Hey, I’m Ifiok Ambrose, a 300-level Computer Science student at the University of Uyo and a programmer who enjoys building things.
Last year, I built a Telegram bot that lets community owners put paywalls on their groups. It handles access automatically, kicks users when their subscription expires, the whole thing. The product worked. Distribution killed it. I didn't have an audience to push it to, so it went nowhere.
That failure taught me something though.
While trying to figure out the next cool thing to build, I discovered that we don't really have a serious, modern discussion forum. No real equivalent of Reddit where people cluster around topics they actually care about. What exists either feels abandoned or looks like you're filing a tax return from 2006.
I wrote a critique on Nairaland here, and didn't stop there, but decided to go ahead and build something better.
Zyke will grow into something meaningful not just in Nigeria or Africa, but globally. Something that becomes part of internet culture in its own way. The same way platforms like Facebook started small and became part of everyday online life.
I'm currently populating posts across the site and trying to get my first users. You can join me too, as far you abide by the posting guidelines.
Add a gaming community/section. Let us edit basic profile stuff like pic, display name, bio, and maybe the banner colour and a custom banner. Small change, huge for feeling ownership
Overall its functional and clean and has potentials
Platform is great, could you implement for better UX when I'm logged out and click a zyke link even after I've logged in I don't need to go back to click the link again.
One issue I noticed is that after google auth, the auth UI state didn't update (like I was still seeing a “Login” at the bottom bar), I had to refresh before the top bar changed to Logout and the bottom to Profile
Navigating the site is a little hard at the moment. You see that line below the comment button? That made me think it's a different post entirely. Also, the comment button under a giant text area is kinda confusing. What are both for? It's unclear. The inconsistent relationship between icons and text on buttons is also off. The subscribe button has a text beside the bell, every other thing doesn't. I believe a lot of other people are also used to having to do all their image edits in a modal after it's been uploaded. Doing image uploads on my phone wasn't immediately obvious what I had to do. I was stuck for a few seconds. There should be a much better way of separating posts. I shouldn't have to guess where one ends and the other starts.
A little work on the ui here should make it professional, I don't know but the choose File is not giving, I guess binding it to the profile picture for profile pic is sharp, that way I just click on my profile pic to change or view it. same with baner image
The second “Upload a banner image”, not quite sure about it if I already have Choose file for banner
At first I thought I was lost here, though I haven't subscribed to anything yet, a little statement like “No subscription” or some sort of could help me
Hover and clicked on that, it wasn't clickable until I moved my cursor to “First Post” which then took me to the post
Overall though, the app is clean, no clutter just direct and the colors are worth it.
ifiokambrose
10 Comments
Hey there, Zyker. I’m Ifiok Ambrose, creator and administrator of this discussion forum.
I’d love your feedback. What are you enjoying most so far? Any suggestions for improvement or issues (like broken links) you’ve noticed?
Your input helps this site better for everyone. Have fun Zyking! Here's my Twitter: @ifiokambrosee. 📩: [email protected].
This is quite impressive
Thank you so much fam
Clicking “Join” on the "Communities" page doesn't work
It works, but it doesn't automatically update when you navigate back
Add a gaming community/section.
Let us edit basic profile stuff like pic, display name, bio, and maybe the banner colour and a custom banner. Small change, huge for feeling ownership
Overall its functional and clean and has potentials
Noted chief.
Okay. I tried to delete my comment and this happened.
Cool stuff I would love on Zyke:
Noted. Thanks for the feedback
You can do that now
Platform is great, could you implement for better UX when I'm logged out and click a zyke link even after I've logged in I don't need to go back to click the link again.
I think Zyke is really beautiful 😂, I like how's technical it looks
It’s designed for nerds 😂. Atleast, for the mean time. Thanks sir
Ok I just signed up today and the interface is really nice especially the fact that you can switch from light mode to dark mode.
Also the reactions are really nice too not the typical ones we see on Facebook
So it's cool and I hope to see more improvements such as video upgrades like going live and all.
You have done a nice work here.
One issue I noticed is that after google auth, the auth UI state didn't update (like I was still seeing a “Login” at the bottom bar), I had to refresh before the top bar changed to Logout and the bottom to Profile
Much appreciated
Couldn't find how to edit profile
I want to change my username 😭
Noted, feature’s been added
Same here
Navigating the site is a little hard at the moment. You see that line below the comment button? That made me think it's a different post entirely. Also, the comment button under a giant text area is kinda confusing. What are both for? It's unclear. The inconsistent relationship between icons and text on buttons is also off. The subscribe button has a text beside the bell, every other thing doesn't. I believe a lot of other people are also used to having to do all their image edits in a modal after it's been uploaded. Doing image uploads on my phone wasn't immediately obvious what I had to do. I was stuck for a few seconds. There should be a much better way of separating posts. I shouldn't have to guess where one ends and the other starts.
Noted. Will fix the navigation and declutter the site and make a post on how to play with uploaded images. Thanks for the observation.
Great platform, really great stuff going on hear. I think in the long run you'll outsource goated platforms like stack and X.
A little work on the ui here should make it professional,
I don't know but the choose File is not giving, I guess binding it to the profile picture for profile pic is sharp, that way I just click on my profile pic to change or view it. same with baner image
The second “Upload a banner image”, not quite sure about it if I already have Choose file for banner
At first I thought I was lost here, though I haven't subscribed to anything yet, a little statement like “No subscription” or some sort of could help me
Hover and clicked on that, it wasn't clickable until I moved my cursor to “First Post” which then took me to the post
Overall though, the app is clean, no clutter just direct and the colors are worth it.
Will fix these before 12 mid night, thanks for the feedback
Yes to this, Add a share button for profile share, Wanted to invite some folks but can't seem to find the share profile button.
fixed
Had to make some edits for my profile and the save button was far from obvious.
Also, how can I make bookmarks?
The subscribe button acts as the bookmark. It's a deliberate design. I'll fix the ‘Save’ text button
Fixed, thank for pointing this out
I'll leave it here
You'll be great
Keep building
Thanks man ❤️