About me
I intend to start a free learning platform similar to this, I couldn’t get someone to design what I want, so I decided to learn HTML, CSS and PHP to develop my website myself. A better idea because I feel I am the only one who can understand what i want and I get to update the site without running to a developer all the time
Issue
I know this is all free and I am thankful for an opportunity like this, however, I am stock trying to use this platform. Did you guys even sat down to think about people who live in China and don’t have access to platforms like FB, or youtube and can’t ? Yeah, even with the VPN, I still can’t make a connection between my fb account and this site MAIN PROBLEM. Only begs the question of why so many hindrances? Apart from building a sense of community which I believe this forum is more that enough to provide, what’s the point of forcing people’s neck into your youtube channel or fb page in the first place?
I know there would be an argument that i am not the first person from china and all but if someone has a solution I will like to hear em. I don’t just like the idea of forcing peoples’ hand into signing up for so many stuffs. You guys are literally holding a knife to my neck and I will take note of this when i launch my website.
Except the @moderator@QuincyLarson an get me past this issues, I will just have to look for another platform. Nice idea by the way, really nice one.
In order to get any of the certificates you only have to complete the challenges marked with an asterisk on the map. So there is no need to use facebook or youtube.
You’re right in that very few western websites consider the needs of “eastern” countries. Almost every website wants you to link or connect on Facebook (which I quit years ago because it’s a huge waste of my time), Twitter, and Youtube.
I don’t see that changing any time soon. Even though there are is a large community from China and other asian countries here, it would be a challenge for @QuincyLarson and his team to put the videos onto Youku/Tudou or open up other communities like WeChat (I bet there are already fCC WeChat groups if you search for them).
Thankfully, the people above are right, I haven’t hit any sections of the fCC curriculum where those have been required or enforced. Any “extra” section that wants you to go to a “blocked” website usually unlocks the next step as soon as you click the link… so click the link and immediately close that window so you can move on. Easy.
Do you know there is a gitter group for Chinese https://gitter.im/FreeCodeCamp/chinese ?
Have you any issue with GitHub? I connect with GitHub to other services like Cloud9, codepen, jsBin etc. I don’t use Facebook.
By the way, you live in the 21st century. You do NOT have to live in China if you aren’t satisfied with the country itself. Not to mention, you, as people, who live in China, should have fought your goverment back while they were doing those changes. It’s eventually your fault that you have got where you are now. I’m not saying that it’s right to block webpages, I would get super mad if it happened where I live, but I am not tied to any country, I can do whatever I want to. If I want to change anything, I go for it. You can’t blame FCC for having chosen certain platforms to use. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone.
I lived in China for 5 years, and am aware of the censorship there. It’s unfortunate.
All you need to work through freeCodeCamp is an internet connection. As far as I know, freeCodeCamp isn’t blocked anywhere in the world, though YouTube, Facebook, and Medium are blocked in China. These are all supplementary and non-essential to completing the challenges and earning the certificates.
Like other people on this thread have mentioned, there are WeChat groups, and some of the videos may have been cross-posted to YouKu and other Chinese government-approved websites.
You aren’t being forced to connect on Facebook/YouTube - you’re just informed by the site about freeCodeCamp’s presence on those platforms, it’s completely optional.
If your VPN is having issues I’d be happy to send you a copy of Tor Browser and some unlisted bridges - send me a private message if you’re interested - you will get a link to an unlisted mirror (still verifiable against the Tor Project’s GPG Signature - I.e. it hasn’t been tampered with - you’ll have bridges to circumvent blocks of the Tor Protocol).
It’s not a simple process for entire families to suddenly switch countries - let alone get the proper approvals from the new country - and finally to actually afford it assuming you can find another country who’d let you come in and eventually grant you citizenship - money is going to be a big issue.
I’m surprised they haven’t fought back, it’s not their fault that the government there is oppressive - that’s a crazy claim to make, glad to hear you aren’t bound to a country - the majority of other people are bound to their country.
I agree with that, maybe one day they’ll take a new approach to government where their citizens have more rights. But until then it’s just an unfortunate scenario which only time will determine if it ends.
The rules here are a but tight, and Whatsapp was blocked just last week. I don’t blame them; they are doing what they think is best for business, but I am glad that I can finally click on MAP and bypass the social media verification.
@anon52159105 thanks, I actually have a working VPN, and after much research, I was able to get a web browser called EPIC PRIVACY BROWSER (for those who are interested) that has an inbuilt VPN.
@N4thyra The government make such rules to protect their domestic market and it seems to be working quite well for them. Moreso, I came here for my Masters degree, I will eventually leave to the “free world” someday.
You guys are doing a fantastic job; hopefully I would be able to design my site in the next six weeks, it will be ugly at first but I guess it’s part of the fun. The cool part about learning this is that I will have absolute control, and that’s a really good feeling.
I will check out the group, but now I just want to focus on knowing the basics.
