High school students facing difficult homework questions have a new alternative to scratching their heads late into the night. Just take a photo of your question, post it on the Sina Weibo account called "Homework answers are coming" and in five to 10 minutes, a helping hand may reach out.

The microblogger behind this resource, Lin Dongping, 26, who works in IT, calls himself the "homework uncle."

Witnessing students' burdensome workload as well as wanting to explore new functions of the Internet, Lin established his Weibo platform in November 2012. In its six months, the platform has attracted 121,662 fans, both domestic and international.

"I did anticipate the large number of fans I would obtain, but the high speed is really beyond my expectations," Lin told the Global Times.

He says he is not making a penny from the project, and has no plans to in the future.

Recruiting a community

At the beginning, Lin turned up online to personally answer students' questions every day at 9 pm when students might be having trouble with their homework.

He doesn't simply tell students the answer, but coaches them through the whole process of working it out.

However, with the rapidly increasing number of students in need of Lin's help, he can no longer assist everyone.

"I even received about 1,000 posts on one night," he said, noting that the bulk come from primary and high school students.

Since there are many excellent students among his fans, Lin decided to recruit top students good at different subjects, including math, physics, chemistry, English and composition, to help field questions.

"I want to develop the platform into a study community for diligent students. There are advantages to letting students answer students' questions. It not only helps slower students improve but challenges top students' abilities," he said.

At 9 pm every two or three days, Lin will randomly select eight top students from his fans, and announce them on his Weibo account.

Lin said that the interactive atmosphere has blossomed on the platform. To his surprise, students in other countries like the US, Britain and Singapore also post photos of their questions for help.

"All questions from overseas students are in English. If the English description of a math question is difficult to understand, the top students good at English will volunteer to translate it into Chinese and then forward it to those good at math," said Lin. "The cooperation is so effective that the total time involved is usually less than 10 minutes."

The students' willingness to share their areas of expertise with others in need floored Lin.

He recalls one instance when a second-year senior high school student turned to Lin for shortcuts in learning English because although he got up at 5:30 am every day to read English, he still couldn't get a good grasp of it.

More than 450 students replied, providing smart tricks and tips after Lin posted the request.

Besides the suggestion of recording all the mistakes he made into a notebook and reviewing them frequently, some advised listening to English songs, saying that if  you can understand the lyrics without looking at them, you've succeeded.

"The replies impressed me. I think studying behind closed doors is unwise. Sharing good tricks with other students is the best way to improve," said Lin.

Lin also launched an "extracurricular activities" program to let students learn something for pleasure.

He forwards posts such as one about a student wanting to know whether a person can really concoct a 55-watt light bulb from tap water, bleach and a Coca-Cola bottle. (You can.)

"Such a question helps cultivate students' interest in learning," he said. "Students who saw this post might try this experiment."

A teaching crutch?

Lin's Weibo account has had more than 77,000 posts coming from students. Though his Weibo presence is warmly welcomed by students, some web users have criticized Lin's study buddy experiment, fearing that students will rely on it and become too lazy.

Lin defended it, saying it is impossible for students to simply rely on him because of the "discipline" he employs when providing help. "The platform aims to promote a positive learning atmosphere," he said. "Those who dare post the photo of a whole empty examination paper or ask for a complete composition by only providing us a topic will be flatly refused by the top students and me," said Lin.

Additionally, many students are not asking for answers to their homework but rather questions they did not understand in class, asking for Lin's explanation.

"I think it is some teachers who should reflect on themselves about why their students dare not ask them for explanations during classes," said Lin.

"I am confident about continuing the Weibo project due to support from many parents," he said. "When students' parents can judge their children gave a wrong answer in homework but don't know how to correct it, they ask me."

The most important lesson

Though Chinese society has appealed for the reduction of students' homework, Lin still finds students' after-school life tough. He has witnessed many times when some students seek online help about homework at 3 or 4 am. A homework list posted by a student showed six different teachers assigning at least 10 test papers during the three-day Qingming Festival. The student said her holiday was destroyed.

Some students complain to Lin about their helpless and disappointment in being not able to get good marks at school.

Lin said he can sense their intense fears about the future and loneliness in not being able to confess this to the adults around them. Teachers, he said, attach too much importance to students' academic performance and neglect teaching them how to face difficulties they meet.

"Confidence, I think, is the basic thing that students should learn at school. Since they didn't have enough confidence, I started to write letters from 'homework uncle'" to tell them the right attitude to face difficulty, which is to focus on hope," he said.

"Many people feel confused and helpless when they are young. I did not meet a person that could give me proper guide when I was in school. So, I want to become such a person for these confused students."