will never use a Nigerian coder[/li]
[li]Pricing: If I make millions a year and I ask you how much you charge for even a simple website and you tell me N300K, I will probably not use you. Why? because appearance is everything. People with taste spend money. This leads to the next point:[/li]
[li]Presentation: If I ask you to come in for a presentatoin and you come in ill-prepared or ill-dressed, and can't answer even the most basic of questions, why should I hire you?[/li]
[li]From experience, some of us are too much into "do you know who i am? By that I mean, rather than focus on the customer, we want to, in the case of web dev, wow them with our flash capabilities. On a side note, the horse at http://www.unionbankng.com/ has been running around in circles for at least 2 years now. E never tire? [/li]
[li]Man-know-man: enough said here[/li]
[li]Most of us operate as individuals and not as companies: Again, if I own a large company, who do you think I will hire? Okoro the greatest coder in naija who just happens to carry his office in his briefcase or Okon who is an average coder but owns a well-furnished office? In other words, if something goes wrong, is it easier for me to lay in wait for an individual or a company that I can sue (for example) readily? Mind you, I am talking perception and first impressions here folks.[/li]
[li]For multinational companies, chances are that it is cheaper for them, from a tax perspective to go with the guy back at home than with someone in the country they are operating from. Also, could be the case of nationalism. If I am french, why would I pay a Nigerian? Seems fair to me. Before anyone talks crap, I say: In Nigeria, we call it triabalism, so it's the same difference [/li]
[li](In the case of web dev) Portfolio pages that no longer exist: I see it all the time on Nairaland. Someone says, "I am the man for the job, here is my portfolio" and showcases 10 URLs of which only 3 at most are still functional. If a client is like me and clicks links at random and after 3 links all he sees is broken URLs, why would I go with you? Who's to say those sites ever existed in the first place?[/li]
[li]Lack of professionalism: This can show itself in many ways. Here is one: You visit a site, say www.abc.com and on the contact us page, it says, "email us at abc@yahoo.com". Get it? You own a company but can only afford a free yahoo account?[/li]
[/list]

Okay, I am off my soapbox now. And as always, my 2 cents

monk:

u realize your portfolio link says, "localhost" which implies only you can see it right?

Other than that, site looks good and I am sure you will make your customers happy and leave them wanting more. Good luck!!

Jessy,

r u spking spanish or a variation of ? I can barely understand a word you just wrote. Por favor senorita, pero no comprendo

quite interesting webguru,

Please keep up with your joblessness as I am interested in seeing how the site blossoms over time. And I mean that with every sincere bone in my body. No sarcasm intended.

cos of what u said 2 posts earlier (and I quote):

Na dose wit low sef esteem no like to take foto. Me I be real poser.

the internet is powerful, isn't it?

sista-jay, and u don't even have a photo of urself on ur profile page

olowo, it's very true indeed: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/23/whair123.xml

As long as you don't look like the world's hairiest man, you have no reason to say you don't like taking pictures

abhosts, needless to say:

1) Never judge a book by its cover
2) Nothing is what it seems
3) All that glitters is not gold

Need I go on?

Seriously though, granted I have no proof of whether or not they come cheap, a person's portfolio, as impressive as it may be, is no (and shouldn't be a) reflection of their prices.