₦airaland Forum

@kelechiedo
with a good teacher (and of course i understand that finding one might be a little hard), I respectfully disagree that learning to code by hand is hard.

It can be done. Adidas says, "Nothing is Impossible". Nike says, "Just do it".

I hope that the powers that be at Webmasters of Africa are reading posts like these and are making plans to organize some seminars.

@kehers: nice marketing

geez!

Guy has moved on and we are still posting?

What's up with that? Let's spend the energy on brand new posts where we actually LEARN something.

geez!

@poster
No offense, but could you please define what "fresh" means? Why can't they just be developers or experienced ones at that? Does "fresh" imply age, experience, fresh out of school, etc?

This might sound like an expensive joke but it isn't. A response would be appreciated.

Thanks,

cd someone pls answer the original question? I have been here a little over a month and must say I am amazed at the number of "language A is better than language B" type posts that I have seen. Must everything always be about who or what is better than who or what?

I too would like to know the answer to the **original** question.

Thanks,

@thephantom,

In addition to what you have said, as i have read earlier on the forum, we should be discussing more on topics like code reviews, quality assurance, site optimization, etc.'

I think, and i could be wrong, that it boils down to this "web designer" thing. I thought it was a mistake in how we call people who do websites but I can see that it isn't. A developer writes code and designer does the graphics that the developer converts into a website.

I have seen posts by my2cents and prodgal that posed javascript questions and only but a few responded. That says a lot about the skills of some of the webmasters here (please note, I am saying some (they know themselves) and not all). If you recall, I posted something to the effect that I wanted to know who the main shots on here were. I did it for a reason, not to want to know them so as to challenge them.

What i propose, and this might even be where webmasters of africa comes in, is seminars on a regular basis where the gurus train the newbies. Whether its free or not is another issue but in the end, everyone will benefit.

In conclusion, I personally think that the tide will change the minute we start thinking of ourselves as developers and not graphics designers. Don't get me wrong, combining skills puts you at an advantage but for heaven's sake, don't try to be something you are not. Leave that to the pros in that field and trust me, together, everyone involved will succeed.

@smartsoft
To clarify, I am actually a web *developer*, not designer and there is a difference.

I have seen enough posts on the 2 and I am sure you have as well. I don't have a website because I don't do this on the side. y? cos I don't want to be haggling pple over peanuts in the name of "madam, u go give me discount o! we b naija now". So i just do sites under the auspices of my employer. I however do know enough such that if you throw me in the deep end of the pool, I can swim my way out.

if you need help with anything, post it here and I will see what I can do.

@brownbonno,

My issue with DW et al isn't with the tool itself but with the fact that it lends to abuse by the unwise. Give me 5 websites (at random) developed in Nigeria and I will view their respective sources and show you nested table upon nested table upon nested table, with no comments, little or no indentation and with at least 3 functions with an "MM" prefix.

When A learns how to code this way, as they say, when all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail. Same applies in say, English. If you are used to adding, "o" to the end of your verbal sentences (like, "leave me alone o"), chances are that at some point, it will creep into your written sentences. It's only natural.

So to clarify once more, yes, DW is the market leader, no question. All I am advocating is tis best to get down and dirty or at least to turn off certain functionality of such tools so as to force yourself to code in ways that enforce web standards.

@smartsoft
Yes I do

On that note, I hereby join the growing team.

Long live Webmasters of Africa!!

sure, depending on how often you do it. I mean, if it's once a week or month, sure but every day? i wd expect more than a couple hundred bucks.

the include, not PHP, is like a linkable html, if i understand what u mean.

by the way, even HTML has the same capability. in this case, you would use a server side include.

in PHP, this is called an include, callable either via require_once() or require()

Suppose u hv a site with a header, footer, main content area, and navigation. obvioiusly, only the content area (where the text is) should change. So you put the other sections in an include file (you could, for example, have header.inc, footer.inc, etc). That way, if you need to change something in say, the header, you make it in that one file and it changes everywhere.

