Last week, Webdev opened its social network to the public. The name Social has been discarded in favour of a shorter and simpler sha.co.zw. SHA is short for the ‘Shamwari’, the Shona word for ‘friend’. There’s already some activity on the site, and I have received a few friend requests from some familiar faces.
The site looks pretty much what it was in closed beta; warm colors and the familiar social network design with a wall (they don’t call it that though), photos section, a friend finder, groups, events and private messages. In addition to that you also get a blogging section, a Q & A, news, downloads and a link to Webdev’s flagship web property, classifieds.co.zw.
Besides tag-lining it “Zimbabwe’s Social Network”, Webdev is not actively showing why a visitor should sign up or what they will get here that they’re not already getting on Facebook or Google Plus. Maybe the local factor alone is enough. I just expected something that says “here’s the new angle/level we’re binging to your online social interactions!” Something that makes the user feel they’re on a different social platform that’s not just a Facebook clone.
SHA has the opportunity to define its unique identity from the onset and set itself apart with an experience users of the service can only associate with and get on the platform. I’m not feeling that identity yet. Maybe the strategy is to not box people up and just let the experience build naturally. I don’t see that working.
But Webdev is not just sitting back and hoping you’ll sign up and start posting updates. No. They’re offering cash for it.
“SHA is giving away a total of $150 every week” says the banner at the top of the site, “$20 for the most interesting/best filled in profile, $20 for the most friends added, $20 for the most amount of personal photos uploaded…” a total of 8 categories!
I think this is a bad idea. Is it even sustainable as an incentive? How much cash do you budget for such an exercise? How long do you run it? I know I definitely won’t get into active posting mode just for the cash. And even if I did, I’d probably stop when the promotion ends, and go back to Facebook where everyone is. A unique experience on the hand, will keep me coming back for more.
Cash incentives aside, the one thing that’s noticeably unlike other social networks is chat. The absence of it. It’s a cardinal sin to not have chat on a social network and for what it’s worth, we hope the team is working on it. The platform also doesn’t have something that’s fast becoming a necessary component of the social media experience; games. The addictive time wasting type that people love. Again we’ll assume it’s coming in the future.
There’s always the question of privacy and the security of data posted on social networks. By default SHA is an open network. That means your profile and all your posts on the network are visible to anyone (including people that are not signed into the network) by default. You have the option to turn this off of course in the privacy settings and have your information viewed only by the people you befriend on the SHA.
It’s only been a week and we imagine some features will be changed and more (chat, games) will be introduced. In the meantime, it’s still a warm place to be and one I’ll personally make a point to visit often in the coming weeks. Who knows, I might win me some Obamas. See you all Shaz there!
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cant really say good idea, cse the idea is NOT theirs. Its a copy and paste job. And the choice of colours….did they really have to use orange or is it yellow? And the site layout….they need a new designers. Have they ever heard of KISS (keep it simple,stupid)… and the name….when will Zim companies ever learn on how to name their products….we have seen pretty bad names this year in Zim and SHA is the latest to the bucket.
To me this looks like a final year MSU student Computer Science project….rushed, not well thought, not given the right resources and badly named.
Wish you all the best.
im sure you are a lupane university final year student who doesnt know jack about development and you dont know KISS wen you see it.
I thot everyone have their own opinions and we all have freedom of speech. why insult me when i say what’s on my mind. If you see something positive about SHA, just name it instead of attacking me. I wouldnt waste time and ask you what site you have developed in your life cse it will be a waste of my precious time.
I should agree with Developer because you ask people to poss questions and ask for their views, we are the Zimbabweans that are going to be using the network it is not nice to insult but agree or allow room for criticism in a diplomatic manner. We are all very curious about the network and would gladly like to use it. Please allow some flexibility for everyone’s sake.
and to Developer, you also need to see KISS and recognise it, we should give these guys credit for a job well done for creating our own familiar FACEBOOK lookalike. If you could do a better job, you should have created a site like this which is not a cut and paste. Lets stop being idle minded and dwell on what others have that is even complicated and not user friendly for Zimbabwe’s liking. Appreciate and give credit where its deserving, lets stop acting like we are still colonized, show some liberty…
@9aa7d99738af3d2dbe46be08306642a9:disqus i know KISS when i see it, visit mukela.com and zimcarsales.co.zw to see it. Not everyone has the same business model, so i wouldn’t waste my time and money building a social site. There is virtually no income from in the short term. Nothing. I can list for you the sites i hav created that are currently doing well.
