This request for “upgrade” on Nairaland seems to occur every 6 months or so. I’m a HUGE fan of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”: I’ve worked in high tech for nearly 20 years and I can’t stand it when my old device is suddenly rendered useless just because there’s a need to “upgrade”. I still use a Palm Vx for organizing because frankly, all the sizzle and pop of iPhone and Android just don’t cut it. Here are my own opinions for why it should remain as is:
1). Nairaland has 1,386,486 users, and over 2million topics. Do you know how much extra processing power and bandwidth it would take to run any fancy pants javscript/css/jnode? Are you going to compensate him when he has to pay his network and processing provider? Are you going to lend him some bandwidth when it takes 2.5MB to deliver 40kB worth of information? Are you going to help him migrate, and be there when the migration fails, or when he discovers that the latest jnode doesn’t play nice with the latest python on the latest Linux distro? Are you going to code up and maintain the mobile version since a ton of users don’t have the latest and greatest smartphones with unlimited dataplans?
2). The ad campaign is highly flexible: starts at 20k, all the way to 100m. As is, 20,000 is small change for any serious business. I advertise on Nairaland, and I’m glad the bar is a little high: keeps off the tiny operators who would clog the place with their 100 naira ad campaign. Nothing better than dealing with 100 big clients (and some of the clients are spending big money, from my estimates of the campaign), than to deal with 1000.
3). He probably pays next to nothing to get his money today. Any other online payment method would demand their own fee. Are you planning on making up the fee? And unless I’m mistaken, they typically have the right to withhold your money, for whatever reason.