₦airaland Forum

Cyber-cafe Attendants/Administrators:
People working in cyber-cafes have the ability to influence people who browse at their cafes. A lot Nigerians rely on cyber-cafes for Internet access. If we can get a lot of cyber-cafe attendants excited about Nairaland, they will start recommending the forum to their customers en masse. Cyber-cafe attendants are influential people too!

Here are some possible action plans:[list][li]Create content that is especially useful to cyber-cafe staff members[/li][li]Create content that advices cyber-cafe customers on how to solve common problems that they would normally refer to the cyber-cafe attendants. By directing their customers to our forum to reduce some of the stress their work entails.[/li][/list]

Special note: Please feel free to interrupt my monologues to give more suggestions.

The Internet equivalents of the newspaper editor include:[list][li]Newsletter Publisher; Owns an announcement-only e-mail list (e.g. Gsm-Today).[/li]
[li]Blogger; Someone who owns a weblog (a sort of online diary like this one)[/li]
[li]Webmaster; The person responsible for updating and maintaining a website.[/li]
[li]Mailing List Administrator; the person who manages a mailing list (e.g. yahoo groups).[/li][/list]

If a newsletter publisher gets excited about our forum, he might write about it in his newsletter. If a blogger gets excited about our forum, he [I]will[/I] write about it on his blog and link to it. If a webmaster gets excited about our forum, he might link to it from his site. A mailing list adminstrator who loves our forum will probably allow us to advertise the site on his list. These are all forms of Internet PR.

In any case, it's very difficult to control the sea.

Ka,

99% of forum activity (literally 99%) is reading. Every reader unconsciously measures the quality of a site by certain cues including:
- 'Professional design' (doesn't have to be fantastic but should be neat, pleasing to the eye).
- 'Professional content' (legible, understandable text with very few typos or spelling/grammar errors).

This impression doesn't depend on whether the bad writing or appearance of the site is the webmaster/administrator's fault or not . We really need the forum to look neat.

Now if there's a way to automatically reformat posts to correct 95% of errors, I would like that. If not, then the system has to be built to allow many people to participate in the editing. The system has to be build to the administrator to revert posts that have been incorrecly edited.

Automatic Post Reformatting

What I don't like about post editing is that it takes a lot of time. One option is to design a special piece of software that can automatically reformat a post, making it easy to read and so on.

Another option is to implement some form of revision control in the forum software, so that even when a post has been edited you can still retrieve the original version of the post. With revision control, it is possible for us to have 2-15 editors who can share the work of editing.

I few days ago I read an article on Public Relations (PR), titled The Submarine. I was [color=#770000]surprised[/color] to read that Public Relations is cheaper than advertising. I made an immediate decision to concentrate on Public Relations as a means of promoting the Nairaland Forum! It is the cheap smart thing to do.

Public Relations practitioners "make use of the media to convey messages to the public ... with the intention of influencing public opinion and action." (wikipedia). The underlying idea is that you're trying to influence a large body of people by selling your message to people who have access to those people. In other words, '[I]influencing influencial people'.

Press Relations is an important part of public relations, because people pay a lot of attention to the news. The typical Nigerian newspaper, sells 50,000-100,000 copies every day. Millions listen to TV news every day. If we can get people in the media excited about our site, we can get our message out to hundreds of thousands of people. I think that's nice.

The 'Recycle Bin' is just like your WIndows recycle bin. Anything you see there has been "deleted" but may be restored in the future.

I think so too. Now who's going to volunteer to hack the script?

UPDATE: Ka, I'm going to follow this suggestion almost to the letter. I appreciate it.

badwils, the only 'problem' I have with the show is last year's presenter! I feel that he acted too serious, behaving like some authority figure. That deep voice, that smirk, and utterances like "so you think you have what it takes to [I]become[/I] the Ultimate Champion, we'll see. Or the words that are spoken when some contestants are booted, as if the person failed a cosmic quest.

UPDATE: Chidi Mokeme, the presenter, is back this year.

See also: Gulder Ultimate Search 2: Meet the Contestants!

