interviewfeedback.com

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Aaargh

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Um, what is the deal? This was supposed to be transferred to SDN within 7-10 days back in September. Can somebody translate that to Earth days? Does anybody know what the deal is?
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Hi guys,
Rest assured, Lee is working on it. We were hoping it would be done in Sept but we came across some unexpected problems. They had to do some debugging (or some some other computer lingo) to fix the problem. Last i heard, it's still being worked on. I would really urge you all to post/read the SDN interview feedback because that is all the info we seem to have right now.

I will post this in the Mod forum to make sure things are happening behind the scenes.
 
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Regardless of the SDN material.... there is a ton of information from the old site that has simply been inaccessible throughout the interviewing season. And many schools (eg Canadian) which aren't even represented on SDN. Why are both sites inaccessible? Its pretty frustrating and a pretty odd time of the year to pick to bring the sites down for months.
 
For Canadian schools, check out Ian Wong's comprehensive site:

www.premed101.com Click on "Forums" at the top of the homepage.

C.
 
It is a great site, but for interviewfeedback....even ian sends folks there. At least when there was a there there.
 
Dude, Lee and Dr. Redgrave have been working on this for awhile. They know that it's interview season and they didn't "pick" this time, it just happened. For several months now, lots of us have been going to interviews almost blind, i.e. without interviewfeedback.com and have been coming back and compiling a nice little database right here on SDN. Yes, interviewfeedback is a great resource, but you'll be fine without it. Just use what you've got. Do searches throughout SDN and use SDN's interviewfeedback and you'll be fine.
 
Golly, gee thanks dad. Can I stay over and eat dinner at Jimmy's tonight?

1. They most assuredly *did* "pick" this time. You see you can do this during interview season or you can do this after.

2. I still fail to understand why you take down the original site before the new site goes up, nor do I understand the promise results in 7 days and then just say nothing for 3 months. When is this going to be done? Why isn't the old site up pending the transfer? What's the deal?

3. As I and other have pointed out repeatedly, the SDN database does not provide the same coverage as the old one.

Rather than solace, perhaps somebody could provide real answers to some of the questions actually posed?
 
they didn't pick the time for the server to crash. the decision to move the database over to sdn was done after this incident.
 
Originally posted by Aaargh
Golly, gee thanks dad. Can I stay over and eat dinner at Jimmy's tonight?

1. They most assuredly *did* "pick" this time. You see you can do this during interview season or you can do this after.
2. I still fail to understand why you take down the original site before the new site goes up, nor do I understand the promise results in 7 days and then just say nothing for 3 months. When is this going to be done? Why isn't the old site up pending the transfer? What's the deal?
3. As I and other have pointed out repeatedly, the SDN database does not provide the same coverage as the old one.
Rather than solace, perhaps somebody could provide real answers to some of the questions actually posed?
Click to expand...

why the attitude? :confused:
they didnt pick this time to crash the server, it has been going on for a long time, ask last's years applicants, and they have been working on it too, instead of being demanding, how about u show a little appreciation for the SDN interview website or even for them trying to improve the other one?
 
you tell him, immediatespring! :clap:
 
Originally posted by Aaargh
Golly, gee thanks dad. Can I stay over and eat dinner at Jimmy's tonight?

1. They most assuredly *did* "pick" this time. You see you can do this during interview season or you can do this after.

2. I still fail to understand why you take down the original site before the new site goes up, nor do I understand the promise results in 7 days and then just say nothing for 3 months. When is this going to be done? Why isn't the old site up pending the transfer? What's the deal?

3. As I and other have pointed out repeatedly, the SDN database does not provide the same coverage as the old one.

Rather than solace, perhaps somebody could provide real answers to some of the questions actually posed?
Click to expand...

Ok, before you start accusing people of things PLEASE make sure you have the right information at hand. The IF.com website has been broken down for a while now. Dr. R had been working on debugging the database, but nothing seemed to work. So, nobody had access to IF.com for a while. Then, one of the people on SDN recommended (can't remember if it was Lee or a Moderator or a regular member) that we should take the data from IF.com and put it into the SDN website.

THIS was decided in Sept before interviews were hardly given out. It was assumed that we would have the website back up in no time, because we didn't think the IF data would be a "misfit" for our SDN database. However, we are now finding out that it may not be the most compatible. Excuse my lack of computer lingo here, I am not a comp wiz but this is pretty much the scenario.

