THE “DEATH” OF K-ONLINE: THE POSSIBLE CAUSE(S) AND THE CULPRIT(S)

[Muhsin]

Assalamu alaikum,

As a freshman with  keen interest and readiness to learn, boast up knowledge and the like at whatsoever measures, I uncovered the "secret" of forum when Freedom Radio aired a program with Prof. Abdullah telling listeners to check-up the site—KanoOnline, for more on what he had had been saying. I immediately thereafter joined, but before then I already had a subscription with another discussion board, Literature Network. My prime aim was solely to develop my language proficiency—via discussion with intellectuals like the Professor—but later I discovered the benefit encompasses are much more than that, for instance you meet and socialize with those intellectuals, learn from them; get entertainment, to mention but a few. This board offered all these and more in those days, but things are no longer the same.

Human minds (i.e. critical ones) are bound to enquire why certain things change; or why they do not while they are supposed to. I sat down and wondered, many at times, how the heck this board's vitality keeps dropping off. Why? While it should be improving considering the fact that computer literacy amongst populace is multiplying, availability of internet is always on increasing, and education acquired, experience spread, and so on. Yet things are getting worst here!

The forum's haven-ness, as I say above, is dwindling and frigging dying. Yesterday is always better than today; and no hope for tomorrow but fear!

I think the reason is very simple—I once mentioned it—and that is we are "Northerners". We have, seemingly, an inherent dispassionate tendency to devalue virtually everything northern, and KanoOnline happens to be not an exception. But in comparison to our counterparts, i.e. Southerners, they respect, revere and value their things, and that's why even theirs—forums, are interestingly moving forward and catching the wave . . . or at least the ones I know, for example nairaland.com, nigerianbestforum.com, naijapals.com, nigeriavillagesquare.com among others.  That led them to still hold the aged old condescending attitude towards us as well as the false view of the entire North as the home of illiterate abokis who can't afford, or maintain, in this case, a single internet discussion board.

The truth is not being uneducated, for North have, unquestionably, educated figures; but who mostly are uncommitted towards Northern "things". Without much substantiation I think this board's existence predates above forums—no doubt here—and many of its kind. Yet its miserableness and lifelessness now out-range that of every other. Isn't this shameful? We are the ones who say we can, huh? Could I go to rural area, where they know nothing like internet and preach this? No!

For a few examples, immediately after I joined this board I signed up to nairaland.com. The sub-forum I frequently make contributions at there is designated "Islam for Muslims". Very fierce religious debates constantly take place between majority non-Muslims and minority Muslims. But those minorities had iftar during the last Ramadan at Lagos. I was too invited. They are trying to make it a yearly gathering. And I know they can.

Secondly, the forum had awards for the Best Posters of the Year (2009) just to keep the forum livelier. I am luckily voted as the Best Poster at Islam for Muslims child-board. We are now waiting to be called upon to receive our awards.

Things on other boards go this way . . . but not here! KanoOnline Online! Our Kano "owned" forum!

Conclusion

No matter what, and no matter where; this board belongs to us. It's our pride and we must be proud of it as well as its initiators. They did a great job. But something actually needs to be done by both the members and the administrators. It's all we have in the Northern and for the northerners. So please wake up and revive and thrive "extinctive" forum.

Thanks for your reading, understanding and comment.

Muhsin

[gogannaka]

Muhsin i can see where u are coming from.
Zancen gaskiya,yadda ka fada ne. Yan arewa kamar kunyar kan mu muke ji.
We lack confidence and boldness. We can see other people raining all kinds of abuses on us but all we do is to bury our heads in shame.
This forum used to be a place where constructive debates used to hold but our inability to hold on and persevere has seen the forum turn into a shameful state.

I believe some of the reasons why the place isn't lively is the lack of followership from the members and visitors. If one posts a new topic or a reply and does not get a response to the post it becomes discouraging. Kuma i believe many people just prefer watching from afar because they're afraid their opinions won't be accepted by other members or in some cases they would be judged based on thier opinions.
Sannan kuma gaskiya fa internet awareness na yan arewa is so low. Even the telecom providers know that. MTN,glo and zain makes 75% of thier internet earnings from the south. Infact their 3G networks are scanty up in the north. They just give us GPRS and say ( abeg shebi dem neva sabi use d thing ma sef).

Maybe we need to advertise on some newspapers like dailytrust,leadership,triumph etc. I remember the site gaining so much attraction when it was mentioned in and article in dailytrust,that was when the first GTG held along with ANA's convention.


P.S. Muhsin please stop cursing in your posts.... :P,Na san abun na yi maka zafi.

