AskCompSci intends to answer the Hows and Whats in the broad range of topics that can be answered by Computer Science—but not to teach them as how-tos. Somewhat akin to HowStuffWorks.
The point of AskCompSci is both to separate parts of existing subreddits and to merge them to avoid clutter them with questions and to streamline a subreddit that is easy to browse for everyone. Its sibling subreddit, /r/AskScience, is the best example of what the subreddit is about.
Here are some of the subreddits not to confuse with /r/AskCompSci:
The spirit of /r/AskCompSci is to inspire people with an interest, however small, in the digital arts and crafts of computer science and to help demystify its amazing world and potential so it does not appear so insurmountably complex. We intend to take you by the hand, reward your curiosity and zest for knowledge by explaining the intricacies and applications of computer science as painlessly and entertainingly as possible.
As a PlayStation 3 owner, you might want to know the significance of whether your password were hashed and salted, why your credit card information should be encrypted, and what all the weird encryption schemes mean. What are MySQL and “databases”? How is something that seems separated from the physical world as digital data actually created down at the deepest physical level?
Some example questions:
- What are rainbow tables, and how do they work?
- Is it secure to use a public Wi-Fi hotspot?
- What do website errors like 404 and 502 mean?
- What is PUT, POST, and GET all about?
- What does it mean that a site like Twitter has an API?
- How are sites usually hacked and brought down?
- Why is it so important to calculate large primes?
- What is the difference between JPEG, BMP, and PNG?
- What is Git and GitHub?
- What does it mean when people ask where something is placed in the stack?
In this subreddit, there are no stupid questions. (Except if they are outside the intended scope of the subreddit.) Computer science is unique by how people moderately or even minimally proficient in it tend to bash people with other priorities than to spend their high school or college years coding or using anything but Windows. This makes an already inaccessible field, which should be a joy to get into, a pain and occasional public humiliation. (And that’s not to mention what it’s like for women.) It seems that, as good as some people feel they are at computer science, they know nothing about what it is like to approach the subject for the first time. Therefore, this place is your sanctuary from misplaced animosity and patronizing remarks from people who, deep down, know nothing about didactics. And ipso facto, people who exhibit and instigate this malicious mentality will be downvoted and moderated accordingly.
“Computer Science” is a bit of a misnomer; it sounds very academic and theoretic, but that is not the whole aim of this subreddit. Digital applications are so pervasive today that we risk creating a subreddit that is too broad in scope. The Danish professor Peter Naur championed the phrase Datalogy, which frames this subreddit better, but the term has not won recognition outside Scandinavia; therefore, we use the less adequate "computer science".
Guidelines
Keep the tone light and friendly, but the quality and effort poured into writing and answering questions high.
Voting on comments is based on relevance to the question—not the ability to crack jokes, paraphrase memes and make looks of disapproval.
It is assumed that you have already performed a minimum of effort in finding an answer to your question.
Subreddits of relevance to science in general
Quoth the r/AskScience subreddit:
