A new survey into the sun habits of 16-24 year-olds, which was conducted via The Student Room, the UK’s no. 1 student website, reveals almost a quarter (23 per cent) of young people placed getting a tan as one of their top priorities during the summer holidays, with 28 per cent admitting their peers can be competitive over who has the best tan. 45 per cent of young people admitted to not protecting their skin as much as they should, and 27 per cent reported they would be more likely to apply sunscreen when alone, compared to when they are with their mates.

Other worrying findings include:

• 27 per cent were not likely to take any measures to protect their skin this summer
• 29 per cent were more concerned about getting wrinkles than developing skin cancer
• 14 per cent wouldn’t let ‘a few scare stories about skin cancer’ stop them from sunbathing
• 8 per cent saw burning as a key step to achieving a bronzed look

Ed Yong from Cancer Research UK comments: “Few people are aware that sun damage at a young age can make your skin look old, wrinkly and leathery well before its time. It can also dramatically increase the chances of developing melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. It’s not just older people that are affected – increasingly we are seeing young people being diagnosed with this potentially deadly disease.”

The research was carried out to coincide with the launch of Cancer Research’s new ‘Skindividual’ initiative, which aims to encourage young people to protect their skin from too much UV by harnessing the power of social networks and rewarding those who grow the biggest online guestlist.

As part of the initiave Ladyhawke will play an exclusive gig for just one person… and their online social network. For more info visit www.skindividual.co.uk

{ 0 comments }

The job available is that of a full time ‘Admin and Support Assistant’ based here in Brighton.

Download the full Word job description

Applicants should send covering emails & CVs to pete.taylor@acumenpi.com by 9am Monday, 10th August, 2009.

Thanks and maybe see you in Brighton

{ 0 comments }

As the hits of Michael Jackson rang out through the office, the past couple of weeks have given the impression of the calm before the clearing storm. We have a spreadsheet of uni’s we’re due to advertise, bit daunting but ideally spread out between now and clearing. Hmmmmmm

A lot of good work has been done to make this period better than last year, with the routine updating of clearing contacts as well as it’s wiki homepage close to being ready now. I also keep getting updates regarding the good work by Minerva on the wiki. It’s very much appreciated as with all content generated in there

Other stuff that’s been going on includes certain changes regarding the moderators and ways in which they and the site can cope with the growth and building over reliance. Plans that have been in the pipeline for a long while, but it appears to be getting down to the nitty gritty now, just as members are starting to voice concerns regarding certain areas. So in that respect I think the forethought and decision making was pretty well timed.

Also the vBulletin 3.8 testing site has also been opened up to the mod’s to begin some testing, with a few glitches already being observed and dealt with.  It shouldn’t be long until this is ready for the testing team (which has increased by ~46 members since J’s last round of accepting members. Amazing people want to get involved really – even had a PM from a member making sure they hadn’t missed out yet. Loving the enthusiasm ). We’re all looking forward to what people can find and what 3.8 has to offer!

And as mentioned, following the Guardian partnership there will most certainly be a push on the graduate / careers ares of the wiki, hopefully coming into their own in the near future.

Finally, on an unrelated note, what’s the difference between listening to the cricket on the radio and listening  to two posh blokes talking in a pub. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Oh how we love the ashes.

Until next time, and to keep Jamie sweet….

-          CJ

{ 0 comments }

When the announcement came up that the guys at TSR HQ were looking to take on a summer intern I jumped at the chance. After last years bagel-based reviews and the opportunity of sun, sea, sand (ok, forget the sand) and TSR work behind the scenes, I couldn’t really miss out. Luckily enough they offered me the chance and have been enjoying all sorts of projects and bits and pieces involved in running the site this week.

Work stuff ranges from the here and now (ad’ campaigns and general admin stuff), soon to be implemented projects (which you’ll probably notice in the not too distant future) as well as longer term plans (such as the mammoth v3.5 to v3.8 vBulletin migration). Not to mention coursework.info developments i’ve been putting a little bit of code in for.

But yeah, Brighton in the sun is a great place, the people are friendly (the guys in the office as well as my chatty beachside tramp pal) and where else would you find a window cleaning company with a gothic herse as transport?

However today has been a bit different to the norm. An invitation was received for the launch of YCC’s (youth citizenship commission) launch of “Making the connection; Building youth citizenship in the UK” initiative in London, now that findings and research have been published and ready to be presented to the government about a number of issues with objectives set. The general outline being the involvement of young people in politics whilst also looking into the potential to lower the voting age to 16. An idea i’m still not so sure about.

