₦airaland Forum

genty:
You (and other who think similarly) can't keep hiding behind the "what would google/yahoo/etc do" cloak.  If you had asked me the same question about nairaland et al, I would give you the same answer.  Please note that I said, "to me" which implies that I don't speak for everyone.

By the way, there is research out which states that people tend to remember names that don't make sense and names that have 2 syllables.  So though I couldn't guess what google does, the name sticks and cos of its product, I am more likely to remember it.

Go create your site and if it is catchy for me, I will remember it.  Go ahead, prove me wrong and I will be the first to kiss your feet.  Till then, you asked for my opinion and I gave it to you. 

kolitos:
you are like a blade of elephant grass in an open field - you change your mind every time the wind blows. get a spine - make a decision, good or bad, and stick to it

I would go with neither name as they don't tell me much about what your site does. I would also refrain from "naija" as to me, it sound ghetto - "Nigeria" sounds more professional, especially if you plan on targeting non-Nigerians, who may not know anything about "naija".

good luck!

RR, Thanks for finally responding.

Your vision is a commendable one  and I applaud you for it.  Having said that, since you posted, I feel it is a duty to guide you as much I can in the right direction, distractions aside.  In fact, it reminds me of a time in my JS1 when, while eating in the cafe, the dining hall prefect asked us to spell Mississippi, the winner getting an extra plate of food.  5 people tried and got it wrong and the skinny babe that I am, I remembered the age old song that teaches you how to spell it, sang it in my head, got up, spelled it right and got the extra plate 

There is nothing wrong with having white people on your site.  It is just a matter of where you place them.  As you have said, they are judges.  If you however look at the context within which you have the white people in your banner, they look like people clapping for someone who gave a right answer.  If they are judges, then put them on the "judges" page.

Again, nothing wrong with that but from someone who lives abroad, I can tell you that 95% of the time or more, whites will never use a black person to sell their product (even when the owner of the busines/venture is a black person) so it amazes me how we are quick to use whites to sell our products. 

I hope you understand.  Kudos and good luck!

afam4eva:

If you make it interesting, yes.  Don't get me wrong, the person won't be sitting on some seat like they are at a wake-keeping for the entire time.  They would take a 5 or so minute break every hour and after 4 hours, they would take a 1 hour break.  The class would also be highly interactive, not like photos of some "seminars" that I have seen recently where people again, sit like they are at a wake-keeping and take notes with 20-leaves exercise book, as opposed to coding using a computer.  I have attended several in the course of my career and though they don't last for an entire month (the longest I have attended is 2 weeks), this is the path that they all take.

First minute of first day of class would be "hello world" and by end of the seminar, they would be coding a typical web app (I can't teach design as that is subjective but I can point them in the right direction ). Don't underestimate the brains of a "newbie". It just needs a lil stimulation, that's all.

So yes, it is quite possible.

kolitos:
based on post #4, you got caught.   You acknowledged as much (as indirectly as it may have sounded) in post #5.  You also got caught a 2nd time (post #10).

Just deal with it and move on.

basildon1:
Gbam!

Afam:

As they say, when you point 1 finger at someone, 4 are pointing right back at you

Given an 8-hour-a-day 5-day-a-week regimen, I think it is quite possible to teach someone all he needs to get going in html, css, javascript and php. In fact, I am on the drawing board for a 2-part seminar that would last 3 to 4 weeks myself.

I think the question to be asked is why the person hasn't given us a detailed plan as to how he will go about the training. "All codes" under the sun can't be taught in a month but maybe he didn't mean that (not to defend the guy but I will give him benefit of doubt ).

I personally wouldn't respond to a post with just a phone number obviously. At the very least, I would expect a URL pointing to a page that lists everything that will be done within the time span so I can make an informed decision.

Did you get into it cos of the money or cos of the love for programming itself? I think answering this question in particular will go a long way in helping you come to closure.

