Drafting a Forum for Tarcians/Programmers
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Technical
While chatting with Jeffrey yesterday night, the idea suddenly came up to me: why not set up (yet another) forum? This semester has made me (here and here), Jeffrey, Regina, Eu Hua (to a certain extent) realize that there’s so much more us students need to do to be competitive. There’s just so much to learn. But sadly, there isn’t a proper place for us to discuss our ideas, share our learning experiences and help each other along the way..
Fact is, there’s a bunch of Tarcians (taking computer related courses like ISE and Comp Science) who are half-geeks. They have a passion for technology and programming, and are willing to learn. This is the bunch who do better in programming, and will probably be benefit a lot from such a forum.
We’re already in Advanced (3rd year), so it’s a little stupid for me to simply install phpBB, set up some boards and pray that the forum will be a success. Forums are easy things to get going, and it is hoped that with some careful planning, we can get the support required to get something like this going..
Goals
The primary goal for the forum is for students (regardless of the institute they’re from) to share knowledge about (bleeding-edge) programming (algorithms, OO principles, language specific implementations etc). I hope it’ll be more than a place for discussing assignments.
Content/Boards
- Programming - algorithms, object-orientation, languages/technologies, Imagine Cup
- General tech - hardware, software, games
- Life - tarcian talk?
I’m considering making posts in general tech and life not count in users’ post count. There’ll also be a Digg style board where the “topic starter” posts a link to something nice (of course programming related) on the web, then the discussion continues from there. However, a voting system will require some additional coding (into phpBB), and I think we’ll just have to make do with a forum style of posting for the time being.
Moderation Guidelines
n00by questions, or more specific, questions that expect spoon-fed answers will not be tolerated. Users are expected to do some research on their own. Users should also be specific about their questions. Users are discouraged from answering others’ questions too directly. Instead, they should direct the question-poster in the right direction.
I’m also suggesting that 1 line responses like “haha.. “, “that was cool”, “w00t!” and such be removed. The only 1 liner accepted is “Thanks”. I’m not sure whether the above are good examples, but I’m sure moderators will recognize replies that don’t contribute much to the topic being discussed.
Target Users
Obviously, our target audience would be tarcians, or any students taking programming. Like KK (whoops, I don’t know his full name) said, majority of tarcians are lazy. They could find answers to their assignments by Googling it, but they prefer asking and getting the answer directly. If this forum is to gain ground, we have to target these users. We need a group (albeit small) of active users to get the ball rolling. I also hope that when things are set up, we could all actively promote the forum to all our coursemates, friends and even juniors!
As you could probably see, this forum is still in some planning stages. Any suggestion/feedback is welcomed. We’ve got 3 weeks of semester break to get things going and I hope that things will be on a roll come semester 2.
Guest Experts
Y’know, all forums have like, ranks for their users. I’m thinking of a special “guest expert” rank, for those who are really, really good. These people would probably have no time to participate in our “n00bish” discussion, so the forum admins/moderators will “invite” them over to intersting threads, see if they have anything to add. What do you guys thing of this idea?
Current list of “Guest Experts”:
- Jinny Wong, 3rd yr undergrad, Monash M’sia - confirmed. Liase: me
- Benjamin Ng, final yr undergrad, NUS. Liase: me
- Ms Poh Siaw Way, lecturer, TARC. Liase: Jeffrey (he say try wor.. haha)
Note: I’ll probably have the forum running on my server, with using a subdomain for the time being. As it (or rather, if it) grows, we could ask everyone to chip in for a proper domain name, and use ads to support the increased hosting requirements.
Special thanks to Teng Foung, KK, Jeffrey and Eu Hua for their initial interest and support. To sum it up, here’s what I’m looking for: suggestions for the forum goals/content and also, a name!
10 Responses to “Drafting a Forum for Tarcians/Programmers”
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Regina Says:
August 27th, 2006 at 10:44 pmI definitely second it!
As you know although our college provides e-learning system, it doesn’t help much except the lecturer is very actively answering the posts. I’m sure you know what I’m trying to say…
I have a small suggestion: for those who are answering / helping the students with problems, don’t give direct answers. Instead, giving them some hints. Let them think themselves instead of relying you to give full answers.
