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VisaRus Site News and Announcements
New Look For VisaRus, September 6thVisaRus has been through a few incarnations - white, black, yellow, and now blue! But the colours are not all that's changed.
People who come here to use the site's facilities will be glad to know that we've finally launched what was promised years ago - CV uploads.
This has come in a slightly different guise than expected. Log in and you'll see up in the top right corner a little box with three links. Go to the one that says 'profile'.
From here you can add a multi-level structured 'about me' page, which uses a layout that is typical of CVs and résumés. You can have as much information about yourself here as you wish, and you can download it as a .rtf file (which opens in Word) to use as a CV.
Also a whole pile of things have been improved - VRpm, the forum system, better contact page, much improved school directory with MAPS... and lots more.
For anyone who cares, the whole site is now contained in a CSS template instead of the clunky old tables. And it's now UTF-8 instead of Windows-1251. Which is a good thing. I think.
If you find any odd characters floating around the site (by which I mean strange letters and symbols, not weird members) - do please let me know what page you found them on. It will take a little while to iron all the last bugs out of the new encoding!
World ESL directory, April 22nd
VisaRus expands into unknown ESL territory (including Antarctica) with a brand-new site.
As usual, I've launched a site that's not qu-u-i-i-te finished.
However, the people who are going to see it first are you - members of VisaRus, trustworthy, upstanding characters whom I can trust to evaluate and give reliable feedback on my latest scheme.
The idea is simple - apply lessons learned from the Russian site to every country of the globe.
Visit esl.visarus.co.uk for a sneak preview of what's to come.
"But there are already so many ESL sites, why bother?" I hear you cry.
Take a look at the other sites out there and compare them to visarus. VisaRus is UGLY. Nobody would want to look at that site, surely?
Hell no, but people don't come here to look at the site, they come to find schools and get information, not wait while a megabyte of graphics downloads, only to find the page is devoid of useful information.
The new ESL site follows the same principles - more info, less guff. There are more forums than anyone could ever want or need, and there is already a directory of over 600 schools worldwide.
And there are thousands to go.
And the information is, I hope, easy to find.
Navigation is as simple as possible. You even get a personal favourite links menu. It's designed to provide the information you want where you want it and when you want it, not after a whole page of .gif's downloads.
Best of all, it's totally free. No popups, no excessive advertising, just a few (usually relevant) sponsored links that might even be useful.
It's only just beginning. There's lots more to come. Stay tuned!!
Forum takes off!, January 27th
The new forum has proven that less really is more.
Less than a month after introducing the new, simpler forum, we already have over 40 topics and nearly 250 posts.
If you've just signed up, you'll find that you have to send an email to ask for forum access. Don't be put off - this is just a precaution against spammers and the other malicious users that were targeting the old forum. It's very quick to do - just a couple of lines about yourself.
We've got a great bunch of people here, so feel free to join in and say hello!
Christmas Roasts and New Year Cheer, December 20th
2005 is on the way out, and we'll soon be welcoming in 2006. A lot has happened on VisaRus over the course of the year, and there's a lot more to come.
Big thanks go to all users and visitors to the site, and especially to new members Jim Brantley, Ruth Moody, Will Loudner and William Knox for fantastic support and encouragement!
You can read articles by Jim, Ruth and Will in the articles section (funnily enough) over there on the right. I'm sure they'd be most pleased to receive appreciative comments.
The guestbook has only been online for a month, and it's already being spammed. I decided to let just one of the spam entries through, though I edited the links ever so slightly.
Visitors, friends, curious bystanders - please feel free to leave your thoughts in the guestbook. It's feedback alone that keeps me going with this site, as it sure as hell doesn't bring in anything else!
Comments of a critical and constructive nature are ALWAYS welcome! Don't be shy. If you think a page or a feature of the site is the worst you've ever seen on the 'net, say so! But please use the contact form, and not the guest book :)
Note that we've started our (long overdue) volunteering section. Over time we hope to build up a good collection of links to places in Russia that you can go to volunteer your services when the DOS-eat-DOS world of capitalist EFL is getting you down.
