₦airaland Forum

Simple and straight to the point - just the way i like it. I hope we are taking notice. No yeye/pointless flash distracting you from the meat of the matter.

A quick whois indicates that the site is registered/administered by a company in Lome (That' Togo for those of you who are too lazy to google ). Of course this doesn't mean that it wasn't done by Nigerians but that it was done outside of Nigeria. Does this mean they couldn't find even dhtml to do it for them?

yeah right inspiragh. u think we live on etta agbor street like you?

Your web form is still not validating on the front end. Again, I ask, how can you offer to tell me how to make my forms work when yours isn't working?

Again, no offense, I am asking what I think is a simple question. Thanks.

try google
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=WEB+STRUCTURE+MINING+OF+HYPERLINKS+AND+DOCUMENT+STRUCTURE&btnG=Google+Search

Tech Pros:
I am seeing this your new "signature" all over the place. Are you beginning a trend?

Inspiragh:
I don't think it is a matter of what we like or don't like or whether or not we can configure outlook but what the standard is - a web form that is accessible to and by all. Coming to think of it, please help me answer the following questions:

1) how many people in Nigeria browse the web from a place other than a cybercafe?
2) do those who use a cybercafe have the ability to bypass admin rights and configure outlook?

Again, code to web standards unless of course you are working on an intranet app.

bigjoe,

I got the inference from:

Hi everyone, i am a bit new to the web design world.

I guess poster wasn't specific enough.

poster:
I am happy to have been of service. Again, get the basics, no matter how much you think you know down pat then venture into the flash world. That's all I can say. Good luck!

http://www.nasrda-cgg.net/

Just thought I should share. Unless the "webmaster" or "guru" who did this visits this board, I doubt any review will be of any use. Having said that, if you have something to say, please be our guests

I would probably direct this towards a more generic board and/or Seun via his email address. I would say PM him but as you said, it isn't possible

Where you dey hide sef? It's been a while.

Heed nitation's advice. Start from the ground up. Once you have xhtml forms down pat, then you can go for the advanced stuff. You may choose to visit www.w3schools.com for various tutorials.

Good luck!

he he nitation, you could be right. Maybe traffic/ad revenue isn't the problem but how to spend it.

I just visited them, after at least 2 or so weeks and they are still requiring that one sign in. I guess they haven't gotten the message yet. Too bad, so sad.

How can you claim to know how forms work when:

1) The form on your contact form page doesn't validate
2) When I hit the "submit" button, my outlook pulls up, with the following (mostly blank) fields:
fullname=
location=
phone=
site type=
description=
logo=
site type2=
select=primary
Submit=Submit

Don't take it the wrong way. I am just curious.

Wasn't this site requested for a review before? I still see the same problems on the site that existed when it was posted the first time?

ah! Here it is, though it didn't come under the topic, "site review":
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-275277.0.html

What's your budget, if I may ask? 2 weeks is a tall order.

I don't know if I would go that far. As always, I use firefox:

1) Load the page, then mouse over any of the links. Then move your mouse to the left or right such that it is touching either edge. Any particular reason the site is trying to break Bolt's Olympic record?

2) It isn't that obvious that I have to click on the "flying" options to go to a particular page. In fact, I think the developer thought as much otherwise he wouldn't have added "click on" to the hover state. As I remember reading somewhere, if you have to explain to a web visitor what it is you are trying to do, then you haven't done a good job at making it obvious.

3) Contact us page: No form. Again, the site "raced" to the finish line and I thought it would go on forever, before it finally stopped and I managed to find the tiny font for the email address. Keep it simple folks.

In general, I find the site rather dark and for an entertainment site, it lacked photos (and photos/other images that were there weren't all that crisp) quite a few elements of interaction.

My (rather liberal) score: 5/10 - it could be much better.

@remoranger:
LOL, nice Socratic deduction 

@Tiger:
So are you saying that when you visited the site, it would sway from side to side? 

@all:
I will be posting the url shortly. If I do it now, it will skew from the purpose of the topic.

he he.

No need requesting that the thread be removed - if not answered today (which is when you probably need it), it will be answered tomorrow. If it doesn't help you, it may help someone else in the future.

Think less of self and more of community

They have finally (hopefully) caught up with Firefox and Chrome:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/default.aspx


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So, the other day, I caught up with an ex-coworker.  After we caught up, I asked what he was doing these days to whcih he said he was doing sculpturing.  Naturally, I ask if he has a website and he pointed it to me. 

So I called him and told him it was top notch.  He said something which I found most interesting: "the richest people have the simplest websites."  Now, from the little that I know of this guy, he is loaded.  I mean, he lost his job at least a year ago and he hasn't bothered looking for another and said he will never work for someone again.

I don't agree with the above and told him so but then, it got me thinking, "could he be right?".  This is where you all come in - Do the richest people have the simplest websites?  Sorry but to respect his privacy, I won't post his url. 

Oya, the floor is open.

Oya, I am feeling a lil hungry right now and I want to go to a nice place. The only thing is, I believe in what I see, not taste. So, help me find a good restaurant website (anywhere in the world).

One restaurant I won't go to is: http://www.thisisitbbq.com/

They had an ad on the radio on my way from work yesterday an naturally, I decided to check it out. Based on what I see, I am striking them off my list for sure

slimjo,

This is a taaaaall order. It starts with you showing us your database structure. I assume you have tables for the students, the classes and maybe even the term(s) in question. I also assume the database is properly normalized.

