Nairaland Woes

For some time now, I’ve been a bemused spectator of the Nairaland forum and while I believe it is one of the best Nigerian forums on the internet, I feel it has some short-comings.

It’s so pathetic that people get banned for voicing their opinions on the board. I feel the administrator seems to take some delight in being supreme and attacks any threat, real or perceived.

I wil not pretend that moderating a forum is easy work. I will also not pretend that keeping hackers at bay and ensuring you have a good name is easily achieved. Banning seems to be a sadistic delight indulged in for both flimsy as well as concrete reasons.

The administrator needs to see that the forum is not him — a forum is very different from a blog and disagreements are bound to occur. Disagreements with an administrator are unfortunately taken as ‘attacks’ in this case and I strongly suspect some antagonistic tendencies.

Obviously, it is caused by an imbalance of power — I’ve discovered that I tend to be harsher when I make decisions on my own concerning anything and I think that’s what’s going on this case.

I’ve been watching an accelerating trickling out of the intellectual body of Nairaland and the mass incoming of bored teenagers who jump around postng irrelevant replies instead of staying within the boards designed for such — Chatterbox and Forum Games. I think they even ought to restrict themselves to the Recycle Bin.

A lot of people share my sentiments about the running of the forum. A forum does not belong to the ‘owner’ — he only oversees it. Creating a community and expecting everyone to think the way you do is a study in paradox. Attacking people on the boards and banning people who criticize you is a definite no-no.

People are bound to disagree with one’s views — they are not necessarily attacking. Obviously, my only reason for posting here is because someone once got banned for musing about leaving.

Nairaland is great, but it’s becoming something else. Unfortunately, alternatives do not yet exist :roll:.

Comments

  1. Seun Osewa says:

    Actually, alternatives do exist. You can start your own forum. The beauty of private enterprise is that if the service that someone is providing you for free is not satisfactory to you, you can use your time and money to create a satisfactory alternative!

    A lot of angry Nairaland members have done just this in the past and they have neither failed nor succeeded. I am very aware of the psychology of mobs on the Internet, and I know that if I don’t control certain people and their opinions, the forum will be further damaged.

    Inasmuch as I feel sad to see certain members leave, I cannot because of them allow the forum to be destroyed. Once people have contrary opinions about the forum, they will not stop distracting others with their opinions until the forum is destroyed. So I ban them.

    Trae_z was the first public critic of my inhibition of speech that’s not constructive on Nairaland. I had much fun calling him to task over his decision to delete caustic attacks made against him on his own blog. Doing something is always tougher than it seems!

    I am very unapologetic about my current moderation style because it works better than different styles I have tried. If someone comes up with a better style that one man can use to keep order on a forum as large and active as Nairaland, I’ll adopt it immediately.

    Thanks a million Azuka. I have refrained from responding to your comments line by line.

  2. jojo says:

    Just a quick word, I’m happy with the way Seun’s running Nairaland. It gave me a pretty good reason to leave. I was spending too much time on it anyway. I did email Seun to talk about is. He listened but it appears not much has change. I never found myself being censored (that must mean I was a pretty responsible Nairalander), but I found his moderation style too strict.

    I’ll be back later to say a bit more, or I’ll blog about this.

  3. Wale says:

    I think a forum site should be freedom of information and expression.
    However, Seun has got the right to moderate his site since he now earns his living from the forum.
    I new web forum has just gone online with the concept “Where anything and everything
    is blogable”

  4. Tony says:

    Hi,
    Why dont you start an alternative forum? Or help run a new forum.If you are interested,I have a proposition for you.
    Take care

  5. Alhaji Alhaji says:

    I’ve discovered I can no longer access Nairaland forum. I don’t know if this is what you guys call “ban”. Since I posted a topic on the forum, to which many members responded, I have never been able to log into Nairaland. While using the google search engine, an alternative “Nairaland.net” came up. Is any one familiar with this. Can someone throw in more light?

  6. Nancy says:

    Alternatives do exist plenty in fact, i have had a bad expericne with nairaland as well as feel no one should patronize them because it seems the guy thinks he is the forum and the members are not shit
    alternatives include http://www.nigerianentertainment.com/forums/ andnaija ryders

  7. Nurudeen says:

    In response to Alhaji Alhaji above, this is what the founder of http://www.nairaland.net has to say:

    Success is sweet.
    But what is success of a website without the user base.
    http://www.nairaland.net was created to send a message to the admin of the .com that pissing your users off will eventually prove expensive.

