TSR Welcome Pack

TSR Wiki > About TSR > TSR Welcome Pack

Welcome to TSR; this article is designed to give you the low-down on the basics you will need when using the site. We know how confusing it may be to understand the TSR lingo and how to find what you are looking for, so this step-by-step Welcome Pack hopes to provide a useful resource for finding your way around and getting to grips with the site.

TSR Glossary

TSR has many acronyms, abbreviations and specific terminology which can make it appear like a whole different language. A good place to start so that you understand the many and diverse range of abbreviations in here and in the forum would be the TSR Glossary.

User Options and Customisation

My Account

My Account is where you can edit your profile, settings, signature and user options. Once you have followed the simple steps to create your TSR account, it's a good idea to set up your profile and site settings. Try not to give out any personal information unless you want to. A profile picture will give other users a good indication as to who you are, so try and make your profile page as dynamic and expressive as possible! You don't have to say the conventional "I like Football" or "I ride horses", you could put in your favourite motto's, or a poem you wrote etc.

Edit Profile

These options on the main page are compulsory and you will need to fill these in when updating your profile, otherwise changes you make may not be saved. These options are account options and are not visible to other users. However, you do have the option to display your age in your profile by ticking the check box.

Optional Information

This informational is optional and controls the information that will appear in your user profile and your post-bit which is visible to all of the other TSR users. You have the option to enter details about your name, gender, orientation, location, place of study, academic information and interests. In addition there is a custom box which can be given a title of your choice for any other topics you would like to add to your profile. If you have a last.fm account then you can enter your last.fm username and your recently listened to songs will appear in your profile.

Other User Options

Within "My Account" there are several drop down menus which provide additional options:

• Edit options is where you can change a lot of your user options. You can choose to appear invisible to other TSR members so that they cannot see if you are online. You can also edit your email options to control who can send you emails. If you want, you can automatically subscribe to any thread you post in, so that you are receive email updates or notifications of threads you post in. This can be irritating if you post in many threads and result in 100s of emails. It is possible to subscribe to individual threads within the thread itself under Thread tools>Watch Thread. Finally, you can also choose how threads are displayed to you and how you create and edit posts, which makes things that little bit easier. Turning off featured content in the homepage will remove the large "Featured Content" box in "My TSR" which can become irritating.

• Signatures are the sections of text or images that will display underneath your posts. Note that they only appear on the first post you make on each page of a thread. To create or edit your sig, go to My Account>Preferences>Edit Signature. You are limited to 1000 characters and can use any of the VB code you can for posts to include images, spoilers, coloured or bold text etc.

• Avatars are the thumbnail images that sit next to your username when you post on a thread. To choose one or to change it, go to My Account>My Images>Edit Avatar. You can upload your own avatar but size is restricted to 50x50 pixels for non-subscribers or 100x100 pixels for subscribers.

• Profile Pictures are pictures in your profile and you can put in a picture from the internet e.g. Facebook, or you can upload a picture from your Computer. To change your profile picture go to My Account>Images>Edit Profile Picture. There is a maximum size of 640x580 pixels and 200kb.

My TSR

The "My TSR" tab is your "homepage" where you can view many of the features on TSR at once, such as watched threads or forums, reputation and the latest discussions. My TSR used to be called UserCP or User Control Panel before the site upgrade and is still often referred to by this name. My TSR is a page personal to your account and contains the features which you might use on a daily basis as opposed to "My Account" which controls more general settings.

Customise your TSR

Customising TSR came as part of the most recent site update and allows you to control what appears on "My TSR" and also the side panel which appears on the right hand side throughout the site.

Skin Colour

TSR has several different coloured "skins" which allow you to view the site in different colours depending on your taste. Currently the options are Pink, Purple, Green, Blue (default), Red and Black.

Your Home Page

This series of check boxes controls the widgets which appear in "My TSR". Select the check box of the options that you want to appear in your home. Most are fairly self explanatory:

• Article Updates - Shows the most recent updates and edits to wiki articles.
• Received Reputation - Shows you how many reputation points you have and your last reps received with comments (subscribers can also see the value of the rep and who gave it to them).
• Who quoted me - Displays a list of the last threads you were quoted in by other users (another user has replied to your post).
• Discussions - This shows either the latest threads to be posted in or the most popular threads for the day.
• Watched forums - You can watch a forum to be able to see the most recent thread in that forum from your home-page or side panel.
• Private Messages - You can receive a notification in "My TSR" when you are sent a private message.
• Watched Threads - As with watched forums, you can also watch threads and be notified in your homepage or side panel if another user posts in that thread.

All other TSR pages

This controls what you see in the side panel around the site (except in "My TSR"). If you don't see the side panel when navigating the site then clicking "show" in the top right corner underneath the search box should make it appear. The options for the side panel are the same as for My TSR and it is down to personal preference what you want to display where, so you'll need to spend some time experimenting.

Widgets

As discussed above the My TSR page is made up of widgets. Once you have selected the widgets you want to display in both the My TSR page and the side panel around the site and saved your settings then you should be able to view the widgets you selected. You can drag and drop the widgets to move them up or down the page and in My TSR you can use both the main and right hand panels. The buttons on the widget allow you to edit options, collapse it and remove it. If you remove it accidentally you can bring it back by going back into "Customise your TSR" and re-checking the box.

Navigating TSR

For more information on using TSR click here

Explore TSR

Scrolling over this gives you a list of forums that you can click on and it takes you to those forums. You can also edited what is in your list by clicking the edit button. This is quite a quick way of taking you to your favourite forums.

Who Quoted Me

Who Quoted me has to be one of the best and most useful widgets that there is on here. When someone quotes a post you have made in a thread it comes up in this widget. It makes it easier to see when you need to respond to someone and reduces the chances of you missing it.

Watched Threads

The best way to find new posts in your favourite threads is to Subscribe to it. To do this click on Thread Tools at the top of the page and then click on 'Watch this Thread'. Here you can choose the type of notifications you want for this thread: 'Weekly Updates by Email', 'Daily Updates by Email' or 'No email Notification'. Depending on the set-up of your TSR you may also automatically subscribe to any threads that you post in.

Your watched Threads will then appear in the 'Watched Threads' widget at the side (if you customise your TSR to include this), and a full list can be found in the Watched Threads link in Quick Links.

Online Status

Next to every TSR username you will see a small icon (shown below). This tells you whether the user is online or offline. It's also possible to appear invisible to users (apart from moderators and Subscribers) by going into 'My Account' > 'Preferences' > 'Edit Options'.

	The person is offline
	The person is online
	The person is hiding their status (only subs see this)

Forum, Thread and Post Icons

Below we have a list of the main icons used on the site with a description of what they mean. I've also added in their location of where you will see them - either when viewing the whole site/section (a forum icon), when viewing a forum (a thread icon) or when viewing a thread (a post icon). Pictures are to follow in this section to make it easier to follow - I hope the descriptions make sense at the moment!

	The thread has new posts in it since you last viewed it.	Thread Icon
	The thread has no new posts since you last viewed it	Thread Icon
	The thread is locked - you cannot post in it.	Thread Icon
	You have posted in this thread, but there are no new posts in it.	Thread Icon
	You have posted in this thread and there are new posts in it.	Thread Icon
	The thread has been moved to another forum or merged.	Thread Icon
	This is just a discussion thread. This is the default setting.	Thread Icon
	This thread has a poll in it.	Thread Icon
You will also see the use of smilies and other icons in place of the above 2 icons just as you did before.
	The subforum has unread posts	Forum Icon
	The subforum has no unread posts	Forum Icon
	This section links to a forum elsewhere or a section of the site which is not a forum.	Forum Icon
	The post is new - you've not read it before	Post Icon
	The post is old - you've viewed it before	Post Icon

(Thanks to RK for making these tables)

Private Messaging

Private messaging is quite fun and give you the opportunity to talk to members without derailing threads. You can do it by going on to people's profiles or by clicking on their username. If you get a PM that breaks the rules then you are also able to Post report the same way as you do usually.

The total PM limit for users is 500 PMs but if you subscribe you can get a 10,000 PM message limit. To view your inbox click on Messages at the top of every page.