As for the colors, etc, that can be done via CSS *in an external file*. So letz say in January you want the site to be green. Then in March, if you want it a different color, since you are using an external file, you just change the color of the section in the CSS file and bingo! it changes everywhere.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Every good site must have a solid architecture. You have to spend 90% of your time determining the layout of your site. If you don't, the remaining 10% of your (development) time will be a living hell.

@uspry1

I am jane of all trades

LOL, good one.

Being in the states though, I am sure it is possible to find a multitude of things to do as the jobs, even if it means washing dishes at the local McDonald's for minimum wage, are there. In Nigeria though, it is quite different. Many atimes you are lucky to find a job.

Be that as it may, as we have both stated, there are tons of things to do. Worse case, if we can't find a job working for someone, we can discover our hidden talent and use that to employ ourselves.

@smartsoft

LOL. IE1?!? When were you born?

@luwy

I only surf with FF and none of the changes I stated above have taken effect.

@luvus

at this time, other than ask you to hustle for web jobs, I have no advice with respect to your situation.

I do have a question though: must you make money from just the web? What of other ventures (farming, writing, establishing a store/restaurant, etc)? I blv there is a member here, Afam, who also sells Inverters. So you see, you don't have to waste away figuring out how to make money online, legitimately or otherwise.
As the Bible says, Man must not live by bread alone. The web isn't for everyone.

Please don't mistake my words for discouragement. I personally prefer to tell people what they need to hear (which is what I have just said) as opposed to what they want to hear (which is, "nna, there are so many ways to make money online".

Again, the web isn't for everyone. If nothing is forthcoming, look to do something else.

I am more of a developer. If I were to give a percentage, I would say 90% developer, 10% designer (which implies my design skills are very poor).

y do u ask?

@tobaaro

my point is, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop". Sooner or later, the very things he is trying to avoid will be very things he gets involved with. 'nuff said.

Are you still hissing now?

I am not employing any one o

okay ooooooo

@mexabet

maybe, maybe not. I learnt it "the hard way" so to speak (and I am not exactly the sharpest cutlass to cut wire grass with) and I came out okay. No scars or burns whatsoever.

I also base my answer on help I gave to someone recently - someone was experiencing difficulty with some html and i asked the person to open up the code in notepad to make the change. The person said, "how?" and I was flabbergasted. It turns out this person used dreamweaver and was so overwhelmed as to what to do that the person wouldn't even dare opening the file in code mode in DW out of fear they would mess up something else. That was the day that reinforced in my mind that cutting corners is not always the best. Besides, if afroxyz is used to say, DW today and ends up in a situation where he/she doesn't have DW at their disposal. What next? Paranoia? Diarrhoea? Nervous breakdown? Of course, I joke but hopefully, you get the point. I have never used DW but no enough about coding that if I worked in a place that had nothing but DW, I could pick up the basics pretty quickly. Why? cos I know how to hand-code.

To each his/her own sha.

wat do u do with ur 12 hrs? Browse porn? Stare at the screen and bat your eyelashes?

Seriously though, if you are browsing the internet for 12 hrs and it isn't for the purpose of earning a living, I think something is wrong somewhere. What could you do? Worse case, you could chat with people unknown, tout your talents and hope that someone takes the bite.

wow! 12 hours. That's half a day. Time is money man. Spending that much time online should equate to that much money too.

Good luck!

IMHO, to look professional, you need an office. It's that plain and simple. Sure, you could have a home office but in a place like Nigeria, would you really feel comfortable inviting people you don't know into your house?

Office it is for me.

to follow up on wat mexabet has said and to respectfully disagree to an extent, I would rather you learn how to code raw (without the use or help of a tool). y? because you actually learn what is happening under the hood.

