@Sagamite,

I salute o. These people will argue anything as long as they can side-step the facts.

Eastbay:

You need to ask yourself how Westerhof was able tobuld for 5 years.If I remember,the NFA was also at loggerheads with hi for most of his tenure.And I have never known any nfa board since 1990 that has been efficient in all its dealings.NFA will always be NFA;they will always fail to plan as long as Government thru amos adamu selects the board.
Westerhof was successful because of his ties with Aso Rock.he even boasted on NTA that he could not be sacked,even after we came third in senegal in 92.He recieved  little support from the NFA/Sports Ministry.End of.
I won't argue with anybody who says African Football is not about tactics.
Ask how the northern African sides play their football.If it is not primarily defensive.Watch how Algeria qualified for the World Cup.
If you want to make it about international football,then the argument is getting ridiculous.If you wre a student of footie,you would know that statement is every bit as fallacious and heretical as your whole argument.
Fact:greece won euro 2004 because they were the most tactically disciplined,whether you like it or not.
Fact:Brazil won in 2002 because Scolari was smart enough to employ 3-5-2 in japan.I'm pretty sure you don't know that.3-5-2 was the pattern that fit the kind of players he had.Get that.What is 3-5-2 if i may ask you?I'm pretty sure you don't know what that is.

domenech led France to the world cup final three years ago,but we all remember it was in spite of him,not because of him that France got there in the first place.Everybody in France wants him sacked for incompetence.What about Euro 2008?If he was that good,given the talent he has at his disposal,he would have resigned the moment they failed to progress beyond the group stage Just like Roger Lemmere before him.If he was that good,his team-mates led by thierry Henry would not openly castigate his methods.if he was that good,France has no business in the play-offs from a group wiht Serbia and Austria as the only strong teams.Don't come here and tell me Domenech is anything worth more than toilet paper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/6596600/Raymond-Domenech-internet-hit-TV-marriage-astrologer-and-France-manager.html
i agree that the result is the most important thing at the end of the day;but we have the talent to play well and win.all we need is a coach to harness that talent,but Amodu does not seem to understand that.Case in point:Nigeria vs Mozambique,both legs.In Maputo,we were being slaughtered,but our Amodu sat therewithout an idea of what to do.In Abuja,Taiwo Ogunobi can claim to be the one who secured that win,because Amodu stood there,arms crossed.without an idea of what to do.when I say he is not the man,you need not look any further than that game to know how clueles,how dumbstruck he was in the ace of the challenge of getting a result when it mattered.Factsare not needed for someone who has been so unconvincing against teams we should have beaten easily.
As for the kenya game,don't make a case for him,because in the first half we were run around by a team who had been abandoned by its coach three days earlier;there was no co-ordination.It was clearly a case of will-power from the likes of Osaze,the much-maligned Mikel and Obafemi Martins.
As for Libregts,Berti Vogts,those people should be charged with stealing for claiming to be coaches.

Great stuff. France got to the final of a[b] world cup[/b] beating England and the holders (Brazil) on their way, in spite of their manager but Brazil won a WC because of their manager. I dont even know what do with that one. Im sure the players could have managed themselves just fine. Im sure the French players could have just on their own, decided to play 4-5-1 in that WC even though every body else was against it. Im also sure Alberto Parreira does not have pedigree in football. How else could the toliet paper (Domenech) beat him at a highly tactical match?

Every visitor to Maputo recently has struggled to match the Mambas on their own ground. But as Nigerians, we are supposed to bulldoze our way through, right? Again, do not let the facts get in the way. Nigeria were the only team in the group not to have lost in Maputo, but that's enough regardless of whether Amodu was sitting or standing. We were being slaughtered but we did not cave in. Other teams went there and got slaughtered in much the same way and they caved. All of them with your beloved "foreign" coaches.

So you attribute the win against Mozambique in Abuja to Taiwo Ogunjobi. What did he do, bribe the Mozambiqan players? Tell our players how to pass the ball on the feild? This is the second time Im seeing this argument today. First, someone attributed our qualification to the PTF. Now you say its Ogunjobi, good work.

As for the Kenyan game, Im certain that Amodu did not say a word to the players during the interval for fear of being torn to pieces by the much-maligned Mikel and Obafemi Martins.

Im not basing my arguments on sentiments, Im basing them on the statistics which is as clear as day. Amodu is the best coach Nigeria has had in years. Maybe he is just lucky to be there when everything goes right for the Eagles, but I'd rather have him than some "coach with a pedigree" who'll lead us to the gutter like our last 4/5 "foreign" coaches.

