xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #15, on May 5th, 2013, 06:33 PM »
Quote from Wanchope on May 5th, 2013, 06:10 PM
Sure, he was using SMF but he recently hired programmers who designed a pyton custom script him, his link
nairaland.com.
Well ... I don't know about your competing on content but I believe you can blow them away with pretty much a standard SMF or other forum installation. That place looks ... just awful. :sob:

I do see a lot of posts that have been hidden, and other gems like this one -

How To Hack Any Email Account

Lovely. :hmm:

Wanchope

  • Posts: 234
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #16, on May 5th, 2013, 06:38 PM »
Compete? Yes, anyone that will give your clients an option is your competitor.
Talking of competition, this guy - nigerianbestforum.com actually gave him a run for his money until he killed his forum with multiple  ads.
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #17, on May 5th, 2013, 06:55 PM »
Quote
I do see a lot of posts that have been hidden
Yes, he actually wrote an anti spam bot that bans members who posts some certain keywords, the spam bot will ban and also hide the post. The moderator will now see the post for final decisions, a semi automatic moderation a sort of.

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #18, on May 5th, 2013, 07:01 PM »
Quote from Wanchope on May 5th, 2013, 06:55 PM
Quote
I do see a lot of posts that have been hidden
Yes, he actually wrote an anti spam bot that bans members who posts some certain keywords, the spam bot will ban and also hide the post. The moderator will now see the post for final decisions, a semi automatic moderation a sort of.
This guy would fit right in with Stalin if he were still alive. Are these keyword-bombs known to everyone? Geez, if you type the wrong thing by accident you're history, like stepping on a land mine. >:(

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #19, on May 5th, 2013, 07:04 PM »
Wedge has some of what is described here, the ability to moderate or prevent posts even being made if they contain certain words. But you can't issue warnings or bans because of it for precisely the 'stepping on a land mine' issue mentioned.
When we unite against a common enemy that attacks our ethos, it nurtures group solidarity. Trolls are sensational, yes, but we keep everyone honest. | Game Memorial

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #20, on May 5th, 2013, 07:15 PM »
Quote from Arantor on May 5th, 2013, 07:04 PM
Wedge has some of what is described here, the ability to moderate or prevent posts even being made if they contain certain words. But you can't issue warnings or bans because of it for precisely the 'stepping on a land mine' issue mentioned.
Yea as long as it's like that you can at least PM an Admin and find out what's up. But geez - it's not good hospitality to ban somebody for a typing error or unknown rule!

I looked at the registration process there. First off - they want your email address to be verified - no TOS nor nuthing is shown to you. Just please type in your email address for us. :hmm:

Of course I didn't use my own at that place, I made one up and used mailinator to get the confirmation link. Then you still get no TOS. Where are the terms? Where are the rules? Oh I know, the rules are whatever the Admin says they are from second to second ... :lol:


Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
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Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #21, on May 5th, 2013, 07:23 PM »
That, and the fact that Wedge's system allows the admin to define a message shown to the user when such moderation happens ;)

Ultimately it's yet more reasons to dislike Nairaland :lol:

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #22, on May 5th, 2013, 07:33 PM »
Quote from Arantor on May 5th, 2013, 07:23 PM
That, and the fact that Wedge's system allows the admin to define a message shown to the user when such moderation happens ;)

Ultimately it's yet more reasons to dislike Nairaland :lol:
When wanchope mentioned competing with another forum with a lot of traffic, I figured it was some fairly high quality place, albeit with a power-mad Admin. But that place? I don't see how it would be too hard to compete with at all. It's just a jack of all trades master of none forum. I'd think the inhabitants would be chomping at the bit to get the hell out of there - if just to avoid the awful looks.

Hell, just figure out a decent domain name for a Nigerian forum and start filling it up with the same topics LOL. The Nigerian flag is green/white/little yellow - get a pretty theme for your forum - it'll look 1000 times better right off. People are bound to find it after a while and start moving over to the land of sanity. :lol:

Wanchope

  • Posts: 234
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #23, on May 5th, 2013, 08:02 PM »Last edited on May 5th, 2013, 10:45 PM
@xrunner

Thanks for your advice, Nigerian flag colour is green white green. This guy (nigeriabestforum.com) did what you suggested but he is failing woefully after years of trial.