On another note, i believe criticising something doesn’t mean u can create something better than it. If BMW brings a bad model, should we keep quiet cse we can beat them? I dont think so…
Dude KISS AND PLAIN UGLY!!! THAT THING IS UUUUGGGGGLLLLLYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
Simple!! There is no Kiss to anything here. Joomla template bloat and that what you call Kiss
Kiss and Cheap bzzzzh Shoot me
Author is obviously not liking this thing because he doesnt see it the way webdev see it, he ddnt say anything about the network being a good way of anyone, companies, organisations…. reaching out to a majority geographic zimbabweans via polls, blogs Q&A. You can post polls about a product/service/idea… and get feedback from zimbabweans who live in zimbabwe, instead of facebook where majority of audience is in diaspora. This is the main thrust with sha, a local social , interactive network for zimbabweans by zimbabweans. The only way to find out is use and see for yoself.
it’s not that I don’t like the product, It’s just that i don’t feel the uniqueness yet, and i don’t see Webdev’s effort to make that uniqueness clear.
The stuff you say about “..reaching out to a majority geographic zimbabweans via polls, blogs Q&A. You can post polls about a product/service/idea” may actually be true but are not apparent when you visit SHA. I’ll assume you are Webdev staff or someone working with them closely to know and see these things.
Still, with social networks like Facebook now location aware, the same geographic component can be achieved on these platform using Facebook apps for example.
@kwabeza, why did u remove my post?
which one?
We don’t have anything in the spam queue right now. And nothing in the pending list. try re-posting
The main reason I launched SHA was to have a social network that was useful to people’s real lives here in Zimbabwe. Facebook is great and I will continue to use it to contact old friends and look at pictures of friends and family. However, when I want Zimbabwe news, Zimbabwe groups, Zimbabwe questions and answers, Zimbabwe blogs, Zimbabwe polls and discussion, and Zimbabwe downloads I will use SHA not facebook. These are things that directly impact my real life in Zimbabwe, and I hope the same will go for other Zimbabweans.
@slackie, the idea is ok, but for me there r a lot of things i expect before i can register myself to a social network. Please take this as positive criticism.
1). Privacy Policy – who owns the info and what can they do with it, can I deregister anytime and will my info also be deleted. Currently your privacy policy is lengthy and vague. Are protected from SPAM, the government, the Chinese & the Russians. These days, if you are a well-up-to-date person you know the risk of signing up on every site that pops up on the net.
2) Look and Feel of the site. Need i say more?
3) Contact Details – your site has no email or phone number to call if someone abuses my picture or profile. how do we report dodgy on-line activities. A mere contact form is not enough. A number or email address will be better. Also be careful when dealing with people’s personal info, you can find yourself in courts or host some men in black suits….
4) About Us – the first thing i expect on a site before I register is to read “about us” page telling what it has to offer and how. Your site has nothing like that. We need to know what we are signing up to.
5) Site content – if you want to go social, then go for it 100%. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades and built Rome with one line of code. FB started small and matured with age like wine.
That said i just wanna warn that you have a very big job of convincing people to open your site more often than FB. Even internet giants like Google+ are struggling against FB, so you have to work overtime.
1) yes you can delete yourself instantly. if you want to de-activate yourself you can do that by requesting it.
2) look and feel is in the eye of the beholder. it’s african and earthy and not as gentle as some sites, but i disagree with it being dated.
3) there is and was an email contact form. we had left out the phone numbers and address for our reasons, but had intended to put those back. there is a reporting system on the front end.4) about us is needed you are right.5) a lot of hard work has already gone into SHA, and a LOT more will go into it. not sure where the one line of code comes in. we have a phase 2 plan, and a content plan. as i see it we are not competing with fb, we are offering something different. perhaps we need to portray that in our marketing. having taken over 10 years to really get classifieds going we are no strangers to working hard to get something going.
this is the problem.. i dont think its a replacement for facebook.. just a more comfortable, and home grown alternative that is relevant to our little society of online users in zimbabwe. you will never replace facebook.. no one can..and thats not the objective.
I’m sure Facebook will be replaced eventually 😉
Maybe not by Google+. Probably by something that’s not even that popular or launched yet.
