An online forum to talk, collaborate and discuss with various stakeholders for Social groups for work display, discussions and suggestions
This forum is for enhancing the ability of cybersecurity leaders to communicate and define the value and practices of security risk management. As internet users increase in emerging economies the same challenges of disinformation and cyberattacks experienced in more cyber-advanced countries will occur. Thus, with the help of eForums, we are connecting people together and making a community who is well prepared for various scenarios. This platform will accommodate needs where all stakeholders such as Academic Institutions, Students, Alumina, Industries, Scientists, Research Scholars, NGOs and other organizations may join and have a strong platform for discussion, work display and suggestions.
Excited 🎉🥳. Here's how to set-up and run eForum on your system, INSTALLATION GUIDE
The Forum will have the following 5 entities which will create the basic structure for the portal
Tabs-
- It will be used to display content into separated panes, given each pane is visible one at a time.
- Each Tab may or may not contain several Categories
Categories -
- It will be basically will provide different sections for structuring Tab content.
- Each category can have multiple Topics.
- For eg, we have FAQs as a topic, in category of Support under the Home tab.
- Topics will have Threads
Threads -
- It can contain discussions, information related material, eBooks, event announcements and similar.
- They can be created by Forum members and will contain Posts, that any forum member can make, for discussion purposes.
In general, the above idea can be formalized in the following figure.
Compared and Analyzed various popular cybersecurity forums such as HackForums.net, Nulled.to and Cracked.to
Developed basic forums structure and the content which will be added to the forums
Formulated how member roles will be assigned, created database dump for storing all eForums data via SQL.
Added text formatting while making posts, users can change their personal information and recover forgotten passwords from login page.
Users can get instant email notifications when someone posts on their thread(s).
- Object Hierarchy
- Overall Outcome
Connecting people together and making a community for enhancing their knowledge as cybersecurity leaders and to communicate and define the value and practices of security risk management
eForums to accommodate needs where all stakeholders such as Academic Institutions, Students, Alumina, Industries, Scientists, Research Scholars, NGOs and other organizations may join and have a strong platform for discussion, work display and suggestions
An active community which is aware and well-prepared for Cyber-attacks and Cyber security risks
Connecting people together so they can share their work and suggestions and contribute to the community
A refined placed for Cyber-Security enthusiasts where if needed number of events, like Hackathon, can be conducted including applying for active Internships on forums for interested members
Conducting events such as Hackathon on the Forums.
Applying or recruiting for available Internships/Training programmes.
A list of Major/Minor Projects that members can be a part of based on their skill set.
Online forum system has transformed massively in the recent years. Previously discussions were usually carried out using Social Media platforms however now with the means if eForums, these tasks have become more precise and accurate in their purpose.
Research Article on Effectiveness of Using Online Discussion Forum for Case Study Analysis: Study demonstrates the implementation of a web based forum system and its structure
Study on The Effect of Using Online Discussion Forums on Students’ Learning: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of using online discussion forums (ODFs) on students’ learning, particularly on their achievement.
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HackForums.net: Hack Forums is an internet forum. The website ranks as the number one website in the "Hacking" category in terms of web-traffic by the analysis company Alexa Internet.
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Voat: is a news aggregator and social networking service where registered community members can submit content such as text posts and direct links. Registered users can then vote for these submissions.
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Quora: is an international question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, followed, and edited by Internet users, either factually or in the form of opinions.
Platforms similar to Voat, Quora or 4chan focus vaguely on post content. Quora can have facts which could be unverified or incorrect while Reddit User cliques can quickly bury articles they don't agree with. With the current project development, the issues are focused on being minimized.
The proposed solution is carried out in various steps. First Member roles and Structure were defined. Second, we defined different sections for specific topics on the Forum’s Home Page. Third, developed forum’s data flow via flow charts and implemented it in code.
Forum members are divided into 3 categories, Administrator, Moderator
and Member, given each member will have certain privileges. The following is a rough figure demonstrating the roles and accessibility of features by the forum members
The goal for the application is to support complete web based forum administration. Details requirements are discussed in the Scope section, with the following additional detail:
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Able to create and set bad word filtering.
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Can create no of moderators and change the user rights any point of time.
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The application should support the capability to use multi user environment.
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Analyze the member participant, no of post, no of login etc.
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Able to close the topics.
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Able to lock, unlock topics.
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Able to ban particular member for posting into forum.
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Delete post, topics.
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Reply to post.
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Able to register in the forum.
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Change his or her own personal information.
Resend the password, if member forgot his /her password, system should send the password via email.
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Email notification member should notified whenever new post made in her/ his topics.
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Formatting the post, form should have option to format post, add similes icon and formatting should support standard BBCode.
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Search facilities to find topics and post.
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Member should easily find their post.
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System should display unanswered topics separately.
Active and Latest Discussion – Member can easily browse the active and last discussion and reply them.
Unanswered Topics – All unanswered topics are displayed in the forum home page. Member can view the unanswered topics easily.
My Thread – Member can see the topics created by him or her.
Data Flow Diagram - is a graphical representation of the "flow" of data through an information system. DFDs can also be used for the visualization of data processing (structured design).
Member Registration, Create/Reply Post
User Login and data retrieval from database
Data flow for replying/viewing a post
Admin commands
Finally, we optimized code for stability, reduced runtime crashes by using Try-Catch Statements and fixed few bugs.
With the current development progress, there is scope to improve the performance of the Online Forum System in the area of user interface, database performance, and query processing time. Etc.
The future enhancements that are possible in the project are,
In the area of data security and system security.
Provide more online tips and help.
Change the user interface to make more user friendly.
To optimize the query which is embedded in the system.
Addition of Admin/Moderator panel commands to modify/update/delete user information with access to ban/warn user and close/delete topics
Upload of code facilities.
Support more BB code for reply formatting.
For a better user experience and enthusiasts to stay focused on their work at all times, eForums become vital. With the current project development, we can accommodate needs where all stakeholders such as Academic Institutions, Students, Alumina, Industries, Scientists, Research Scholars, NGOs and other organizations may join and have a strong platform for discussion, work display and suggestions.
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"The effect of using online discussion forums on students' learning", Paper at ResearchGate here.
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"What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective", Paper at ResearchGate here.
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"Effectiveness of Using Online Discussion Forum for Case Study Analysis", Paper at ResearchGate here.