@Arantor

I  will ask questions on the functionality when am free to booth my pc.
Thanks.

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #24, on May 6th, 2013, 12:26 AM »
Quote from Wanchope on May 5th, 2013, 08:02 PM
This guy (nigeriabestforum.com) did what you suggested but he is failing woefully after years of trial.
@Wanchope

You said "he is failing woefully after years of trial."

His forum has -

501,328 Posts in 204,428 Topics by 354,621 Members

Now, I am fully aware that those numbers don't mean there is all quality content there, but why do you say it's failing woefully? :hmm:

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #25, on May 6th, 2013, 12:29 AM »
Compared to the 1m+ topics and 12m+ posts on Nairaland, it is a hard competition... I'm not sure I'd call it failing woefully - but I think I would conclude it is failing in trying to be competition. People don't like change.

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #26, on May 6th, 2013, 12:41 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 6th, 2013, 12:29 AM
People don't like change.
No they sure don't. I posted a topic about me possibly changing forum software in our Back Office and this is an exact quote from a member -

"I hate change (try going through it 8+ times at one website for 12 years, it's also about to get another upgrade) but that actually looks nice, in a way."

Going back to the OP -
Quote from Wanchope on May 4th, 2013, 12:59 AM
This is very annoying or better put frustrating. Having a competitor who have been there for about 10 years. Membership running to over 1 million, post running to over 12 million. You are new, very few inactive members. Most posts are made by you. In such case, how do you survive? Suggestions are needed.
Thanks.
There's already a heavy hitter Nigerian forum. There's also another one (NBF) that you say is failing woefully. Is there really room for yet another Nigerian forum, given the existing players in the field? :wow:

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
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Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #27, on May 6th, 2013, 12:46 AM »
8 times in 12 years for actual software change is a big deal, suggests that not enough thought or research was put in, in the first place.

SMF -> Wedge is not such a big jump, though. It's much like the jump from Windows 98 to Windows XP, you can drive it readily enough without any guidance but once you get under the hood, there are all kinds of awesome extras in there.

xrunner

  • Posts: 192
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #28, on May 6th, 2013, 12:53 AM »
Quote from Arantor on May 6th, 2013, 12:46 AM
8 times in 12 years for actual software change is a big deal, suggests that not enough thought or research was put in, in the first place.
Yea, I'm not sure what site he's referring to.
Quote
SMF -> Wedge is not such a big jump, though. It's much like the jump from Windows 98 to Windows XP, you can drive it readily enough without any guidance but once you get under the hood, there are all kinds of awesome extras in there.
I'm sure they'll like it. After the initial grumbling and such anyway. But it's not going to be dumped in their lap in any case. They'll have plenty of time to play with it on a test forum when the time comes. :)

Wanchope

  • Posts: 234
Re: Surviving Your Competitor
« Reply #29, on May 6th, 2013, 01:03 AM »Last edited on May 6th, 2013, 01:38 AM
Yeah, I understand your points ut you should know that two years ago, Nairaland admin was seeing the Nigeriabestforum  guy as a very strong competitor, the later messed it up by creating multiple sub-domains on his forum, redirecting users there and thereby confusing the visitors and himself as well.Creating uncountable ads with turns people off.

@Arantor

The question I wanted to ask you was based on your comment here, I quote
Quote
Wedge has some of what is described here, the ability to moderate or prevent posts even being made if they contain certain words. But you can't issue warnings or bans because of it for precisely the 'stepping on a land mine' issue mentioned.
Please can you shed more light on it. I recently studied Nairaland Anti Spam bot and was highly impressed, looks like it took him many months to write, I think they where 3 who designed the robot, a break down on what he it does
It scan all the post in the forum - both new topics and new replys
It ban any user whose keyword is in his blacklisted database ( the admin will add the blacklisted keyword)
It will hide the post, pending review by the thread moderator
It will post on the banned users profile - You are banned from posting in this forum, ban expires @ date
The both can post rely if post triggers a favored topic and some of its replys are human like
** He (the admin) can login with the bots ID**
**Admin can ban, deletes bot's account and create a new one**

he calls it by the name - Pyguru here is it's profile
Code: [Select]
http://www.nairaland.com/pyguru
In case you want to see the robots full details, use this login I just created
username - spyao
password - nairaland

Thanks