Lee and others on SDN are providing a service for you that is free. All these people are volunteers that get nothing out of it besides knowing they did something to help their medical community. Most of them are Residents, medical students or interns who hardly have the free time for themselves, let alone sit at a computer and debug something. The last thing they need is accusations about them taking the website down on purpose. What purpose would it serve a medical student/resident to do that???

Damn, if you can't appreciate at least don't say anything negative!

Tweetie
 
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basically what tweetie and immy are trying to say is:
pissed.jpg
 
Originally posted by Aaargh

2. I still fail to understand why you take down the original site before the new site goes up, nor do I understand the promise results in 7 days and then just say nothing for 3 months. When is this going to be done? Why isn't the old site up pending the transfer? What's the deal?
Click to expand...

If you're refering to the 'original site' as the old interviewfeedback.com, that site - which was created and operated by someone *not* affiliated with SDN, has been down since early in the year. Maybe you weren't around when it went down, maybe you didn't know that the two sites - SDN and interviewfeedback.com were not affiliated. Perhaps this answers your question.

3. As I and other have pointed out repeatedly, the SDN database does not provide the same coverage as the old one.
Click to expand...

Uh, that's because they are different databases.

Rather than solace, perhaps somebody could provide real answers to some of the questions actually posed?
Click to expand...

Perhaps, as a person whom - like the rest of us, pays nothing for the excellent services provided on this site, you could be more patient. Grateful maybe even.

- Tae
 
Hmmm. Questions about what's going with IF.com elicit comments about how I'll be ok and should do other things, and then when I note that these responsive are, well, non-responsive, I'm the bad guy.

OK, so the server crashed and the the database was not compatible within the 7 day period advertised. What is the status today? Who is working on it? What is the ETA? Why the cone of silence?

A lot of other people aside from Graham spent a lot of time to put together a database to help fellow students. And all the pining about how SDN is neat and free or the students' didn't retain a copyright to their information and its not there's, or you should be so grateful for so many things, and all the rest, or even how dare you post like that you naughty boy -- though I do note in passing that pissing you guys off does oddly seem to elicit much more substantive responses -- doesn't really address the fact that this information provided by a lot of other people has been unavailable at the very time it is needed most. You may not care, I do. And despite the fact that SDN is free, I still care. And there is a distinct paucity of information (and perhaps other things) regarding this topic from the powers that be.

I wasn't the one who wrote it'll be up in 7 days.
I wasn't the one who did not answer my emails.
I wasn't the one who hasn't provided any info to the community.
I wasn't the one who hasn't explained why the original site isn't back up pending the transfer.

I just want to know when this info will be back up. And it seems to me like there should be a premium placed on making this info available. Not some time. Now. ASAP. It has been MONTHS! You really think that's so unreasonable.....
 
it's not too much to ask when the service will be available. i'm sure they would answer you if they knew for sure when the info will be back up.

it is, however, very wrong to EXPECT the information unless you are paying for the service. we are not entitled to it just because we want it.
 
Originally posted by Aaargh
Hmmm. Questions about what's going with IF.com elicit comments about how I'll be ok and should do other things, and then when I note that these responsive are, well, non-responsive, I'm the bad guy.

OK, so the server crashed and the the database was not compatible within the 7 day period advertised. What is the status today? Who is working on it? What is the ETA? Why the cone of silence?

A lot of other people aside from Graham spent a lot of time to put together a database to help fellow students. And all the pining about how SDN is neat and free or the students' didn't retain a copyright to their information and its not there's, or you should be so grateful for so many things, and all the rest, or even how dare you post like that you naughty boy -- though I do note in passing that pissing you guys off does oddly seem to elicit much more substantive responses -- doesn't really address the fact that this information provided by a lot of other people has been unavailable at the very time it is needed most. You may not care, I do. And despite the fact that SDN is free, I still care. And there is a distinct paucity of information (and perhaps other things) regarding this topic from the powers that be.

I wasn't the one who wrote it'll be up in 7 days.
I wasn't the one who did not answer my emails.
I wasn't the one who hasn't provided any info to the community.
I wasn't the one who hasn't explained why the original site isn't back up pending the transfer.