Una don come again with all these weird arguments.

What does it matter there was a PTF or not? You guys will hold on to anything, wont you?

You are actually attributing the success of the national football team to . . . not the players or the people who actually did the real work, but some bunch of attention-seeking egomaniacs whose job  role nobody can really define.

How we can be extolling the value of the PTF beats me. Only in Nigeria can this happen and people see it as a good thing.

To the question of World-renowned technical adviser, how many are there? Why is it so hard for us to appreciate a good thing for once in our existence? Amodu rescued this country from the failings of "world-renowned" Bonfrere Jo. Now, he's rescued us again from the failings of another "world-renowned" foreign TA in Berti Vogts, both times ending up with a golden ticket to the WC. Im sure we all remember 2002 WC.
If we replace Amodu this close to the WC, this one will be worse. How bad could we perform anyway? Could we do any worse than the class of 02'?
This debate is becoming stale. Im still not seeing anything (facts) to support all these calls to sack Amodu.

centrica:

Hello everyone in the house, to me AMODU is not the best man for the AFCON job not even to talk about MUNDIAL cup, because we qualify out of shear luck, or it has been destined for us to qualify, this is a man , that always sat down on the bench no matter the situation or how thence a match is, a good coach should always be passionate, sensitive, to the situation on the pitch, most especially, such a person must be able to read a match, and be a good tactisian. Thus, he lack all this quality as a good coach.Most especially, their are some players he suppose to have do away with them yet he keep on stick to them as if they have paid him to be calling them to play, players like Seyi Olofinjanan, John utaka, Kanu nwako, even Yobo , to me they don't have any bizness with the national team again, but this man still use them often.
We suppose to have a fomidable team, selected from , partly, beijing olympic boys, and partly from under 20 and 17, player like stanley okoro, Rahmon Azeez, Orelesi, and some others, if properly exposed, and well brush up along with few other talented guys like , chinedu obasi, Obinna nsofor, Obafemi martins, , Osaze, Ike uche, and few others can form a very fomidable solid team.
I mean we really need , talented, determined, hungary, and skillfull players, not bunch of average players we have presently in super eagles.
wishing the team best of luck. One love naija.

This is a picturesque example of what I mean when I say Amodu's critics dont have single clue what they are talking about.
Which manager in his right mind will leave out the players you have mentioned when they are performing for their clubsides at the most competitive levels? Which manager in their right mind will bring in an untested Stanley Okoro into the Super Eagles during the world cup qualifiers in which we were on edge for most of it? To the best of my knowledge, the current super Eagles team includes a good number of the U23 team from Beijing, but you cannot see that. You people simply wont let the facts get in the way of your lame arguments. You want to expose players like Stanley Okoro and Ramon Azeez during World Cup qualifiers?
Please, if you cannot make an argument based on facts, then there is no point to your argument. Give us statistics that back up your point of view.

These are the best and most experienced players Nigeria have got, take it or leave it. They may not understand each other fully well on the pitch just yet, but give them time and they will gel. Even without the gelling, they are still yet to lose a competitive match under this manager. So, what the hell is the problem?

Katsumoto:

I understand what you are trying to say but you forget about one thing - talent. Tunisia should not have been dragging qualification with us. If we had a better coach, we would have qualified after 3 matches (exaggeration).

Did Saudi Arabia not expect to win the WC in Korea because they employed Parriera who won the WC with Brazil in 94. Good coach plus good talent = success. Bad coach plus good talent = failure. Good coach plus no talent = failure. It doesn't matter whether Tunisia, Mozambique and Kenya had foreign coaches, the fact is that they do not have the players we are blessed with.

Another example, England under Capello compared with England under McLaren. Imagine what would happen at the WC when we play Brazil, Spain, Holland, Argentina ETC if we are struggling with Tunisia, the Mighty Kenya, and the destructive Mozambique (no disrespect meant).

I beg to differ on the highlighted point. Greece won the Euros with no stand-out player. No "talented" player. I think in all of this, we are missing something. What is the objective? What are our goals at the world cup? We will obviously not play all of Brazil, Argentina, Holland and Spain at the WC.

We could even go to the WC and reach the semis without meeting anyone of those teams. By the way, Amodu's Nigeria will beat Maradona's Argentina on current form but I digress.

