₦airaland Forum

sbucareer, I'm inspired by your smiley!

Hehe. I want to thank yemstrad for providing a temporary haven for addicted nairaland members during our three days outage.

Heh, I'm going to rename the "Nairaland Executives" up there and call them "Nairaland Police". OPC and other paramilitary groups are only necessary when the police and armed forces are not performing.

I would have started with the congress right away but the forum configuration I'll have to do is just too complicated!

Nferyn, I appreciate what you're doing to raise money for a backup solution for Nairaland. I have now obtained a VPS from www.powervps.com which costs just $10/month more than what I was paying at www.tektonic.net and I am sure that even if there are outages with these guys in the future those outages will be pre-announced and will not last more than 1 or two hours each. The new host is much more reliable!

About backing up the forum: the thing about the forum is that it's database driven and the database is updated every single second! The only way to get an up-to-date backup is to get another VPS in a different datacentre and configure it to be a slave to the MySQL server on my main site. To be sincere, when you consider the amount of traffic that this forum gets, this kind of money should not be difficult for me to spend. Unfortunately, I happen to be a miser.

So it would be unethical for me to accept donations, but in the future we'll have a Nairaland store for those who would like to spend money and help Nairaland. However, members who really want to help Nairaland can also: (1) follow the rules more diligently, (2) make themselves available when invited to the Nairaland congress, (3) Invite their friends by email, (4) Link to the forum from their blogs, journals and websites, (5) Write and publish articles about Nairaland.

Regards,
Seun.

snowsdream, isn't that what I said in my first post up there?

Here's my proposal:

1) First, we set up a 'Nairaland Congress' consisting of Nairaland members who spend a lot of time on the forum and generally respect the rules. These members will be known as 'representatives'. Their duty: to maintain the rules and regulations of the Nairaland Forum.

2) Then, we set up a 'Nairaland Court' consisting of Nairaland representatives who have demnstrated their maturity, level-headedness and good jugdement. They will be known as 'judges'. Their duty: to settle all disputes by applying the rules to specific situations.

3) Finally, we set up the 'Nairaland Police', consisting of Nairaland judges I can trust with moderator privileges. They will be known as 'moderators'. They will have the power to execute the forum rules and regulations and decisions of the judges.

I want to believe that as members start participating in the congress and the court, those that are capable of functioning effectively as moderators will become obvious.

And then of course there's Naijarita News!

See also: Nigerian Blogs What Motivated You To Start Your Blog?

Yes, the owner and administrator of this site has never left the shores of this country, so it's right to say it was started in Nigeria.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, girl!

What's your best TV show? Mine is Dharma and Greg, which is shown on STV at 8:30pm every Friday. Which is yours?

I was trying to send out emails to remind Nairaland members that the forum is back online, not knowing that the script I was using the send the emails had caused the server to stop responding. Funny, huh?

How did this one go?

Nairaland addiction is good. Please don't cure it!

b_e_b_e: Amen!

Hehe. Hot-angel is definitely a Nigerian forum celebrity!

The problem was that the server mysteriously dissapeared and my host does not know why. Others have experienced the problem in the past - their virtual servers just dissappear. But our host is investigating and while they are investigating, well, I am already configuring a new server elsewhere as a backup or possibly the default server.

b_e_b_e we are sorry about the way the outage disrupted your birthday plans. How can we make it up?

I agree with you, Icon. I would love nothing better than not to have to spend time moving posts around. But I have not really found these people yet. I haven't really find people who satisfy all the qualities I want in a moderator.

They shouldn't be charging 6k for registration. What they should do is screen the applicants on the sport and deny the applications of those who are just not going to win.

Since my last post:
- I have optimized the forum much more in order to delay the need for a faster server.
- I have purchased a more reliable server on a new, more expensive host with a better reputation.
- I am formulating a backup plan so the site can continue running even if something similar happens later.

Hello,

I would like to apologize to all those who have suffered, suffered, suffered during the time that the nairaland forum was down, down down. That was Friday, Saturday, Sunday but now at 15 minutes after 3am on Monday morning we are back, back, back in full force!

Thanks.
Seun, seun, seun.

Cliques on Nairaland? Where? *checks under table*

Try Contacting TV Stations by larger_20: Sorry, but I am quite shy and I cannot handle rejection. However, I have other ideas about how to get traditional media outlets interested in the "Nairaland phenomenom". I also want to appeal to Nairaland members who have connections in the media to work with me to get the mass media attention that our community needs. Having said that, I think we need to first learn how to manage the traffic we already have.

Writing Articles by Bola Oni: I am not a particularly good writer though I am making an effort in news satire.

Recommendation by Bola Oni: What about the SEND TOPIC button present in every thread?

Organizing Seminars, Workshops and Training: I am quite shy so ...

Will our server setup be able to handle extra traffic? Yes, for about a month or two after which we can simply upgrade.

Creating sections based on age groups (teens, 20-somethings, 30-somethings). I don't think it's possible.

---

Anyway, I would like to know what is wrong with the design of the site. It works fine for me.

Here is my opinion about some of the suggestions given so far on the forum:

Reducing the subsections by Olu Abuja: Hell, no! We are actually increasing sections based on demand - if dozens of threads are being created around a particular topic, then we would simply create a section for it. Why do you think it would be beneficial to reduce the number of sections?

Usability Enhancements by Nferyn: What usability enhancements do you think we need?

Chat and Dating Engine: We already have a chat room and dating zone.

News: I'm preparing a list of Nigerian news websites from which people can get their news.

Brand New Design by Deji Olowe: What is wrong with our current design? It loads fast, does the job and is green, what more can we ask for?

Moderators For Different Sections: Great idea, but I am resistant to it. If the moderator for a particular section decides not to show up throughout a particular week, then it will fall into disrepair while other sections will be doing ok. I like the idea of giving moderator privileges to particularly responsible people so they can edit any threads they stumble upon.

Avoid Popups and Popunders: I am committed to having user-friendly context-sensitive advertising. I regularly reject prospective advertisers and direct them to use Google so the ads can be matched to the page content.

... to be continued.

Wow. Ideas are flowing!

I am currently looking into the idea of separation of powers as we have in stable democracy, so people will feel like they can do things to move the forum forward without Seun necessarily being involved.

I want to have a 'legislative' arm that makes and updates the laws and a 'judicial' arm that settles disputes and makes decisions to be carried out by the 'executive' arm which of course I will run as the 'site owner' with the admin and moderators.

I am angry. With you. Yes, I mean you, the one starring at the monitor with a puzzled look.

So, nferyn, Terry's Schiavo's case was not euthanasia?