Welcome to Kenread, a social media site that allows Kenyans to post content and express their views.
Currently you can post three types of content:
For your security, all URL links are text based - clicking will not automatically take you to the site. This gives you an opportunity to use a second computer that has your favourite Internet security/filtering software to visit the web page.
Registered users of the site are given an opporutnity to upvote or downvote posted content.
Content is posted to one of several categories. Users can peruse content in the various categories. Alternatively, users can visit the profile of a registered user and see a list of content posted by the user.
There are no rules against who can post - any person or a company can create a profile. You can use this site as an entertainment site to share content that you find enjoyable. Or you can use this site to promote your business.
Registration to use the site is free. No email address is required, nor (at the current moment) are email addresses used.
The only rules for using this site are that all users - people who upload content and people who comment on articles - should be civil.
This means, for example, that:
There is no restriction to having more than one account. It is in fact encouraged if you plan to comment on controversial content. You can use one account to promote your business or personal profile. You can then use a second account with a pseudoname to post comments without adversely affecting your business or personal profile.
You use this site in the knowledge that the neither the content shared nor the opinons that appear are necessarily those of the owners of the site.
Despite all the efforts that the owners of the website will undertake, there will always people who choose to break the rules. As such, even though this site offers sections designed to assist you in you day-to-day living, e.g. searching for (or advertising) housing, crowdfunding for business/charity, reading loan offers, etc, it is highly recommended that people under the age of 18 should only use this site under the guidance of their parents or guardians.
Given the proliference of cell phone and social media usage in Kenya, most people will find it fairly easy to learn how to navigate this site. Never-the-less, this help section would not be complete without at least some notes on how to navigate to the site. So here goes...
Text articles allow limited formatting using HTML tags to enhance appearance.The following HTML tags are available for you to use:
This is a paragraph
This is another paragraph
If, in doubt as to which section to post to after reading the notes below, please post to the Miscellaneous section.
If you wish to see a category added, please send a message through the form at at http://www.kenread.com/contact.html and select New Category Proposal for the subject.
Post links, pictures or text content with General News to this section. If you are a journalist of a media establishment, you can create a link to the web page with your article.
If you are a freelancer journalist, you can use all the resources - creating links to your web site, uploading pictures or creating text posts - to promote your work. Please do not forget to include copyright information if you need to copyright protect your work.
Any member of the public, not just journalists, are free to post General News.
News related to politics in Kenya can be posted here.
Content related to business - business News and business tips - can be posted to this section. This section is ideal for businesses that wish to have make press releases. It is also ideal for business counsellors to offer tips for money/business management.
Please note that business offers should be posted to the Business Offers section.
Likewise, requests for business help or queries related to running a business should be posted to the Business Requests section.
Use this section to post content related to your travel and leisure through Kenya.
Tourists to Kenya are also free to post content related to their journeys through Kenya.
Owners of travel and leisure establishments, e.g. hotels, lodges, etc, are free to post content that MUST INCLUDE scenery, e.g of beaches, wildlife, etc associated with their offer. PLEASE DO NOT POST ACCOMMODATION OFFERS IN THIS SECTION. Please use the Real Estate/Accommodation Offers section for that.
Content related to Kenya's wild life can be posted here. Share your pictures of animals and marine life that you take on your trips to the national parks.
Opinions in the form of text posts can also be posted here, e.g. ways to manage wild life better, etc, can also be posted here.
Wild life management organizations are more than welcome to create URL links to web site content related to wild life in Kenya.
Please keep content in this section wild life related. Content such as group photos of friends in a national park should be posted to the Travel & Leisure section.
Sports related content goes here.
Share your pictures of your visit to sporting events here.
Likewise, share an opinion by creating a text post.
Sporting establishments are free to create URL links to their official web sites for the purpose of promoting their growth.
Science related content goes here.
Science content in this category can be loosely described science content that does not have extensive applied technology. For example, content related to health and medicine can posted here. Likewise, content related to the Geology of Kenya and the potential for economic exploitation would fit in this section.
Content such as that describing the latest computers, smart phones, industrialization via automation, proposals for dam designs, etc, should be posted to the Technology section.
Science content with an element of applied technology can be posted to this section.
This includes the latest telephone gadgets, the latest car models, the latest computers, etc.
Content with technology proposals to solve Kenya's needs, e.g. mini-dams for power generation, dyke designs to control perennial flooding in Western Kenya, etc, is more than welcome here.
Content related to farming can be posted here. This includes farming tips, problems facing farmers, farming opportunities, etc.