You mentioned Capello. Where do you intend to find a Capello-esque manager who will be willing to manage Nigeria? And what do you hope he will achieve in 8 month before the start of the WC?
Nigeria may not win the ANC but its not going to be because of Amodu. Its going to be a combination of:

  - Lack of proper planning by NFF;
  - Better-organised teams ahead of us currently aka CIV, Ghana, Egypt and Cameroun

We will not win the WC due to the same factors mentioned already even if we hired a Wenger/Ferguson combo.

mr.official:

Oboi, no make laugh kill me oooo.


As in bro, even without Amodu, Super-eagles can play superb game, what kills them is that big boy conduct on the peach. And i believe another thing is that, they don't listen to Amodu, or maybe they don't like him. Even if my type 11 were the ones on the peach that day, we wouldn't play the way super-eagles have played. So that's why i support calling for a new coach.

See, the thing is they may not listen to him or like him but whatever he says to get them to (sometimes) put in the effort is sufficient.With that system, they are yet to lose a match. These boy are not kids, they know they cannot afford to mess around when it matter the most. If they need someone to respect, they only need to look at the assistant, Amokachi. Daniel was one of Nigeria's most respected professional footballers in his time and whatever the big-head players think they've accomplished, Daniel Amokachi has been there and done it. He is still a hero with Evertonians to this day and Im sure the likes of Yakubu and Yobo have benefited from his reputation at the club.

The super Eagles need a kick up the backside. But I think this coaching setup works. Whatever was said at half-time in Nairobi was enough to get Mikel playing some imaginative football and enough to get everyone else to sit up. Maybe Amodu did the talking, maybe it was Amokachi. Who knows? It could be Kanu or Enyeama for all I care. What I am sure of is that if you bring a new coach into the setup today, they will need time to adjust to his style, need time to bond with the man and we dont have the luxury of time. If the boys play like drunkards and they win football matches, it is good enough for me. After the world cup, we can start another cycle with a new management team. Before then, we will just fall like a pack of cards.

mr.official:


We had the chance to win Tunisia! Go and re-watch the match.

And whose fault was it that we drew? Amodu's?

I suppose Amodu could have given Taye Taiwo a skateboard to enable him reach the Tunisian attacker on time? The team lost its head. It happens. Even with Man Utd and Arsenal coached by some of the best managers around.

I honestly dont understand all this talk of incompetence when it comes to Amodu. As rightly pointed out, Tunisia had a foreign manager. One with international perdigree at that, having managed portugal to the Euros in 2000, Morroco and South Korea. Kenya had a foreign coach and quite frankly played better football under the "local" coach in the retun leg than they did in the first leg with the foreign coach. Mozambique had a foreign coach and yet we beat all these teams to the sole WC ticket. What is wrong with Nigerians that we cannot appeciate a good thing if it comes wrapped in a black skin?

The qualification ticket owes as much to luck as it does to the detrmination and work of the coaching team. What happened to Tunisia's luck even after they played almost 9 minutes of injury time in Maputo according to the FIFA Live commentary stream on the day?

Let us face facts. Amodu may not be the most decorated person in world football but he has delivered the WC ticket (twice) and we have less than 9 months  to the start of the tournament. We better get our house in order rather than running around looking for a low-level white skinned coach to gift a free pass to the world cup.

@ Original post

Finally, someone willing to think rationally. In our excitment, we quickly forget what this team led by Shuaibu Amodu has accomplished. We quickly forget that Nigeria's most successful foreign coach (Westerhof) had 5 years to build a team even after failing to deliver the 1990 world cup ticket.
We forget that every one of the top countries in Africa today (CIV, Cameroun, Ghana) have been years in the making. They didnt just spring out of the blue neither are they products of one brilliant manager or the other.

The same people trumpeting the ideals of the foreign coach are quick to forget our history with foreign coaches. Even Westerhof was not without his failings. Our problem is not Amodu, its not even the players.

The problem is the NFF. There is a complete lack of planning. How can you hire a manager with two years to go before the world cup, mandate him to qualify the nation for the world cup and then after he does that, start to talk of firing him with LESS THAN 8 MONTHS to go before the tournament begins. What the hell do Nigerians think the Super Eagles are? We dont have the best players in the world, not even in Africa. And we expect some white-skinned coach to come in and transform the likes of Ayila and Olofinjana into world beaters overnight? Give me a break, man.

