₦airaland Forum

Thanks Cactus.

Everyone is focusing on whether or not the money matches the job while losing sight of the main reason why the poster came here: to ask if whether or he he/she should pay the balance.

It is typical of the "can I see your works" crowd.

After what remoranger pulled on me a month or so ago, even if it is giving me a script to make $1m, mba nu, babes no dey click am

dhtml o o o o o, omo peteru

I love myself for one thing - I always give myself some wiggle room. Good thing I said, "if yes, never mind" cos I suspected that it might be coming from a db

Sam:

Wat is the point of a review if you don't click around? 

My review:
1) http://www.ymcabauchi.org/team.php - I selected a department and filled out all other fields, yet I get an error asking me to select a department 

2) I start typing on page above then a weird number appears to the bottom right.  I wonder what it is then figure out it is telling me characters I have typed but I see no correlation b/w that and what I am typing.  Might I suggest:1
a) You style a box around the number so that it is noticeable
b) Indicate to the user how many characters they have to type, either min or max

3) Header: YMCA in red is not readable to me. Neither is the white text

4) http://www.ymcabauchi.org/allnews.php - is the news being pulled from a db? If not, I pity whoever will be updating the page.  If yes, never mind

5) http://www.ymcabauchi.org/supportYmca.php - I select Nicaragua, hit enter and I get a lightbox-type popup telling me there is no content.  Fair enough.  What pissed me off is that, there was no way for me to get rid of the modal window.  Crashed my browser man (I use FF).  What if I don't want to speak with your team? 

6) I see that you are using jquery which is cool but unless I am not hitting the right pages, I don't see you using it that much.  Hopefully you didn't download 55KB of code for just a thing or 2.

7) The gray bar: Left side says YMCA bauchi.  Right said says news.  I would probably demarcate b/w the 2 as to me, one color denotes they are related.

8 ) A lot of your code is just fluff.  If you used CSS layout, you could reduce download times significantly.  Check out what I found on this page: http://www.ymcabauchi.org/supportYmca.php#sup

<tr>
                <td width="123" height="16"></td>
                        <td width="10"></td>
                        <td width="20"></td>
                        <td width="71"></td>

                        <td width="8"></td>
                        <td width="21"></td>
                        <td width="91"></td>
                        <td width="21"></td>
                        <td width="4"></td>
                        <td width="84"></td>
                        <td width="48"></td>
                        <td width="11"></td>
                </tr>
9) Each page just seems similar - white content area to the left with the same images in the header and to the right.  Maybe you could use jquery to do a fading in/out show every 10 seconds or so so the pages don't look so "text-y"

10) Long pages should have a "back to top".  Jquery has a cool plugin called jtinyscrolling.  Use it

11) Pages with breadcrumbs like: http://www.ymcabauchi.org/ymcaSchools.php - not cool how the items wrap.  Maybe you should consider reducing the number of characters or the actual font size.

This is just a 30,000-foot view.  Sorry for the long post but I wanted to show how to go about an actual review - nothing negative or discouraging but plenty of stuff to learn from.

Good luck!

I am not a fan of certifications as anyone can cram and pass, without grasping a thing, but if you must take an exam, I wouldn't go for w3schools. I haven't taken the exams myself but from what I gather, the questions are very basic and easy. I would rather go for a brainbench or CIW.

Just visit your nearest Prometric center and find out what exams they are offering. I can guarantee you that w3schools exam won't be one of them.

Good luck!

japro:

As stated in another post, I am not in Nigeria at the moment and I don't see how it will work over the internet, unless you insist of course.

I am working on a seminar back in naija and will definitely post details when the time comes.

Stay tuned!

dhtml:
Total waste of time, no offense. Just follow web standards. Yes, the client doesn't care how it is done, as long as it is done but that doesn't mean their site should be turned into an experiment.

There is a very common acronym out there, K(eep) I(t) S(imple) S(tupid). I have been abiding by this for 10 years now and it has paid me well.

snoopweb:
Though I am an ardent supporter of capitalism and though the site to me isn't worth 5m, since you managed to get that much for it, kudos to you.

Having said that, you haven't answered the allegations. The poster mentioned google/yahoo ads. You haven't addressed those. In fact, you haven't answered anything. You spend more time in self defense and self-justification (which most would call avoiding the subject) than you do rebutting the allegation. Then you pull the classic "if you don't believe me, let it be" stunt.

Well, just like the other legal issue raging on here, I will remain always be for equality in justice though I must confess, your post wouldn't win you any fans, even in a court of law. Learn how to communicate (not English but attitude) well. That is my advice for you. Right now, this is typical he-said-she-said.

all:
Again, this is why you need some kind of written agreement. This matter shouldn't even come up here. It should go to a court of law. Developers, if you feel you aren't paid enough, ask that the agreement be updated. with Nigerian clients, I charge 80% up front. I have duped before. Once bitten, twice shy. Clients, if you feel you are paying too much or want more services, understand that it will cost more and update the agreement accordingly.

