Table of Contents
- Contact us
- 2019 CSSA Website Reconstruction
- About former UTCSSA Website (utcssa.net)
- How are your donations used?
- Website Promotion Policy (2019 Edition)
Contact us
The University of Texas at Austin - Chinese Students and Scholars Association (UTCSSA) has an official website at *.UTCSSA.net. This policy contains information about donating to UTCSSA and promoting on UTCSSA website.
2019 CSSA Website Reconstruction
With the rapid growth of mobile internet and iteration of web technologies, CSSA decided to reconstruct all previous web services including the official website and the forum. Thus, we have made following changes:
- Replace the deprecated forum based on Discuz with new forum software. (The positions of advertisements are subject to change)
- Replace the bloated WYSIWYG rich text editor with the new Markdown editor.
- Not migrate previous forum content and instead keep them as an archive website at https://archive.utcssa.net .
- Employ a subdomain name for the forum (https://forum.utcssa.net) instead of the previous second-level domain name owned by CSSA (http://www.utcssa.net).
- Employ HTTPS to make our website more secure than ever.
By making these changes, we are building a modern, simple, secure and easy-to-use forum.
About former UTCSSA Website (utcssa.net)
UTCSSA website was launched in 1990s with the online forum added in 2002. It provides broad information to the Chinese student and scholars, including CSSA events, Austin living guide, alumni network, etc. By providing a communication platform for the Chinese population in the Great Austin area, CSSA website attracts 1600 unique visits and 8000 page loads everyday in average. The number of daily unique visits is more than the Chinese student population at Austin. There are about 20 forum boards covering different topics provide information regarding CSSA’s news, activities in Chinese communities, guide to new incoming students, apartment rentals, flea market, Visa and immigration, and so on. On average, the number of daily posts is more than 200. The website has become a window of CSSA to the Austin Chinese Community.
Based on CSSA’s observation, registered users (>10000 users) of our website includes Chinese population in UT and/or ACC, UT alumni and alumna, future Chinese students who wants to join UT, Chinese living and/or working in Great Austin area, and those who are interested in the Chinese community in Austin. In 2012, More than 2000 Chinese students and scholars were studying and working at Austin, Texas. Another 200+ Chinese join UT each year, based on the UT statistics. In addition, our website consistently receives over 300,000 pageviews per month and on special occasions, receives 2000-3000 new visitors during special occasions (such as mid-autumn, spring festival, 非诚勿扰 (if you are the one), dragon boat racing etc)
CSSA website reaches out to many Chinese because it has various functions. Newcomers’ Guide board provides guidance for Chinese applicants and fresh admits to UT. For Sale & Wanted board connects deal-seekers and sellers. Room & Roommate page helps users to find information about apartments in Austin, roommates, and temporary subleasing. Visa & Immigration board provide basic information regarding visa application and immigration issues. Among other functions, these ones may bring the most convenience to users.
The broad reach and useful functions ensure that CSSA website has a very good reputation among our users, and it is an important communication tool for the local Chinese community.
How are your donations used?
CSSA is a strictly non-profit service organization dedicated to the Chinese community in Austin. We operate purely on donation basis to provide services and programs completely free to all attendees. For example, some of our most well-received services include: newcomer airport pick-up, group leasing apartments, newcomer orientations, seminars on auto insurance, car purchases, immigration and internships, festival events - Mid-Autumn, Chinese New Year, and dragon boat racing.
We are also dedicated to making our financial operations as transparent as possible. Quarterly account balance and major cost-breakdowns are shown at the executive committee meetings; detailed cash-flow breakdowns and copies of receipts for every purchase made are also available to our sponsors upon request. We will guarantee that 100% of the donation funds will go toward enriching student life and providing support for every facets of CSSA operations.
Website Promotion Policy (2019 Edition)
CSSA does not allow any entities to promote themselves or start a topic to promote themselves on BBS without permission. Webmaster will delete any information that is against this basic rule.
CSSA offers an option to place promotion linkages on its website. Donate to get your name listed as a donor on our website for one year. The possible feature includes the following operations:
A text link at the top of the forum main page (https://forum.utcssa.net).
An independent recommendation post of each donor under the tag UTCSSA 执委会 > 赞助商 (UTCSSA Executive Committee > Sponsors).
A banner carousel on the sidebar.
(Optional) A verified user in the forum. (Adding a yellow check beside your avatar)
$1200 to receive a promotion package with all 4 features
The donor has to either provide CSSA with the content of the recommendation post or post with the verified user. The posts will NOT appear at the top of the forum due to concerns of too much distractions undermining user experience. The post should contain any information that the donor wants to inform users about, not conflicting with Federal Law, State Law, University Policies or CSSA regulations. The length of the post is no longer limited. The forum employs the new Markdown syntax instead of the former WYSIWYG rich text editor. You can request help from the tech department of CSSA if needed. CSSA reserves the right to request the donor to revise the content of the post or to terminate the promotion due to inappropriate contents.