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Wednesday Aug 15, 2007

Talent on TheSite.org

I've always had a suspicion that you lot were a talented bunch, but you've really proved it in TheSite.org Towers exhibits competition. There have been some fabulous entries and if you don't fancy trawling through the whole thread on the discussion boards then you can visit the Flickr set and watch a slideshow of them. You've still got plenty of time to get your entries in - deadline 31st August.

Last week we confirmed the runner-up prizes which you can see here. These are courtesy of www.logic3.com. We can now reveal that four star winners will not only have their images printed to a professional standard and displayed at TheSite.org towers for a year, but they will also receive a block image containing their own photography (see image for example) from our friends at learn to dream - the company printing the images for the open evening.

The star winners will also be invited to enjoy drinks and nibbles at the Towers (date to be announced) while showing off their work to other guests. Some of the runners-up will also have images printed for display in the offices, which will of course be credited to them.

It's all very exciting

Posted by Helen ( 4:18 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Thursday Jul 12, 2007

Get the respect you deserve!

Our regular users will be aware the Respect campaign that's been run by YouthNet (the charity behind TheSite.org) and the British Youth Council. The campaign itself has been about getting young people the respect they deserve, especially from those who report about the behaviour of young people.

The campaign has now marched all the way to Parliament and yesterday Dawn Butler tabled an Early Day Motion that allows MPs to show their support for the campaign.

Here's the text of EDM 1885:

"...acknowledges that only a small minority of young people are antisocial; believes that the media does not give young people enough recognition for the positive things they do; and urges Hon. Members to ensure young people's views are represented in public debate by creating opportunities for their input such as holding youth surgeries and visiting schools, colleges and universities"

So, what can you do?

Get over to this site and ask... no, TELL your local MP to sign up for EDA 1885. Get your friends and family - to also contact their MPs. The more MPs we have signing up to it, the more effective the campaign can be.

You can also support the campaign if you're on Facebook by joining the Respect Group,

Posted by Jim ( 5:38 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Tuesday Jul 03, 2007

Virtual volunteering

Embarrassing as it is, I have to admit that I'm lazy when it comes to volunteering. I can see all the reasons to do it: make a difference to someone else's life or cause (and consequently give yourself a big self-satisfied pat on the back); meet new people; do something different to the usual nine-to-five routine. Hell, I might even learn something new to put on my CV. But still I haven't got off my arse and started doing anything.

I can't be the only one who only ever dreams of living an altruistic life - where I happily skip off to volunteer after work, returning home with a warm fuzzy feeling inside – can I?

If the latest volunteering movement is anything to go by, probably not. It's called 'Virtual Volunteering' (and also goes by names like online activism and cyber service), and it's all about volunteering from the comfort of your own computer. Ideal for lazy asses like me.

Here at YouthNet (the charity behind TheSite.org), we've been working with virtual volunteers for the past few years. We have volunteers helping us moderate the discussion boards, write articles, answer askTheSite questions and proofread content. As a charity, there's no way we could pay all these people, so there's no doubt that the contribution they're making to our services is invaluable.

And now lots of other organisations are cottoning on. As the internet becomes a more powerful means of communicating, charities increasingly need people to help them improve their online presence. The good news for the volunteer is that you no longer have to turn up at an agreed time and place and give a certain number of hours. Volunteer virtually and you can fit the work in anytime, any place (providing you can log on).

We're so enthusiastic about this concept that we've joined forces with some other organisations to promote it on TheSite.org. If you reckon you could get into virtual volunteering, check out the kind of opportunities that are available on our search. There are loads of opportunities to choose from - you could be a website assistant, campaigner, an illustrator or a marketing assistant. If you're still worried about making a commitment, why not take a few minutes to put your name to some campaigns you care about? In our Action Centre we've dug out all the latest e-petitions and campaigns so you can make a difference to saving the shark, climate change, water poverty and oil drilling in the Amazon without any commitment.

Looks like my excuses are running out fast...

Posted by Hannah ( 2:04 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Friday Jun 29, 2007

New frock!

The observant among you, and everyone else reading this on the homepage, may realise we've had another play with our front end. We're hoping that the homepage will get across just how much content we have on TheSite.org, and help highlight some of the spanking new content we've got for you.

The most obvious change is the new highlights box - which is a return to the way we used to present new, important, fun or fabulous content. We've got a bank of about 20 articles and three are randomly pulled out every time you visit the page. However, if you're dying to see everything we've highlighted then you can visit the following page to see everything -

http://www.thesite.org/view?=highlights

Other changes include the RSS feeds for each of the six main sections - these pull out the three newest articles for each section and replace the text descriptions of the content areas. To be honest, see the same description on the homepage for a couple of years had started to get pretty old, and directly linking to articles seemed to reflect the depth of our content between than we ever could with a couple of static lines.

If you're craving even more RSS updates do have a look at our Pick and mix page. It's a complete breakdown of all our feeds including our blog, new content, podcasts and new threads on the discussion board.

We've also made some changes to the right hand side of all of our pages, what we call the bolt-ons. Most of the changes put people here to sleep, let alone a punter, so I won't bore you with it - needless to say the biggest change is that the Need help now? box no longer looks like a 1970's railcard.

And the blog is the last big change we've made, bringing it onto the homepage to make it easier to get to, and provide you with easy access to what's new and fun at TheSite.org towers.

So hope you like it, feel free to comment here and tell us what you think, or head over to the thread about the refit. If you want to check out how it looked before (the best design is always about subtle changes...) then check out the Google cache.