Here are the PM icons:

	The link to get to PMs.
	The links to get to PMs if you have new messages.
	The message is unread.
	The message has been read.
	You have replied to this message.
	You have forwarded this message

(Thanks to RK for the table)

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a monthly package that you can get for £3.99 a month or by using 399 riches. They work on a rolling basis meaning it automatically takes the money out of your bank account each month (£2.99 each month after the first) or takes the balance out of your riches until you have no riches left. Subscribing to TSR give you several benefits such as:

• No adverts (although you remove them with things like AdBlock anyway)
• Access to the Back room which is like General Discussion but with uncensored swearing.
• Access to the shoutbox which is a real time chat box like MSN except it's not free
• Access to the arcade with 100+ games like the ones on Miniclip
• Have the ability to open and close their own threads.
• You can have your own customised user title (beneath your username)
• You can select several different colours for your username
• You are able to post images anywhere on the forum
• You can see your entire reputation received and given history
• Can see the value of reps given and received
• Can see who left you reputation even if they don't leave a name
• See your reputation power (although you can find it out free here anyway http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/faq.php?faq=rep#faq_power)
• Bigger avatars
• Have up to 10,000 PMs in your message box (although the 500 you have as a non-subscriber is more than enough for most people)
• Can see who has you on their buddy or ignore lists.

How do I subscribe?

There are several ways to subscribe to TSR.

1. Buy a subscription package via Paypal. The first month sub costs £3.99 and subsequent months cost £2.99, alternatively you can buy a whole years sub for £32.99.
2. Submit Coursework to Coursework.info in exchange for riches. Each coursework that is accepted will give you 100 riches. These riches can then be exchanged for a Sub with 350 riches.
3. Submit Revision notes to the TSR Revision notes database. Each revision note that is accepted and is of a satisfactory length will give you 100 riches. Again 399 riches will buy you a 1 month sub. (We previously used to offer TSR Riches in exchange for revision notes. However, we currently do not offer any for revision notes added after 13th July 2009. Please watch to see if we offer riches for revision notes again.)
4. You can earn riches as a PS Helper if you are at (or have been to) university. Helpers earn 50 riches for each review they do. Details on applying to be a PS Helper are given below.
5. You can earn riches as a CV Helper by joining the CV Helper usergroup. You must submit your CV in Ask A Moderator before you can be accepted into the usergroup. The amount of riches you earn depends on the number of CVs you review.
6. It is also possible to be given a subscription by another member in the form of riches. Similarly subscriptions can be won from the site, for example for winning the Moderators Member of the Month Award.

Riches (coursework.info)

Riches are a great way to purchase subscriptions (see below). You can either buy riches using pay pal or if you have any essays lying around you can submit them to TSR's sister website coursework.info
Clicking on riches gives you a few options. You can view your riches history or donate some to another member. 'Get more riches' enables you to buy more riches using money, you select how many riches you want and you go from there. 'Get riches for essays' will allow you to get riches by submitting essays. This should be quite simple to follow once you are on it as long as you remember that documents can not be submitted using the .docx ending so please convert them before uploading. Once you have submitted essays you can view your submitted essays and their status. If they have been accepted you will receive 100 riches per piece.
To read more on riches then click here

Reputation

Reputation is quite an important part of TSR, some may hate it and some may love it but you need to know what it is first.
Reputation is a way of showing whether or not you have agreed with a post that a user has made. If you agree with it then you can pos rep them and if you disagree with it then you can neg rep them. To give out reputation you can click on the 'Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down' button (see below) next to the post report button. (It can be highly embarrasing if you click the wrong button BTW :P) In the same way you can also receive reputation from other members.
When you reach 6 green gems or 6 red gems the colour changes for your next ones and then once you have 12 green gems you get a gold.

Give reputation button.

Reputation value

Your reputation value is what the reputation you give out is worth. Your reputation value increases with post count, length of member ship and how much reputation you have received. When you first join your reputation will be worth 0 but this will change gradually.

To calculate your Rep Power you can use the TSR Reputation Power Calculator.

Some reputation rules

• You can only give one rep out every 24 hours
• You can only rep the same person once every 28 days
• Asking for rep will get you warning points
• Reputation is anonymous unless they leave a name or you subscribe to TSR
• If you have an abusive rep comment report in AAM
• Repping the same person as soon as you can every month is not allowed
• People can rep for whatever reason they want even if it is petty. Moderators will not do anything unless the reputation system is being abused.