    For the most part, people will put up with negative treatment, until you have their back to the wall. At which time they will turn around and face you.

    I made meaningful contribution to the .com for close to 6 months.
    Over that period:

    My posts were indiscriminately deleted, often because the admin was proved wrong in a discussion. The admin, Seun often comes across as juvenile, and conceited. Never concedes gracefully when he’s wrong. Eventually, all such posts that portray him as unintelligent get deleted.

    I witnessed so much negative treatment of the users of the site.

    From all indications, most registered members are unhappy with the admin’s conduct. But if that was the case, why do they remain members? Perhaps because they’re unaware that tons of similar forums exist on the net.

    In response to the admin’s self-important behavior, I decided to create a
    http://www.nairaland.net/

    At the present time, http://www.nairaland.net/ is everything that the .com is, and more.

    I would have never thought of creating http://www.nairaland.net, had it not been for the admin’s attitude toward his users. I would have been perfectly happy contributing to the .com for a long time to come.

    I’m sure many people out there feel the same way I do, and eventually, Seun will realise it’s too little too late to redeem himself, as people move away in droves from his site.

  8. Mariam Alakija says:

    Nairaland and Seun Osewa…..the place and the admin will leave you with a sour tase in your mouth as only his opinions on all threads matter and any attempt to argue or disagree with his opinion will result in threatening private messages one famous one is ”DO NOT CHALLENGE YOUR ADMIN AGAIN ON ANY TOPIC, FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE BAN FOR A DURATION I SEE FIT DEPENDING ON MY MOOD.”

    Threads to avoid are posts by the following LAPDOGS…oops! MEMBERS BY THE NICKNAMES OF Eveseh(dimwit with no opnion on any topic,but will drop in on posts to post a smilie. or in the event she makes a post its along the lines of Shakira v Beyounce who is hot?, ciara v christina who is hot and the list goes on. Another one to avoid is Hot Angel( she can be found on Hi5 as Lizzy, 16yrs old sex manic and she claims to be a virgin, her post will leave u ashamed to be Nigerian. Also very importantly Seun the admin also has many nicknames on line and will sometimes attack anyone of greater intelligence with one of these nick names like the coward that he is. Basically the place is also swimming with scammers , spammers and 419ers so be careful who you chat to on line, some dude tried to convince me to part with $1000 to travel to america like he was talking to an idiot.

    Many have left the Land so do not be deceived by the number of members you see, they are not active, and when like me u ask for your account be closed, and your details cancelled, you will get an automatic ban , but your details still held. A few weeks back during a scandal regarding the fake death of a member,a stunt many beleived to be an idea drummed up by seun to draw publicity to nairaland but then backfired, during this scandal, many asked to be removed from his databas as they no longer trusted their details in his hands, seun retaliated by publicly disclosing 7 memebers email addresses and Ip addresses to the whole nairaland forum, a practice which is toatlly unethical and immature and above all a breach of trust. I dont know if its down to the fact that he has never left the country and seen how ppl behave in civilised ways, but his childish , school boy bully tatcics are nothing short of ignorance and lack of education.

    many bloggers have written about nairaland being great but soon realised that the place is a joke and no place for classy or educated ppl to be. Thank you

    P.S
    I am no longer a member, i asked for my account to be closed because i saw all the goin ons and decided it was an unheathy envirnment to be in. I sent a mail to seun saying it was time i left and just wanted my account closed, you should know that we did not have words prior to this,i was sent an email saying ” i will no longer be able to log on the site,my details will be kept and used which ever way seen fit for him to use and as he has too many members at the moment, my decision to leave met him with great delight as one less member will leave the forum easy to navigate for others”.

  9. Layi says:

    Seun is dripping with arrogance. All the highly educated and sharp Nigerians have left the forum.

    I don’t understand how someone would choose to self-destruct in this manner. The site would
    eventually implode as it gets more and more diluted by posts put up by kids with nothing tangigle
    to say.

    I was a member for a while, but then I found out that powerful contributors were suddenly
    disappearing without a trace. Some return to complain of unfair ban, but they disappear again
    soon after. That of course, means Seun silences them to keep them from telling the truth.

