DearQUT Blog

We’ve been busy!

Here’s some new stuff that you may have noticed on dearQUT recently:

Post anonymously
You can now hide your identity when posting messages/comments, even when logged in. Just tick the ‘Post Anonymously’ checkbox in the new message/comment form, and your message will be posted by ‘Anonymous’ instead of your name.

Edit/Delete your messages
You may have also noticed new icons on specific messages. This means that you can edit or delete these messages!

Search messages
Use the new search box on the Browse page if you want to view messages with specific words.

User moderation
If you spot a message that is spam/inappropriate, click the flag button and supply a the reason why the message should be taken off the site. We will process the moderation request, and the message will not reappear if it is not suitable for dearQUT.

Browse most controversial messages
See which messages which have strong mixed reactions. Usually the messages that have a large number of agrees and disagrees will be at the top.

User messages panel
Keep track of your created messages and messages you have interacted with by clicking on your username in the top menu panel.

QUT Staff Messages
We have now added the ability for staff to be able to identify themselves when commenting on a message that concerns them. This will allow staff members to provide a more authoritative response to certain issues.

If you are a staff member and wish to respond in this manner, sign up for an account providing your staff email (with @qut.edu.au domain) and check ‘I am a QUT staff member’. You will be given the option to comment as a staff or as a normal user.

If you are a staff member and wish to add the staff status to your current dearQUT account, email contact@dearqut.com from your qut email and we will switch your account over.

The ideal dearQUT message

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of messages on the dearQUT website that trouble me. I feel the need, therefore, to talk briefly about why the site exists and to guideline what makes an ideal and effective message to post.

The dearQUT website was created because we were sick of feeling like QUT wasn’t listening to the students. As students of the Faculty of IT, we felt that we had the power to change this. In the spirit of sites like http://dearadobe.com, http://reddit.com, and http://fmylife.com we felt that we could harness the power of the community to get QUT’s attention.

To that end, the messages on the site are intended to be truly directed at QUT (not to us, the developers) with the aim of eliciting some sort of a reaction or response.

As such, when you are posting messages on dearQUT, keep the following in mind about your message:

• It should be a statement, not a question. People can’t Agree or Disagree with a question. QUT can’t do anything about a question. This isn’t a place for users to get help from QUT.
• It shouldn’t be mean-spirited or offensive. We created dearQUT to give students/staff a place to voice their concerns or commend QUT for the things that they like — not to defame or offend people (staff or otherwise). There have been many messages about wanting more English-speaking teachers etc, and these are certainly valid messages but they can be said without being hurtful.Racist/sexist/defamatory/etc messages will not be tolerated and will be removed or edited.
• It should be clear and direct. Messages should be worded in a way that will motivate QUT or the community to do something about it (if it is a complaint) or re-inforce it (if it’s a good thing).
• It should be relevant. This is about QUT—not UQ or work or your social life. We want to make QUT a better place. Comparisons are still fine but it should be with the ultimate goal of adding value to your message.
• It should be about a single thing. I can’t stress this enough. There have been times I can’t decide to Agree or Disagree with something because only part of it is relevant to me. Also, it dilutes the importance of the part that people might actually feel passionately about. There are no restrictions on how many messages you can post so if you have 5 things to say, simply make 5 messages.
• It should (ideally) be about something that affects the community, not just you. E.g “Please pay your teaching staff more” vs “You don’t pay me enough!”
• It should complete the following sentence: “Dear QUT, …”

Here are some examples of good and bad messages chosen at random:

• This is a question that’s barely even related to QUT
• Off-topic / irrelevant
• Perfect message and something QUT could do something about!
• A couple more good messages
• Disrespectful, discriminatory, or completely unacceptable - it’s only staying up there as an example of what is not OK to post

New DearQUT blog!

Welcome to our new blog!

There hasn’t been much change to the site since it first took off, but that will soon change!

We have a lot planned for the site in the next few months including the addition of a ‘QUT response’, flagging of inappropriate messages, more ways to browse messages, smarter tagging, and other general improvements to current functionality.

Keep checking this blog and add @dearqut_team on twitter for future updates.