We can continue the self-delusion all we want but the WC is less than a year away and we had better GET OUR HEADS IN THE GAME. Our current coaching setup have delivered the world cup ticket. Now, let them go and prove themselves on the world stage. Its not only fair, Its also the only rational course of action for any well-meaning Nigeria to consider if you have the best interest of the team at heart.

Eastbay:

Oga,
If you want Nigeria to do well at the World Cup,amodu is not the man.
Yu mentioned Domenech and Trapatoni:for all intents and purposes,both are trying their luck in the play-offs.I'll not say anything else on that.We played a couple of friendlies with these teams and didn't lose.
Besides,Trapatoni and Domenech in particular have not done anything at international level for us to be trumpeting Amodu's successes against them in friendlies.
You need to ask yourself who exactly we played and how convincing we were so that we can actually believe that amodu can face the best in the world.
Yes,even if Amodu wins the Nations Cup, (of which I'm 99% sure he won't) we still won't be satisfied,because he wasn't suitable for the job,and still ihasn't proved to be suitable.
i never made a case for keshi/siasia.I just said they were the only local options available.
you said African football was not about tactics/strategy.you need to be shot for that statement.
north african sides are primarily defensive,with the exception of Egypt in recent times.football is all about employing the right tactics with the available talent.Wherever it is played,be it the north Pole or jupiter.If the 'African-football-requires-no-tactics' is the arguement you re raising in defence of Amodu,my guy,you certainly have none.

Look, if you are going to argue please base it on facts or at least back it up with statistics. What is the meaning of "Amodu is not the man". Based on what? You dont like the man's color or the results he gets are worse than those of the world class foreign coaches we had in the past? 
You have not given any reasons. You are simply attacking me for my own arguments.

Im pretty sure Domenech was the one who led France to the brink of the World Cup in 2006 in Germany but Im sure that's not an achievement worth noting in your books. Again Mister, if you are going to argue please base it on facts.

Your posit that I should be shot for my opinion speaks volumes. I will be so bold as to say International football is not always about tactics. Its about organisation. Its about pride and commitment. How many days has an international coach got with his players? If you haven't understood that by now, then you need to lose the blindfold. You want to tell me that Greece were the most tactical team at the Euros when they won it and Otto Rehagel was the most tactically astute manager at the finals? How is it that a Brazil team who'd been most dissapointing during the qualifiers went to Japan and humbled every opposition? Did Scolari suddenly discover some tactics he never knew he had? C'mon, if my argument is flawed, then give a counter-argument but support it with facts. I am open to your opinion but it must be based in facts.

You want to see the Eagles do well, then impress it on the football administrators to [b]PLAN [/b]for success. That's what other successful countries do. They dont run around like headless chickens looking for scapegoats. Now tell me, which coach was the last to win anything with the Super Eagles? Westerhof, right. I dont know if you remember this but Westerhof tried and failed to qualify Nigeria for the WC in 90'. If that was a black man, you can bet anything he wouldn't survive in that job beyond the last qualifying match. It took the man almost five (5) years to build that team which we  all remember fondly. What is wrong with giving Amodu the same opportunity? Amodu, who's been there to bail us out every single time (always cleaning up after our latest idea of a foreign coach and doing it brilliantly even with less resources at his disposal). Is he too black for you liking? Or perhaps you dont like his brand of football, which admittedly may not be pretty but it produces results. Perhaps you prefer the sparkling brand of football brought to us by the impeccable likes of Thijs Libregts, Bora Milutinovic and Berti Vogts?
Hint: Westerhof had 5 years to build a very good team, playing the brand of football they did. Amodu has had roughly a year and he's produced better results than any foreign coach we've ever had. Go figure. Stop blaming Amodu for the failings of Nigeria's FA.

We keep making these arguments back and forth.

Im still yet to see a valid reason on which we can base this campaign to sack Amodu. Maybe the thought of a fellow Nigerian achieving that honor is too much for some small-minded Nigerians to live with. The man has stood toe-to-toe with the likes of Raymond Domenech of France and the great Trapattoni, and whatever "brilliant" foreign coaches abound in Africa and he's still yet to lose a competitive match to anybody. That is still not satisfactory for my countrymen. African football is not about tactics or technical know-how, it has never been. Its about pride and commitment. This pretense we put up anytime we see a black man at the helm of the SE is disgusting.

If Arsene Wenger had coached the Super Eagles against France and we lost, nobody would have batted an eyelid.