    Is Seun Osewa his real name? I’m sure he isn’t thinking of the people he’s going to meet in
    future who may decide to shut the door in his face due to the face that he spit in their faces in
    the past.

    I was surprised to find movies and music on http://www.nairaland.net/ I was actually able to watch the
    movies on the site. I have a feeling http://www.nairaland.net/ would ultimately replace
    Seun’s messed up site.

  10. Damy says:

    I agree with most of yall but i gotta disagree with mariam on lizzy been a
    disgrace to nigeria. i know her and she is one of the most wonderful nigerian
    i have had th pleasure of knowing. yea she knows more about sex than most of the
    so called experienced peeps but been a virgin doesn’t mean you gotta be ignorant
    about sex.

  11. It’s been a while since I read through my own blog. Apologies from the coder.

    I’ve been following Nairaland for a while now, and I don’t think I should leave — at least not while the intellectuals like WesleyanA (a good friend of mine) and Afeni (a real, hothead radical) are around (you won’t believe these guys are teenagers!). I almost left Davidylan out.

    Recently, we had an addition (Drusilla) and while I do not approve of many of her ideas, I find them compelling and it’s great to see Nferyn and her have a go at it. That’s one of the things that make a good forum — intelligent discourse.

    In response to Mariam’s comments, I took an immediate dislike to Eveseh as soon as she joined because of the way she posts. I find it highly amsuing hat very few people are willing to create threads with any useful content. Highly keen minds have resorted to posting only in the infamous Forum Games which is quite safe for anyhing and everything. Cybersex goes on right on the boards and within the space of two days, two topics had disgusting pictures of nude humans [both were about scammers but I think the posters hand-selected the pictures for the sensation].

    Speaking of Lizzy alias Hot-Angel, it might surprise you to note that because of the media, everyone knows about sex nowadays. I’ve never done the big “it” in my life, gone out on a date or even kissed or hugged a girl but I could give lectures in those areas — from the extremely kinky and perverted stuff to softcore, I think I could put a lot of people down.

    I’m just not as open about it as some people are — code and anything to do with books interest me more. Besides, ignorance about sex is what causes a lot of problems in today’s society. I’m waiting till I get married [if I do get married, which is another subject entirely].

    Seun’s a very brilliant guy with a keen mind — you have to give it to him — but I believe he is doing just what most people would do in his case. Nairaland has great potential, and the downward spiral can be reversed, but if the trend isn’t arrested, I think when some other strong forum rears it’s head, and is managed by a group of people [not one – as power corrupts] or one of the current ones increases it’s appeal, Nairaland might just be looked at with nostalgia as formerly being one of the great forums of the past.

    Indeed, a giant will have fallen. I’m not predicting doom — I’m just a dispassionate observer 🙄 :lol:.

  12. according to me,

    lol

    I cannot say much nowadays cos I have a new website to promote

    If Seun likes, let him run his site the way he likes

    Blue has made me realise, it aint ma site, it’s his & without it, many things would not have happened to me

    But yer, I agree & I told her

    That don’t mean I owe him anything or he owes me whatever

    It is a medium and whatever good or bad thing I get from there , It’s ma own palava

    So, I aint even in for his . . . . arrogant attitude or silly cowardly behaviour anymore

    **yawnnss**

    Got better things to do

    Take a survey: http://www.fsw.nypo.org/nairaland.html

  13. Wale says:

    I think a forum site should be freedom of information and expression.
    However, Seun has got the right to moderate his site, since he now earns his living from the forum.The internet has already
    globalised the world and it has alrady make sharing of information free than ever .Yes nairaland should expect competitors
    that is the fun of the internetthere is a new Nigeria Online Community forum wwww.naijablogvillage.com with the concept
    “Where anything and everything is blogable”

  14. Speaking of nairaland members

    I insist on NOT COMMENTING BAD OR WHATEVER on any of them

    They all have thier own unique ways of sharing thier ideas and if they choose to post on sex, music and off-topics

    It’s thier choice

    They have a right to do so , because that way, the forum runs and no one gets hurt (especially seun whhoseposts don’t seem so intellectual to me )

    So, even Eveseh aint that dumb, and Afeni da radical (always makes me laugh when annoyed with him ) got his own views, so does hottie and many other people

    If they do not post on thier sex-lifes, then you would not know about it

    Put it this way, they choose to say what thier experiences are . . which is why you know alot about it

    So, leave it that way . . .