The Guardian, Friday March 18,2005

EXECUTIVE RECRUITMENT

[color=#995500]Information Services Group[/color]
Chief Information Services Officer (Ref:CISO)
[I]Qualifications:[/I] A good first degree in Computer Sciience, Electrical or electronic Engineering or related discipline, Master's or postgraduate degree preferably in Management. With at least 10 years of relevant experience of which five will be at senior level

[color=#995500]Human Resources Group[/color]
Senior Specialist: Employee Relations (Ref:SS-ERS)
[I]Qualifications:[/I] A bachelor's degree in Social Sciences or equivalent in a related field. In addition, a masters or other Post Graduate degree will be considered an advantage. Furthermore, the candidate should have at least 7 years of relevant experience of which a minimum of 3 years is at a supervisory position.

[color=#995500]Engineering Group[/color]
Manager: IN(Intelligent network)-Prepaid Service (Ref:MGR-IN)
A good first degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Equivalent. Project Management experience will be an added advantage with at least 5 years work experience with minimum of 3 years in IN prepaid services implementation and support.

[color=#995500]Customer Care Group[/color]
Head of Division: Contact Centre (Ref:HOD-CC)
A good university degree with a minimum of 7 years post-NYSC work experience, out of which 2 years in a Contact Centre environment. as minimum of 4 years managerial experience not necessarily within a contact centre.

[color=#995500]Chairman's Office[/color]
Executive Assistant to the Chairman (Ref:EA-CH)
A good first degree in the Arts/Social Science courses. An MBA will be an added advantage, with a minimum of 7 years work experience in a related role, 3 of which must have been in a managerial capacity.

[color=#995500]Internal Audit & Risk Management Division[/color]
Manager: Quality Assurance (Ref:MGR-QA)
A good first degree in Business Administration or any of the other Social or Numerate Sciences. Must have a minimum of 7 years (3 of which must be at management level) work experience within the Quality management Department of a large (preferably service) organization. Experience in the implementation of a documented Quality and Information Security management Systems, using appropriate international Standards - ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17799 standards.
Completion of ISO certified lead Quality Assurance Auditor training course.
Excellent and proven computer skills with emphasis on the following user applications: MS Office, Visio, MS Project and Web Applications.
Ability to facilitate and manage information-gathering sessions to meet set session objectives.
Ability to take an idea from concept stage to crystallization with minimal supervision.
Experience in the use of TQM, PDCA, amd DMAIC framework and related tools for the improvement of practical business scenarios.

[color=#995500]Sales Group[/color]
Head of Division: Retail Sales (Ref:HOD-RS)
Qualifications: Require a business degree qualification of similar standard to IMM/MBA. Post-graduate degree not necessary but an added advantage). The successful candidate must have a minimum of 10 years experience within Channel Sales development, out of which 3 years must be in cellular sales.

All advertised vacancies and detailed job descriptions are available online. Please complete electronic forms in the career section of our website [color=#995500]www.vmobile-nigeria.com[/color] quoting the approopriate job reference codes for positions being applied for.

Please note that hard copies will not be considered. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

[color=#000077]Application closes one week from the date of publication.[/color]

c0dec: I would eventually like to work in the games industry as an AI/Physics or Graphics programmer.

The games industry is a "cool" industry, but it's not necessary the most lucrative:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/274.html

The reason it's not so lucrative is because so many young graduates want to work in the industry! (basic law of demand and supply.)

If a girl asks me out, I won't think of her as being cheap. I won't expect her to be the one to apologize even when I am wrong. Men that behave like that are simply immature. Ok, maybe they are suffering from gender role confusion:[list][li]Women are not used to going after love and handling rejection. Yes, rejection.[/li][li]Men are not used to being sought out by love.[/li][/list]

If my sister comes to me and says, "there is this guy, I like him ...", I'd advice her to go and tell him about it in a light manner. "Don't try to 'woo' him, just tell him you like him and would not mind a relationship. Then hang around for a while. If he says he's not interested, it means he is not interested. This is called rejection. If that happens, you can come and cry on my shoulder."

Ladies, welcome to our world!

