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A List of Currently Active

Internet Discussion Forums (BBS)

for Papua New Guineans

 

 

The following is a forum by forum listing of those which currently exist, and tend to be the most active. Forums come and go, however, so you may find active forums that are not listed. If you want to see additional forums that we have not listed, here are some possible places to check out for the LATEST LINKS:

PNG NETSEARCH,

TRILOBYTE FORUM,

and

Education & Development Forum

 

 

AND NOW.... The Papua New Guinea Discussion Forums!

WANTOKS FORUM: The grandfather of Papua New Guinea discussion forums is called Wantoks Forum. This was originally known as Kami Wantoks Forum. Wantoks Forum has been around since about late 1996, being started by the Tongan Taholo Kami who once lived in Papua New Guinea. It is the most popular of all Papua New Guinean discussion forums. The current administrators of this forum monitor the site from within Papua New Guinea and are part of a small company called Wantoks Communications. A new board is put up every week or two. An archives is maintained, but postings are only kept for about 3 months. Wantoks Forum is connected to an overall web site called Papua New Guinea Online. The overall site has lots of information on different aspects of Papua New Guinea.

URL: http://www.niugini.com/wwwboard/

E-Mail Contact: wantokadmin@niugini.com

 

 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA WOMEN'S FORUM: This alternative discussion forum was set up in 1999 and especially for the women of Papua New Guinea. The forum administrators write: "This forum was created specifically for the women of PNG and the issues that affect their lives. Please use this forum to discuss those subjects that you feel are important to building a better way of life for the women of PNG. Remember that your words are a reflection of you the author so use your words wisely to BUILD rather then to destroy. To INSPIRE rather then to discourage. To HELP rather then to hurt." It is unclear whether there is an archives to this forum.

URL: http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/46538

E-mail contact: Not given. Post directly on that forum.

 

 

PNG EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT FORUM: The focus of this Papua New Guinea discussion forum is EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. They welcome postings from all kinds of audiences: "You -- the parent, teacher (past and present), student (past and present), educator, policy analyst, bureaucrat, technocrat, entrepreneur, politician, journalist, one and all (citizen or not) -- are welcome and invited to bring up, talk about or discuss educational issues , conncerns, and new ideas to help us understand, critique, and rethink our values, processes, and systems in order to help improve education and human development in Papua New Guinea. The forum was established by Paul Ngabung, a Papua New Guinean graduate student. This Forum is especially useful because it has lots of links, both to other Papua New Guinea discussion forums, as well as to relevant Papua New Guinea education sites. Old postings are archived, and they stay in the archives for many months.

URL: http://www.voy.com/2485/

E-Mail Contact: None given. Post directly on that forum.

 

 

THE KUMUL FORUM: This was one of the earliest of the alternative discussion forums, dedicated to postings on development related issues. It was set up in August 1999. The specific purpose of the forum is to share ideas with the object being that the dissemination of ideas will lead to action that will contribute to PNG's ongoing development. This discussion forum set up by Papua New Guinean lawyer Anthony Smare. It was a takeoff from various activities being initiated by the members of a group started by Mr. Smare called Kumul Scholars International. The Kumul Forum does not allow any anonymous postings and e-mail addresses are mandatory. This forum has recently been inactive, but hopefully will become active again. Past postings are archived, and they remain for many months.

URL: http://www.voy.com/1950/

E-Mail Contact: a_smare@hotmail.com

 

 

POTENTIAL CREATIVE WRITERS GALORE FORUM: This was one of the first alternative forums to be set up that deals with a particular topic, in this case, creative writing. The forum administrator states: "This forum aims in bringing out the creative and imaginative aspects of potential writers. You are welcome to post songs, words of prose, poems, short stories and legends." This forum was one of the early alternative forums for Papua New Guineans. Initially it was more active than it has been during the year 2000. There have been past problems with keeping postings in archives, but archives are maintained.

URL: http://www.voy.com/1870/

E-mail Contact:  Shaynah@email.com

 

 

FREE SPEECH II FORUM: This Papua New Guinea discussion forum is subtitled "Seeking PNG Solutions Through Learning" and was started in 2000. Postings are invited to "Discuss politicial/social and current event issues IN DETAIL & WITH MATURITY." Like the Kumul Forum, this forum tends to have more detailed postings than might be found on some of the other forums. The difference between this forum and Kumul Forum is that anonymous postings are allowed on the Free Speech II forum, which is modeled after the No Glitches forum. Unlike the No Glitches forum, however, this one is administered. The Free Speech Forum II also gives the posters the option of using an anonymizer feature so that the postings become totally anonymous and authorship cannot be traced. An archives of old postings is maintained.

URL: http://www.voy.com/5575/

E-Mail Contact: None listed, post directly on this forum.

 

 

 

TRILOBYTE FORUM: This discussion forum is especially for Geology students at the University of Papua New Guinea. However, others are also welcome "to discuss and debate issues of importance over a buai or fireplace." The Trilobyte Forum page is part of an overall site that contains pictures and information on Geology student activities. It has one of the best lists of links to other Papua New Guinean discussion forums. No archives of old postings is maintained.