All due respect to ex-players but they don't always make the best coaches. We only have to look to the great Maradona( and his extra-talented squad) to understand that.

I bet even if Amodu won the African Cup, it still wont be good enough for his critics. Nothing short of him being sacked would do, no matter how the change in personnel would affect the team this close to the start of the Nations Cup and World Cup.

na_so:

I am one of Amodu's strongest critics but sincerely while I know that[b] technically Amodu fall short[/b], My human side now has some symparthy for him now.

Well make we still dey watch very soon Fifa go do draws , [b]when we see tough group nobody go tell us to go find better coach[/b]

When you say "Amodu fall short", what (or who) does he fall short of?
Is it the brilliant coaches that he lost to during the qualifiers? Or maybe it's Trappatoni of Ireland (who he drew with) or maybe we are talking about France's Raymond Domenech (who he beat in his own home). Or could you be reffering to the lofty standards set by the elite Bryan Robson, Thijs Libregts, Berti Vogts and Bora Milutinovic?

What exactly is your definition of "falling short"?

Oh. . . I get it. Amodu's not white. Well, he definitely falls short of the color standard. The "better coach" you refer to would be . . . who exactly?

Some of us just dont get it. No foreign coach has ever won the world cup for a reason. And we are not going to be the exception to that rule, no matter how far we are prepared to delude ourselves.
I am not a fan of Amodu but you have to give the man his dues. He's the best coach Nigeria has had in years and the statistics will back me up. Or you could just remain blinded by color and not let the facts get in the way.

LOl at the frontpage title of this thread. . . "Maryam Babangida Says She's  Alive: Is She Lying?"

If she was lying, she'd be dead.

Anyways, thank God she's alive. I wouldn't wish a cancerous death on anyone, having seen what people with cancer go through.

This debate is infuriating at best. Worse still, we had this same lame debate at the end of the 2002 WC qualifying series. Amodu was too inept; Amodu was too laid back; Amodu was too arrogant; Amodu could not control the likes of Oliseh (who ironically left in protest after NFA sacked Amodu).
After the Nations' cup, we kicked the man to the kerb and hired the "renowned" FIFA technical/blah blah instructor, Chief Onigbinde to take us to the Japan/South Korea to win the world cup. I clearly remember us losing two matches and going home with 1 point (-2 GD) from 3 matches. Of course, we performed better than China (0 pts, -9 GD), Saudi Arabia, Slovenia and Tunisia. Heck, we even did better than France (-3 GD).  In that tournament, all three countries that won medals (Gold, silver and bronze) had as their manager, a citizen. Even South Africa managed to score 5 goals and finished with 4 points, all this with a "local" coach. Maybe ours was more local than their own.

There is a reason why Amodu has been successful with this  team (THRICE - he was part of the 97/98' coaching setup) where the likes of Bora, Bonfrere, Robson Libregts and more recently, Vogts have all tried and failed. Amodu understands these players better than any foreign coach ever will. He has the respect of these boys, believe it or not. He may not look the part on match day, but you cannot argue with his accomplishments in the national team. With all due respect to Siasia and Obuh, the senior team is a completely different animal to youth teams. It is much easier to bully players into doing what you demand of them at youth level. In the senior team, you have established footballers who are ready to call your bluff at the slightest provocation. For Amodu to have tamed this set of players and gotten them to rather enjoy playing for the national team is an achievement in and of itself and must not be discounted.
Some folks keep attibuting our qualification to the WC to factors like . . . luck, divine intervention, favor and whatever nonsense. Where were these ingredients when the Super Eagles were flailing around during the 06' qualification series?  We should stop this madness already.

What are we expecting to achieve anyway? Win the world cup? When other nations will have gone back to the planning board, drawn up a set of achievable targets and started designing their plans for achieving said targets, we are here bickering over the suitability of the one man who has done more than any one of us to ensure that Nigeria will be at SA 2010.

Our problem is not Amodu. The problem is lack of planning. England appointed Capello over a year ago with the express aim of taking them to South Africa. All other countries did similar planning years ago.
If Amodu can take a NIgerian team and go defeat France in Saint-Étienne, then I really wonder what all this fear about our performance in the World cup is emanating from. Perhaps, some of us are just too tied up in the colonialist mindset to realise that we've actually got a good thing going. When the profile of participants at SA 2010 is published, it will mention that Nigeria is one a handful of countries to qualify for the world cup without a single defeat and that is thanks to one man - Amodu. The same man who the stupid waterheads at the NFF cannot wait to usher out the back door.