  15. you know who says:

    Eng Bola, Bolex, you are a spinless fish oooo

    After all your campaign on how you will show nairaland. it looks like you are now back tracking, are you hoping you will be unbanned? You know waht has happened and has been said , if you have moved on like you say then why come here to start talking ur rubbish ?

  16. well, I wish I understood you

    who is talking about coming back on nairaland

    Lemme tell you one thing

    The owner of myspace and hi5 ( a BIG social network website ) are not fools

    They started from nowhere and let thier ego off to get somewhere

    Seun can sit his ass on his computer being as rude as he wants and let’s see where he gets

    back-tracking or sucking up on anyone is not my hobby,

    am working on better stuffs

    and if your so called oga-admin thinks his website will go further with his silly attitude

    let’s watch and see

    and whoever ‘you’ is, is definitely not me, I say ma name and say what i wanna say , ANYTIME , ANYWHERE AND ANYHOW ?

    so, ‘YOU’ can at least be brave enough to type in your name , if not … you know what to do …

    In case you forgot what to do , ‘shush’

    Why would I wanna start talking against NL members , when they are all ma friends … huh ?

    dumbie

  17. Badchic says:

    Maryam Alakija a.k.a Bettyboop, please keep your beef to Seun and Seun alone. Stop involving Hot-Angel, Eveseh, Rhodalyn, etc. These kids don’t even know you exist and you are always typing about them on different blogs. Please get a life, I know you don’t have a life that’s why you go about all over the internet babbling about Hot-Angel, Eveseh, etc. What’s your beef with them? You are even old enough to be their mother so why are you crying your pathetic self all over the place about them? At least they also caught you using multiple IDs on Nairaland so hey! please get a life and stop whining over small kids and acting like a retarded old hag.

  18. EXPECT A SYS CRASH says:

    LoL nice try Badchic a.k.a Seun, Mariam was so right i totally agree moron. Listen child, while you grind away on that frigging sad nairalnd like a hungry hyenna others are getting paid wages you would only ever see in your dreams. Seun is a retard and all know it, including the so called Hotangel who has her tongue so far up his backside she has shit coming out the other end. I see how the place had really declined now and it makes me laugh. Anyway, guys enjoy your little world of intelligent discussions of who is hot , who is it this week? Beyounce or ciara LOL LOL.

    Seun who sits on his computer with numerous IDs bring up threads such as”I got an oil company job thru Nairaland, thank you seun” How sad is that from someone who has only 2 posts, Anytway, he needs to make up characters to make himself look like he is liked, Bcos nobody else does. As for Hot Angel, anyway she or he is a joke,that bitch betrayed me,she was spose to be a friend instead of getting an education , she goes about trying to pick up men on Nairaland, and claim to be a virgin, the retarded whore.

    Badchic/seun/papermoon/skidoc/Akolwole etc which ever you chose to be known as everyone knows Nairaland is a playground for retards, scammers,4i9,sex addicts, Atheist bastards,bloody islamic recruitment camp and a place for child molesters.

    I know this is seun coming here as Badchic, WARNING TO ALL, BECAREFUL SEUN OSEWA MISUSES HIS MEMBERS PRIVATE INFORMATION ON HIS DATA BASE, AND WOULD GO AS FAR AS DISCLOSING YOUR ADDRESS ON HIS FORUM IF HE HAD IT. SEUN BE WARNED YOU HAVE BROUGHT WAR AND YOU WILL PAY DEARLY.

  19. Badchic says:

    Hahahaha! Sys Crash/Maryam Alakija/bettyboop, You are so pathetic lol. Is this where your mates are? Exchanging words with a teenager. Go and look at your agemates and see what they’ve done with their lives. No matter how hard you try, fool you can NEVER figure out who is typing this hahaha lol. You think everybody is like you who would be using different usernames. Bloody asshole liar. You really need to get a life, you are just hating for no reason, your hate amounts to nothing because nobody recognises you. Pathetic sad loser, at your age you can’t boast of anything tangible you have achieved in your life except going everywhere on the net with bad belle and HATRED. I don’t even care if you diss Seun till tomorrow, just leave Hot-Angel/Eveseh/Rhodalyn alone, by the time these kids reach your age they won’t be on the net again because they would have done something better with their lives. I don’t pray to be like you when I reach your age, you are not a good model of what a twenty-something year old WOMAN should be – you are a disgrace. Who prays to be typing about on the internet at twenty-something when her mates are busy working in their offices or keeping their homes. I repeat GET A LIFE! Sad Old idiot. LOSER!