And if you really, really want to know all the changes we've made then check out the full development documentation for the homepage revision.

Well. that's that, another redesign finished. Now time to get started on the next one

Posted by Jim ( 4:08 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Friday May 25, 2007

Spot the difference...

Seems like only a few weeks ago that we last redesigned TheSite.org. Now that's either a sign of how old I am or how tired I am, because it's actually been a few years now. Since then we've added piles of new content, from quizzes to the new look community, to this little ol' blog here, with a lot more to come. What we haven't done so far is address the main homepage of TheSite.org.

Homepage changes are always tricky, for everything you gain by changing one thing, you risk losing something else - and there's always a demand to make major changes and go ahead with a full redesign. Since we're looking at a full redesign a little bit further in the future we've decided to actually grapple with the current design and see what we could improve.

Given all that I thought I'd drop a post here and let you know how to get a sneak peak at the changes we're planning to make, which hopefully will improve your experience of the website and get you to both what you need, and what you'll like.

So if you're interested (go on, I know you are really) then head on over to the thread about the new homepage and tell us what you think of our plans. And please, please... be fucking brutal, nothing wrong with tearing something apart to make us certain about what we're doing.

Posted by Jim ( 3:40 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[1]

Monday Apr 30, 2007

Help out the Science Council and win an ipod

The Science Council are developing a brand new website for young people. The website will be a place where young people go to find out about the interesting opportunities that studying science can offer. So, the first thing they need to do is choose a name for the new site. They've developed 6 alternative names and they need your help to choose a winner. 10 lucky voters will win an Ipod.

It's a nice survey, and there's a good chance to win, so we thought we'd let you know about it.

You can vote at www.sciencevote.co.uk.

Posted by Jim ( 11:27 AM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Thursday Apr 26, 2007

Thursday surgery

Tonight from 7-8pm, full-time GP Dr Keith Hopcroft will be live in the chat room to answer your health queries.

Keith is a regular columnist and contributor to The Sun and The Times newspaper; as well as being a medical adviser to mansized.co.uk and to Doctor and GP Update magazines.

If you don't think you'll make the chat, feel free to submit a question in advance - you can leave a comment here or in the thread on the discussion boards.

Posted by Helen ( 11:32 AM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Friday Mar 02, 2007

Tiger Tax Trauma

Seems like it's been a while since our last content update - so here's the new content that's gone live in the last few weeks:

Dealing with someone else's drug problem
Recognising disablism
Emergency first aid
Weird whiskey
Council tax chase
Hang on or move on
Tourette's trauma
Fingered at work
The big 'O'
Horror hair
Mum's making me homeless
GHB equals GBH?
Taxing house sale
Finding out you’re adopted
When coming out goes wrong
Gambling addiction
Compulsive Eating
Grr, Tiger

Posted by Jim ( 4:08 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Friday Feb 02, 2007

Bum blood bonanza

New Content on TheSite.org

The first-year student diary: Boredom rules
Moving back home
My soppy side, a year on
Cheating shame
Valentine's Day
Super Foods Uncovered

Updated content

Addiction basics
Coming off different drugs
Breaking free
Drugs and the law
Crystal meth
Foxy Methoxy
Aphrodisiac
The wrong course
Cosmetic surgery
Skin bleaching vs. tans
Snoring

askTheSite archive questions

Bum blood
Contract confusion
Guilt-ridden and confused
Jury jump
Pill pressure
Tack turd trauma
Moving out benefits
Wine spasms
Card charges
Winning them round

Posted by Tamsin ( 4:25 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Thursday Jan 18, 2007

New Learning Disabilities section

We've added a new Learning Disabilities section to the Health and Wellbeing department! This includes what learning disabilities are; the causes, symptoms and treatments available; and a selection of fact sheets on those conditions most commonly misunderstood or with the highest incidence in the UK.

Let us know what you think of it - any feedback is gratefully received!

Posted by Tamsin ( 2:39 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Friday Jan 12, 2007

Warts, waterproofs and self esteem

** Moved Content on TheSite.org **

The Body Image & Self Esteem section has moved from Mental Health to Wellbeing.

** New Content on TheSite.org **

Hands off my things!
M.E. diarist: Naming M.E.
Consensual outing
Waterproof patch
Warts the problem?
Cold compensation
Grassing up

** New Surveys on TheSite.org **

Drugs Survey
Results of the Happy Holidays Survey

** And Finally... **

Chat
Buy

Discuss

Making an ass of yourself:
Smoke free in 2007

Posted by Jim ( 4:37 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Tuesday Jan 09, 2007

Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!

TheSite.org shop is here!

Is your dog not feeling warm enough? Do you need website branding on a new thong? Perhaps your t-shirt isn't the proper shade of vomit green? Need to promote your favourite website at a German Beer Festival?

The answer to all your prayers is here.

Support TheSite.org by buying from the shop here -

http://www.cafepress.com/thesite_stuff

Posted by Jim ( 3:41 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]

Monday Dec 11, 2006

TheSite awards

This year we've got some highly desirable awards to give away to your best and worst actors, films, TV programmes and more from 2006. And for you? we've got prizes of course.

Just tell us who you think should win a YouthNet Octopus this year, and you'll at least win a pack of condoms or a Durex Play Vibrations.

On top of that there's also the following up for grabs -

A PS2 from Sony

Indulge gift packs

Durex Little Gems

Just follow the link to win -

http://www.thesite.org/survey/s?s=1706

Posted by Helen ( 12:36 PM ) Link to this post | Comments[0]