Geppers Creepers
Geppers Creepers is both the unofficial forum for Gifted Education Programme (GEP) pupils in Singapore (its motto is "Uniting Geppers since Jan 31st!") and a video also produced by the Secondary 2 GEP of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) in 2004.
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History
The forums were created by "Zephel", currently a Secondary 2 GEP student in Singapore, on January 31 2005. They were meant to provide an arena for GEP students to widen their social circle among GEP students from other schools, as well as a platform for fun communication free from Mainstream students.
To this date, the forums have members from almost all the Secondary GEP schools, although few Primary school GEP pupils have joined.
About the forums
Geppers Creepers Forums are not serious forums, and are meant for GEP students to spend their free time online in light, enjoyable commucation with other GEP students. The forums have several subforums that cater to the various interests of students. The humble community discusses about a wide array of topics and subjects, from sports to literature, television to music, homework to news and from rants to political debates.
While many Mainstream students think that GEP students are all nerds, evidence from the forums beg to differ with that. From many of the posts and messages on the various threads, one can see that GEP students do "have a life", and do not just study and read all the time. GEP students are too, like other students, interested in subjects like music and sports, and can be rather enthusiastic in such outdoor activities.
GEP students are encouraged to join, though the forum has been showing signs of "dead" members, as in its beggining the forum was largely inactive.
About the video
Produced by then freshman filmmaker Kevin Low, otherwise known as Uncle Edna on the forum, it was the result of some extra time after the final year exams of 2004. The short film was produced by a combined effort of the then Secondary 1 GEP students.
The video can be downloaded here (requires Windows Media Player 9).
Forum administration
The forums are managed by a group of students all from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), including the webmaster himself.
There are currently two administrators:
- Zephel
- Uncle Edna – one of the first members to join
In assistance, the two admins have a group of dedicated moderators that help patrol the forums regularly and keep a close lookout for misbehaving users, or even non-GEP students. They are commonly referred to as the "War Council" or the "Junior Admin", a pun on the Senior Admin from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). Their screennames are as follows:
- Demel
- Evillaugh
- Kyl191
- Kevin Wong
- Cyberworm – forum journalist
Choice of name
GEP students in Singapore are commonly nicknamed as "GEPers", or "Geppers". The name "Geppers Creepers" was taken from a short film production, "GEPers Creepers", by a group of amateur filmmakers from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) known as "FakeBlu.inc". The filmmakers are in fact also the members of the forums' administration team, apart from Cyberworm.
"GEPers Creepers" was created in November 2004, initiated by one of the teachers in ACS(I), to be used as a filler for a certain inter-school event held at their school. When the filmmakers were notified of this project, they decided to work on the genre they were most experienced with – humour.
Eventually, after 4 days of hard work of scripting and filming, "GEPers Creepers" was finally screened to the audience at the event, and was a great success, inducing much laughter. The film, a comedy satire about GEP students in a documentary form, was especially easy for the audience to identify with, as they were all GEPers!
Zephel, being the co-director of the film production, was then inspired to create the forums so as to unite GEP students, as well as propagate the success of the film. Uncle Edna, the other administrator of the forums, was the director of "GEPers Creepers".
Forum highlights
The New Napthalians, a story about class 2.12 of Anglo Chinese School (Independent)'s Secondary 2, was written on the forum, and has evolved into a "craze" within it's members. A webcomic was also started, based on the original story by Uncle Edna, but has since been abandoned. Several other forum members have since too started their own renditions of the story.
Also, many other areas of discussion, such as about the characterization or the plot, have been started by some of its members.
Forum shortcomings
Although the community comprises students from all over Singapore, a large majority is evidently from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) — the school which the webmaster and the other admin/moderators study in. This has lead some of the members to call the forums "acsi-dominated", or other such terms with similar connotations.
However, despite of that, most of the members still cooperate with each other, making the forums an enjoyable place for GEP students from all walks to life to "hang out" online.
A problem that had to be tackled were spammers and members who started flame wars, and even certain people posting advertisements and pornography on the forum. Though these have been tackled, new rules such as a GEP-only forum (all other members get kicked) and having to introduce oneself have been put into place.