[blissy]

Hi everyone,

I've just started this page on the TSR wiki:
http://thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Oxbridge_Interviews.php

if anyone wants to, they can add:
1) useful info to the sections (I know they're far from complete)
2) personal testimonies (don't forget to say what subject/college you're at)
3) any useful resource links at the bottom (in alphabetical order if it's not too much to ask )

I thought I'd try and get this up and running so it'll be a bumper resource by the time interviews come up and we can save ourselves repeating... ourselves (how Austin Powers).

If you catch the wiki bug there's loads that can be done on the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford pages.

EDIT: There are also profiles on www.oxbridge-admissions.info/profiles.php, for those who are interested.

[Robob]

How do I add a testimony?

[Nutter]

(Original post by rpotter)
How do I add a testimony?

http://thestudentroom.co.uk/w/index....dit&section=14 is the direct link to adding your testimony to the Wiki. You will need to login to the TSR wiki using your TSR username/password.

You will notice that blissy already has a testimony added there, so you can add yours under hers. Make sure you start with a *, which would indicate a new bullet point/paragraph. It is pretty self-explanatory from there. Do remember not to remove the links/segment at the bottom of the page.

[blissy]

thanks Alispam for getting the ball rolling

[WokSz]

This is very good! Thank you

[thomasjtl]

what a strange case of deja vu i'm having...

[Gravastar]

Er - how is this any different to the oxbridge-admissions.info site that Honza's just spent several months bringing back from the dead?

I'm sure you're only trying to be helpful, and good on you for that, but don't you think this is going to divide a potentially very useful resource?

[Jigglypuff]

(Original post by Gravastar)
Er - how is this any different to the oxbridge-admissions.info site that Honza's just spent several months bringing back from the dead?

I'm sure you're only trying to be helpful, and good on you for that, but don't you think this is going to divide a potentially very useful resource?

I agree with this. Maybe instead of interview experiences there should be a link to the OA site. The college stuff looks extremely useful though, so all in all it's a good idea.

[Helenia]

(Original post by Gravastar)
Er - how is this any different to the oxbridge-admissions.info site that Honza's just spent several months bringing back from the dead?

I'm sure you're only trying to be helpful, and good on you for that, but don't you think this is going to divide a potentially very useful resource?

Because the OA site is nothing to do with us, and is basically a competitor. We're busy developing our wiki so it can be as useful a resource as possible for future students.

[Gravastar]

Competitor for what?

Surely you're not worried about losing all of the oodles of cash you all make each year from this free website, to Honza's free website?

And to say the OA site is nothing to do with TSR is ridiculous - it was developed by a TSR member in response to comments by a lot of TSRers that they would appreciate having such a resource. It was borne wholly out of TSR. And the fact that it's on a different server and isn't, therefore, bursting with advertisements, I see only as a plus.

[Helenia]

(Original post by Gravastar)
Competitor for what?

Surely you're not worried about losing all of the oodles of cash you all make each year from this free website, to Honza's free website?

And to say the OA site is nothing to do with TSR is ridiculous - it was developed by a TSR member in response to comments by a lot of TSRers that they would appreciate having such a resource. It was borne wholly out of TSR. And the fact that it's on a different server and isn't, therefore, bursting with advertisements, I see only as a plus.

For traffic

When I said it had nothing to do with TSR, I meant in a business sense. It is not owned or run by the people who own TSR.

[thomasjtl]

basically a competitor

Well, we weren't until you set up this feature in the wiki.

Honestly, TSR's hostility to the www.oxbridge-admissions.info project only shows how much it's management is at odds with the community that uses it.

I meant in a business sense

'cept we're not a business, which explains the whole issue really.

[Helenia]

(Original post by thomasjtl)
Well, we weren't until you set up this feature in the wiki.

Honestly, TSR's hostility to the www.oxbridge-admissions.info project only shows how much it's management is at odds with the community that uses it.

'cept we're not a business, which explains the whole issue really.

In terms of direct competition over interview profiles, no. But as a place where you can get information and talk to people about Oxbridge applications, then absolutely it was a competitor, even before the new wiki feature was introduced.

