Nairaland, an online discussion forum, that has dominated Nigeria’s web rankings for almost 20 years, went down on Monday.
Regular users of the site, on Monday night, raised the alarm when they were unable to access it.
Some of them raised concerns over possible hacking.
@BashirAhmaad wrote on X, “Does anyone have information on what’s happening with Nairaland? Typically, it is part of my nightly routine to check the site before bed, but it appears the page is down tonight. Could it be a technical issue, hacking, or something else?”
-Advertisement-
The founder, Seun Osewa, however, said the site was “taken down” by the host.
A check on the platform showed several error messages indicating a problem with the server, a situation Osewa acknowledged was punishment for overlooking an earlier sent abuse report.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday morning, the founder explained that though the said offensive content had been removed, the server user interface was still experiencing a delay.
Osewa posted, “Nairaland’s server was taken down because I overlooked an abuse report that was originally sent on the 14th. After the takedown, I removed the offensive content.
“The UI for bringing back the server didn’t work so it took hours to get support on how to get that done. Minutes after the forum was brought back, they took the server down again with no warning.
“I’m guessing that the content I removed was still cached on Cloudflare servers, so they could still see it. I have cleared the caches now, but they are not communicating. I hope they will communicate tomorrow.
READ ALSO: FG Cracks Down on 37 Unlicensed Loan Apps
“If you have any ideas for working with abuse teams, please share. My track record is abysmal.”
He added that it could take 48 hours of review from the host’s abuse team before the site is finally restored
“The technical support team has informed me that only the abuse team has the power to reinstate our server, that their review could take up to 48 hours, and that nothing can be done to speed up the process.
I’ve been informed that the only thing I can do is wait. It’s humbling,” he added.
Meanwhile, users of the platform have shown their support with some suggesting ways the issues can be resolved faster.
Some of those who reacted also urged Osewa to upscale Nairaland into a full-blown social media platform to forestall a future occurrence.
We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
-Advertisement-
-Want to get the news as it breaks?-