  20. Badchic says:

    I forgot to add: Zahymaka, bless your soul. I received your e-mail. Don’t mind people or whoever it is, I’ve never known you to be angry on NL so just continue being a good boy. Don’t mind all these old, rubbish ADULTS who go about ridiculing themselves. Majority of them are older than my elder sister & brother yet they bring themselves so low shamelessly all because they want to make up for their wasted youth on the internet lol! They take pleasure in hating young kids who are simply having fun, as if we are the cause of their FAILURE to succeed in their miserable lives.
    Can you imagine your honourable elder brother/sister typing rubbish like this brainless Maryam Alakija on the net? I can’t imagine my elder sister/brother doing that lol. They are too busy and too focused for that lol.
    Zahymaka, better warn the Madam Fool to keep the names Hot-Angel/Rhodalyn/Eveseh out of her mouth else she’ll be sorry.

  21. seriously, nairaland has become a retarded place to be …

  22. well . wat;s up .. Can’t you guyz see the alternative is here :

    http://www.justnaija.com

    **grins**

  23. Oah says:

    came here from Chxta’s own complaint. apparently seun has met his match. you don’t go around banning people anyhow.

    http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-30418.0.html

    This thread protesting CHxta’s ban has actually been left undeleted for a whole day! Are we seeing a brighter day on Nairaland?

  24. Thanks for dropping by Oah. The post still happens to be there. I must say I’m a little surprised, but if I know Seun at all, he’ll wait until the hulabaloo over the thread dies, then delete it.

  25. Oah says:

    so what does that say about him?

  26. Live TV on nairaland.net.

    I would like to watch Nigerian TV stations online in real time.

    To view a demo that I created, please visit http://www.nairaland.net/, and click on TV.

    Anybody affiliated with a Nigerian TV station, interested in streaming online live, please contact me.

    I can also do the same for Nigerian radio stations.

    Wouldn’t it be fun to listen/watch Nigerian broadcasts live anywhere in the world in your native language? It sure would.

  27. Seun Osewa says:

    I’m sorry that I can’t be what you want me to be, but that’s the way life is: you can’t always have your way!

    Perhaps I allowed expectations to rise beyond realistic levels. If so, then that’s my only mistake.

    People are still commenting on this thread. This shows how important Nairaland is to people. There must be some good things happening there.

    All the great people in this world have bitter critics who think they are the devil. No exceptions.

  28. Oah says:

    The thread has been deleted.

  29. Azuka says:

    Seun
    I’ve never doubted that you’re a brilliant guy, etc etc, but mixing your personal stuff in wit the running of a forum isn’t going to get you anywhere. Nairaland was important to me until you decided to insult me when I pulled out of your photocomic convo. I didn’t find that funny in any way. I still drop by occasionally, but I don'[t think I’ll ever post. It’s that bad.

    If you’re rubbing off the wrong way on everyone, then there’s got to be something causing it. Instead of attempting to justify your behavior, perhaps you really need to step out of yourself and examine yourself the way a stranger would.

    Oah
    As expected…

  30. dominique says:

    niaraland.net is nothing but a wack immitaion of .com. i’ve been there a couple of times but it was so dry i had to check out. i’ve been a member of .com for almost a year though i’ve witnessed a bit of what you guys called seun’s (saucy) attitude, i’ve never experienced the wraught of his anger.i wonder why, maybe bcos im not an adherent member like you guys.
    for the records, this is the third “i hate nairaland” blog i’m seeing. (ive seen chxta and trae z”s blogs). i guess thats not enough for me to join the bandwagon and quit the site just because of some tales of woe. what im just tring to say is that i dont beef soneone cos ohter people are.
    i dont see myself joining any other forum site anytime soon espcially that joke of a site(.net)

  31. Paul Ola says:

    Unfortunately, Nairaland is run by an illiterate (Seun), sole administrator.