Dude this is a waste of time and resources. these are high school or college projects for a company like webdev to release a social network site only tells me they have a child at the top calling the shots. Companies should be thinking big and global and not wasting their time reinventing things there are over 1000 social network sites in the world all offering something different I cant see this becoming a success
Agree on all except number 2. I actually find the colors quite warm and homely and I love them.
I think its ugly what world are you from?
before you start designing and devloping something that a user should look at for long hours you dont even think of a Bright color. Let alone the colour of the SUN!!
Design is art and art comes from nature. Facebook devs didnt just wake up thinking blue looks cool, they obeyed the rules of UX and UI.
Anyone can look at a blue sky for hours on end and feel relaxed, No one can look at a Orange piece fo newpaper and last for 10 minutes without being insane! 🙂
Its not about just going n the internet and pulling the free joomla extension and template buying a domain and claiming you have Facebook Shaaaaa amaihwe!
i like the idea, they should just get away from this allzimbabwe.com heyday colours and look and feel. its too earthy, distracting, great work tho’
agree @pindile, the colours and look and feel is ancient. When we were taught web design a decade ago, ORANGE/YELLOW were not allowed as main colours for a site.
Welldone to Webdev for launching Sha but as Soul has said and I partly agree it would be nice if they laid out their 5 year plan for the social network.
It may be partly successful in the sense it has local content and that is GOLD on the internet these days but I don’t know how long it will last in its current form. Then there are the privacy issues which are a touchy subject with social networks.
I will probably not signup unless it becomes radically popular or if they launch business type applications that work on it.
Good Luck Webdev you certainly are braver than most.
I personally don’t like it for the same reasons metioned by @eb4b6134f24782361286aae36f1423cb:disqus . The concept of networking Zimbabweans is good, but not a social network just like facebook or google+, that is not clever, there is no real “new element” to this network as far as I can see. Why not think outside the box, like LinkedIn did. A social network with too much is a solution to quick death on the internet, users want networks with unique agendas and real value addition.
users want networks with unique agendas and real value addition. “THATS WHAT THE WEB IS ALL ABOUT”
Good luck though WebDev, I admire all your other works.
Perhaps with more focus on the networks strength it can really get people going!!! Also security, security, security. Hope that is kept in mind!!! Really hope so.
I like the “or sign in with facebook”.
Sha is a social network site simple as that, ok you can go down the route of saying it’s a uniquely zimbabwean experience were you can check on Zimbabwean events, groups etc but you also seem to be able to do that on facebook, as there are quite a few Zim pages as well as international pages that Zimbo’s want to be a part of there.
The question i have is how does sha.co.zw plan to take away from facebook’s current 100% market share in Zimbabwe? as i would think that very few people are signed up to more than one social networking site.
Having said that i have been proved wrong more times than proved right and i wish sha.co.zw and the guys behind it all the best.
y not come up with a unique idea, i mean something totally different, social networking = facebook, ask google if you think im lying, great initiative though, jus keep raising the bar, you will make something good,
– Jus for interest sake y dont you create a local search engine? something that just gets me zim stuff, and saves me the time and effort of googling poorly search optimised local content
Google’s already best at indexing local content http://www.techzim.co.zw/2011/10/why-zimbabwe-needs-more-co-zw-domains/
well tht puts search out . . was tryna help
l dont know how they managed to get a nice looking Joomla Jomsocial component to llok that ugly.Its a copy, paste and make ugly job, zero development
Moduledev,
Id be interested in seeing what you have done for the Zimbabwean online community.
I have been developing systems in Zimbabwe for the Zimbabwean market for about 10 years now… and i can tell you this… Unless you absolutely have to… never do anything from scratch… It does not make business sense to reinvent the wheel… Their objective was to build a social network that works for Zimbabwe… This is the first release… and I think they have done a mighty fine job so far…
I think it would only be fair to assess their progress… and see how the project and product evolves. They haven’t even been online long enough for them to respond to user feedback… I think we need to cut them some slack and help grow OUR social network with proper and constructive user feedback.
We need to start becoming constructive critics and not dream bashers.
I for one would not mind assisting the cause by developing add-ons and modules that can work within their platform. I see a lot of potential here.
This can work…
Ma system apiko amunombodeveloper atisingambooniwo in action. 10 years tichiri kungochema chema chete nekushaya ma system imi muchi developer henyu, ko tiratidzeiwoka.
