Inspiration- Originally, we planned on creating a 1 on 1 platform called SpeedDebater, but we got stuck on the use of concurrent users and setting that up. Me (Siena) and Jessica were working on it and we hit a lot of bumps due to the fact that we were novice hackers and did not know how to efficiently execute HTML or any programming language, thus we changed directions.
What it does- Now, we changed the website from SpeedDebater to 2Cents because we highly believe in the importance of an individual's opinion. Anything is debatable and with enough information and sufficient support, a person can ultimately change a person's perspective. By allowing democrats, members of our liberal government system, express themselves and their 2Cents on certain topics, ideas can spread and lead to the birth of organizations and influential movements.
How we built it- Well, with many many many tears and the abandoning of almost completed projects, we finally decided to go with something simple, yet complex in its meaning. Needless to say, we went through a lot of crappy ideas just to end up with this non-intricate website. We just started learning HTML yesterday, so we used some of that jazz and the webpage maker called Wix to put this all together. Shout out to Wix for the help, kinda.
Challenges we ran into- Not to put a debby-downer on us novice hackers, but we were pretty much ignorant and not the kind of ignorance that's blissful. I, (Siena), just putting out my 2Cents, internally sobbed many times. I did not know how to make the site redirect to another site from HTML, so hit me up if you know how to man.
Accomplishments that we're proud of- We built a web server (shoutout to the sponsor at scriptr for the help) and I didn't cry so much towards the end of the competition. Despite not being able to redirect one page to another, save all the data and comments, and execute javascript well, we went pretty far with the SpeedDebater idea. I mean it was great. Being able to learn HTML and some javascript as noob hackers, we found it very interesting and fun. Whenever we were able to code something difficult, we all jumped up and high-fived both hands. Learning to code is not an easy thing, that's why events such as HACKRU is something people should not miss. It gives young students the opportunity to learn, explore, and discover code in the environment of other new hackers too. Well done you guys!!!!
What we learned- We learned some HTML, some Javascript - codeacademy is where it's at, and that it is okay to cry (sometimes, I mean sophomores in high school just learning yeah).
What's next for 2Cents- We're (obviously) going to win some random award and go home with like $10(00) in Amazon money and the pride to build up the site to worldwide popularity then get sued for something and end up making no profit by the end. Or you know, we can go down in history for being little high schoolers being able to develop the idea and most of the mechanics for a debate website and still have enough time to scrap all that for a site revolving around opinions. I mean who doesn't care for opinions? Or 2Cents - if you get my drift.
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