I just want to know when this info will be back up. And it seems to me like there should be a premium placed on making this info available. Not some time. Now. ASAP. It has been MONTHS! You really think that's so unreasonable.....
Click to expand...

Listen, I know and understand that it has been long. I am as frustrated as you are about this issue, but we can't control other people's work and we certainly can't demand things from them that they are doing as a favor. What concerns me is the manner in which you seem to be demanding something, like you paid for it. So what if he said it will be up in 7 days? Do you not understand how computer problems work? It is reasonble to ask WHY it's taking long but it's not reasonable to have this sense of ownership. Graham is not the only person that worked on this website, but Lee is working hard to ensure that his work does not go in waste. So let's give credit to BOTH parties because although data collection is important, moving it to another source and debugging it after looking for problems may not be as easy as you think. Let's try and give people more benefit of the doubt here.

I have already posted your concern in the Mod. forum and am waiting for a response from Lee. Please know that if there was anything we could do to make things move faster, we would. The lack of this information affects not just you, but also people like myself that have interviews coming up soon. I urge you to email/PM lee about it, if none of my responses seem adequate. Perhaps he may be able to tell you something beyond what I already have.

And if you do find out some good news, please do share it with us.
 
Originally posted by Aaargh

I just want to know when this info will be back up. And it seems to me like there should be a premium placed on making this info available. Not some time. Now. ASAP. It has been MONTHS! You really think that's so unreasonable.....
Click to expand...

Dude, your post reeks of entitlement. There's so much whine here that I feel like I should busting out the cheese and crackers to go along with it.

Answers to the status of the IF database are not forthcoming. Deal with it. Go to plan B. It was a luxury to have been spoon-fed the feedback info when it was available. Until the IF database is successfully integrated to the existing database, you'll have to do searches, post requests - just like the rest of us have been doing.

The only thing the rest of us haven't been doing is whining about it.

- Tae
 
Cranky ass person. Go have a beer Aargh. We're all dealing with it...why can't you?
 
Amen, Tae.

Aaargh, here's an idea. What if the answer to your question is "I'm sorry, we tried really hard but the IF database is NEVER going to be up again." One would hope that you're a reasonably intelligent person (because you're applying to med school), and in that case you would accept the facts and move on to find other ways of preparing for interviews. Then you'd be ECSTATIC if the guys who are volunteering their valuable time to work on IF get it back up and working, no matter when it happens. All because you didn't EXPECT it. Then everybody would be happy.
 
I'm sorry to hear about everyone's frustration. Let me tell you what's happening:

1. Graham's site went down a while back. He can't determine the cause.

2. In Sept, I volunteered to help him out. We transferred the database to SDN and found that there were some problems with the database and PERL scripts that run it.

3. Since Sept, I have been working on creating a new working front-end to the database. As anyone who's done programming knows, it always takes longer than expected. However, I'm very close to completion -- I don't have a date, but it's very soon (just like it says on the front page of SDN).

4. Graham's email doesn't work -- which is why he hasn't replied to his messages. Additionally, he's very busy with his residency right now.

5. I'd like to remind everyone that I personally operate SDN as a free educational resource for students. Although I get a few dollars from advertising, the majority of the support for SDN comes from my medical practice. I find it discouraging that some guests don't appreciate what SDN offers, but I do understand their frustration.
 
I'm just another person who would like to suggest that everybody take use of what is on SDN right now under the interview feedback....I used that in addition to searching the forums for the school I was interviewing at and found that extremely helpful!! ;)
 
This is just a read-only version I wrote for myself for testing -- it's totally bare bones.

I'm working on the complete version which should be available quite soon. That version allows for feedback and input.
 
Lee, can you check your PMs?
 
Thank you for the primordial version!! It's perfect timing for me.
 
Terrific. Thank you.
 
wow, Lee. this is awesome. it will definitely help a lot of people. i'm sure most people won't even read or consider this, but, as a programmer, for Lee to put up a link to his crude and non-completely functional script is very nerve wracking. please understand that Lee's still in the process of putting everything together and is trying to work out all of the kinks, so we don't need to inform him of them. he'll ask us to post them as we find them when he's ready. just be glad (and we are) that even this is available to us. i just hope the server doesn't get overloaded with all the requests that are bound to occur verrrrry soon. Thanks, Lee!!!
 
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