I have been developing systems in Zimbabwe for the Zimbabwean market for about 10 years now…”
No need to read the rest of your post. Yes you are still in your 1st year of development coz yes in 2000 such a crappy site was acceptable!!!!!!!!!!! now go back to the caves
loooool yah that drived the point right in.
Many sites share the same functionality. Joomla sites,
newpapers sites etc etc … it’s the content that’s important. If SHA can
provide unique relevant local content then it will be a success. It has a lot
of users and activity for a Zimbabwe site live for only a week! Let’s see what happens and give it all the support it needs, true Zim style..
thank you!
Nothing is SASSY there. You talking what we now call nullShit
Zim style ended when we stopped burning ZIM dollars this is the web and supporting such Ugly stuff makes me look even uglier . I will never support such ancient ideas. No no no
Having run Zim’s first portal – allzimbabwe.com, I wish Webdev the best but they will need to tackle a key issues:
1. Critical mass – even with cellphones I do not think that we have enough people in Zimbabwe who actively use the internet.
2. Monetisation of the site – at allzimbabwe.com we had a simple model of banner ads, it covered some expenses but without big brother we couldn’t have launched/carried on. There are newer models out there but making money is the key and is directly related to 1.
3. Content – The owner of content is King. Give us something Zimbabwean and unique. I don’t want to talk stories that I could on FB.
4. Popularise – There is no reason at the moment for me to use the site. I won’t be signing up. I already use google+ and facebook and until my other mates use sha or there is a compelling reason to then I won’t.
5. Freshness – We have a habit in Zim of not renewing and not keeping things fresh. The net changes everyday.
I have just looked at the site allzimbabwe.com. I had to ask myself just how relevant the site is to…well…anything. Nothing fresh at all. In fact its simply a yellow coloured directory with links to a news feed (nothing new there), to a directory (which i can only assume is a poor imitation of Classifieds.co.zw), to another directory of links to other sites under the heading Entertainment, to another directory of links to sports sites and news and then a contact page. The only interesting thing was the Discover Zimbabwe Links, only because there is useful information there. To use your own Point 4 – I wont be bookmarking your site, nor bothering to look at it ever again because it is 95% Irrelevant. Until there is a compelling reason to do so, I wont be looking at it. And a compelling reason is not you writing in the URL for the site under Point 2. Naughty,naughty, taking the opportunity to punt your own site at the expense of what could have been a very “Constructive” thread…..
Not_taxes, allzimbabwe.com “died” a long time ago. there has been no active investment in that site for a long time. You must be involved with Webdev by the tone of your email. I am not involved in the site anymore. If you were familiar with the industry in Zim you would know that allzimbabwe.com was Zim’s first portal with 7 day weather forecasts, free email, first classifieds, first online jobs, forums, news that came directly from the newsrooms of papers through a content agreement. understand the context of my posting before you initiate ad hominem attacks. which of my points was not constructive?
not that i am aware of re: invovled with webdev.
Adhonminem..ad nauseam rather.
I shall say zis only wonce…I do not work at Webdev, for Webdev, nor will I ever work at Webdev or for Webdev. Got it?
I have been in the ICT industry since 1995 and have seen many businesses come and go. You do not want to question my credentials in this business.
Context is exactly what i look for when reading comments and posts such as yours. Its not that your points were constructive or not, it was your tone. Form over content.
Your Point 1 was decent.
Your point 2 was also decent.
Your point 3 started bordering on being arrogant
Your point 4 was simply you saying that this local bunch of people came up with a crap product just because they had the temerity to “copy” established similar products. Tone mate, tone.
Your point 5 irritated me simply because you asked for freshness without actually giving an example of anything. Criticizing for the sake of it. Do you actually understand the context of SHA.co.zw? What its meant for and designed to achieve? Or did you just read Kabweza’s extremely unbiased (sic) article and decide that he is the ultimate authority and therefore followed on from his “opinion”.
Here’s the thing: Because i look long and hard at the context in which all posts are written in, I see just about everyone having some sort of opinion that is arrogant and biased. Unfortunately that is how the world has become, and especially in the ICT industry we have a plethora of so called experts, or who i rather describe as Telephone Tough Guys, because all they can do is write reams and reams of crap about things that they themselves claim to be experts on but are not really. Just because you happen to have some experience in a certain field, does that give you the right to be critical about something in that field? I would rather have thought that it means that you have a responsibility to build up, rather than tear down, unless of course you have a competitive product, in which case you should shut up and post your own promotional material rather than bashing the other.
