₦airaland Forum

If you thought Nigerian government websites were bad, think again.

Visit: www dot noupe dot com (I would post the link but don't want to fall victim to the bot ) and click the link with the said title, dated november 13).

geez! Maybe I need to append "International PLC" to my business name

dual core is beginning to spend more time in webmasters and less time in programming.

what gives?

programming is a subset of software engineering and as the name entails, there is actual engineering involved, per defined processes (as in it looks at the overall software development cycle and the part that each person has to play).

In a nutshell, other than that, nothing.

As they say, "what's in a name?" - Either the poster thinks we are mumu enough to click the link or he is a mumu for thinking as such

Though it isn't part of my job description, I don't mind, at the very least, perusing a page or 2 at random if necessary.  Why? I hate typos and grammatical errors with a passion?  Of course people won't associate such on a site with me but I sure do hate to read them.

Having said the above, I have discovered that finding such *and* telling the client about them reinforces the trust and appreciation that such a client will have in you.  On my part, I hope that it demonstrates to the client that I am not just an order taker/code monkey but that I am a true professional. And what's more? From such bonds usually sprouts a referral or 2 

I have encountered quite a few clients who say this up front, "I want an interactive website".

Typically, they say this most likely because they have heard it somewhere and want to come off as being knowledgeable. Some developers might, as I almost did the first time I heard this, immediately think they want a "flashified" site full of animations. This isn't so. 99% of the time, based on my own experiences, "interactive" just means they want a contact form, an customized email address and an autoresponder.

Solution:
Before you put finger to keyboard, the client needs to (and if not done before hand, make them do it when you talk with them) tell you upfront all they expect from you and any bogus terms should be clearly defined so that both parties leave the table in total understanding. If need be, have them provide you with a URL of what they expect their site to be/look like.

Cactus, u never update us now, How go dey go?

For me, the easy part is the online payments and Nigerians shopping online.  The hard part, at least to me is the delivery.  In other words, if I, in Potiskum, buy my favorite lace from a site based in Lagos:

1) How will they deliver it to me?  If perishable, how does it get to me such that it still is fresh upon delivery?
2) Assuming #1 is answered, with all the yahoo boys out there, should I trust that I will actually get my goods?
3) Assuming #1 is answered, what is the method of delivery such that the company still turns a profit (car, plane, bicycle, mail, etc)?

IMHO, the 3 points above are of more concern to me than online payments and shopping cos trust naija, we will shop and we have the brains to implement just about any online solution.

Based on home page, I like fidelity's best.

I dropped diamond cos I think the "webmaster(s)" took his eye off the ball with respect to what the site is for - the customer.

It has way too much "wow" effects, via mootools and jquery.  I am always afraid to hover over a navigational link as each time I do, the screen goes dark.  In fact, I think he/she paid so much attention to special effects that they lost site one one obvious quirk on the home page - search for "Recently Visited Pages" and note the url in orange.  To make matters worse, click the link.

Geez!

Yeah then they should have maintained that look throughout the site, not just the home page. I hate those "enter site"-type pages.

Based on a similar site in my state of residence, don't be surprised to find out that the budget for that site was N20m but then the person who won the bid ended up paying someone 50K (or less) to do the actual work.

Next time, do a search:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-350249.0.html

That's all from me, I think i am loving the 3-reviews policy, yawa u want more reviews u pay (like the other have Tongue)

Dual:
Hmmm. I wonder where I have heard that before

My take (and this shouldn't close the discussion):
1) The home page shouldn't exist. The site should look like the contact, etc pages.
2) Too much animation.
3) Subscribe to newsletter doesn't work (Ibomhost already covered why)
4) search doesn't work (already covered). if still under construction, remove it and add it when it's ready
5) photo gallery could be made better by employing one of the many javascript libraries
6) Long pages should have a "back to top"
7) top nav doesn't match bottom nav in footer
8 ) Various broken links
9) The site could probably have been coded using php or whatever, as opposed to html. I see HUGE maintenance problems from using html.

