by Chris Newson on August 21, 2008
in TSR News
Last week was pretty crazy with getting all the clearing stuff up and ready to go for results day. Results day itself was fairly quiet in terms of work and modding – there were lots of members online and lots of posts, but the mods were all prepared for the spam and incorrectly placed threads and handled it really well. All that was left for us to do (after a mad scramble in the morning to make sure our clearing directory matched up with the information in the Independent), was to sit back and admire the fruits of our labour!
This week, with the clearing rush over and most things ticking over nicely, we have turned our attention back to the projects we have been working on. I have been working on the subs rules, and a page for the FAQ which describes the varying roles of people on the site, from the mods and admins, to the PS Helpers and professional advisers. We have gone through the ideas for the extension to the subs packagae and are now doing further investigation into the options for paying for subs, how we might integrate isketch or something similar onto TSR as well as looking into the many other ideas that were raised. We’ve also come up with some options for increasing the flexibility for choosing which features you want from a subs package and are looking into that further.
We’re also in the process of evaluating the email communications on TSR- all the emails that get sent out when you register your account, when your sub expires, when you get warned etc etc. We want to work to make sure they read well and are as useful as possible and remove any errors.
Next week we are having Blackhawk into the office to discuss the careers forum and how we might develop that area. Other areas currently being developed are societies and H&R. There will soon be a member survey to ascertain how the societies are used currently and how they could be improved. H&R will also shortly be getting a new subforum – called ‘Sexual Health’, following the recent survey that was carried out in this area.
I think that’s all on the news front, I hope those who are getting GCSE results today got the results they deserved and are happy with them.
Fleur
by Chris Newson on August 15, 2008
in TSR News
And so another busy week ends…
My work consists of organising, setting up and monitoring the ad campaigns, and working on a mixture of both small and larger projects. In addition to this, I am still continuing with all my supermodding duties.
Some of the projects we are working on you have already heard about, including the communications project, and evaluating and extending the subs package. We’ve had loads of feedback from the subs about the type of features they’d like to see, which is great. I’m in the process of pulling it altogether and categorising things, ready for a discussion with the rest of the office.
Another project we’re working on is the piloting of a ‘classified’ forum, which the members have requested on several occasions. This would be a place where members can advertise certain things such as old school or university textbooks. We had a meeting/discussion about this last week and again, I’m in the process of pulling stuff together - working out how we can best implement it, what dev work is required etc etc. Watch this space for more information/updates.
The other week we had Phillipa come in for the day – she is currenting iterning for Herts Uni and has been around offering help during the results period giving out advice on clearing. She came in for us to train her a bit about TSR and for her to train two members who had volunteered to help out with giving clearing advice. Keep an eye out for her in the Uni forums now results are out!
That’s all for now, I think. Have good weekends!
Fleur
The Student Room received record visits on A-Level results day (14th of August) as students flooded to the site to compare their grades and discuss options.
We received a whopping 108,513 visits, significantly higher than the previous top traffic day which was 92,911 set earlier this year and over double the visits we received on results day 2007.
We were also pleased to see The Student Room receive some great coverage in The Times’ Student Guide suppliment on results day. Click the image below to read a larger version:
Join in the discussion about this instance of TSR press coverage here:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13863753