I love constructive debates, I believe that they promote true progress and prosperity. But when someone writes a bunch of crap about something and someone, I’m afraid that I cannot control myself. I turn green and nasty.
Dude its null-shit to tell us of working in the industry since 1995 who cares. The web is today !!!!! and shally live even after you. If you stick to these ancient ideas of 1995 looking sites you will look dumb to some of us the kids on the web doing awsome looking stuff, call me Mr Web 3.0 ill simply call you ancient
This is a great initiative, now please give us some figures, how many people have joined, where are they from stuff like that. page views, I have an interest in seeing what kind of people come to your site.
i think attepting is better then what other thing… i think its great attempt…
I am going to pick on each and every one of you who posted
about Sha.co.zw, and see what your take on so called free speech is. By way of
a simple explanation, I do not hate everybody; I do not direct my sarcasm at
undeserving individuals. If you are one of the posters that I mention here, it’s
because you deserve it. Who am I? Nobody in particular, just someone who has
opinions…just like you!
Kabweza, who appointed you Zimbabwe’s sole adjudicator of what,
is good or what is not? This site of yours, in my opinion of course, is nothing
more than a blog where you have made a platform for yourself to cast judgments
on a variety of topics.
Developer – Just the name you have given yourself reinforces
my opinion that you belong at the bottom of a swimming pool with concrete boots
on. Of course the idea is not theirs. They have never claimed that it was their
idea. And yes, I am replying to you in the same way you originally posted, in
that high handed, look at me I am so clever, manner that doesn’t allow for
anyone else to even utter one word in case they get shot down in flames for
having the temerity to speak on a subject that you believe you have the total
monopoly on. YES, I am insulting you…after all I am also allowed to practice free
speech, right? Go away and be irrelevant somewhere else.
Zohan – I like your answer because it’s decent and positive.
And the others term their posts as ‘constructive criticism”? To coin another well-known
phrase, they should “Go Hang”.
Kabweza – What uniqueness do you want? Your own site could
be said to be a copy of thousands of other sites that purport to report on
trends and news in the ICT field. Where is your uniqueness? Just like you were
applauded when you started this site, can you not simply write in a positive
way, that perhaps motivates improvements and a goal of providing the uniqueness?
Developer (again) if you want someone to take criticism from
you in a positive way, then write in such a way that it is positive. Not like
you write, “Need I say more”. Who do you think you are anyway? Please refer to
my point above about your irrelevancy.
Kabweza – I sure hope that the replacement for Facebook will
have some ‘uniqueness’ about it…..if not, woe is to them, for Uncle Kab will
surely descend from Mount Olympus and deliver judgment.
Developer – Still here I see. A decade ago? Definitely time
for you to go and learn carpentry or something.
Raymond – Why not join up? Why does something have to be
popular for you to join it? Its ZIMBABWEAN, its LOCAL CONTENT and it’s in its
infancy. Give it a chance to grow. So much of my ire is directed at this
attitude of I want it now, I want it for free and oh, did I mention, I WANT IT
NOW. For so many reasons, which I won’t go into here because I am scared that
Uncle Kab and that irrelevant developer will decide that my comments constitute
unfair speech and deliver judgement.
Ru – Go learn how to blow glass mate. Or better yet, go help
make LinkedIn better and leave us poor backward people alone to wallow in our
misery at having our little efforts sneered at. And no, I do not work at
Webdev, and I have no interest in Webdev and no, I do not make money out of
posting such obviously irrelevant drivel.
Col Train – Market share? Is this a business now? I have an
FB and a Google+ account. Now I have Sha as well. In my case, each one has a
33.33% share of my market.
Moduldev – You cannot even spell properly, so please go back
to school.
King Coolus – if there was a ‘Like” button on this site I would
click it for your response. Nuff said (No,I can’t sepll either)
Sassy – You go girl..or boy…or whatever you may be.
Buffdaddy – OMG (Oh My God, to you uninitiated). We have another
pretender to the King Bonehead throne. In point form no less.