The second most important way to promote this Forum is by encouraging other people you know to visit this forum, register and participate regularly.

You are specifically encouraged to invite:
DOMAIN EXPERTS ([url=http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Adomain+expert]ref[/url]): People with special knowledge or skills in a particular area. It doesn't matter whether they are [I]professionals[/I] or [I]enthusiasts[/I]; what matters is the [I]knowledge[/I] or [I]experience[/I] that these people have, and their willingness to share such knowledge with the rest of us! They can establish themselves as authorities in their respective fields by participating actively.

FAMOUS PEOPLE: Feel free to invite eople who are widely recognized in the society (Nigerian celebrities) to join Nairaland and participate actively. Movie stars, musicians, popular authors, high-ranking politicians, TV Show Hosts, et cetera. Famous people don't have to reveal their identities when they participate on this forum; Nairaland gives them the opportunity to just be themselves, and be appreciated for who they are!

PEOPLE CLOSE TO YOU: You are encouraged to invite people who are close to you to join the forum. Your husband, wife, boyfriends/girlfriends, friends, church-pals, pen-pals, family friends and relatives, siblings, or even parents are all welcome! This forum is a large, heterogenous community with people from various backgrounds. With people you know on the forum, you will feel certainly more at home! In any community, it pays to have one or people around who understand you very well!

BUSINESS PERSONS: Entrepreneurs, directors, business owners, investors, contractors, promoters, administrators, managers; people of influence in the workplace. Nairaland provides a forum where they can interact with hundreds of current or potential customers and get valuable feedback on products or services they offer or plan to offer. Don't be afraid to invite [I]your[/I] boss to Nairaland. Who knows; he/she might discover something that will turn your company around!

LEADERS: Executives of church groups, youth groups, clubs, course representatives, etc.

JOURNALISTS: People of the media, so they can write about us.

Please feel free to suggest other classes of people who should be targetted by the forum. Thanks!

The best way to make Nairaland better is to frequently contribute quality content to the forum! Quality content usually comes in the form of original articles containing useful information, but sometimes it also comes in form of a question that motivates other people to contribute useful information.

The following posts are examples of what I mean by quality content:
[list]

[li]Mamba: Useful WAP/MMS tips on Glo plus everything you need to know (meaty article)[/li]

[li]Trish: Bar Beach (Victoria Island, Lagos) Has Overflown Its Bank Again! (breaking news)[/li]

[li]Diakim: Why This Discrimination Between B.Sc & HND? (constructive debate)[/li]

[li]Ra: Ingredients of a Healthy Relationship - Tayotina, Dominobaby (good question, good answers)[/li][li]Ra's Review of Hotel Rwanda[/li][/list]

This list is definitely not exhaustive, but it is certainly instructive! The most important thing you can do to make the forum better is to share very useful content. The Nairaland Forum is a place to share useful information with fellow Nigerians.

I work full-time on this forum. I consider myself a website administrator.

In my past life I've been a University student, a programmer, a website host.

Representatives,

I have discovered that there are people who come to a forum like this without the intention of contributing anything; all they want to do is cause trouble. I have discovered that these people should not be treated with kid gloves.

Trae has been banned. He had a problem with some of my moderation policies, but he chose the path of public castigation, instead of raising those issues privately or in this honorable reps forum. He even has my phone number, and I have called him several times to resolve disputes, but he chooses to publicly castigate the poor admin.

My new belief is that people who are not here to share should be banned. Please feel free to contribute constructive criticism. All of my "favorites" (Ra, AYA, trish) have had vigorous disagreements with me at one time or the other, but it is obvious that they are here to share. They are here to participate. They are not here to disrupt.

I'd like to propose a zero tolerance policy towards [I]public[/I] criticism of the way this forum is run, or other forms of disruption that do not move Nairaland forward!

Seun.

Chigszy,

There are no longer any restrictions to registration by Nigerians outside Nigeria. I love Nigerians outside Nigeria, particularly people like you, Ra, and (recently) Ka! I do not yet support active promotion of the forum to Nigerians outside Nigeria, because you ladies and gentlemen are 10 times more active on the Internet!

Seun.