Guide to the reputation system

Moderation on TSR

The site is kept clean, tidy and organised by the moderators. The moderators are volunteers and are selected by the other moderators and administrators. You cannot apply to be a moderator, you have to be asked. To be considered you usually need to be helpful and friendly around the site and to help with post reporting.

The moderators implement the forum rules and have the ability to warn or even ban users who break the rules. If you accumulate 15 active warning points then you will receive a temporary ban from the site. The number of warning points you may receive depends on the severity of offence.

There are several different types of moderator who fulfil different roles on the site. They may all be identified by their bold username:

• Administrators - The administrators (or admin) are the paid members of the moderation team who work for the company (Acumen Pi) which own the site. They are responsible for maintaining and developing the site.
• Super Moderators - The super moderators (supermods) are volunteers but with administrator powers. They also have the ability to moderate anywhere on the site.
• Global Moderators - The Global Moderators (Globals) are moderators who have powers over the whole site but do not have admin powers to change the site. These moderators are also responsible for the non-post related moderation such as reputation, avatars, signatures, private messages etc.
• Moderators - These mods have moderation powers only in a particular forum or group of forums on the site for which they are responsible. The moderators of a forum are shown in the bottom right hand corner of the forum.

Post Reports

Post report button.

Post reports are the average user's way of giving the moderators a helping hand. If you see a post or thread that breaks the rules on here clicking the red exclamation button in the top right hand corner of the post enables you to report it. Leave a message about why you are reporting it and the moderators will be able to take appropriate action.
On your home page clicking Reports will allow you to see the comments that the moderators have left you regarding the post report. This is your way of seeing how they have dealt with it.
For more, click here

Ask a Moderator

Use Ask A moderator to get in contact with moderators. If you have a question for them such as moderation (if you feel something has been incorrectly or unfairly moderated etc), issues regarding the site, or reporting rep comments then this is the place to go. They get grumpy if you PM them so please use AAM :)

Forums

Forums are what make TSR interesting. Clicking on the forums tab you will see a big list of forums and sub-forums.
They are categorised under a few different categories which are:

• The student room (Welcome Lounge, General discussion, chat etc)
• Life Advice (Fitness, Health & relationships, money & finance etc)
• Hobbies and interests (Societies, sport, entertainment etc)
• Debate and current affairs (Debate and discussion, Have your say, house of commons etc)
• Study help (Exams & qualifications, subject specific forums, classifieds etc)
• University and University courses (General discussion, PS help, postgraduate etc)
• Universities and HE courses ( North of England, South of England, rest of Uk etc)
• Careers, Employment and gap years (CV help, gap years, careers & employment etc)
• TSR development and moderation (AAM, about the student room etc)

Obviously these are only some of the forums on here so the best thing to do is to have a look yourself.
You might sometimes be a little confused about where to place things but even if you do put things in the wrong forums they can easily be moved but generally do try and put it in the best place possible. :)

Thread Making

To make a new thread click on the 'Create New Thread' button once you have clicked on the correct forum. Then enter your thread title and your post in the Box and press 'Submit New Thread'.

Adding a Poll

Adding a Poll to a thread can be a useful way to find out about the Opinions of other TSR users.

Adding a poll to a new thread

1. Click on 'Create New Thread'
2. Type in all the thread details and then scroll down to the Additional Options section
3. Tick the Box next to 'Yes, post a poll with this thread'
4. Write down the number of Poll Options, so a simple Yes-No Poll would be 2
5. Then Click Submit thread
6. Next you will have the 'Post a Poll' page. Here you can specify how many poll Options (your yes-no again) and specify which Option will be which. So Option 1 will be Yes and Option 2 will be No
7. Then you can select the date of the Poll timeout. After this date the Poll closes and only the results are shown
8. 'Miscellaneous Options' gives you the choice of Multiple Choice, Public Votes (where you can click on the number in the Poll and it will show who voted for which)
9. Then press Submit and you have your Poll

Adding a Poll to an Existing thread

1. Click on the 'Thread Tools' on your own thread
2. Then click on Add Poll to this thread
3. Then you have the 'Post a Poll' page again and you can follow the steps above from step 6

The Welcome Lounge

The welcome lounge is the place where many of you new members make their first posts on the world that is TSR.
When you join why not create a thread in there to introduce yourself to everyone. You will be sure to meet some friendly members and this is a great stepping stone for getting use to how TSR works.
Happy posting :)

Societies

TSR has a vast list of societies which can be accessed in the Societies list. To join a society click on the 'Join this Soc' link next to the Society that you want to join and type in a message(optional). Your join request will then be processed by one of the Society leaders.