Instead of posting comments that sound like the points of a
Mutual Admiration Society manifesto, why do you all not try (and try hard,
though that may be a totally alien concept to most of you) to be truly
constructive and positive. If you do, perhaps one day you can say that you had
a genuine hand in something that became truly Zimbabwean and was worth the
effort. But no, you have to be critical and negative, and what I find really
funny, is that you all do it under the guise of ‘constructive criticism’ and ‘free
speech’. Its people like you who stifle progress, because you appoint
yourselves the arbiters of what is relevant, what is not, what is good and what
is not. Use your power (which in actual fact was given to you by dumb idiots in
the first place) to build, not destroy. I know this will fall on deaf ears, and
I know, Oh God I know, that you will all have something to say about what I
have said. Because after all, you all love to hear the sound of your keys tap,
tapping away on your keyboards, sending responses to people like me.
true, well put
100 % local content is unique enaf for me
in all your ranting you cross the line which you yourself are trying to draw, yu insult(to say the least ), give us constructive comments not this hate speech, ythis is not a political blog. Grow Up
Point of Order: I do not rant. I do not draw lines. I apply Newtons Third Law – For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
Newton was right, but these where forces, not pple. You preach constructive criticism, then lead the way. But you seem to be that which you despise the most . . .
ad hominem attacks – wow, how big of you. so no one except you is allowed an opinion, you are a right muppet aren’t you.
1. monetise – that means make money out of it. in the real world, bandwidth costs money, employees cost money. so unless you have a sugar daddy who is putting the site out there for his ego then you have to make money out of it. some of the biggest sites i.e. popular have failed in this regard.
2. content – the net has a million things on it and for a site to work well the content must be unique and fresh.
So once again don’t be a muppet and don’t attack people and even though it’s a Zimbabwean website, we are all entitled to our own opinion
Ad nauseam….of course you are allowed an opinion. So am I, which is why i replied to your post. And thanks, I quite like the Muppets, cute furry animals that bring joy to young children. Quite unlike Mullets. What’s the ocean like these days?
Monetise? Well i did not think it meant giving something for free, so thanks for that clarification, really appreciate it. So am I right in assuming you believe that sha.co.zw is the product of an enlarged ego? I can tell you for a fact that ego has nothing to do with it. I happen to know for a FACT that the site was put out there for, among other reasons, a genuine desire to promote LOCAL CONTENT and LOCAL INTERACTION. For that alone Webdev should be praised and helped in a CONSTRUCTIVE way to make it better. And if along the way some money can be made from it, well, hey, then it will be MONETISED (By the way, that means making money out of it).
Content – Yes, the net has millions of things that have been rehashed, revisited, re-reported, reviewed, re-reviewed, hung out to dry, re-washed and so on and so forth. What fresh content are you talking about? Be specific. Be constructive. If all you can do is say something without substance, please by all means, _______ keep your opinions to yourself.
So, once again, don’t ____ attack me. I just want to get my opinions out there you know…..
dude. in as much as some of yo arguments hold water, attacking other people’s points of view makes u worse than the ones u speak against in saying they providing bad criticism. Y cnt we all jus argue properly without insulting each other? Leave this name-calling and insulting rhetoric for the political blogs where people jus fight jus bcoz they need to get thru their miserable days. This is a forum where people can converse properly together, share ideas and criticise where necessary, coz if someone produces a product and puts it out on the market, they have to get a fair appreciation of how the product is perceived! So please lets us discuss things with less hate speech and more facts!!!
Hey PuffDaddy, of course you are allowed an opinion, and I knew you would respond by saying so, which just goes to show that you don’t listen. Your opinions should be constructive. Get it? CONSTRUCTIVE. My deconstructive rant was aimed at you and your ilk because you were not constructive in your opinions. So please don’t be a mullet and attack people, we are all entitled to our opinions.
Byte me – By whose standards do you judge me? Worse than the ones I am criticizing? The criticisms leveled against SHA under the guise of “entitled opinions” and “constructive criticisms” by people who have a platform to do so is the worst form of grandstanding. So excuse me for replying in kind, it was the only way for them to understand what i was saying…and even then they still don’t get it. You ask for Facts? Where are the FACTS in the criticisms shown in this chain of comments? It is precisely against this kind of biased, shallow commentating that I rail against. be decent, be proper and then you wont see such rhetoric from the likes of me. And I even admitted that what i wrote was drivel. Go figure.
Aaaaaaa……..I drew no line, so therefore i crossed no line. But i will try to grow up…so I can be just like you. No thanks, I would rather go read allzimbabwe.com.