10) bottom nav has "mixer". what the hell is that? turns out it is the link of the "webmaster" but why put it there? Just add it to the copyright section (which of course doesn't exist)

Having said that, I actually like the layout though it seems it was coded for those with 800x600 resolution. Expanding it out more, and its true beauty would emerge for sure.

probably so, especially if u r copying and pasting as is

sorry for the inconvenience though. I am just trying to avoid the bot

Yawa, my criticism sometimes annoy me myself, you take it from here.

Noted - ROFLWKMD!

I will let a few others chime in before I do. Having said that, I agree with what you have said.

www.speakersoffice.gov.ng

Board is getting boring.  Decided to rekindle it.  How would you improve upon the site if given the opportunity?

NOTE: This post is meant for constructive criticism.  If you are the type to say, "why are you a busy body?" or "the guy who do am try" or "can i see your works" or"why are you complaining? wetin be your own?" or any words to that effect, this thread is not for you.

As always, I will let others go first before I chime in so as not  to influence the discussion.

As sad as it is for me to say this, I don't have his contact info. Perhaps if you try seun dot osewa at yahoo dot com, your message might find its way to him.

sorry I couldn't be of more help.

question: did the site from where the photo was taken have an explicit copyright statement on it? Just asking.

1) phpmyadmin should be what you need
a) You will need to create a database and the necessary table(s)

2) You will then need to write your backend code such that it calls the database (via username, password).

3) Your script will also need to capture the form fields, trim them, sanitize them and get them ready for inserting into your table.

Need more information? google for it.

good luck!

Wus:

Stop double-posting.

Thanks

I host my sites with hostmonster.  Everything there is "unlimited" - emails, storage, bandwidth.  I have about 20 clients under my main account and my main hog is images.

I doubt everything is actually unlimited.   What I think happens is, they have done research to know what the average amount ppl use is, maybe plus or minus a certain percentage.  They then bank on the fact that many won't exceed this.  If you are on a shared host, they then distribute the storage amongst accounts, robbing peter to pay paul, so to speak.

Case in point:
Again, I said everything is "unlimited" under my plan.  Looking at the "usage" area, I see that I am actually limited to 5000 email accounts, 1000 ftp accounts and 100 sql databases to mention but a few.  Looking at this, technically, I don't see how I will even reach 1000 email accounts when you consider that in 4 years of using hostmonster, I have only managed to use 20 emails 

I even tell my clients they get unlimited everything but in reality, many clients get, at the most 1 email (info@) account so I guess the "deceit" trickles down from the top 

So my broda, na legal scam, a.k.a "scheme" (na you use your hand sign d contract as opposed to naija style).  According to all the laws of economics, nothing is unlimited, well, maybe except for our wants.

get the reason directly from the horse's (google's) mouth. Always works like a charm

Possible reasons:
1) You are employing black hat SEO techniques
2) You are running scripts that google deems flaggable

Again, email google and hopefully they will answer your email soonest. good luck!

nothng much. u?

google

Hallelujah! Either cos of this thread or cos they finally got some sense knocked into their heads, the search module is now working. Now, if only they could actually produce results when the article exists (for example, I say etisalat on the home page, searched for etisalat but the results came back with zero results ), it would be all good

no mind am - im dey look for babe

light walk, if you insist. And yes, I helped 9ice write the song, "ganja man" and am passing the lighter with him as we speak.

Ra ra ra ra, oro ro ro roooo. Igbo la wi

1) templates are not bad

2) to optimize:
a) In photoshop, go to images -> image size -> reduce dimensions accordingly (place a check beside the size to proportion option). Then go to file -> save for web, select gif or jpg and you are there

b) fireworks:
Someone should fill in the blanks here as I am not conversant with FW

good luck!

afam4eva:

hmm, I didn't know that. Where did you get the info from? I am not saying you are wrong. I just need some convincing

1) font used is too dull
2) change the default colors of your links - the blue is blinding
3) reduce size of global header.
4) learn to optimize your images: http://www.maguetrontechnologies.com/images/header_bg.jpg is 130KB

yep and u can even go a step further:
<! [if IE7]>
IE.Css file
< [!end if7]>

OR

<! [if gte IE6]>
IE.Css file
< [!end if6]>

You should get the drill by now. Google for CSS conditionals

C'mon guys you know im only trying to be nice so i can get a good discount on the BUSINESS DEAL.

a ha!

I would probably go for a tougher certification like perhaps brainbench or CIW. That's just me though