Nairaland, one of the most popular online forums in Nigeria, has been inaccessible to its millions of users since February 14th. The reason? A human error by its founder, Seun Osewa, who failed to respond to an abuse report in time.
According to Osewa, who took to Twitter recently to explain the situation, he overlooked an email from Cloudflare, the web hosting service that powers Nairaland, alerting him of offensive content posted on the forum. By the time he realized his mistake and removed the content, it was too late. Cloudflare had already suspended Nairaland’s server as a punishment for the delayed response.
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Why did it take so long to fix?
Osewa hoped to restore the server quickly, but he faced another hurdle. The user interface (UI) for bringing back the server did not work properly, and he had to wait for hours to get support from Cloudflare. He finally managed to get the server back online, only to face another setback. Cloudflare took down the forum again, this time without any explanation.
Osewa suspects that cached versions of the offensive content might be triggering Cloudflare’s filters, even though he has cleared his own caches. He is still waiting for a response from Cloudflare, hoping that they will review the case and unblock the forum.
Osewa expressed his frustration and regret in a series of tweets, apologizing to his users and asking for their patience. He said that the issue was “really a small issue that should have been resolved in less than 2 minutes”, but admitted that he had an “abysmal” track record in dealing with abuse reports. He also asked for user suggestions on how to handle such situations better in the future.
What are the implications?
The incident has exposed the vulnerability of Nairaland, which relies on a single web hosting service and a single person to run the platform. It has also raised questions about the accountability and transparency of Cloudflare, which has the power to shut down websites without warning or recourse. The outage has also affected the livelihoods of many Nairaland users, who use the forum for business, education, entertainment, and social networking.
Nairaland, which was launched in 2005, is one of the oldest and largest online communities in Africa, with over 2.6 million registered users and over 6 million monthly visitors. It covers a wide range of topics, from politics and sports to religion and romance. It is also a source of news and information for many Nigerians, especially in the absence of reliable mainstream media.
The forum’s users have expressed their dismay and disappointment over the prolonged downtime, with some venting their anger on social media and others expressing their solidarity and support for Osewa. Many have also called for a backup plan or an alternative platform to keep the Nairaland spirit alive.
Has this happened before to other forums in Nigeria?
According to the sources, there have been cases of Nigerian forums being taken offline due to various reasons, such as hacking, server issues, legal disputes, or censorship. However, none of them seem to be exactly the same as what happened to Nairaland. Here are some examples of other forums in Nigeria that have experienced downtime:
In 2018, EarlyFace, a forum for students and youths, was hacked and defaced by a group of cybercriminals.
In 2019, NaijaPals, a forum for entertainment and social networking, was temporarily shut down by its web host, HostGator, due to a billing error.
In 2020, Nigeria Message Board, a forum for news and politics, was suspended by its domain registrar, Namecheap, following a court order from the Nigerian government over alleged defamation.
Is there any update on when Nairaland will be back online?
According to the latest tweet from Seun Osewa, the founder of Nairaland, he is still waiting for Cloudflare to unblock the forum. He said that he has done everything he can to resolve the issue, but he has not received any response from Cloudflare yet. He also thanked his users for their support and understanding.
As of now, there is no official announcement on when Nairaland will be back online. However, some users have reported that they can access the forum using VPN or proxy services. This might be a temporary workaround, but it is not recommended, as it might compromise the security and privacy of the users.