You go read fo sho, ____
I think you have issues. go back to bed 😛
Dude you have too much time on your hands put to waste go start your own blog and we wont come at it 😀
Dont shoot @kabweza:disqus please he supports these guys in the first place and some of get the fun part of it. He simply writes things that shoot us in the foot and shoot not him but the creators 🙂 well enough I think thats what I do.
Kudos to you Mr @kabweza and I have to say if you are going to write critic posts I wont at all even think of reading your posts. I only read things controversial enough to sound like null-shit and I shoot out in critic comments.
My two cents:
1) it’s fairly new. we cant expect the world from it as yet.
2) design is subjective. so we’ll always differ on colours, layouts etc…but you know what? the owners shove it down our throats. We never have a choice! If you do join and like the website, you’ll eventually accept it. Personally,I hate the colours. If I used it long enough, I’d probably like it.
3) love the name. “sha” is appropriate for zim
4) as for the model, only they know how and where they would like to take it. whats obvious is that it does not replace and will never replace facebook. but there’s a local aspect/appeal that facebook dznt have. that would be where they would be different and where they could focus their efforts
5) social network is NOT synonymous with facebook
Well done to whoever came up with the name sha, it didn’t take me 10 seconds to fall in love with it. As for the site in general; l was fortunate enough to sit through the original pitch of this product at the Zol Startup Challenge when it was still called social.co.zw . Its definitely improved and should carry on doing so. The idea of leveraging on Webdev’s achievements to create a social network that connects Zimbos from all walks of life is something l find to be practical and thoughtful.
-Good job just for the entrepreneurship.
-Its a channel for different newer discussions and expressions.
-consider it beta while it gets better.
-its the internet so things can be changed, quickly, iteratively.
-This blog proves that your users will help you design v1.0, keep at it and rapidly evolve.
-I’ll work with you for a month or two and make it a multi-dimensional success but its your idea not mine, so you run with it and I will be behind you.
-You’re a business so be profitable while you grow.
-sha, its sha. (Only if you’re Zimbabwean you’ll know what this means)
-At the end of the day I’m looking for information, trying to reach new contacts, prospects, or advertising my services.
-Welcome to sha its here to stay, in some form or expression.
-Well done for getting the ball rolling, 99.9% are talkers 0.1% are the doers.
-Let us all strive to be doers and sayers of good only.
–
Notice how we are not posting these comment’s on sha.co.zw
Soon this post will have more comments than the total number of regular users of sha.co.zw. Lol. Just messing with you.
Looks like Jomsocial just pasted on a joomla site nothing else, wheres my carrot????
wow!! not sure if we’ll have enough noddy badges to go round! well done dude!
Like every social network, online and off, Sha is and will be shaped by its users. It’s new. It’s local. Surely that should be enough for us to go and make it ours, instead of attacking Webdev for their efforts, and for what you perceive them to have done and what they’ve omitted to do?
We complain so much about our imported goods, technology, culture – but when someone tries to stand up and change that, they get shot down. Yes, we’re all entitled to an opinion, but if we all put half as much energy into supporting our local industry as we do into complaining that local companies are not doing it right, we might surprise ourselves with what we can achieve.
@Not_taxes, you have no idea what you are talking about.
You are full of yourself. Give us a list of things you have achieved since 1995…
The Point Still Remains sha.co.zw is not unique , or at least for now!
You see webdev i myself a consumer or a potential user of sha do not have to think hard about what a product/website has to offer, because that information is readily available,thats what marketing is for hey.
the fact that slackie you have to explain further what your product does or its objective in a comment says much about your marketing strategy.
the reason why so many people are attacking this site (lot more not just the ones who posted here) is that your site is not unique and that there is no motivation for them to join it.
i also think the site is ugly (yes i said it!) i think there are better ways of staying simple and looking good. As a nation we need to move away from such designs. ((Ooh you may babble saying craigslist made it big looking crappy, but a social network/website is like a bar or restaurant or a shopping mall, it has to be visually apealing))just look at facebook or googleplus and see the difference.(or sorry maybe you are unique in an ugly way lol).yes jomsocial is great but in this case u really need to REINVENT THE WHEEL, if u are to be unique, coz thats where it starts.PEOPLE START CODING!! i know some may say it does not make good busines sense, which may be be true if ure targeting a thousand people,but if u really want to make it to a million, you really need to invest some time into real programming.