I am trying to develop editing guidelines. I agree with you that editing should be minimal.

Decision Time!
Here are the things we can start doing today to promote the forum:
[list][li]Telling our friends about the site and teaching other members how to do the same.[/li][li]Introducing a link to Nairaland in our signatures when participating in forums and mailing lists.[/li][li]Pointing people on mailing lists or forums we participate in to Nairaland articles which might be help them solve their problems.[/li][li]Invite people in positions of influence to join the site: journalists, bloggers, webmasters, and leaders of small to medium to large organizations.[/li][/list]

Men deal with rejection by women all the time. We're used to hearing women we love telling us "no", "I said no", "hell, no!" But I don't think young women are used to handling rejection.

If a girl asks a guy out and he says "no", he means it. At first she might think he doesn't mean it because girls often don't mean it when they say "no". But will she be able to handle it when she finds out that "no" from a guy really means "no", even if he subsequently chooses to sleep with her?

The 'Technocom Expo' Emmanuel talks about above was also known as the 3rd Annual Nigerian International Telecommunication And Information Technology Exhibition and Conference.

Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, President of the Nigerian Internet Group, and CEO of Teledom International Ltd, gave a talk on "Communication Technology and Information Trends in Nigeria - Opportunities, Prospects and Problems."

The topic chosen by Chris Uwaje, President of Connect Technologies Limited, was "IT Challenges of Mega Enterprise In Nigeria-Opportunities and Solutions."

Fola Odufuwa, a Telecom Consultant and Managing Director of eSheckels, gave a presentation on the topic, "The Role Of Information Technology and Telecommunication in Consumer empowerment and Economic Development: A case study of the GSM revolution in Nigeria"

Mr. Peter Post, CEO of Danisat Communications Limited, spoke on "The Prospects and Challenges Of Deepening Access Through Extending Benefits Of Information Technology and Telecommunication to Nigerian Communities.'

Maureen Egbuna of Intercellular was the moderator, and Henry Kojo of Qualiserv was the facilitator of the expo, which was sponsored by BrandFaces, Direct On PC, and Intercellular Nigeria Ltd.

It started last week Wednesday (27th April, 2005)

Angelgirl, I've done it in the past, with mixed success.

One way to do this is to simply participate actively in discussion forums and mailing lists and use the site you're trying to promote in your signature.

Another way is to look for articles on your site that are related to the topics being discussed in the mailing list and publishing those articles in full or in part to the mailing list, together with a link to the original location. Or to answer questions asked on a list on this forum then link to the answer!

The above two methods are quite ethical, and are known to work quite well. What might be unethical is to send an email to the effect of "please check my site!" I have done this before, too. I may have damaged my reputation by succumbing to that. But the first two methods are quite ok.

In a private conversation, Diakim gave me some nice ideas:
diakim2 : First, ask members of the forum to tell their friends and colleagues about Nairaland.
diakim2 : Two, make a car sticker (or any other sticker), bearing Nairaland.com. Pple will be curious to find out...
diakim2 : Three, Put some beautiful banners in strategic places (in Lagos, for a start), advertising Nairaland.

How can we promote Nairaland?

AYA, most of these people can design much better than either of us ...

Press Release from the Benny Hinn Ministry website:

---

Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups. Located in West Africa, with a geographical area slightly more than twice the size of California, this country teems with 134-million people (four times California’s population). The oil-rich Nigerian economy is undergoing substantial positive reform under the new civilian administration.

Recently, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo sent two official representatives to meet with Pastor Benny Hinn with an invitation to hold a massive service in their country. The officials delivered the request during a Miracle Crusade in Atlanta.

[I]"Greetings in the precious name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. This is to especially invite you on behalf of Mr. President to be his special guest at the State House for prayer sessions and morning devotions…"[/I]

One of the representatives quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14:
[I]"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."[/I]

God is already doing a mighty work in Nigeria. Many of the country’s leaders are followers of Jesus Christ. They believe God has called Benny Hinn to minister in Nigeria to bring the message of salvation and miracles to help heal that precious country. A presidential invitation of this magnitude, however, has never been issued before.