Tis harder to justify the cost for a web developer/programmer cos the user doesn't "see their works". On the other hand, they can see what a designer has done. This is why I feel the former is under-appreciated. I recently read that web dev and design will remain lucrative for a long time cos in general, no one know what we do.

I pray it is true

yep, and those fonts would be arial, helvetica, sans-serif, for the most part.

Lesson of the day:
Always use web-safe fonts that are easy on the eye.

On the other hand, if you use siFR fonts (google it), you might be able to get away with using some wacky fonts

mcfranc:
But would it qualify as the best site so far for 2009? I will let you be the judge

To host:
Get a web host and register a domain name with them

To upload/update (1, 2 or whatever number of times):
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-318678.0.html
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-317918.0.html

Good luck!

okay, assuming they don't have it, all isn't lost. Having said that, do bear in mind that the feature goes by different names - Scripting and add-ons, installcentral, etc. Just ask your web host, if you haven't already, to see if they offer such a feature. Utiware's site is taking forever to load so I couldn't visit it to make my own enquiries.

You can always install such (open source) programs yourself though. It involves, downloading a zip file, uncompressing in ur cpanel, pulling the app up in ur browser and following instructions, hopefully installing successfully at the end.

I haven't dealt with chat rooms before but I hear x7 chat is pretty good and so you should visit their site for the download. As far as forums go, there is smf and phbb to mention but a few. Each app's website pretty much does a good job when it comes to instructions on how to download, install and set up.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.

Cactus, sorry but it seems I can't leave you alone

Here is another job for ya: Professional tweeting. Talk of originality. Na why I dey like oyibo. Always thinking outside the box:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/09/02/tweet_for_hire_more_big_businesses_hire_tweeters/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news

No need. they would probably see you as a threat to their daily bread. next thing you know, either u r kidnapped or you are attacked with air forces, he he.

Good ideas man. Thanks. Will add them to my treasure chest

Per naija and data, you know better - we would rather argue, generally speaking, based on, "do you know who i am?"
than on facts and figures.

Maybe we can partner. How does cactide (nig) plc sound?

At this stage, I am thinking seminars is the way to go. Hopefully you garner so much of a following that eventually, the big cats will want to speak with you. Yeah, I think the old adage, "you have to spend money to make money" will definitely apply here.

Okay, so I take it you have a site and need these features installed.

What you would need to do, without anyone holding your hands, so to speak, is to go to your "fantastico" section of your cpanel (some might have it under "scripts" or some other name. worse case, just click every single option that your host has till you find it ), look for what you want to install, click it, specify a folder where you want the stuff to go, let the scripts handle the rest and that should pretty much do it.

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

For my response, reference post #12 above

he he, yet one more thing you can do when you relocate. (For the umpteenth time) To think you were wondering what you would do should you relocate

Yeah, we need to get the basics done first before we even do advanced stuff. The last time I brought up concepts like usability and web standards, I was laughed out of town with a soaked-in-pepper koboko to boot. We don't appreciate these things. To us, on the "webmaster's" side, "as long as the site works according to spec" and on the client's side, "Me too, i follow get website so no insult me", is all that matters.

I once thought about opening up a consultancy in Nigeria that would deal just on testing, usability and web standards. i envisioned clients paying me, not to code, but to figure out what is wrong with their sites and what could be done to fix it. Such people abound in the states and they make thousands of $$ per hour. After toying with the idea with a few people back home, I could tell from their responses that they thought I was on a controlled substance, so I dumped the idea, for now.

God help our web dev industry!

Cactus:
My point exactly.  I am more concerned about functionality (especially security) when it comes to a banking site.  I mean, I wouldn't want my information compromised.

HC:
Why didn't you include Union bank?  http://www.unionbankng.com/

That horse in the header has been running around since at least 2003 

Also, click "contact us" and click "submit" without entering any fields. Lack of validation aside, check out the "thank you page". Wow! The site gives the phrase, "failure to get with the times" a whole new meaning.

he he quad:

As I said earlier, even if you committed murder, nobody can just waltz up in here and cause commotion without probable cause. I want to believe Nigeria still operates on the premise of innocent until proven guilty and equality under the law.

Hopefully this issue has been settled b/w the 2 of u once and for all.

Yes the designs have certainly gotten better but since functionality for my bank (FB) is wack, I won't give the entire industry a passing grade just yet

Upgraded as in design or functionality. In other words, I have a first bank account and for the life of me, I can never seem to log in.