Yes Not_taxes you may attack kabweza and techzim saying its not unique either but seriously techzim is a news site or blog and there are thousands of popular news websites out there and i think i visit btwn 8 to 10 a day, on the contrary there are few social networking sites out there (less than 10) and i visit 1 facebook,
My point here is that uniqueness and creativity is key in the success of a social network thats why thousands fail every month.
webdev you have a great idea and i think you should keep working on it.
But you really need to rethink your objectives with sha, or at least make us see the same way as you
i hope i am wrong and that one day months later we will be able to laugh off this comment, because every internet user in zim will be on sha!
and to kabweza and the techzim team keep up the good work, and no to ass-kissing if its crap say it!
Well at least SHA’s getting a lot of publicity. Thank you all for that 🙂 If we can just push it into the top 5 comments of all time that would be sooooopa !
🙂
Lol Mr K what else could you say. Down in your heart you know sha is null-shit
Make sure you sort out cross browser compatibility issues and javascript problems on your reg forms, I could not signup, because the login form was interfering with the reg form.
it seems to have issues with signing up thts true D Esq, the developers need to look into that
The developers or the Joomla modules they used you mean.
You think they can do that ? when they are masters of copy and paste
Gues bad publicity is good. Ask Microsoft if their shares are going up
Not_taxes you are a muppet – because muppets lack depth and have someone else pulling the strings. ICT industry since 1995 – really doing what, selling cartridges? You have credentials, really?
Let’s go back in history – the mid to late 90’s Jim Holland (Mango), the Nuersten brothers (Iafrica), Africa Online, Cyberplex, ID, Samara, David Behr. Those were the pioneers of many things internet in Zimbabwe. Were you involved in any of those or with those people?
There is no rule that say criticism must be constructive. My comments were by way of advice but the idiot that you are, you interpreted that as a punt for a long dead site or a criticism.
If I really wanted to criticise sha.co.zw I would go on and comment on it’s cut an paste job on privacy and terms and conditions.
I would ask how they will dislodge newzimbabwe.com, eatout.co.zw and zimbojam.com as the premier players in their field in the Zim webspace.
I would ask what their business model is – any startup freely declares that.
I would ask them whether they know how many Zimbabweans are on the net and how many they expect to sign up on their site.
Et cetera, et cetera.
So climb back into your little web hole and play will joomla and all things that have been made for you by others and let the adults talk.
I think Not_Taxes gets the point now,lol(the hard way i must say)
I see a trend with the comments on TechZim, people seem to skim an article and then attack the developer as a copy cat. This was most evident with the ZOL startup challenge and this sha article. I would like to encourage the readers to at least look into the products before giving a knee jerk reaction. One of the most obvious differences with sha is that everyone’s activity is public (unless a private message) this in my opinion is a huge difference to facebook and other social networks, it means the content posted is meant for public consumption it is meant to address a larger audience than your friends it is even more open than twitter where, while public, you only see people you look for rather than everyone. Is this a winning strategy? I dont know but for a country as small as Zimbabwe I like the idea so lets wait and see.
I am not saying do not criticize I personally am not the biggest fan of the name and the look, while distinctive and fits the webdev brand can be hard to pick out details. But i would like to see more constructive criticism rather than immediate flogging without looking into the details.
I hope sha works out, I see a use for it, but only if people use it to its potential, if they see another facebook it will fail, so it is up to webdev to get unique, public content on the site to attract people to the site.
How about techzim contributing links and article stubs to the blogs and groups sections? It could be a win win for traffic to both sites. Anyone else I would encourage to contribute your content as well, at least for a month, lets see if there is merit in their approach. These kinds of sites live and die on their content, similar to classifieds sites, webdev’s is the most successful because they attracted the users and advertisers not because it was orginal, prettier or more user friendly than the competition.
After reading all the vitriol being passed around, I had to visit sha.co.zw to see for myself. It looks a bit clumsy, too many things without a clear trump card and the feeling it gives is like you are in classifieds (they are sisters after all). But, not taking anything from them, they have put some on the table and obviously the are going to refine it according to feedback and their growing experience. Kudos Webdev.
Well done to webdev for coming up with shaa.. half a loaf is better than nothing
But then is it a real eatable loaf or not
You don’t have to keep it running constantly. It’s worth keeping an eye on Google Labs,
where Google previews its newest applications. Selecting
the map will certainly take you to some bigger variation
on Google Maps.