You allow them to see their results by storing say, the unique id of the student in a session variable and querying the database against this variable. If there is a match, you present the page with that student's results. And lest I forget, before even matching, you need to make sure that the student is actually logged in.

As I said, it's a tall order but hopefully my explanation will help steer you in the right path.

Good luck!

sega,

It is usually good coding practice to assign variables to your POSTs/GETs/REQUESTs for readability and maintenability

Consider this:
$username = $_POST['usernaem']);
$username = strip_tags(mysql_real_escape_string($username);

Of course, check my code for any errors.

ztyle,

My kulikuli mallam dey fight for niger delta. wen im return, u go get am kamkpe

segas et al, no worries, any mother brings back groundnut for her kids after a long trip. I shall be doling mine out very shortly

I think it would be called, "harassment" by some but I will let him explain just to be sure

he he. yeah i was on a much deserved leave of absence. Yes, I am back, though not in the way that dhtml is implying

Seun, u sef

onimisi:

These online papers (google their names for the urls) have worked for me over the past 3 or so years:
Vanguard, Independent online, sun news, the nation, nigeriaworld.

Good luck!

very sensible post, abhosts.  Your 2nd paragraph - well put.

I firmly believe in the "give them everything and only charge for extras" feature of the net - Offer all your services for free and make money via advertising and/or limiting juicy stories to paying customers.  That is the way to make money online and not by going against what even online papers better than they are, are doing.

With over 30 online papers in Nigeria (granted some are more crappy than others, but I digress ), why would/should I get a heart attack cos 1 has decided to make news off limits?  I will simply update my bookmarks and move on.  It's that simple.

Pretty funny there nitation. I was like you too - I would still visit and click a few links at random, believing within me that it would all go away

I also forgot to mention up top that even if I were interested in paying, what if I don't have a naija-compatible card?  Also, when they say my phone number is my registration number, do they accept international numbers and if so, how do they validate for those?

As nitation has said, I think it will probably go down as one of the biggest internet blunders, as far as Nigeria is concerned.  The problem though is that I will probably never visit their site again till some time next year to see if they will remove this tacky feature.

sooo,

Over the years, I have narrowed down the Nigerian online paper sites that I visit daily from over 30 to 8, based on content, frequency of updates, etc. Punch has always been one of the 8, even after they went offline for a while due to a hack attack. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, I noticed that you now have to register/pay to read an article. As a result, I have stopped visiting their site.

Limiting certain articles to registered/paying members, only (and they used to do that in the past) is totally acceptable. Making everything available to only registered members in my opinion is preposterous. I mean, can't they take a leaf from other papers worldwide? I understand the need to make money. I am a capitalist to the core but again, is that what other, perhaps better online papers are doing?

Though they may not care, they have lost 1 (hitherto) faithful (for the past 4 years) visitor.

Oya, letz debate. It is a good idea to have every single article available only to registered members?

Very good suggestion Monk. Why I never thought of this, I will never know

Aaoe, no problem

Quick question though: What is the point of making the site a portal? I understand a portal, like say, Yahoo, to be a site defined thus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_portal . 

I assume here that you want to showcase the mall, including various stores.  If that is the case, this doesn't fit my definition of a portal and subsequently, there is no need going in that direction, IMHO.

I see the mall site as a site I would go to in order to find out what you have to offer, discounts, location, various stores, fun things to do and not where I go to search (as in enter keywords into a search bar or click levels of links down) in order to find information.

Again, my IMHO. Once again, good luck!

cos of your attitude, which I will attribute to humility, I will chime in my 2 kobo:

1) Google for the top say, 10 malls in the world, visit their sites and get ideas from there

2) Dump the tables, in favor of CSS.  This will reduce page load time.  Don't use inline styles either.

3) Make the site more interactive (maybe games, contests, etc)

4) Reduce the animation speeds, where animations will be employed.

5) Optimize your images so that those with slow connections can get to the site with little or no fuss

6) Code for 1024 resolution to allow for more content (good for marketing).  I recommend 965px myself.

7) Make sure your contact form actually validates (on present site, I entered "dd" for email and it didn't flag an error) and that there is actually someone on the receiving end of it (I recently redesigned a site for a politician who complained that since 2007, he never received a single email from his site.  As it turns out, the email that was referenced on the site WAS NEVER EVEN CREATED TO BEGIN WITH. Now he can't thank me enough for all the emails he is getting )

8 ) You mentioned the site being an ecommerce portal? Unless I read it wrong, I see nothing to hint that it is an ecommerce site.  Perhaps you should consider it.  If I read you wrong, never mind.

9) If you are going to use flash, do not make it as big as this one: http://thepalmsshopping.com/contact.php - it takes up too much real estate and obscures the main purpose of the page, even on a 1024

10) Employ excellent SEO techniques so that the site not only ranks highest among Nigerian competitors but highest among all its competitors.  You never know who might purposely fly in to Lagos just to spend discretionary hard currency, based on what they see

11) Last but not least, make sure you are paid accordingly for it.  If you are like me, the more you pay, the more features you add on, making the site better in the long run.  You shouldn't see yourself as the United Nations, doing things, "for the greater good" but as a professional.

Again, it talks courage to solicit for advice, acknowledging that no one knows it all.  I look forward to reviewing the end-product (when will this be?).

Good luck!