If you know of any organisations that need volunteers, we'd be very, very grateful to hear about them. Feel free to get in touch using the contact form.
So, over and out for now. Have a Merry, Merry Christmas, and a Happy, merry New Year!!
All at VisaRus
A week of hiccups, November 15th
Due to a small programming error, the newsletter didn't look quite as nice as it should have!
Not to worry, nothing ventured nothing gained!
For those of you who received the newsletter with all its funny backward slashes, fear not! We'll have that fixed before sending the next one in four months' time.
Another small programmming hiccup (entirely my fault) means that new users who signed up and requested 'no email alerts' now have email alerts. Sorry!
Nobody will be inundated with messages, and it's fairly easy to switch them off again, or to send me an email asking to be removed from the list.
On a lighter (well, darker actually) note, winter is really closing in on St. Petersburg. Nights are getting longer, and waking up in the morning is becoming trickier.
If you're up in the north, be sure to get plenty of vitamins. Apparently 'õóðìà' contains more vitamins and nutrients than almost any other fruit, and it tastes damn good too. Looks weird though. Apparently in English it's called "persimmon", if that means anything to anyone.
You might have noticed the new 'word of the day' features on this site and on the new student site (still under construction). If you'd like to get this on your own website, just send me an email with the url of your site and I'll send you the appropriate code.
New season, new beginnings, October 27th
With autumn slowly creeping out the door, so too are many fair-weather teachers slinking off to warmer climes
I always say there's never a better time to apply for a teaching job in Russia than right at the end of autumn/beginning of winter.
As the weather drops below 0, many teachers pack their bags and head for home. Or Spain. Or Mexico.
It just so happens that this is when many schools are at their busiest, with new students taking up English classes to bolster their classroom performance, and bored office workers looking for nightclasses to take their minds off the darkness outside.
Sign up now and enable 'email alerts' to be notified of urgent vacancies (we try to keep mailings down to once a month maximum, so don't worry about your inbox being overwhelmed), or why not try our new jobhunting service?
We've put a record number of teachers into new jobs this month, and there is still plenty of work out there!
Some of you may have noticed the new design - this is now getting near to the final version of the site layout.
Just don't ask whose idea the colour scheme was...
This week we finally made the decision to build and promote a separate site for students. In early December we hope to have a lot more adverts for private lessons.
Long time not much happening.., August 14th
Just when you thought nothing was ever going to happen to VisaRus ever again, the webmeister is back!
A recent career change for the man behind the VisaRus Foundation (tongue firmly planted in cheek here) has meant that bugger all has been happening on the site of late.
The founder is out of Russia for a little while, taking a break from the choking fumes of St. Peterburg's late summer dacha traffic. Instead, he'll be breathing the acrid smoke from a MIG welder for the next few months.
Here's a secret: welding and fabrication in Scotland pays better than teaching English in Russia. If you can't weld, that information may be of little use to you.
Plus, speaking Russian makes me a natural manager in companies employing Russian-speaking Eastern European workers.
All for now folks, speak to you later!
VisaRus PenPals, May 23rd
One of our schools asked for a penpals board, so we did it!
VisaRus PenPals is designed to help bring the community together. Teachers and students can write to each other, find out about different areas of the country or just find someone to chat with!
Calling Russia from the UK, May 10th
Dial 0870 794 4397 and follow the instructions to call Russia for the cost of a local-rate call.
Check with your operator first - this works from some mobiles with the free minutes in the contract.
At weekends and evenings, calling 0844 570 4397 costs 5p per minute.
I'll try to find numbers for calling from the US soon.
Äî ñâèäàíèÿ!
Victory Day, May 9th
Ñ ïðàçäíèêîì âñåõ! And special congratulations for those who have the luxury of a day off today and tomorrow!
While the weather is hardly celebratory, we can be thankful that spring has finally come. Not exactly with a bang, but it's here.
VisaRus jobs got off to a good start this month, and we're looking forward to your feedback to make a few tweaks to the advert format before launching VRcv (I love these acronyms) which, as you might guess, will be a fairly ordinary online CV library.
But when all that happens, we hope to open up the Russian EFL job market before your very eyes.