Amodu should not be "given the chance" to do anything. HE HAS EARNED IT (TWICE). LET HIM TAKE THE TEAM TO THE WORLD CUP.

I rest my case.

This was destined to happen. We still have a long way to go if we hope to make a statement at the World Cup. We've got time. Today, we drink to success.

Honestly, I am dreaming. When last did a Nigerian football team play this well at any level?

FBS:

See footie. . .see control . . .see passes! Abeg tell me I'm NOT dreaming!

Na the whole team play na im dey impress me pass. Not one player is show-boating, all the players seem to understand each other. .
Quite unfortunate that after all this euphoria, the "super chickens" (borrowing a phrase from segzeybaba) will almost certainly dampen our spirits with their uninspired play

Na 9ja boys dey control football like this?

Abeg, its about time we begin to translate this type of football at youth level to the senior team.

Men, if only the super eagles were this sharp and commited. . .

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Of the list you provided, I'll pick religion as the number one bane of our country.

Christianity, Islam, Voodoo or whatever religion. That's what is killing us.

The christians believe they have all the answers and their most frequent answer is to blame someone else - witches and wizards, family curse, unbroken bonds, mammywater and whatever else they can sell to vulnerable Nigerians who have never really learned the ancient act of accepting responsibility for one's actions. And so we end up worshipping "men of God", running from pillar to post seeking out that one crusade which will change our lives forever; except it never does.

Islamists. . . well, they just dislike the christians and believe their religion is superior and must be adhered to by all and sundry. No matter the cost.

The voodoo people. . . what can I say?

This generation of Nigerians basically have a mindset that lends itself to the growing oligarchy that religion (especially christianity) is becoming in Nigeria - a mindset that embraces quick fixes (short cut to everything), lack of a sense of accountability and responsibility, deflecting blame and worshipping material things. As long as you can "sow in to the vineyard of God", you are reverred no matter the source of your "seed". Case in point, Erastus Akingbola.

There are a lot of ills in Nigeria, but I fear religion has contributed greatly to twisting the minds of this generation of Nigerians.

@ original poster

Walk away before it is too late.

When he is mature enough to take responsibility for his actions. He can prove himself dependable and is emotionally mature enough to accomodate someone else in his life.

This is interesting. Everybody seems to be stuck on the waiting list. Count me in.

My 2cents at this point is this (from a very limited experience of Python):

PHP is more robust and is more widely used (on the web) than Python. As a web development language I don't think Python has ever really managed to gain a foothold, due IMHO to its rigidity, it doesn't seem to like HTML very much. That said, I think Python works best as a normal programming language and PHP works best as a web programming language.

That's the extent of my great knowledge of Python.

I guess this is a bit late but if you need to need something close to the popular social networking sites, You really should be looking at www.scriptcopy.com. Note however, all the scipts listed there are PHP scripts.

All this agitation about nothing really. The list ends at 10. There's the opportunity to add your name if you feel like you should be on it. Personally, I don't see the point of that sort of list because the best is always yet to come, however you cannot deny the fact that some of the names on that list deserve mention. At least Seun Osewa does. Not many Nigerians have been able to leverage the power of the web the way Seun has. I'm not too sure about the other names but then again, there's the chance to put your name on there if you wish to.

TBH, I don't think it will be a bad idea to institute some kind of web awards to promote professionalism on the webscene in Nigeria.

Seciruty on a website comes in different forms. The question you need to ask yourself is -

"what do I want to secure this website against", phishing attacks, SPAM, code injection, data harvesting or what?

When you decide what you want to protect the site against, then you can start asking questions about how to implement them on the site.

Yeah, but how do you make money off your blogs?
My take is advertise someone else's product or sell yours. I did read somewhere that the advertising model may not be looking too good due to the current financial climate. Can't remember where I read it, but bloggers in these times have to get creative if they really expect to make money off their blogs.

I can't seem to place my finger on it, but there's something funny about this thread.

First, what kind of "community" website will not require a database and what's with the quiz?

If you require an estimate, just ask for it. This is a web design forum afterall.

Yawa, thanks. I'm back for now.
I've ben quite busy lately, what with me trying to bring about world peace and all (_{lame attempt at sarcasm}). I got a site for you to test. I'll send you the link later.

@topic
How did this thread become about "oyinbos"?