Kenya is heavily dependent on agriculture, and people also love to eat fresh produce. As such, the rules that do not allow posting of items for sale apart from in the miscellaneous or business offers categories is somewhat relaxed for this section.
However, as a matter of common courtesy, to respect the fact that people are coming to this site mainly to read and learn in a relaxed manner, we request that for every sale offer made, at least three pictures or text post articles related to farming be made.
For example:
Please let us respect the visitors to this site by including as much educational and entertainment material as possible. The exception to allow items for sale to be mixed with News and tips is a reflection of the importance of agriculture to the economy of Kenya, emphasized by the green colour on our flag. But please let us not lose focus of the main reason that people are visiting this site - to entertain themselves or learn something - and post too many for sale items. Let us keep a ratio of at least three pieces of farming content to every for sale item. ALL ITEMS FOR SALE IN THIS SECTION MUST BE RELATED TO FARMING AND AGRICULTURE.
Self explanatory
This is intended to be a section that you post content that is not really News, but none-the-less interesting and relaxing.
For example, a picture of a bird fighting its reflection on your car mirror, or a squirrel eating in from your hands, etc
You are also free to post content such as your children playing with your pets, pictures from a wedding, etc, etc.
PLEASE DO NOT POST SAD CONTENT TO THIS SECTION, e.g starving animals, etc. Please use the Pictures or Miscellaneous categories for that.
If you are a hunter, or you have slaughtered a mbuzi for a party, it will be more appropriate to post to the Wildlife and Travel & Leisure sections respectively.
NB: Uploading pictures through Internet Explorer requires at least Version 10, (IE10)Content related to religion goes here.
Pictures
Self explanatory. PLEASE REMEMBER TO FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES PROVIDED IN THE INTRODUCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, NO ADULT THEMED CONTENT.
Maximum image size: 10MB.
NB: Uploading pictures through Internet Explorer requires at least Version 10, (IE10)
Peekaboo is a pictures upload category for group entertainment. You upload a picture and set a maximum time that it will be available online. You can specify any time duration from a minimum of 15 minutes up to 23 hours and 59 minutes. After the specified time duration has passed, the picture will no longer be available for viewing and will be deleted from the system during the next garbage collection cycle.
Pictures that are uploaded to the Peekaboo section are are not listed when someone clicks on the Peekaboo menu item. The button only serves to remind people that there is a category to post pictures for group entertainment.
For someone to see the Peekaboo picture, the person will have to know the article ID. You can send the person/people who are part of the group game the article ID by, say, email. Alternatively, you can post a note of up to 160 characters to the Shout It! category with a title that will attract attention to people looking to have fun on the Internet.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES PROVIDED IN THE INTRODUCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, NO ADULT THEMED CONTENT.
Satire
Self explanatory.
In this category you can create a URL link to a video on your favourite video sharing site, e.g. YouTube or Vimeo.
Almost anything can go here: buy/sell, event notifications, content that does not quite fit into the other categories, etc, etc, etc.
When in doubt about posting to any of the other categories, post to this category to avoid potential bans to the site.
The purpose of this section is to alert people to an item of noteworthy educational value. For example, you could post a URL link entitled "NIK That Some People Believe In The Existence Of A Nandi Bear": the link would point to the article, or "NIK That Luo contains some words that are pronounced almost the same way and have the same meaning as in Kikuyu". NIK stands for 'Now I Know'. It is not mandatory to include the prefix NIK, but it will be helpful to attract the attention of visitors to this site who are seeking to both relax and learn something new at the same time.
Content does not have to be related to kenya. For example, an entry such as, "NIK That in the 50s and early 60s only 40% of the American population lived in cities", could be a point of discussion to similarities between the US then and Kenya now. Some of the best technologies invented in the US, the success yet to be replicated, came around that period. Could the same happen in Kenya?(Kenya population distribution: 70% rural, 30% urban)
Please do not post recent News(or links to recent News) content to this section. All News articles referenced must be at least six-months old.
This section is Entertainment Based. Ask questions such as, "What should I buy my wife for a present?" or "How interesting is your job?"
Please DO NOT POST ARTICLES THAT
WARNINING (PLEASE CLICK AND READ)
In 160 characters or less, let Kenyans know what you think!
(Please note that the title length can be longer than 160 characters.)
Use this section to seek non-traditional funding from private individual lenders. Create a text post detailing your needs. Upload pictures and URL links as required. A lender can then visit your profile and read the information in order to decide how he/she can help you.