Am not gonna criticise your website like some people

please get rid of pictures of all the white people it won't help you.

Cactus:
If you are for real, good luck to ya man. Give us a day by day report

Why this thread is still continuing, after so many months, beats me

@Yawatide, You can as well create a thread called 'Constructive Criticism of the Nigerian government', but you don't need to stick out your tongue to someone when you are undecided

Please refer to post #16 

1) Is it possible to turn off the animation for at least the advert section to the right? With stuff fading in/out of the header and stuff fading in/out of the adverts, I find it rather distracting.

2) http://www.nigerianspellingbee.org/images/banner.jpg - Is Nigeria now composed of white people or is the event going to feature white people yet be hosted in Nigeria?

3) Check d validation on this page: http://www.nigerianspellingbee.org/users/add/school

password, email, phone number aren't validating properly. It also wouldn't hurt to first validate on the front end, to prevent many hits (which I just did) to your server(s).

yeah biggjoe:
Though your comments aren't exactly true (reference the latest one here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-326207.0.html), it does remind me of the story of the 10 lepers in the bible 

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Access denied for user 'ekohall_seyiphp'@'localhost' (using password: YES) in /home/public_html/web/lib/db_var.php on line 6

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: Access denied for user 'nobody'@'localhost' (using password: NO) in /home/public_html/web/lib/db_var.php on line 7

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: A link to the server could not be established in /home/public_html/web/lib/db_var.php on line 7

Check that you are using the right database names and that you actually have your username and password correct. For instance, though I may call my db name and table name A and B respectively, my host for some reason tacks on a host-A and hosttable-B. In other words, go to the database portion of your cpanel to see what the names actually are and/or contact them for the info and/or visit their FAQ pages

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at /home/public_html/web/lib/db_var.php:6) in /home/ekohall/public_html/web/usdv.php on line 3

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /home/public_html/web/lib/db_var.php:6) in /home/public_html/web/usdv.php on line 3

this is most likely because you are calling your sessions and cookies after you have sent info in your HEAD portion of your page. In other words, chances aer that your code looks like this:

<html>
<head>
<title>
</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php session or cookie info?>
</body>
</html>

As opposed to this (note positioning of the session/cookie var):

<?php session or cookie info?>
<html>
<head>
<title>
</title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

In other words, always call your session/cookie vars before outputting any HTML

Good luck!

1) I don vex - your twin daughters no dey for dis site 

2) I like d color combo

3) The header flash image, I think shouldn't be that tall.  That way, when I log on to the site, I see more of the content below

4) The images to the left: unless the company only deals with kitchen and kini ko, I think you should make them smaller so as to accommodate other "services"

5) As duly noted, I reserve further comment until you show us the finished product.

6) Newsletter textfield: i think it is too large

7) The white area at the top look barren to me. It's like the design is being tilted to the left. Any way you can reduce the height so that the tops of the top navs are closer to it than they are now?

good luck!

Then ignore the post and move on

Well:

1) You can't say for a fact that say, NTA isn't taking note of what we are saying

For instance, I know for a fact that the developers of punch and sun news online (or their surrogates) are members of this board. If you go through my posts on their respective sites, u will probably note that no sooner than I post than they come on to say they are aware of the problem and are working to fix it.

2) Even if they aren't, again, I say these reviews are, in the long term, for our own benefit.

Who knows? You and/or I might be called upon to develop a similar site or NTA is shopping for a new developer. You just never know.

3) Earlier this year, I posted the flaws of nigeria.gov.ng. As usual, many posted "can i see your works?" or "what's the point?" In the end, we reached common ground and I even suggested we get together to build a site worthy of our nation. Again, many asked wat the point was as such a site would probably never get noticed. I argued again for learning. I figured at least 10 people would do the job but only 3 or so showed interest. I was envisioning a situation where even if the FG didn't accept it, we could market it and make it our own. Who knows? kpa kpa, some company or SG out there would have enquired further.