If anybody thought that the only English teaching jobs in Russia were offered by BKC, English First and Language Link (not to mention Benedict School), we're sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the range of EFL jobs available, and at the number of language schools hiring native teachers.
No more wasting time trawling the internet for outdated posts on mass-advertising sites, copying and pasting email addresses only never to receive a reply because the school's email has been overloaded with spam.
Our EFL vacancies are sorted by city, up to date (removed after the closing date has passed), spam-protected (you can be sure your application will be recieved) and you can apply without even leaving the site.
EFL job vacancies, May 3rd
VRjobs is here at last! While it's in testing there will only be adverts from a select few 'pilot' users, but there will be more coming soon!
Vrjobs and VRpm were launched in test guise today. More information will be posted later.
While the job vacancies system is being tested, some features will remain disabled. The basic features necessary for using the system are already working, so why not give it a try?
Coming soon - summer 2005, April 21st
If you're already in the north of Russia, you might be forgiven for thinking that summer has already come and gone. Not to worry- we have a special treat for you...
Development of VRjobs is now underway. In May, the first ever vertical internet job portal for teaching EFL in Russia will be launched on visarus.co.uk
Our system is like no other EFL job site on the internet. VRjobs will bring job vacancies and the schools that advertise them together on one portal. This means clear, direct, and instant communication between employer and teacher.
Our internal messaging system, imaginatively named 'VRpm', will be launched in May also. This is not unlike any other forum-style private messaging system, with the exception that it is designed exclusively to support VRjobs.
This will allow instant, secure communication not only with hiring schools, but also with other registered site users, all without revealing your personal email address.
Please remember when registering that VisaRus is not an anonymous 'forum' community where users hide behind exotic or cryptic screennames.
While we take every measure to ensure your privacy, we remind you that VisaRus is a portal for open communication and information exchange.
Except where we provide anonymous posting for safety reasons, we do not expect users to express views that they are not willing to put their names to.
Please aqcuaint yourself with our terms of use and privacy policies. They can be accessed from any part of the site by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page.
School list update, April 3rd
Our list is on its way to becoming the official Russian school directory!
More schools, more information, and it's not going to stop there.
Registered users can already view more detailed information, including email and web addresses.
A new feature is under development that will allow direct contact with schools
all across Russia.
Site Makeover, March 30th
Spiring is sort of in the air here in St. Petersburg, and the site is having a spring clean!
It was time to bring the site out of its 'test' guise and spruce it up a little with some seasonal colours.
It's also been streamlined to download a bit faster - after all, you're probably here to look at the school lists, not to admire fancy graphics!
On the subject of school lists - they're coming up for an overhaul. There are dozens more Moscow schools lined up for the list, and more comprehensive contact details will be available soon.
School names and land addresses will be viewable to unregistered users, and members will be able to view web and email addresses, plus phone and fax numbers.
Site update, February 27th
Member registration improved... slightly...
Quite a number of email providers seem to be blocking the automated messages generated by the registration system. Please check that your mailbox doesn't filter out messages from visarus.co.uk.
If you don't receive your confirmation email, write to 'admin at visarus.co.uk' stating the problem, your username and the email you signed up with. Your account will be activated and you will receive a reply with your password within 24 hours.
Lost or forgotten passwords can now be replaced by the server, but this again requires that your provider accepts emails from the visarus domain.
Schools list update, February 15th
The school list has been revised and is now searchable.
The list has been updated with contact details of schools in cities across Russia. We hope that the list will grow in the coming months. If you know a school that is not in the list, please tell us about it!
New links section, December 7th
Links section added, click here.
Section for useful links added. email links at visarus.co.uk if you would like to see a link or a new links category added.
Link review, rate & comment feature will be added as soon as I learn javascript :)
Moscow schools list, November 30th
Due to popular demand, a partial list of Moscow schools is already available here.
Owing to a flood of requests for the contact list of Moscow schools, a partial list has been published ahead of schedule.
Towards New Year, the list will be updated with more of the city's English schools.
An update of the St. Petersburg list is currently underway, and will be online in early January.
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