URL: http://bbs.bytecenter.com/aufa/

E-Mail: webmaster@papua.mail22.com  

 

 

WEST KANGES' FORUM

WEST KANGES' FORUM:: The West Kanges' Forum was set up in May 2000 by Samson Yuimb, a Papua New Guinean student in California, especially for Papua New Guineans coming from Western Highlands Province. The purpose of the forum is to discuss socio-economic and political as well as spiritual, cultural and personal issues affecting this Papua New Guinean province. An archives is maintained.

URL: http://www.voy.com/6054/

E-mail contact for this discussion forum: skyfdn@hotmail.com 

 

 

NO GLITCHES FORUM: If there is a "free for all" forum for Papua New Guineans, this is it. It was originally set up in 1999 in response to censorship over at Wantoks Forum. This No Glitches Forum for some time contained political postings and corruption allegations that had been removed off the Wantoks Forum. No Glitches Forum uses a feature called the anonymizer which allows people to post without their originating computer address showing on the computer logs of that forum. These days the No Glitches Forum seems to have no administrators, and thus, there is no censorship at all. Its usefulness as a place to find good information has declined. Maybe this is a good experiment for Papua New Guineans to show all of us the value of at least some form of light administration. An archives is maintained that goes back for many months.

URL: http://www.voy.com/2449/

E-Mail Contact: None listed, post comments directly on this forum.

  

 

GARAMUT FORUM: This is an offshoot of the Wantoks Forum. It is part of the big Papua New Guinea Online web site developed by Wantoks Communication in Port Moresby. The Garamut Forum was created as a place where notices and 'hellos' could be posted. As the administrators note: "if you are looking for a friend,simply want to say hello or tell a joke," then this is the forum for those postings. The Garamut Forum is censored, but unfortunately, it is often full of name calling and personal attacks. Mostly this forum is visited by Papua New Guinean high school students who are studying overseas in Australia. The postings are not archived, and a new board is put up every week or so.

URL: http://www.niugini.com/garamutboard/

E-Mail Contact: wantokadmin@niugini.com

 

 

TOKSAVE BOARD: The Toksave Board was set up by a teen, and is part of the much larger PNGNETSEARCH search engine for internet (web) sites of all kinds that relate to Papua New Guinea. The Toksave administrator states: "This BOARD is intended for wantoks, friends and relatives to post messages to each other. In particular, this BOARD is targeting teens." Like the Garamut Board, a lot of high school students use the Toksave board just to "say hi." Sometimes the board is very active. Old Toksave Board postings are not archived.

URL: http://www.pngnetsearch.com/toksave/

E-Mail Contact: steven@pngnetsearch.com

 

 

Especially for Papua New Guineans:

Places Where you Can Set up Your Own Free Forums!

 

If you were trying to set up your own discussion forum starting from scratch, it would be a big deal, and probably could be handled only by someone schooled in computer programming. But you don't need to know anything these days about computer programming to set up your own discussion forum. Better look at the forums that exist first, and figure out how your forum will be better than theirs. What will be different about your forum that will make your forum succeed where others have failed? Careful planning is the key to having a successful forum, and even if you do everything right, it still takes time for people to find and get used to using your discussion forum. It easily took the Wantoks Forum almost 2 years to finally catch on and become popular with people. If you don't have the time to invest and carefully nurture your "cyber baby," you should probably think about communicating on the internet in other ways.

 

There are many servers today which offer anyone the opportunity to create their own forum, doing it for free. The free services currently used by Papua New Guineans cover many names you may be familiar with through their URL (world wide web address).....

 

The above servers have graciously supported forums by Papua New Guineans in the past. Thank them by continuing to patronize them. CLICK ON THE LOGOS ABOVE IF YOU WANT TO START AT THE VERY BEGINNING AND FIND OUT WHAT ALL THIS FREE FORUM STUFF IS ABOUT.

 

IF YOU KNOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SETTING UP FORUMS, AND WANT TO GET STRAIGHT TO THE SIGNUP PAGE, click on the links below, and you'll go straight to the first signup page (but you'll probably still need to go to their home pages in order to log in, once you've created your forum).

VOY FORUM SIGNUP PAGE

INSIDE THE WEB SIGNUP PAGE

NETWORK54 FORUM SIGNUP PAGE

 

HERE'S ANOTHER:

MY FORUM SIGNUP PAGE

 

REMEMBER: DON'T BE SCARED!! Many people play around with trying to create their own forum, and then abandon them. The important thing is to try and experiment. You'll never learn if you don't try! Play around with trying to create one of these forums and see how it turns out.

 

Finally. Servers that offer free discussion forums come and go. Each one has its own special features too. If you want to find out some more possibilities for setting up a free discussion forum, please click on one of the search engine links below. You'll go straight into a search engine for which the key words have already been entered.

FREE DISCUSSION FORUM POSSIBILITIES VIA ALTAVISTA SEARCH ENGINE!

 

 

 

 

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