Even if you haven't joined a Soc you can still post in it's thread, one of the benefits of joining a Soc however is that you can let others know you are a member with a link to your Societies under your postbit.

Some Socs are found in Society Chat section of the forum, posting here will not increase your post count. Generally Socs that are found outside of Society Chat stick to the original topic of the Soc, while those is Society Chat are considered to be more chatty.

You can click and view all the Socs that you are a member of by clicking on the 'Manage Your Societies' link in the Societies panel.

For more information on Societies visit The Ultimate Society Guide and FAQ

Health And Relationships

Health and relationships is one of the busiest forums on here. It has two sub-forums Health and Sexual Health. Use the main part for relationship woes and issues that don't fit into the Health or Sexual Health categories.
The health sub-forum is the place for questions your physical and mental health but please remember that this is a student forum and that most of the users are not doctors so don't use this instead of going to your GP.
The sexual health sub-forum is the place for questions on everything and anything from Periods to STIs, to contraception. This is not for asking favourite sexual positions or what sex toys to buy. Again remember that this doesn't replace the GP and it is unprofessional advice.

Anonymous feature

H&R comes with the handy ability to hide your identity and appear as anonymous. When you create the thread there is a tick box underneath the title box asking 'Post anonymous'. Only moderators who have the ability to moderate in H&R have the ability to see who you are and they don't tend to take much notice unless they are suspicious of the OP. They used to remove the anonymity of posts if they misused the anon feature but now they don't do this and will deal with it without removing the anon. Remember it is against the rules to reveal or attempt to guess the OP of an anonymous thread so please don't bother :)

Another point to remember is that if you are posting anonymously in H&R you need to make sure that the 'Post as Anonymous' box is ticked every time.

Where is my Anonymous thread?

Once you have created an anonymous thread in H&R it may not appear immediately. This is because it may have entered a pre-moderation queue. What this basically means is that your thread has entered a queue, then once a Moderator has approved the thread it will appear in H&R. Please be patient, since this process can sometimes take a while so please don't be tempted into making another thread.

[Potential Trigger]

This is a tag that you will see from time to time and it basically means that the thread contains issues such as suicide, self harm, anorexia etc. It just acts as a warning to people before entering the thread.

Debate and Current Affairs

Have Your Say

TSR House of Commons

TSR Model United Nations

Members represent a country and portray that country's views in the Model United Nations (MUN), just like how in the real UN in New York. Only MUN members can post in this subforum.

University Guides

Personal Statements

PS Helpers

TSR has a team of Personal Statement helpers who have all volunteered to review personal statements. All these helpers are either post-graduates, graduates, or currently studying University courses, and membership to this team is controlled by the TSR moderators to ensure that this remains the case. The forums are private and confidential so that only you and the helpers can see your statement.

The Personal Statement Help forum and its subfora allow you to pick the brains of this team by posting your PS draft in the relevant forum. Once you've posted it, one (or more) of the helpers will look over it, and offer you constructive advice on how to improve it.

Becoming a PS Helper

To become a PS Helper you must be at or have been to university. You will need to be able to prove this, usually through your university network IP address which you have used to access the site, or by sending an email from your university .ac.uk email account. In order to become a PS Helper you need to request to join the usergroup by applying here and also posting in the Ask an Assistant forum to prove your university status.

PS Helpers can earn riches for reviews of personal statements, which may be used to purchase a subscription to the site (see further details on riches above).

Careers

Articles on TSR Wiki

Revision Notes

The TSR revision Notes section is written by students for students making it a great revision resource. It has notes organised by subjects and also by Exam level.

If you can't find the revision notes that you are looking for why not make one yourself as revision and publish it to the wiki.