Hello,

The following guidelines have been created specifically for Nairaland, in addition to standard rules of forum etiquette. These are guidelines, and not rules.

1. Nairaland is an English language forum. English happens to be our official language in Nigeria. it also happens to be the language of the web. Please make every effort to use clear English at all times:[list]

[li]Avoid 'netspeak' or 'SMS-language'. 'You' is spelled Y-O-U, not u![/li]

[li]Avoid pidgin English, but [I]'put am inside italics'[/I] if you need to use pidgin English.[/li]

[li]Punctuate properly. This makes the forum easier to read. Capitalize your I's.[/li]

[li]We have a spell checker on the site. Use it![/li]

[li]No swear words. This one is a rule, not a guideline.[/li]
[/list]

Try to make your posts very easy to read.

2. Avoid posting advertisements or running promotions or contests without the consent of the administrator. Just send me a private message and we'll iron out things! Don't attempt to use this forum to promote any commercial interests without the consent of the administrator!

[I]this list is under construction[/I]

I think we should be allowed to use SMS language. It is more easier to type 'u' as 'you. And everybody understands it. Not everybody uses ten fingers to type.

@diakim:
Your point is worthy of serious consideration. I'm working with the assumption that posts are more often read than written. So, the cost of one person spending a little extra time making his post readable results results in a much greater benefit: hundreds of people who will find the post easier to read.

So I can't change this guideline unless I'm able to get a program to automatically translate SMS language to English! I've tried enabling automatic translation of some words, but it doesn't work very well in practice because of the complexity of English grammar.

Seun, do you really know what a forum is? I'm sure you don't. A forum is not a newspaper where the editor has to go about editing and modifying each post to make it meet some outward standard. So the idea of you scrutinizing every post for grammatical errors and God knows what is damn silly and funny.

I wonder what you would do if you were the admin in charge of http://forum.cybereagles.com/.
Do you know how many thousands of stuff people post there per day? And in a forum one doesn't have to beg any body to approve the sort of words he uses. After all this is no job application and a member is at no obligation to post on the site.

I imagine that Nairaland is a different kind of forum:

* Nairaland wants to be taken seriously.
* Nairaland wants to be as readable as a newspaper.
* Nairaland wants people to take time to compose their thoughts.
* Nairaland favors the sort of language that anybody can understand.
* People using the Internet for the first time should feel at home here.
* Nairaland wants to be clean enough for even the President to participate.

So welcome to the Nairaland World! People who come here are not here because they want "a forum". They are here because they want to share ideas/knowledge with many other Nigerians. I believe that we need to project a certain kind of image to get there.

Update: What is the point of posting anywhere if nobody's going to read it?
Update 2: Feel free to use 'sms language'/netspeak if you're posting from a mobile phone.

Touché

well, I can see the idea admin is trying to bring in.

THEREFORE
there should be a part of this forum that accommodates all the s**t we don't want Mr president to see.

[I]Plzz abeg[/I], have you forgotten that this forum is also via WAP and as such. People will post from their phones. There's no keyboard on my phone so I'm limited to SMS language and some other s**t

Mamba, I never thought of the WAP issue. Thanks!

This forum is very young and insightful comments like yours are very much appreciated. I'm going to temporarily ammend the rules to accomodate people browsing from their mobile phones. The long term solution will be to have a filter than transparently converts 'sms language' to English.

From now on, members are permitted to use 'SMS language' if posting from a mobile phone.

thanks admin, long live NAIRALAND

still the best

Thanks. Now tell your friends!

SEUN I THINK YOU ARE DOING A GOOD JOB, even the name Seun is not properly writing in spell check (SE-UN)

pls i dont know where to post this,

the format of NL on my samsung phone browsing is annoying! i cant view my profile talkmore of seeing other things,
does these happen on other phones or that my phone dint qualify for the site

i wonder if its how it appears on my phone that it does to other phones yet i have heard so many here saying they are writting with a phone cos i cant even know what topic is in General talkmore of knowing a latest post.

Exciting topic what a enormous information get by the novelist i love to read it ,
Please join it and get more info,
handmade soap

Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.

Ahh! I stand corrected then, Thanks for clearing that up.

I THINK YOU NEED TO SEND THIS GUIDE TO ALL STARTER

I NEED IT AS WELL

SEND TO [email][/email]

He's the one on the right, twylight.

@Ta , thats how the WAP version of Nairaland Forum works, you can't view profile. I post from My phone as well (NOKIA) and all I can do is read and write messages.

Nairaland Forum needs to do orientation for it's members.

I its high time the forum remained elitist.

I think that's awesome. Makes me feel layered. Like some sort of epic lasagna

omg.

I never smile. You want a smile, go rent a smile

^ Is that a rhyme¿

Very very cool, and thanks for the lesson! I love your unique ink!

^ Explain better.

Really good thread.I like this!

Please i need help cos i do most of my postin frm my mobile fone, where can i find the tag 'new' to add to a new topic?

Pls i' m new here and would want to participate, my question is, how do i change my username? Thanks