Once you get your hands dirty, you can then work with dreamweaver (or whatever WYSIWYG tool). Such tools tend to add a lot of fluff not to mention, if something isn't working right, being a newborn babe, chances are you won't know how to go in and make the necessary changes. Of course, in dreamweaver and perhaps others, you can switch to "code mode (I forget what it's called but basically i mean not design mode) to see the actual code. But what use is that if you don't understand the basics. I for example, can code in notepad. It's verbose but hey, at the end of the day, at least I know what is where and why. I do use a tool, but it is more as an enhancement than a necessity.

In conclusion, I say learn to code without the aid of tools first then once you are comfortable with that, experiment with various tools out there.

ur web host should have website analyzers like awstats, etc. If not, you can download analyzers like sitemeter that can do a comparable job.

u might want to try using a cms (joomla, etc). That way, you do the write up and specify when u want the data to change out. Either that, or u write your own cms and using php for example, u specify what section to show after a certain date has passed.

Just thinking out loud

@RuuDie,

na wa o! u still hv problems with it? Oh well. I hvnt installed on windows although frm this forum, it seems wamp is the way to go. As for tables, what do u need to know? how to set them up? syntax? what?

Let me know and i just might be able to help.

1) no contact form on the "contact:" page. Also, no need for a separate "email" button. Those all belong to the "contact" page.

2) I would have at least centered the site and given it a red background. Right now, there is a huge white gap to the right.

3) on movie preview page, there are 2 "play movie" buttons which when clicked, dont do anything. Also, clicking in the green area, brings up the download box. Wouldn't it b better for the movie to play within the box?

4) the content area on all pages except "news" and "profile" is gray. for consistency, I would make all of them the same color.

5) Most of your pages consist of images, even where text would be best, including content areas. This is baaaaaaad.

LOL,

As a FF user going on 4 years, I wish many many more download it. There are so many neat tools that come with it, not to mention, it's the one that follows web standards the most.

A lot of sites in Nigeria look awful in FF. When asked, the developers in charge often resort to the "well, majority of Nigerians use IE" excuse forgetting that more often than not, websites (the ones that offer goods and services at least) aren't usually meant for where they are located but for those in far away countries and there is no telling what browsers they use. Last year, I believe 20% of the world's surfing population used FF and I pray it grows more and more.

Goooooo Firefox!

@webmonk,

There is no need responding to A2J with such a long response (sorry for the redundancy):

1) What is a template? It is the first page that you code that lays the foundation for the other pages on your site. In other words, unless you intend to have each page be different (something I highly discourage), all pages will look the same based on this first page (headers, footers, navigation areas, etc)

2) If you got it from somewhere else, who cares? The web allows it by its very nature. What I do is google for what the competition is doing, check out the first 20 or so results and incorporate all that is good on my sites and throw away what i don't like. In the end, we all get motivation from somewhere.

@A2J
I believe webmonk was asking for a critique and not for anyone to prove that his websites are or aren't templates. If you want to start a debate, I have no qualms with that but that doesn't belong here. Perhaps you can start another thread like say, "Post your work and let us prove that it is or isn't a template".

@RuuDie

Little wonder you is the moderator out here. . . . . . if i said i understood a third of what u said, i'd be a big, bad, blatant liar

Just commenting on your post, thatz all.

ur challenge question says it all.

How many people have a computer at home? how many people can afford to spend money at a cyber cafe? How many people have money for their basic needs, not to mention money to spare for browsing? How many people have electricity to browse the net when they want to? How many areas have electricity in the first place? Of the places that don't, how many people in such places can afford a generator or inverter?

The above are some of the questions that need answering.

In my opinion, generally speaking, the average African is overwhelmed by social networks. I mean, you have the facebooks and the myspaces and if I were to extrapolate from NL alone, I would say there are at least 1000 social networks per African country. How do they differ? What makes them unique? How many usernames and passwords do I have to remember? In the end, 99% of them are basically a knock off of say, NL, the only difference being the background color.

Anyways, that is how I see it.