So please expatiate: Design or functionality?

By the way, a banking site, not to say it should look bad, should be all about functionality so even if you have the best site in the world, if I can't do certain things (pay bills, transfer money, etc), your design is of no use to me.

you will most likely upload it to your "public_html" folder and because I like abstraction, you might want to take advantage of your "new folder" button to create a new folder say, "downloads", and then click "upload (or hover over the icons till you see the tooltip that says same)", navigate to your machine's directory with the file, then upload there.

Then your url would look something like this: www.sirdayor.com/downloads/ebook.pdf

You might also want to modify your index.html/index.php (or whatever) so that if I type www.sirdayor.com, I get to see something other than the generic web host home page. You could start with adding text to the effect that you have an ebook ready for download, which could look like so:

<a href="/downloads/ebook.pdf">Download our free ebook today</a>

That should do it. Of course there is more to it than the above and doing any more, sorry, will cost you. Having said that, the little I have done here should get you up and running.

good luck!

Yep, I might be expensive but it is worth the peace of mind knowing that you are getting a quality product from me and that quality is not compromised

Seriously though, I thought stuff like this was a result of cheap clients. Yesterday, we heard from someone who paid millions for service they didn't even get. That tells me that our clients (some anyway) in Nigeria need an education on how the web works. In other words, they shouldn't just take it at face value that when they want a website, they will get what they paid for.

Clients should:
1) Get involved in testing to ensure that they are actually getting what they paid for.

2) Have a contract specifying damages a "webmaster" would pay if they get so many errors (for example say, bugs should not be more than 10% post-launch, which is usually 30 days after the site goes live).

3) Clients should withhold final payment until that say, 30 day threshold has expired, deducting a percentage for each day bugs are not fixed.

Yep, professionalism comes at a price and I am willing to go for months without doing a single job to drive that point home

Those are some pretty large images: http://www.elbashirsurgical.com/Gallery.html

No offense but I hope and pray this is a private venture as opposed to an officially sanctioned website (by NFF, NFA or whatever it is called now):

1) What is this? http://www.experiencenigeria2009.com/gallery.html

2) The "angle 90", on the right side of the site doesn't make sense to me

3) For a real experience of Nigeria, I would expect videos, blogs, links to twitter (i assume u or someone will be at most events), ability to comment, tips on social life, where to go./not go, etc

4) I would expect photos of various parts of Nigeria to make it visually appealing

5) Maybe throwing in a streaming audio/video feed of various places, certain games, etc wouldn't hurt either.

Again, no offense but again, I hope this is a private venture.

Take a look at this site for inspiration (not to say it is any better):
http://www.southafrica.net/sat/content/en/us/home

Act quick, the event will be here b4 u know it. Good luck!

I would think this comes standard with a download of the sdk or jdk. That and javac.exe, etc.

If you have downloaded jdk/sdk successfully and done the necessary path mappings, type javaw in ur dos prompt and see if you get anything back. If not, I dare say you haven't installed jdk/sdk successfully.

good luck!

so Afam:

I replied to this as I understood it - from a web developer's perspective (after all, this is a webmasters board ) while you replied to it from a general IT perspective. Nothing wrong with either approach. This is more reason why omni needs to explain better what he means.

To lend support to what you just said though: At work, we still use XP and IE6, though IE7 is much better and is in fact more stable and supportive of web standards. You should see how we scratch our heads to get things to work in it. We have raised the issue with management several times but get the same response, "IE7+ hasn't proven itself well enough to warrant an upgrade". They say this even after our web logs show that only 15% of our web users actually use IE6. Go figure!

From a web dev guys perspective, one needs to be ahead of the game though, IMHO. That is the only way you can remain competitive. By being ahead of the game, I am not saying use CSS3 when only few browsers support it. What I mean is, at the very least be aware that the technology exists so that when the time comes, you know what's up.

Omni, na u we dey wait for o

he he cactus, of course we need electricity, good roads and (joke) mai guards who will b awake at night to open the gate

Imagine ordering your favorite ice cream cone online. In the states, that sucker would be wrapped with dry ice to keep it hard and frozen till it gets to you. In naija? heat alone will melt it by the time it gets to you

I wouldn't totally agree with this.  What, between google, various good websites, peers, conferences, etc, no one should ever say that they are behind.  Now of course, there are those who choose to be stuck in time and either not want to learn the latest or stick with what they read 10 years ago but I think that is the exception rather than the norm.

Granted, not all that is posted on this board are up to par but from what I see, there is at least a decent attempt to get with the times - many sites are using CSS, are using the latest javascript libs, etc.

Perhaps I need to ask what you mean by latest technologies.  Expatiate please