# Welcome to im.just.memi.ng!
Upload files! Download files! Upload *and* download files! The world's your oyster.

## What is this?
Well, it's mostly a place for people to upload textbooks, homework (*unsolved*, we don't condone cheating!), and lecture slides/notes/videos. It's also used to host a handful of other things, but those are less important.

## How do I use it?
There are 9 directories available to all users:
- `homework/` contains homework files, like pset pdfs or pa google docs, organized by course. These files are curated by our team, so you cannot directly upload files here.
- `homework_submissions/` is an upload folder for you to submit your own homework files. Our team will review these files and move them to the appropriate folder if they look legitimate. This is more of a formality, I just don't want people using this server to share porn or something.
- `textbooks/` is the same thing but for course textbooks.
- `textbook_submissions/` is the corresponding upload folder.
- `lectures/` is the same thing but for lecture videos/slides/notes.
- `lecture_submissions/` is the corresponding upload folder.
- `keys/` is a folder containing my public keys. You can use these to send me PGP-encrypted emails or add me to your SSH keys, I don't know. Most people won't need this.
- `reports/` is a folder containing campus police reports. This folder is automatically populated. Have fun reading them, some of these reports are pretty wild.
- `contact/` is a folder for you to upload plaintext messages talking to me. I'm not dumb enough to post my email on this webpage. Like with the submissions folders, you cannot see anything you or others upload. I take privacy seriously.

## Technical Details for Nerds
* `homework/`, `textbooks/`, `lectures/`, `keys/`, and `reports/` are read-only folders. You can enumerate the contents of the folders and download any files within, but may not upload anything directly to these folders.
* `homework_submissions/`, `textbook_submissions/`, and `lecture_submissions/` are write-only folders. You can upload anything to these folders, but cannot view any uploads. This includes your own uploads.
* All uploads are scanned by antivirus software before being saved. Don't upload a bitcoin miner or I will be very upset.

## the philosophy of this server, aka: the part that nobody reads
### What's the point?
Professors post their homeworks to Gradescope, Piazza, Canvas, or their own website. Lectures are uploaded as podcasts, emailed as PDFs, or uploaded to Canvas as slideshows. Don't even get me started on trying to track down all of the textbooks for every course you're taking this semester. It's a pain to keep track of everything you need. Having everything in one place is nice.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from just downloading everything to your laptop. Most organized students probably already do this, but...

What if your laptop runs out of battery? How about when you're at a party and you realize there's a pset due in 2 hours, but all you have on you is your phone? What if your friend is asking you for the last 3 weeks of lecture, but the Discord file limit won't let you upload a 450MB slidedeck?

Even if you'll always have access to your computer, wouldn't it be better to have some of the work already done for you? Instead of having to sign in to Canvas, fumble for your phone and approve the Duo notification, and scroll through the media gallery, it's nice to already have the files at your fingertips.

im.just.memi.ng tries to solve all of these problems. It provides a centralized place to collect academic resources while being accessible from any device. When you need to pull up your analysis textbook on your phone or it's just too inconvenient to check the Canvas for the homework this week, im.just.memi.ng has you covered. Maybe. Probably not, actually, but at least we'll try.

### Why crowdsourcing?
Some of you may be familiar with an earlier incarnation of this server, which was read-only. I maintained that version entirely on my own. There were several notable drawbacks of this approach.

1. **Only my classes were represented**
Early on, when I was still taking core courses, this wasn't much of a problem. Everyone was in the same four or five classes anyway, so you could count on this website being useful for everyone. Later on, as we began to branch off into electives, only a small number of my friends could actually get any use out of this site. What is someone taking graphics going to do with my networks textbook? This server quickly became useless to most people, especially as I began to take more specialized courses.
2. **I am not a good student**
I frequently do homework near the deadline, so homework files wouldn't be on the server in time for most people to use them. Similarly, I would frequently forget to upload lecture notes to the server just out of plain forgetfulness. At some point, the lectures folder was seven weeks out of date. There's no reason to use this server if it doesn't have the information you need.
3. **It was hard to justify the personal cost**
The original vision for this server was to function as a comprehensive academic repository. In the first months of operation, I uploaded my own notes on lectures, worked out practice exams with annotated explanations, and even completed homework (after the submission deadline, of course). This quickly turned out to be extremely taxing. I burned out shortly into trying to do this. The fact of the matter is that I simply do not take notes in all of my lectures or do every practice exam. I eventually ended up scaling back the server to what you see now: strictly textbooks, homework assignments, and lectures. Even then, I was still spending a lot of time to get almost no benefit. Why would I bother downloading and uploading the lecture slides every week when I don't need to read them? Even with homework files, what do I get out of uploading it? I already have the files locally, so I can just do the homework without uploading. I was spending a few hours every week maintaining a server that I personally barely even used. It was getting demotivating and near the end of the server's lifetime, I was barely even managing it anymore.

The dream was always to crowdsource this server. By allowing everyone to upload their files, we can massively expand the coverage of this server. I never wanted this server to just be a mirrored version of my hard drive: I wanted it to be an unofficial university CDN. With less than 20 active users, we can have every single currently-offered upper division CS course. It would be almost like an unofficial database of course information.

This also massively reduces the pressure on any one individual. If you haven't started the homework yet, chances are one of your more disciplined classmates will have uploaded it. If you upload the lecture notes this week, someone else will do it next week. The collective spirit of depressed students can propel the server forward.

If enough people participate in this initial experiment, my goal is to once again begin offering more comprehensive resources. It's too tiring for me to do 10 practice exams and annotate them all: but 5 people can do 2 each! I want to see my dream realized.

In short, we operate on one simple rule: if you don't see it, add it.

### Why are uploaded resources curated?
#gatekeeping, of course. Jokes aside, it's because I don't trust anonymous uploads. I don't need this site getting bad press because someone uploaded a bunch of furry porn as homework1.pdf. We're playing it by ear for now. If most submissions turn out to be made in good faith, I'll reconfigure the server to allow direct uploads and remove the curation step.

### Why not Google Drive?
Storage is capped at 15GB and you need to be signed in to your Google account. This server is running 75GB (and I'll pay for a larger drive if it gets popular enough) and allows anonymous uploads. It's a no-brainer.

### Why not Discord?
I know many students upload helpful resources to class Discords (especially textbooks). The problem with this is that 1) keeping track of all of the Discords for all of your classes is arguably just as annoying and 2) these helpful posts frequently get lost in a deluge of messages. Even if you pin them, not everyone remembers to check the pins. I thought it would be better to have a dedicated file server specifically for resources, and leave Discord for the conversations.

### i hate you and id like to make my dissatisfaction known
upload a file to `contact/`

ill probably read it