Shortly thereafter, Akunyili announced that nigeria.gov.ng would no longer be in service as it was hard to manage and that different ministries should manage their own sites. Now, I am not saying my post had anything to do with it but at least Akunyili realized the flaws of the site.

In conclusion:
lightwalk may have a point but just like you devote time in school to cram things you may never use in the future, it doesn't hurt to keep your creative juices flowing by continuously learning things for your own benefit.

Where are you located? What connection speed are you using? If you are in Nigeria, I am afraid this will most likely continue to occur due to poor "internet infrasctructure" back in Nigeria. It could also be a result of your connection speed. In other words, if you are paying for a low speed package, you shouldn't really complain

Yesterday, I was doing some joomla uploading myself and even though I am in the states, it still took a bit of time to upload (and I was on a T1 line). I also have a friend in Nigeria who said it took him a whole day to upload a video to youtube.

biggjoe: Exactly! Or as Afam has said above, GBAM!!!

It is as sociable as you make it.

Sorry, if my response is too short and straight to the point or if it sounds too simple to be true

biggjoe: you'd be surprised

In the US, the average response rate for a telemarketer is 2%. This number might sound small but imagine if the telemarketer sent the same advert to 1 million people. That 2% no longer looks that small.

lightwalk, I guess you are missing the point. It probably would have been best if you didn't bother posting. Your question is akin to, "if mr A won't bother changing anything, y bother reviewing?" You never know what could happen. It is better to try and lose than not to try at all.

Afam took it upon himself to set up a website called nigeriawebsiteblunders.com. This is a site where corporate entities who may be unaware of what is wrong with their sites can go, find issues and fix them and/or hire someone else to do so.

Even if nothing is done, again, you miss the point: We are using this as a learning instrument - to learn what to do and not do on our own sites.

I hope this clarifies things.

zsulu,

As mentioned in a previous post, if you want to "see my works", you will have to contact me privately. I don't blow my own trumpet. Sorry

It is either:

1) You don't pay a kobo but will pay in cents or any other currency OR
2) Listed sites with ebooks or online software are free but the book itself isn't

Of course you won't know this till you check out his site

he he, even google says unlimited mail space yet, after you log in, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see something like, "xxxx MB of xxxxxx GB used"

nice one zsulu

Seeing you have just 9 posts, I will take it you are still wet behind the ears on this board.

As I have said over and over, I don't post my sites on public fora. If you want to see them, you email me directly. I am here to spread knowledge based on my years of experience.

I will tell you though that you don't judge a book by its cover. Kudos to you for your responsibilities at work. I hope to be like you one day

zsulu,

I am afraid I don't understand what you mean or where you are going but you can rest assured that I don't and won't take it personally.

If I do understand what you mean, 90% of my clients, I have never, and probably will never, see in my lifetime.  For some, including clients in Nigeria, at the most, I have only communicated with them via email.  Though I am not saying I will never get burned, I think asking certain questions upfront will help separate the wheat from the chaff.

Look at it this way - you don't waltz to the very first mechanic shop you see and expect to pay whatever they say without them giving you a proper diagnosis. Even before they pronounce what the problem is, it is your responsibility to at least know a little about your car and ask pertinent questions before work begins and while work is going on, to ask further questions and/or watch what is going on so that you can perhaps work on a similar problem in the future.

I will take it that the last 2 or so posts, after nitation's apology, crossed yet again.

Nitation has apologized, xanadu has accepted, and kolitos is yet to acknowledge (though it is safe to say, he will have no problems accepting the apology either).

There is too much global warming going on for us to add to it by blowing off steam on this here thread

Let's move on.

Thanks

Potential war/cautioning averted.

If only life were any simpler, the world would be a better place

I think this is a give and take situation - what if the db wasn't properly designed and is hacked into? then what? Besides, I am all for shifting as much work to the client's browser as possible. Make im follow suffer small