My personal opinion is that Oxbridge Admissions has a lot of useful information, and so does TSR. However, the main problem that came up within the admin team was that TSR was being used to recruit members and workers for the Oxbridge Admissions site, and planning on advertising itself on here (when it clearly says in the rules that advertising of other websites isn't allowed). The site is not an offshoot of TSR; it is not connected in any way, so while it remains a useful resource in itself, TSR is not a feeder site for it.

Oxbridge Admissions may not be a business, but TSR is. For better or worse.

[blissy]

TBH, I don't know anything about oxbridge admissions. Despite having just graduated from Cambridge I rarely come in this forum.

You may or may not know that I'm fairly involved in the TSR wiki and have been working on the Oxbridge side of it out of my own interest. The "Applying to Oxbridge" section had been completed, and I'm in the process of making the College/University section good and the interview process just seemed to be a gap! So I decided to fill it, and I was just asking if anyone wanted to help contribute to what I'd written and found in posts on TSR.

The page on a the wiki isn't a matter of competition in my view, I was just filling in the gap that had appeared on the wiki - and wanted to get it done before the next cycle of applications.

[blissy]

So, for the record, I'm just trying to be helpful.

So if anyone else wants to input on the wiki, it'd be great

[Gravastar]

(Original post by Helenia)
Oxbridge Admissions may not be a business, but TSR is. For better or worse.

Well, that would be for worse. Because you appear to be letting the business aspect of it obscure your commitment to the 'giving helpful advice to prospective university students' aspect of it.

I'm rather stunned at TSR's hostility to oxbridge-admissions.info. Here is a completely non-commercial site, with willing moderators, and useful information that's frequently requested on TSR. And yet you stubbornly refuse to use it - and only now, when it's been worked on for months, do you decide to voice your displeasure it seems.

Again, blissy, not trying to criticise you for making the wiki thing - after all, you obviously felt it was a gap to be filled as much as Honza did, but perhaps some sort of collaboration would be in order?

[Helenia]

(Original post by Gravastar)
Well, that would be for worse. Because you appear to be letting the business aspect of it obscure your commitment to the 'giving helpful advice to prospective university students' aspect of it.

I'm rather stunned at TSR's hostility to oxbridge-admissions.info. Here is a completely non-commercial site, with willing moderators, and useful information that's frequently requested on TSR. And yet you stubbornly refuse to use it - and only now, when it's been worked on for months, do you decide to voice your displeasure it seems.

Again, blissy, not trying to criticise you for making the wiki thing - after all, you obviously felt it was a gap to be filled as much as Honza did, but perhaps some sort of collaboration would be in order?

I'm sorry I've ruffled feathers over this. I've always said that I find Oxbridge Admissions useful, and some kind of compromise clearly has to be reached. The only other problem was when information was publically available without users' permission and all the admin were blithely denying it. I'm ducking out of this now.

[blissy]

(Original post by Gravastar)
Again, blissy, not trying to criticise you for making the wiki thing - after all, you obviously felt it was a gap to be filled as much as Honza did, but perhaps some sort of collaboration would be in order?

Well I'm just going to work on the wiki content at the moment, I don't know where it's going. I'm just trying to build a resource to answer the frequently recurring questions that come up on TSR. Basically, it's a sticky in wiki form.

[thomasjtl]

i just don't see why we can't all get along. The people working on OA are doing it as an extension of what they already try to do on TSR. To us it felt like a tsr project, even if it wasn't officially sanctioned, because on inspection that's what the oxbridge division tsr seems to be- a group of young people trying to be helpful. I presume, helenia and blissy, that you don't get paid for what you do, and got involved because you benefitted from the site yourselves and wanted to help others out in similar ways.

Can an official relationship not be established? or at least some dialogue between the two groups. That would surely be of greatest benifit to the users. Or are you more concerned about advertising revenue? TSR seems to play it's business card very selectively- there's no mention of it when asking for donations for new servers or people to subscribe in order to support the site.

[Gravastar]

(Original post by Helenia)
I'm sorry I've ruffled feathers over this.

S'alright, no harm done. I'm just concerned about the fate of OA is all, after all the hard work that's gone into it.