Why is it that people in South Africa still insist on using local hosting. With the inception of a hard-cap on DSL the reason that for using local hosting to cater for capped users is no longer a viable argument.

In my experience (as limited as it may be) local hosting is sub-standard in every way. It has poor service, slow response times (both technical and relational), limited offerings, and the obvious kicker is that it is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. In terms of cost-value there is no motivating reason for one to use local hosting; the only reason that I can see for the moment is some dependency for local connectivity due to a requirement of your web site/application that is necessitated by design.

On the same track, local web design positively sucks. Our country has not yet embraced ecommerce. It’s rather unfortunate as it is an avenue that is very good for those of us that like to live in the 21st century. Many of the local websites that I’ve had the displeasure of using still use ancient static html or poorly crafted asp littered with abortive animated gifs. Many are still using a predominantly black “colour” based web site with eye-gougingly bright contrasting colours to “emphasise” everything. Let’s also not forget the tiled background images and modified cursors that is still so prevalent in South African websites.

Where are all the talented web developers and what are they doing? Clearly not building web sites for ZA companies. It really is a shame, because most companies need a lot of help. Even the big corporates in this country can’t seem to put together a well constructed site that is “intuitive”.

Vottle is a decent example of what a site should look like to an extent; elegant in its simplicity though not without its faults. I bet if you went and talked to you most internet users in ZA and asked them what Craigslist was, they’d give you a blank stare and go back to stuffing their faces while chatting on MSN. It’s really pathetic that trying to sell or buy used stuff online in South Africa is nigh on impossible. The IT industry sort of got it right; it’s pretty easy to get PC components and software via the net locally — if you ignore the exhorbitant prices that is.

This blog was spawned by my love of motorcycles and the piss poor quality of motorcycle related sites that I’ve been browsing the last few days (30~40 of them). They’re around… they just suck. Most are rarely updated and have poor content. Ironically the ones with decent content have really poor design so as to make you not want to use them, which is really great. Let’s not get started on forums; everyone knows what sort of creatures inhabit those.

A while ago I registered zabikers.co.za with the intention of adding something positive to the local motorcycling community. Unfortunately I didn’t get very far, mainly due to my lack of motivation and non-existent web development skills. I also have no draw, nothing unique or new to bring to the table that will attract people. Though I do have a few ideas they all require money, of which I have none to spare.

As an aside, I just had a mate phone me telling me that he saw my bike on the back of a trailer being towed around Cape Town. Lovely… I still haven’t received a phone call to arrange delivery.

I preach to the converted.