    Majority of the members are illiterate who are very ignorant. They share same views with Seun and they dislike educated people. Dull forum run by uneducated man and attended mainly by unintelligent jobless people.

    Seun will ban you if he identifies you as being too popular, educated or intelligent. He will ban you if he feels you are gaining popularity in the forum. Not a good place for working class or highly educated people. Avoid Nairaland if you are educated and intelligent.

    Like most online forums, Nairaland could be better managed and attract educated people if Seun would appoint 3-4 highly educated moderators among some of the few educated members such as ´McKren, Big B1, Iyke-D, LadyT´.

    Seun is making no dime out of the forum as he claims. It´s a 419 false claim that will get him nowhere. At most, he could be making 50 USD in 3 months via adverts by Nigerian standard. He would do better reselling hosting as he used to, if he has the funds.

    If he is a programmer as he claims, he should by now have developed a forum software of his own rather than use a third party software developed by SMF (USA). A FORUM software is simple to develop and can be developed in less than 1-3 months depending on your programming experience.

    I am a programmer, software developer and managing 2 own companies in Europe. I have been in the Internet business since 1997 and I think Seun is doing a little good job but he cannot succeed the way he is going about his little business with false claims, arrogance and complete lack of experience.

    He should collaborate with educated people to run the forum and don’t exaggerate or falsify his successes. At this time he does not have many members as he claims but he may already experiencing cost problems due to bandwidth consumption. I can only forsee failure and closure as the members grow in future and he will be unable to cover the cost of hosting bandwidth.

    I would have offered him a free hosting on my company server but he doesn´t deserve it as he continues to falsify his successes.

  32. Seun Osewa says:

    Azuka, I am not rubbing the wrong way on “everyone”. I can count the number of bloggers who are unhappy with me with the 5 digits on my right hand. That’s exeptionally good for a site with 84,000 members. I am satisfied with my performance, and secure in my position. Thanks.

  33. Coocoobara says:

    Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:17:25 +0100
    From: “Seun Osewa”
    To: “coocoo bara”
    Subject: Re: Please, delete my profile immediately

    Hello Coocoo,

    Thanks a million for your email. While you’re at it, you need to
    revoke your citizenship of Nigeria because Obasanjo was criticized by
    his political opponents.

    Request denied.

    Best Regards,
    Seun Osewa.

    On 3/19/07, coocoo bara wrote:
    > Seun,
    > Please, delete my profile immediately from your forum.
    > I am disgusted reading the bad comments made about you and
    Nairaland at the following sites:
    > 1. http://www.dipotepede.com/2006/10/04/interview-with-the-nairaland-king/
    > 2. http://www.traedays.com/blog/2005/05/breaking-news-trae_z-has-been-banned-from-nairaland/
    > 3. http://azuka.zatechcorp.com/2006/05/31/nairaland-woes/#comment-4447
    > 4. https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=23722797&postID=3393442379282297255
    >
    > You may wish to ban me or block my IP as I do not intend to return to your site again or recommend anyone.
    >
    > I´m gone for good!!!
    >
    > Coocoobara – UK (Member for only 2 days)
    > [email protected]

  34. Afam says:

    Paul,

    You need not take on the users of NL, if you have issues with Seun, address it squarely but refering to the majority of users as illiterates and jobless people is totally way off the mark.

    No doubt Seun is sometimes rude and sometimes arrogant. I have been banned twice but it seems that the ban never lasted more than 30 minutes on each occassion and I don’t know why.

    On each occasion I was banned for abusing someone when in the real sense I was only replying a post in kind as I always do. I have never insulted anyone on NL but when insulted I never waste time to return the insult and no apologies and that is what I will continue to do until Seun is bold enough to address those that start the insults (maybe they are his friends) instead of the less than 30 minutes ban I noticed on two occassions.

    So, you have a right to determine how you use the forum, for me Seun is always out of the picture when I am on that forum as I look for issues that interest me and comment on them accordingly if need be.

    And I believe NL is a busy place and I don’t think anyone can take that away from the site even though the admin needs to make some adjustments.

    I have seen quite a number of good posters leave the forum and it is not good in my opinion.