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Jonathan Ng Says:
August 27th, 2006 at 10:52 pmDon’t think you have to worry ’bout that. Practially no one has time to provide full answers to programming questions…
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Jeffrey04 Says:
August 28th, 2006 at 12:03 amMission
To encourage students to share knowledge and get some experienced people to guide us in our personal research.Vision
Students will get benefits from the forum.Content/Boards
majorly things that we do not learn in college. And probably compile an e-book as reference/guide.
digg/slashdot style of news posting (hardware/software/games/technology etc)should we use wiki?
target users
initially - tarc students who do not rely on the forum for answers. disallow any reply to requests where the fella dun show that he/she oredy tried on the question.Guest Expert
I think Ms Poh will be willing to help once in a while. -
Eu Hua Says:
August 29th, 2006 at 10:37 amThe problem with most students is that they think I learn what I’ve thought, pass the exam with flying colours, then I’m done. So, most of them end up memorizing through all the chapters and not really understanding what it is taught. Some of them would even follow blindly without questioning about what is taught.
The main focus of the forum is to enable these students to have a discussion. They need to clear out their uncertainties by throwing out questions or problems they are facing. Not just blindly memorizing through the chapters without understanding it.
Not only that, the forum should also includes some of the latest technologies news and releases. Knowing the latest technology does not mean knowing about the latest DVD burner drive prices, or what is the latest processor prices. They should not only concern about the prices, they should at least get to know what is it about, or maybe briefly how these stuff works.
And if possible, they should be able to get online tutorials on the forum. By tutorials, I mean they should get a “how-to” guide, such as writing a simple function to a simple program.
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Jeffrey04 Says:
August 30th, 2006 at 2:29 pmmebbe we can find some problems or questions and then require the members to participate by providing the solution?!
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westley Says:
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:10 pmi think it is better for me to intro about myself 1st.
i’m not a TARC nor UTAR student.
my biodata, at my blog…as jeffrey04 introduce me to this, and i hv read it raftly.
currently i think most of the students from each university hv some group like what u hv stated. for my lecturer, they teach what they think they hv to teach.
even got some lecturer, teaching without slides, u can said he talk watever he wants, but, university/college changes, student should be aware they should not learn with the ways they do during secondary schools.
hosting a forum, not an easy task, programming language u can learned anytime.
mastering one louzy programming language, but well knowing the concept of Object Oriented and Data Oriented is more important.my advice, start from a smaller yahoo groups.
at least found some who hv interest of studying, but do not know how to get the source. this will be easy than target on everyone, but u can’t help anyone.sometimes too master in web searching is not too good, student may found and copy various of code from all over the web, but they do not understand how it work! so, it just end up wif a web copy cat.
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Stephen Tang Says:
September 8th, 2006 at 1:32 pmProgramming = Algorithm + Data Structures
Programming != Syntax + API
These are the equations that most mixed up when learning programming. To learn programming, one needs to learn to think and pay attention to detail.
University and College is a good environment to start doing things as there are ppl there guiding you (not doing things on your behalf). Form teams, do projects, learn and experiment with things you have not done before as it would not cost you financial setback when you fail. That’s all about uni/college life.
The only big problem that malaysian universities/colleges faces are the attitude of the students that generally demotivates the academicians. Those who learn IT wanted an easy way out. Thinking that by learning how to you computer you can made bucks out of it. But the fact is not. But we cannot blame the students too, everyone should be in. The problems will always exist because we are dealing with ppl at the very end.
What can you guys really do is to take up some position at the CS Soceity and get some advisor and some campaign working rather than going against the system that will take you down in return. Work on some programming competitions, some side projects, get some connection, work on some industry projects. All these are possible.
If you want to work on others. then take jeffrey04 advice, work on some forum elsewhere.
Just remember one thing. Depend on your ownself. not others. but seek advices whenever necessary.
Goto ACM website/ IEEE website and look at the proposed curriculum framework and see what are requied skillsets in the international industry. There is no point looking at Malaysia alone only. Should aim high and get international recognition rather than trying hard to teach local ppl to recognise your work.
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menj Says:
September 22nd, 2006 at 4:01 pmSounds like a good idea. I am definitely in. Not much of a programmer myself but I am still a self-professed IT geek :mrgreen:
- MENJ
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Ben Says:
October 1st, 2006 at 12:14 amIf you wish to set up an IEEE student branch in your college, do let me know. I can get you in touch with the right persons. By the way, IEEE is an organization that has many Chapters covering many disciplines beside electrical & electronics engineering, including information systems.
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AMistyCrissy Says:
October 9th, 2008 at 10:50 amHi! I’m Crystal. I am almost 18. :)
I guess jnls.net - beautiful name for this site! ;)
It is so interestingly here, especially in this category.
I was surfed about 2 hours before found this forum. I think i’ll be here for a long time! :-*