[I]"Now you must come to Nigeria and pray a healing, anointing prayer over the entire constituency of Nigeria."[/I]

The representatives of the country’s top elected official then mentioned that more than 30 million people throughout Nigeria watch [color=#000077][I]This Is Your Day![/I][/color] every day. They also told how the nation’s newspapers were already trumpeting the crusade, even before Pastor Benny agreed.

Unknown to the representatives, exactly at 6 PM of that very day as they arrived in Georgia to deliver the invitation, Pastor Benny was preparing for the Atlanta service and the Holy Spirit said, “Go to Nigeria!”

With the official presidential invitation accepted, plans are now underway to hold a massive service in Lagos April 29-30, 2005. In a land once ravaged by civil unrest, and in a country where six percent, nearly 3.5 million people, have AIDS or HIV, with as many as 200,000 current HIV/AIDS victims throughout Nigeria expected to die each year, people throughout the nation seek the solutions that can only be provided by the Savior who died on the cross to give an abundant life and an eternal home.

More and more people throughout Nigeria are accepting the Father’s offer, “If my people….” God can heal this land!

Thanks to Benny Hinn Ministries partners, April 2005 promises to be a watershed service that can begin to change the history of an entire country and continent. The harvest of souls throughout this crucial part of the globe will be immense and eternal!

---

Press Release from the Office of the Public Communications follows

---

President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday 1 May recounted God’s benevolence to the country.

He was speaking at a prayer, healing and evangelical session that took place at the Redemption Camp in Lagos under the auspices of the Benny Hinn Evangelical Ministry.

In his prayer of repentance and dedication, Obasanjo reassured Nigerians that the country will surely take its rightful place in the comity of nations and be greatly blessed.

He also dedicated Nigeria and all Nigerians to God, thanking the Almighty for his continued goodness to the country.

In his words: “We turn to you Jehovah, that you will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. Please turn to us in your mercy and heal our land Lord. Thank you for removing our sins. Right now we present Nigeria to you afresh. Take your rightful place in this nation, rule over our lives and reign over Nigeria. Let peace and prosperity permeate Nigeria.”

The crusade attracted a large number of political leaders, state governors, ex-military leaders, church leaders, Christians and non-Christians from all over the country.

---

Sources:
http://www.bennyhinn.org/resources/intlnigeria.cfm
http://www.nigeriafirst.org/article_3917.shtml

Did you attend? Can you share your experience?

Hello,

A friend of mine on the forum is planning a new GSM network service that aims to make it possible to make cheap voice calls to MTN, Vmobile, M-TEL, Glo Mobile and others networks from a GSM phone on an existing network?

He wants to know if the name 'Propre' is a good name for such a service. Is it? Please [color=#000077]drop your vote in the poll above[/color], and drop your comments below. Thanks!

Seun

Ka: he should have spotted this early on during the courtship stage and backed out then if he wasn't comfortable with that.

If the lady is very eager to settle down she will hide such tendencies until the ring is on their finger. Courting couples typically think they know so much about their partners, only to be surprised after the ceremony. Wedding night should be called 'revelation night!.

C0dec, She might have seen it coming, but she might also have been fighting to save the relationship, not knowing that the (wicked) boyfriend was already getting married to someone else. You don't leave your partner the moment you feel something might be happening.

From all indications, it was a long-distance relationship. It is easy to decieve your mate when you cannot monitor him/her. It is wrong to conclude that the lady must have been foolish.

Yes o!

A man dies and goes to hell.

There he finds that there is a different hell for each country and decides
he'll pick the least painful to spend his eternity.

He goes to Germany hell & asks, "what do they do here?" He is told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day".

The man does not like the sound of that at all so he moves on.

He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more.

He discovers that they are all similar to the German hell. Then he comes to the Nigerian hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in ... Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?"

He is told "first they put you in an electric chair for an hour, then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. The Nigerian devil comes in & whips you for the rest of the day."

"But that is exactly the same as all the other hells. Why are there so many
people waiting to get in?" asks the man.

"Because there is never any electricity so the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable to sleep on. And the Nigerian devil used to be a civil servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business."