About UPSU.net
UPSU.net is The University of Portsmouth Students' Union's presence on the web, and it's your place to have your say about how the Union is run, to get involved with the Union, to get support and advice, to find a part time job while you're studying, and lots, lots more...
What's inside?
UPSU.net contains information on everything the Union does - from clubs and societies in the Get Involved section, to night-time events in the Social:Life section; from student support and part-time jobs in the Student Life section, to ways for you to join in with the Portsmouth student community in the forums and on your blog.
Who can join in?
If you're a student or member of Portsmouth University staff, you can sign up for a website account. Even better, you can get an NUS card and take a more active part in the Union's clubs and societies, volunteering projects, and the many other ways you can get involved.
What is UPSU.net?
UPSU.net is based on the award-winning - and free - Mambo open-source content management system created by Miro. It has been heavily modified and adapted to suit the needs of the Union, and it's in a constant state of development.
The site runs on a couple of Linux/Apache servers hosted by Meteoric webhosting (more on them in "props").
Because we're almost always working on improving the site, sometimes you might find things don't always work how you expect them to, or things change or move about. While we try to make sure you're not inconvenienced, and we do our best to avoid disruption, sometimes we get it wrong - we can't spot everything that's not working, so please tell us if you spot something wrong in our "what's wrong with UPSU.net?" forum (we've also added a link at the bottom of every page so you can tell us with a minimum of hassle).
What's new, and what's improved in the last year?
Pugwash and Purple Wednesdays magazines online
We've started taking our first tentative steps towards putting more of our award-winning media content online. The thing is, we need you students to get involved; help us to write, get creative, spell-check, and lay out the content online so we aren't tearing our hair out.
The best bit is the warm fuzzy glow you'll get from helping out. Not enough for you? You'll also be named and are welcome to cite your work on UPSU.net in your ever-expanding CV as "the most fun you can have with pixels (with your clothes on)" (maybe).
Blogs for everybody
Write, publish and have your say online. We haven't finished creating the blogs yet; more is still to come...
Actively engaging with you in the forums
We're always looking for ways to improve the way the Union works, and there's no better proof than just how much time the Entertainments manager spends in the forums canvassing opinion on what acts to put on.
The new homepage
Not that the original UPSU.net homepage was particularly bad, it's just that the new homepage has a lot more content, is better laid out, is more standards compliant (you'll thank us if you have to view it on a phone with a tiny screen), and you can even choose one of 9-ish colours in case you don't like purple (or, if you're like us, you get bored of purple after the 4,000th variation...).
NUS card registration online
It might not seem that big a deal when you sign up, and if you encountered any problems signing up then we are truly sorry for the teething problems, but having the NUS registration system online has meant that we've saved a lot of time and money by moving away from our manual system.
The best bit is that this is money which has been put back into clubs and societies at the Union!
Who works on UPSU.net?
We have a core team of staff who oversee the majority of the site from day to day; these include...
Steve Baker - Membership Services Manager
Steve has been at the Union since everything was black and white and dinosaurs roamed Ravelin Park (between lectures, of course). Steve's official job title appears to be "Membership Services manager", although he does a bit of everything, and his main role on UPSU.net is to make sure the rest of the team don't do anything that might get him arrested.
Mike Cooter - Communications Manager
Mike says he's 19 years old, but we suspect he's seen more of the 60s than the Beatles. He's a reformed graphic designer, and does an awesome impression of a VW Camper Van - wooden panelling and all...
He's also the person you need to speak to if you want to learn what the "meejah" and publishing world's all about, and if you work on Pugwash magazine, Mike will be your Yoda. Or something...
- Mike's UPSU.net profile is really boring, but he's on MySpace. Aww, how sweet... »
Tom Worman, Nathan Sweeney and Alan Hollis - web munkis
UPSU's two web munki newbies have been around the Union for ages. Tom's at www.southerndesigns.com (we're also trying to get him to photograph loads of club and society events since he's handy with a camera). Nathan won't tell us where his website is, or even if he has one, and Alan used to work at the Union, we think, and now he... err.. doesn't. Except when he's updating the UPEL Social:Life website of course...
Alex Harries - Media & Publications Sabb 2007-2008*
There's no way I'm writing about myself in the third person here (yes, it's me writing this page). Have a look at my profile or my blog instead. Both are equally boring. Or you could stalk me on Facebook if you'd rather...
* Unless I get sacked first... ;o)
You!
That's right: UPSU.net needs YOU to keep it up to date, running smoothly, to spot bugs and to help us design funky* new layouts.
If you're happy to gain valuable work experience a couple of hours a week in return for all the tea and coffee you can drink, and you're not afraid of HTML, CSS or maybe even a spot of PHP (but it's not a requirement as long as you can see the funny side of things), give us a shout and tell us you're interested.
Please note; we're phenomenally slow at replying to our e-mails, so don't give up all hope if you don't hear from us for a while. We have a lot of people to chat to on MSN and there's always a long queue at the bar, so getting work done is sometimes a bit difficult... ;o)
* No, we don't think "funky" sounds quite right there either.
Props
We couldn't run UPSU.net without the help of the following people. This list will grow and shrink as people become our new best mates, and then upset us by forgetting to send us Crimbo cards...
Clive Gardner at Meteoric web hosting
Clive and his company Meteoric look after UPSU.net despite our best efforts to ruin it - and his life - on a regular basis. They do a great line in reliable, fast webhosting (because unreliable, slow webhosting is soooo 2004) and the prices aren't bad either.
Everyone who works at the Union
Thankyou for all your help :o)
Everyone who's ever been to the Union
Thankyou for paying our wages :o)
The Mambo Open-Source Community
Thankyou for writing great, free software, and then writing more great, free, software to bolt onto the original great, free software. We promise we'll start releasing our source code as soon as we have some time to tidy it up for you!
... and to anyone we've missed out:
Sorry - it's not intentional! Tell us who you are so we can add you to this page :o)
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