There is no penalty for creating a new account, distinct from your principal account, in order that people visiting your profile do not get distracted while creating a profile of you.
Kenread does not charge lenders any fees of any kind - all arrangements made are between the two parties that eventually meet through this platform. With regards to any loan request/offer services, Kenread is nothing more than a communication platform/tool attempting to improve the lives of Kenyans by connecting lenders and borrowers.
Remember to keep a written record of any agreements made and any financial transactions made.
The objective of the owners of Kenread is to encourage an atmosphere in which you are charged no more than 10% interest on loans offered whenever practical. At a future date, Kenread plans to list a rating of individual private lenders who choose to use the Kenread platform. The best rated lenders will be given preferential visibility to borrowers. If you wish to participate in helping us develop a rating, for proof of verification purposes, in addition to keeping a written record of all financial transactions, the following information will be beneficial:
WARNINING (PLEASE CLICK AND READ)
This category exists to give individual lenders an opportunity to help their fellow Kenyans who may have difficulty in securing traditional financing through standard banking services.
The desire of the owners of Kenread is that interest charged on monies lent should not exceed 10% whenever practical.
Kenread plans to implement a rating scheme of lenders who advertise their services or find clients through the site. Lenders with higher ratings will be given preferential visibility to potential borrowers. Participation in preferential visibility will be entirely optional.
All financial institutions are welcome to advertise their services in this section. However, financial institutions subject to Kenya's banking laws will not qualify for preferential visibility. Specific services that attract an interest of not more than 10% may occassionally be highlighted. Preferential visibility can loosely be described as the ability of a borrower to more easily discover articles created by potential lenders.
To see the guidelines for the criteria that Kenread will use in forming a rating, please visit the Loan Requests section.
WARNINING (PLEASE CLICK AND READ)
In this category, you can post a request of anything business-related from seeking tips for business to soliciting funds for your business. The category may be particularly useful for businesses in the startup phase and seeking business partners.
Mature businesses can also use this category to ask for market research opinions, seek advice on branching out to new areas or can solicit funding for projects.
A word of advice: remember that Kenread is no more than a tool to help business-people connect with each other. This is particularly important for businesses in the startup phase. Do not post articles that give away too much information about your business idea. Kenread cannot take any responsibility if your ideas are used by another party.
Please DO NOT SELL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN THIS CATEGORY. You can use the Miscellaneous section to sell your products and services. You can use the Business Offers category to promote your business capabilities, NOT products or services. Please respect your fellow Kenyans in this matter. Failure to do so may result in you and your company's profiles being banned from this website.
Use this category to promote your capabilities, NOT products and services.
As an example, let's say you have a bakery and want to expand to a new location. Let's say one of your products is organic whole wheat bread.
Selling your product in this category would be the equivalent of posting an article with something to the effect of indicating that you have whole wheat for bread and Kenyans are now very health conscious.
On the other hand, you can promote your capabilities saying that your company bakes all kinds of cakes and types of bread, including products using certified organic productss. You can then go on to add that you are seeking to either franchise an outlet or supply a distributor in, say, Westlands, Nairobi.
It should be clear from this example that there is a difference between selling your products/services and promoting your capabilities. The primary aim for people coming to this site is to learn something in an enjoyable manner without having shove a product into their face. Failure to adhere to this rule will result in your company's profiles being banned from this site.
You are free to sell your products and services in the Miscellaneous section.
Crowd Funding is a strategy that is becoming popular for raising money, whether for business or charity.
Crowd Funding for businesses is in many ways similar to searching for angel investors, except that instead of having to convince investors with high expectations and demands, the hopeful candidate pitches his/her ideas to the public through a website. Members of the public interested in the project can then chip in to help. Both parties usually spell out clearly what is expected of the other party. For example, a startup company may offer part ownership, or simply rewards, e.g. free meals for the life time of a restaurant being launched.
You can create a profile and post articles centred around an idea for which you hope to receive funding through Crowd Funding. People interested in helping and browsing listed articles found in the Crowdfunding category will hopefully take an interest, and you both get in touch with each other.
Likewise, organizations seeking to raise funds can create profiles centered around a fund raising effort. Hopefully members of the public browsing listed crowd funding efforts will take an interest in your profile, and you can both meet to make concrete the funding effort.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL REQUESTS TO SHUT DOWN A CROWD FUNDING EFFORT AS A RESULT OF A COURT ORDER ISSUED VIA THE KENYA JUSTICE SYSTEM WILL BE HONOURED. Kenread ALSO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SHUT DOWN A CROWD FUNDING EFFORT ON ITS SITE - NO REASON FOR SHUTTING THE EFFORT WILL NECESSARILY BE PROVIDED.