[gogannaka]

Another thing is probably admin might have to remove restrictions on guests posting.
Many people started as guests and when they see their posts being replied they eventually register.
Generally online registrations are a bit hard and time consuming. It is surprising how you see hundreds of guests viewing the threads but fail to see any post by them.

Maybe admin should allow guests to make a certain number of posts before prompting them to register,and let there be some distinction between a registered member and a guest which will make one want to register.

How dyu see that?

[admin]

Another thing is probably admin might have to remove restrictions on guests posting.
Many people started as guests and when they see their posts being replied they eventually register.
Generally online registrations are a bit hard and time consuming. It is surprising how you see hundreds of guests viewing the threads but fail to see any post by them.

Maybe admin should allow guests to make a certain number of posts before prompting them to register,and let there be some distinction between a registered member and a guest which will make one want to register.

How dyu see that?

gogannaka - If we do that, we run a higher risk of Hackers, Spammers and other people with posts that do not conform to our forums' rules...

Why all the worry that the site / forum will die? This is an online thing and it comes and goes. Maybe all that has to be said for now, has been said for now... and when things need to be said again, they will be said again. Do not forget that, there has been a lot that has been said here since August 2001...
For instance do run a google search of gogannaka (site:kanoonline.com gogannaka), you may have Results of about 6,160 from kanoonline.com for gogannaka as of now. Anything you said, is there for the whole world to benefit from. Even if the site closes now, we have collectively provided a lot of information on and about Kano which was the original reason of opening the website since August 2001

If you still think that you will want the Forum to be wide open, then I might to that, but will need somebody that will have access to the internet everyday to patrol the forum effectively 24/7. I would prefer to error on the side of caution and security of the website than just to open it wide.

Again thanks for your suggestion.

[bakangizo]

Why all the worry that the site / forum will die? This is an online thing and it comes and goes. Maybe all that has to be said for now, has been said for now... and when things need to be said again, they will be said again. Do not forget that, there has been a lot that has been said here since August 2001...

Exactly. I really don't see the need for this fret. The forum would die, the forum is dead, the forum is dying.... It is tiring. This is an online forum. It will weather the storm. It might not be as 'busy' as other forums, but fact is members come and go. If it isn't lively today, it could be tomorrow. For me, I like it as it is. I may not post as frequently as I would want, but there's no social forum I enjoy visiting, or feel comfortable in like this. So we trugde on.

[admin]

Exactly. I really don't see the need for this fret. The forum would die, the forum is dead, the forum is dying.... It is tiring. This is an online forum. It will weather the storm. It might not be as 'busy' as other forums, but fact is members come and go. If it isn't lively today, it could be tomorrow. For me, I like it as it is. I may not post as frequently as I would want, but there's no social forum I enjoy visiting, or feel comfortable in like this. So we trugde on.

Thanks Bakan~Gizo .... and if you want to feel even better about the Forum just go back to the old topics and read 'em... for example the first topic way back in 2001 - Lets start this in the name of Allah . 2001 was when the Forum was started not the Website which started earlier.

[David_McEwan_Hill]

As a daily visitor for several years I greatly enjoy Kano Online but it has become less lively lately and I miss the contributions of many female contributors.

As an outsider can I say tha there are huge issues about the North of Nigeria, its people, its customs, its future and its past.

There is a tendancy developing to bog everything down in religious arguements.
Nigeria's problems will not be solved by the Koran or the Bible.
If Nigeria is to have future the thieving has to stop, the corruption has to stop, tribalism has to stop, religious hate has to stop and the huge potential of the country has to be harnessed by honest leaders whose aims are to improve the lives of the people not to enrich themselves.
This is what his forum should be debating.
Harnessing the agricultural potential of the north.
Using the oil revenues to provide good public services
Transport links, roads, schools and teachers, health provision, electrical power, crops. All these things can be afforded. Nigeria by a long way is the richest country in Africa. It is richer than many developed countries. It's future is being taken from it by monumental theft  matched only by monumental incompetence. It doesn't have to be this way. Nigerians are just as able as any other people.

There is a religious section in which religious arguements can be had by those who think that will solve any problems.
It won't. Take my word for it. We've been down that road in Europe for hundreds of years till we realised that unscrupulous leaders were using religion divisions to keep us occupied as they filled their pockets.

[gogannaka]

BKGZ and admin, the site has never been this 'unlively' and we are just concerned why patronage (at least by members) is deteriorating.
This is just out of love for the forum,which is natural.
Like Muhsin said,it is about the only free forum which arewa can boast of so i believe it requires more awareness. Many people turn to the internet for information nowadays and the life of the forum can depict the life of arewa,ko ba haka ba.