  35. Azuka says:

    Dominique
    Thanks for your opinion, and no this isn’t a beef.

    Paul Ola
    Much as I hate to do this, I’ll have to defend Seun here. Seun is a brilliant man and he definitely talks a lot of sense in many ways.

    I doubt you’re a programmer, or to cut you some slack, a good programmer. There’s absolutely no point reinventing the wheel when a solution already exists. SMF is very good as a forum software — it’s been tried and tested over time and when it comes to security, it exceeds even Invision Board. Seun does make money from Nairaland — I don’t think he has any other job and it’s hard to keep up with something when there’s no money coming in from it, and yet not work anywhere else.

    Seun
    The number of bloggers unhappy with you and the number of people unhappy are bound to be very different. Bloggers have a medium of publishing their grievances — others don’t, except on Nairaland where they’re sure to be deleted as soon as they come to your notice.

    Afam
    Thanks for your comments. I appreciate…

  36. lol … stupid boi … stupid site … Thanx God for facebook … @ least we can walk around without having our backs looked after by a watchdog aka Seun Osewa

  37. adeoba says:

    Hi all,

    I think this is a free world and the owner of a thing can do with that thing whatever he likes. The laws of natural selection and survival of the fittest will ensure that the person survives if he is right or goes under if he is wrong.
    1. Though only a fraction of them may be active, as of today, he has over 205,000 registered members. How many sites can boast of that?
    2. His site was started in 2005, and ever since i joined (i’m no more a regular because i didn’t find very much like-minds there) i have never visited the site and seen less than an average of 1000 people online.
    3. If you check alexa today, you’ll find that nairaland is the biggest nigerian site coming in immediately after BBC at no. 14. It’s bigger than punch online and guardian online.
    4. My estimates and some sources confirm that seun makes conservatively an average of 75,000 naira every month courtesy google adsense.

    We may not all see eye to eye with him, but the facts show that he and nairaland has been an unprecedented success in nigeria’s internet scene.

  38. nairaland says:

    well here is what nairaland makes a day actual numbers

    Website Worth: $487,949.52

    Daily Pageviews: 222,808

    Daily Ads Revenue: $668.42 Estimated numbers for http://www.nairaland.com

  39. Africain says:

    Well, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, they say, but when one’s opinion lacks balance in views, you will only end up giving the fool’s opinion. If Seun first came up with the name “Nairaland” and because the Internet has not well developed in Nigeria to make sure that you don’t just come up and host something similar to another’s product name, and you go ahead to register “Nairaland.net” and you start beating your chest that you have done something, then it’s a pity! So as a coder or programmer, you think that the success of a particular software development project rests on the coders or programmers? That’s very wrong my friend! Very wrong!!. To sit down and think out such a name with such a concept as Nairaland alone is the most difficult task ever in the whole process of developing the Nairaland forum! It’s a big shame that you went to attack a genius with a 419 carbon copy of his invention! Get your brand new brand! There’s Yahoo, there’s Google, there’s BBC, there’s CCN, there’s MTN, there’s Glo! Get your own brand my friend!

  40. samson says:

    I have commended and critized seun a lot in the past but i guess he has made up his mind on how to run his forum. It must be s difficult decision for him because i believe that every webmaster does not wish to see his members leave. Lets face it. There are other forums that can tolerate some posts. I had issues with him in the past but i a someone who likes jokes a lot. It got in the way somehow and i had to create my own forum http://www.afrowall.com to give me all the space i need to joke. I still go to nairaland everyday. What i am saying here is simple…turn to the door if the services you get there is not worth it or stick to his policy.

  41. L Bam says:

    i got banned some months ago.it hit me though but who is to say dat i waz rit???

    no one would be getting banned if they go by d rules. by registering with nairaland, u have accepted their terms and conditions and you just cant play by your own rules anymore.if u disagree at anypoint, its best to just stay away from the site. to my best of knowlegde, the site is brilliant, educative, informative and interesting. i won’t criticize it anyday cos i enjoy the forums, big time.

    At seun: AT a point in ones life wen u are on spot light, there is every tendency(almost a 100% chance) that u wil b criticized by people. its pure human nature. MY ADVISE is to ignore them. 4what is worth, your doing a great job.keep up the good work and try employing more strategies to make nairaland more than what it is 2day.