WARNINING (PLEASE CLICK AND READ)
Real Estate/Accommodation Wanted
Use this category to post articles related to your search for accommodation and real estate. Whether you are looking for housing, rooms-both commercial(e.g. hotels, inns) and residential, real estate such as offices to rent, properties to buy, etc, post your requests to this section. You can create a profile dedicated to articles for a particular real estate/housing search campaign- text posts of what you are looking for, pictures and urls. Remember to include information in the posts of how people/businesses offering the services can contact you.
Real Estate/Accommodation Offers
Use this section to post articles related to offers that you have for real estate and accommodation. If you have a room for rent, a property you are selling, etc, feel free to post articles related to your campaign here.
Commercial enterprises are welcome to use this category as well. For example you may have hotel rooms, if you are a real estate company, etc.
Normally, captcha challenges are used at registration on membership accounts to prevent automated software being used to create accounts. However, recent News from the world of social media sites suggests that automated software is increasingly being used to
One of the objectives of the Kenread website is to assist Kenyans promote their businesses over the Internet. It would be of no help to the business person if everytime he/she posts content automated software down-votes it to ensure that it does not become popular with Internet surfers.
Kenya has also come under the radar of several activist groups, and one never be sure that they are all working ethically. For example, reports from North America suggest that there are now 'ecological terrorists' who plant evidence and deliberately destroy installations to 'prove' their 'Science', for example of the 'dangers of drilling for oil in certain locations'.
To reduce the likelyhood of automated software being used to promote such content or prevent good content from receiving popular votes, one will be required to face a captcha challenge before posting or voting on articles.
For the time being, in order not to burden site members with too many captcha challenges, voting on comments pertaining to an article does not require one to face a captcha challenge. However, it should be noted that this is also being considered for the future - perhaps a form of hybrid voting in which the poster of content has the ability to require commenters to face a captcha challenge before the votes are accepted.
The captcha challenge is reasonably difficult. You can refresh the captcha image if it is too difficult to read. If you do not get a captcha challenge answer correct, a new captcha image will be presented to you.
Hopefully the reduced likelyhood of automated software forcing content not to be seen will give creative Kenyans a chance to be seen and heard on the Internet. Likewise, hopefully small businesses with little money for marketing budgets can effectively use Kenread to improve their business fortunes.
There are a few known issues/defects with the site. These are mainly as a result as choosing to develop the site for HTML5 compliant browsers. Many older browsers, particularly from the Microsoft Family of Internet Explorer browsers, are not fully HTML5 compliant. In addition, some of the older Microsoft browsers that are partially HTML5 compliant have bugs that Microsoft apparently chose not to fix. Rather than attempt to write code to deal with these shortcomings, users who will be uploading content are encouraged to update their browsers to the most current browser releases, as recommended by the browser developers.
The following two shortcomings will be apparent to users of versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer older than IE10:
If you come across a bug when using the site, please send a message via the contact form at http://www.kenread.com/contact.html and send a message with the subject Report Software Bug.
This social media site is still a work in progress, and features will be gradually added with time. Feel free to send a message of what you would like to have on the site.
Kenread currently uses a simple model when offering advertising services on the site.
At a future date, Kenread will add a category through which people can buy and sell products. However, it should be noted that the main theme design of that page will remain the same as for the principal pages - the ads posted on the three principal advertising spots - top, bottom and right hand column - will also appear on the layout of any category created to be associated with buying and selling.
The goal behind this advertising strategy is to give the winners of the bids as much value for their money as possible by offering maximum exposure within a twenty-four hour period. In this manner, the advertising cost per person reached is lowered, and the risk associated with experimenting with targeted advertising is significantly reduced. Kenread is a social media site that attempts to attract people from all types of backgrounds. Even if a person visits the site only once a day, since the ad will be posted for a full day, the chances of the ad being seen by interested buyers will be relatively high.
People/companies who do not win the bid process are encouraged to post content associated with their businesses in the appropriate categories. There is no fee for either businesses or individuals to post content.
The buy/sell section will be introduced later. The site www.kenread.com is still a work in progress.
The modalities for the bidding system are still being worked out. In the mean time, if you wish to advertise your products and services, please send a message throught contact mail form at www.kenread.com/contact.html and select Advertising Inquiry as the message subject.