So me and Jamie (J) were there in an amazingly diverse room with corporate looking people, guys in baseballs caps, children and various others young and old. A few notable names where there, including Wes Streeting – NUS National President (to give him his proper title), journalist Miranda Sawyer and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson among others. Most of those invited seemed to be affiliated with sites or schemes aimed at the younger generations with politics in mind. Interesting to hear of different sites and their intentions to bring politics to the younger demographic through various means, of which I had not heard before. Catch 21, Student Voice and the Young Mayor Network just a few of the names there. Infact it was slightly puzzling as to why TSR hadn’t been engaged more in a non-commercial approach to aiding the objectives of the research findings. I guess a lot depends on the input from the government, although the attending MP  (Bridget Prentice) seemed to big up the plans, who knows what will really happen. If anything does then there should be an update here and no doubt TSR will hear/debate about it. But for now, the YCC site for those interested.

Hopefully the following weeks will prove just as involving and who knows what’s just around the corner.

So, until next time…and to leave you with an image from the South Bank. 10/10 for creativity. I give you the music man…cat:

- CJ

{ 0 comments }

JoeMc emailed me today, apparently whilst doing some research for engineering training companies he came across the best name for a company ever…

If you ever need to train en eejit in Norfolk, these guys are the best:

http://www.eagit.org/

{ 0 comments }

As a moderator on TSR you get invited to all the best celeb parties and are able to make exorbitant expences claims for second computers and giraffe houses. But surely the best perk is the chance to intern at TSR HQ during the summer months.

I’m pleased to announce that this summer sports CJ mod will be with us in the office.

From mid July CJ will be working on a number of projects with us which will definately involve the input of TSR members. More details will come from him nearer the time.

If you see CJ on the site in the lead up to his placement be sure to wish him good luck

{ 0 comments }

During March we ran a survey on the site and anyone that contributed was entered into a draw to win a new LG mobile phone. I’m pleased to now announce the names of the recipients who were selected at random.

Congratulations:

Sijia
mikeyd85
and Jess Kennett

Enjoy your new handsets when they arrive in the post! Thank you to everyone that took part in the survey. I’ll post up some of the findings in a subsequent post.

{ 0 comments }

I’ve set up a Student Room Youtube channel and hunted around for videos that have obviously been made by TSR users and have added them to a playlist. The only other stuff on there at the moment is a playlist of music getting rotation in the TSR office. Would be cool if TSR members could add videos to the channel but thats not possible I don’t think…It may turn out to be pointless but its pretty fun all the same. The videos made by members of different emoticons are great

Any video requests from us? A tour of the TSR office could be good?

{ 1 comment }

On tuesday evening TSR had a significant site update. Most of the features in this update are things our users told us they wanted way back in the surveys we did early 2008 or during various focus groups and chats we’ve had with members prior to summer 08.

Since Summer 08 it’s been heads down getting the templates designed and functionality specced out. Then our developers have been working away for months getting the code updates onto our development site for testing.

Its been months coming and the site was down for 4 hours on tuesday night, but the general feeling is that it was worth the wait!

The updated site has a cleaner look to it. Lots of the clutter from the previous navigation has been removed or repositioned so the actual content has more prominence.

The expanding ‘Explore TSR’ button has helped with this but also the updated look of the breadcrumb navigation at the top of the site, better spacing between things, the improved positioning of ‘Advanced search’ link next to the go button rather than below it and the removal of various superfluous vertical and horizontal lines.

The big news is that you can now have TSR in your favourite colour (as long as your favourite colour is red, pink, green, blue, purple or grey). Simply click on ‘Customise your TSR’ on the homepage, select a colour and then click save at the bottom. I think purple is winning still in the favourite colour poll currently.

You can also customise the site to display what bits you want to see and where. So for example by again clicking on ‘Customise your TSR’ you can opt to have your quotes appear in the side bar wherever you are on the site, or your watched threads or the latest and most popular discussions. You can tailor those widgets to show as many as you want to see and you can drag and drop them around the homepage or up and down the side bar to position them as you choose.

TSR is such a busy site (1.9 million unique users in January!) with sooo much information it’s a challenge making that information easy to find. With the cleaner site template and customisation options we’ve introduced it should go a long way to making the site easier for new users and die hard TSR fans alike.

Of course it presents other opportunities too, future skin colours, and future widgets

{ 0 comments }

Many TSR users will know Fleur de lis, she’s been an amazing moderator and a good friend to many on the site. Always sensitive to people’s feelings and point of view she’s clocked up some serious hours on TSR providing support, advice and fluffy giraffe loveliness day and night.

Fleur is stepping down from her demanding role as a Supermod to concentrate more on her own studies. But between me and you the real reason is because she’s assuming a key role within Barrack Obama’s team of expert advisors – She’s that good!

She’ll be missed by the mod team and the members BUT the good news is that she’s actually not going away, she’ll be hanging out in Health and Relationships in a Minimod role

If you see her on the site give her big thanks for her hard work, she’s given a hell of a lot to TSR and we’ve been lucky to have her on the team.

Good luck Nic! See you in the sexual health forum (I’ll be the Anonymous user with the raincoat on)

on an unrelated matter the member ‘ViolatedTreason’ has a very cool avatar:

- J

{ 0 comments }