I can’t mention more than 2 people at a time, I would have liked to thank everyone personally.
By the way, freecodecamp is not blocked from the chinese internet space.
That’s a little short-sighted, I think. People can’t just pack up and move on a whim. People also can’t just change a government as they please.
People trying to move countries need time, money,… and BOTH government’s approval. My wife is Chinese. In order to come to Canada, she needed the approval of her government (in the form of granting a passport) and the approval of my government (in the form of visa and residence permit). The passport is generally fast, but the residence permit takes a long time (for Canada, up to 13 months) and has strict requirements (things like needing a sponsor, having adequate funds available, medicals and background checks of the last 10 years of your and every family member’s life).
I also didn’t hear the OP complaining about China (it’s not just China… many other countries have various forms of censorship too), but about how website designers/developers sometimes forget that we do live in the 21st century and if it’s online, it might be used by people from all over the world.
It feels to me like you’ve placed blame on @jon for his current circumstance instead of thinking about how to be more inclusive. That would be like telling a blind person or a person with disabilities that it’s their fault they can’t use your website instead of building accessibility and inclusion into your site. Or (more likely) telling the majority of your users that they need to upgrade their browsers in order to use your site (how long did we fight with IE6 in order to include those users?).
Evan Hensleigh puts it: “Edge cases de ne the boundaries of who [and] what you care about”. They demarcate the border between the people you’re willing to help and the ones you’re comfortable marginalizing. —Designing for Real Life
Some things we can work around. Others we can change entirely. But it’s up to the designers and developers to decide what’s important. In the case of fCC, they’ve encouraged the use of western social media while not enforcing it… allowing anyone to get in on the fun.
I hope anyone reading this thread takes away that it’s our job, not the users’, to create systems that work for as many different groups of users as we can.
What a pathetic answer… you have literally no idea what you’re talking about, you spout such offensive drivel when you know absolutely nothing about the person.
Just because this is the 21st century does not mean that people can live wherever they want, people are bound by all sorts of social and legal barriers, and anyone who thinks that is probably a child with little understanding of the world who should really keep their opinions to themselves.
I am living in China at the moment. I’ve been here for 11 years.
I have no trouble with my VPN at the moment, youtube isn’t a problem. What service are you using, if you don’t mind me asking?
It is worth paying for a VPN over a free service. The TOR browser and unlisted bridges work okay, but are a little slow, so expect some buffering.
I have been using Astrill, it has issues around the Party time, but in general it’s okay (although I hear people complaining a lot, I think they are just pushing other services - I’ve been on Astrill for 6 years and had no real issues and all my friends use it too).
Otherwise ExpressVPN is very sturdy, if a little more expensive.
Alternatively, you could set up your own digital ocean droplet and install Shadowsocks proxy on it. Some of the VPN providers also let you route through a socks5 proxy like Shadowsocks. That would cost about 5USD a month.
Please watch the personal attacks. Having a proper debate is okay, but direct attacks can damage the community. I attacked him a little too, but hopefully not in an aggressive way. If I was a little too aggressive, I hope @N4thyra tells me so I can clarify… it wasn’t my intent to troll him.
I agree that he called him out for his reply but it wasn’t a personal attack - he called the answer “pathetic”, told the user that they had no idea what they were talking about and that the person’s reply was offensive, and that the user doesn’t know about the user from China. That’s not a personal attack.
Pathetic is a strong word though. It can easily be thought of as “attacking the person” instead of “debating the content of the stream”.
I try (and fail more times than I’d like to admit) to keep my own language in check. Even when I’m saying “your argument has holes in it”, I still want the outcome of my post to be positive.
I read that post and it didn’t feel constructive. I might be reading too far into it though.
That’s about as much respect as I can muster for such a response to the original post, and pathetic is the absolutely correct adjective to describe their answer.
I was attacking their answer, and not the person and was very clear about that.
Whether you regard my answer as constructive or not is not my business, I don’t have time, inclination, nor responsibility to properly school such people, they should read my response as intended - an attack on their response and with reasoning, yet brief - deserving only of the small amount of time spent on it.
If they can’t take something constructive away from that, that is their business and good luck to them in the real world.
While all this arguing is going on… just kinda wanna point out that the OP has not been back to this convo for one, and for two…he already saw and responded, rather graciously, to the comment that has caused an uproar. Al this drama and upset even though the person it was directed to didnt take offense, the topic resolved between them and they have both moved on with their lives.
I mean, not to be any kind of way but…just wanted to point that out cause tensions are running rather high and the convo has kinda reduced to just hostility and arguing…and doesn’t even involve the people involved.
The first quote uses you 3 times and the second refers to someone with a lack of understanding as a child. That isn’t “attacking their answer”.
I also never mentioned asking forgiveness. Just requested that we all watch our tone.
But @cndragn is right, this thread is getting a little heated and you’ve stated it wasn’t your intent to be aggressive toward person directly. I respect that response. Thank you for your candour.
