By Jamie Atkinson
Internet bullying has been a problem faced for the last two decades, since the rise of Internet forums, chat rooms and social networking sites. While many of these sites were not created for such a negative purpose, one was intended for just that.
JuicyCampus.com was designed to encourage the spread of harsh gossip and spur catfights at over 500 institutions across the country. It became known to campus administrators as an untouchable force of disharmony. However, in such a weak economy, nothing is untouchable as the website closed its domain early February due to financial instability.
In an open letter to media outlets, JuicyCampus.com’s founder and CEO Matt Ivester detailed the closing with positive notes. Referring to the site’s lifetime as a “wild ride,” he boasts the site’s relationship with campus gossip and broods in the site’s success. Ivester closes the letter with a paragraph of appreciation and the simple sign off of “Keep it juicy.”
Despite a constant flow of discussion on the website’s Hofstra forum, it is a hard task to find a student that will lay claim to enjoying the website. Administrators and students alike seem to share the same distaste for the site, even if they’ve never personally logged on.
“The site is really disgusting from what I’ve been told,” said Kira Redzinak, a sophomore geology major. “I’ve never personally logged on, but from what I’ve heard I’m not really interested in seeing it.”
“We recently heard about the site via phone calls voicing complaints about the site,” said Lynda O’Malley, Associate Dean of Residential Programs and Community Standards. “It’s not really in our jurisdiction [to address off-campus, online interaction], so we can only direct them towards the local police or public safety to file a report.”
Despite the University’s lack of involvement in the website’s repercussions, some Universities have attempted to go after the site for the problems they’ve caused. Tennessee State University in Nashville went as far as banning access to the website via the University’s network. In an open letter from Ivester, the founder compares TSU’s administration to “the Chinese government in internet censorship,” saying that they are “spitting in the faces of everyone who believes in free discourse online.” While the letter admits that TSU’s intentions are likely in the interest of their student body, they accuse the administration of being “misguided” and “well-meaning busybodies who want to protect people’s feelings.” In retaliation, JuicyCampus, in collaboration with the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, was pursuing a lawsuit in order to reinstate the site’s presence on the public school’s campus.
Many students felt that the site was commonly utilized by Hofstra’s Greek life, analyzing who was the most attractive, least attractive, best, worst, sluttiest or all round most sensationalized organization on campus. And while a few spoke out against the site on its own forums, calling it a disgrace to the University and a black mark on fraternities and sororities, posts continued to flow through the forums.
“From an outside perspective, I think that the site didn’t affect Greek life much because many people already had a pretty low view of the organizations to begin with,” said a sophomore who preferred to remain anonymous. “The threads trashing each other were really harsh, though. It definitely wasn’t a pretty picture or appealing.”
However, with the website’s recent closure, visitors have been redirected to a blogspot.com blog entitled College ACB. As defined by a press released presented on the blog, College ACB is filling the void students were left with after JuicyCampus.com’s disappearance. It proclaims that it is “quickly becoming the central hub of college campuses around the country,” despite less than five posts on most campus pages. However, College ACB, which stands for Anonymous Confession Board, boasts that this site is different from JuicyCampus.com in that they aim to stimulate self-moderated, open exchange, anonymous discussion of serious topics. Aimed at topics such as “college life, sexuality, politics, keg parties and course selections.”
The brainchild of Wesleyan University graduate Aaron Larner and Andrew Mann of JHU and operated by current Wesleyan student Peter Frank, the site has set a powerful mission statement.
“The College ACB or College Anonymous Confession Board seeks to give students a place to vent, rant and talk to college peers in an environment free from social constraints and about subjects that might otherwise be taboo,” reads the mission statement from a February 5 press release.
College ACB does provide some changes from JuicyCampus.com’s format. The forum has ditched the slick, brightly colored layout for a simplistic, grayscale rendition commonly found on blogspot. According to the press release, this new alternative offers special features to those who choose to log in with a user account, an option provided to participants but not required for posting access. Special features involve “private messaging, identity swapping and marking favorite threads.”
The question that many students are posing when they read this new introduction is if College ACB is any different than JuicyCampus.com and whether their façade of promoting intelligent discussion is simply an attempt to get off on a better foot and not be viewed as a gossip website.
“It’s not possible [for College ACB to operate without gossip]. JuicyCampus has made it impossible for people to even blog about their peers without having a negative connotation,” said Lisa Jablon, a sophomore studying public relations. “I think it would be a decent idea, but it can’t be affiliated with JuicyCampus at all if they want to be taken seriously.”
Regardless of the site’s name or intention, many students feel like it is an unavoidable situation.
“It doesn’t matter what a website is called or claims to be,” said Alexander Burt, a senior mathematics and economics major. “There’s always going to be a forum for slanderous gossip for those that seek it.”