Content management systems can be created by anyone, if you have the time. It's not rocket science. With a little bit of PHP and MySQL, you could be on your way to your own CMS.

Hmm. . . Nice to get together again.

Back to the topic, Somehow I get the feeling this is not so much about content management systems in general as it is about "open-source" content management systems. I say that because almost every medium to large website today uses a content management system in one form or another.

I am a fan of CMSs, but that does not mean I don't know how to code or that I am a lazy developer. I started out some years back with notepad, onto Homesite and then Dreamweaver. In between Homesite and  DW, I dabbled with Frontpage. FP didn't go too well.
With regards to CMSs, it depends on what you want to do really. If you need a 5-page brochure website, you are better off coding it yourself. Generally, sites with less than 20 pages are better hand-coded.
However, if you need a website that'll grow with time and you want to be able to manage that growth easily, then you really are better off getting a CMS to do the job. Imagine a 100-page website with lots of images and maybe video content. You really think hand-coding such a website is a great idea when you have access to some really powerful systems which are capable of drastically reducing your development time and time-to-market? I don't care if you develop the CMS yourself or you buy or download it, it's still a CMS.

The fact is there is a worrying trend of over-dependence on content management systems today especially among budding Nigerian developers or "web designers", leading to some really half-baked products (e.g www.ntdc.gov.ng). However, it is no reason to paint developers who use CMSs with a broad brush of incompetence. The fact that anyone relies on hand-coding does not neccesarily make him/her a good/bad developer. It doesn't make one superior to the other.
I can assure you the guys who work with the BBC or CNN content management systems don't consider themselves inferior to the HTML guru who probably developed the drudgereport.com
The mere fact that there is a content management system does not mean there is already a website. It simply means there is a framework in place for me to develop my site on. I have personally had to create custom modules and templates for a content system, and I am currently working on such a site which requires me to create custom modules and components. Now, if I were to create everything from scratch, how much time and money will that cost me? Remember, time is money (for you the developer as well as your client).

There is the need to encourage "web designers" to add a "personal touch" when deploying a content management system, but the notion that using a content management system to develop scaleable websites is a sign of laziness, is seriously flawed.

@ Yawa,

My thoughts exactly.

@ Auwal
A little bit of advice first. To save you time and stress, get a local copy of Joomla on your localhost (web server), install and customise the global configuration, content parameters and any other custom features you want on the site. This copy of Joomla can then be used as the 'base' for any future Joomla projects you have, instead of installing a fresh copy anytime you want to create a "website" - Work smart and earn more (_{Yawa's advice}). Also if you have to do a fresh install, skip the "install sample data" part. It really could save you a ton of work later.

auwal87:

Thanks, transformation takes a little time, in the meantime, presenting contents is the most important task.
The default settings have not being edited yet, that is why you are seeing the 'written by', but what is the problem with print, pdf, email, icons?

Configuring your Content parameters and global configuration should be your first task really. Also configuring the index page parameters is also important. These two tasks combined wil take you about 10-15 mins maximum if your internet connection is really slow. But you have your priorities and I respect that. However, the site is currently LIVE, as in I can type in pillarsfc[dot]com and see what you have put up so far. If the site is in development and this is not its final destination, then that's ok.

The problem with those icons is that they are only useful on certain types of websites and for certain types of audiences. On this particular website, I fail to see the need for those icons. Joomla comes with all sorts of extra stuff as does any other CMS. It's up to you to figure out if your audience needs those "stuff" or not.

Here's some custom features I'd suggest.

- Remove your login module and make it accessible from a link instead. In its place, you could add links to content or add pictures using a "highslide" component or plugin.
- Instead of having lots of content intro on the frontpage, use modules to present content links and images. In this case, you can have only the latest news update show up with the 'intro' on the frontpage or even use "photoslide" component to present news in image format.

You can create anything with Joomla. You just have to give yourself time to do it properly.

PS: Take yawa's advice about timeframes. She knows a thing or two about it.

Are you the one who installed this site?

With a little bit of work, you could have transformed this Joomla site to something unique. Instead it bears the prints of raw Joomla all over it.

For one, take out the content parameters ("written by" and others including those icons), except you are trying to create a blog, which would be weird.

Sorry, I just think if you are going to build a website with a content management system, then try to make it as unique as possible because everyone else has the same base code as yourself and you don't want your site looking exactly like mine.

On the bright side, I really like the template, and the colors seems to match. However, you really should look at the formating of the content under "team" and "fixtures".

Best of luck.