Dave,i agree that religion is used in Nigeria to gain sympathy of the masses,it is just like what happened in Nigeria during the Shari'a implementation days. Most governors adopted Sharia to gain acceptance of the poor masses.
Again i believe Nigeria's problem lies more with the people than with the leaders. I cannot imagine a country where when you read online comments all you is are tribalistic insults and bad prayers for leaders. We need serious attitude re-orientation.

Admin i have a question in mind.
Why would people want to attack the forum.And who are the likely attackers?Yan bakin ciki ko kuwa spammers.
How come sites like nairaland and NVS are not attacked?

[admin]

I agree generally with what is said about the forum, but all I am saying is that you cannot just force people to post and reply to posts if they do not want to. This is online after all... and just because people are not posting new topics does not mean that people are not visiting the Forum... If the general consensus of members is to close the Forum because we are not getting new postings now, then we can go ahead and close it.

Admin i have a question in mind.
Why would people want to attack the forum.And who are the likely attackers?Yan bakin ciki ko kuwa spammers.
How come sites like nairaland and NVS are not attacked?

gogannaka, I do not have answer as to why people would attack this Forum (the attackers would know that). All I know is that we were hacked and the website was down for some time because of that. The kind of hacking was a sort of "denial of service" type.

Spammers that were trying to sell all kinds of things from Viagra to explicit materials and other stuff were having a field day till we clamped down on the Forum registration process

I also do not know how nairaland and NVS operate (they would know that). All I know is that we will not want people posting obscene and offensive messages abusing other people... were we will be held responsible and liable. Also bai kamata ace anzo gidanmu kuma ana zaginmuba...

[manasmusa]

Well said, Muhsin.

[Dan-Borno]

Well said, Muhsin.

Dama irinku muhsin yake nufi, a dai gyara hali ustazu.

[gogannaka]

LOL @ DB.
Admin no one is saying that the site be closed all we are trying to point out is we shouldn't be lazy like we are percieved by people from other parts of the country.  A simple investigation and probable solution to the decline in comments.

[Muhsin]

Assalamu alaikum once again, KanoOnliners

It's very surprising seeing how my factual-based thread generated all the above replies; and more astonishing seeing some folks, seemingly, feel unhappy with it. Wallahi all I am trying to do is to better this place and to uplift our beloved Northern face, and bring us to where we really are not as others falsely think we were. Ask yourself: who is this little uneducated Muhsin to tell me "truth" if it's not really truth? Where did he get the audacity and the guts to compose the piece? Ask yourself these questions and then think of possible answers to them. What is your conclusion? Please I really will like to know.

Am afraid I might be talking in tongues, for I get little time at my disposal; thus can't actually respond to everything that's said so far on the OP. Above is just a general previewed-reply. Probably when I get back, very soon, inshaAllah, I'll respond in a fuller way.

BTW, GGNK, thanks you realized my points. Wish others as well will and will heed to them.

May Allah help us, and help K-Online, amin.

[Dan-Borno]

haba muhsin, you always have to go and come back, dont tell me
you are not posting from your mobile device, kai, lalle you need
to be updated.  install opera mini version 4 and you will browse
nicely and at a very very cheaper rate.

i cant understand when you refer the word un-educated to yourself,
are you demeaning your God's giving status in your society? watch
your good words nairaland highest poster of the year, when are we
travelling to lagos to collect our award?

[Muhsin]

haba muhsin, you always have to go and come back, dont tell me
you are not posting from your mobile device, kai, lalle you need
to be updated.  install opera mini version 4 and you will browse
nicely and at a very very cheaper rate.

I mostly browse at BUK library (NUNET) or CIT, DB. The former is free while the latter is for just a token fee. But my phone doesn't support GPRS, not at all.

i cant understand when you refer the word un-educated to yourself,
are you demeaning your God's giving status in your society? watch
your good words nairaland highest poster of the year, when are we
travelling to lagos to collect our award?

Ain't at all demeaning myself, DB. Am in fact telling the truth. Remember am still an undergraduate student, and in my early 20s. Many of you here are far far above that status, right? There are Professor, Doctors, MSc/MBA/MEd/etc holders, and so on. You see the disparity?

I am indeed NL Islam for Muslims Poster of the Year. Here is the link: *~ Muhsin Voted The Islam For Muslims Section Poster Of The Year*~ But thats a different case. And the award stuff, I later came to understand, is just to recognize hardworking posters, without much special importance attach to it. Yet it remains an encouragement, greatly. Wish someday K-Online will emulate such.

Cya