Who is the hottest person on campus?
With the closure of JuicyCampus, a popular college gossip website, students will have to turn to other sources for answers to this and other burning questions. A blog post on the site announcing its shutdown Wednesday cited the economic downturn and declining advertising revenue. During its year and a half lifespan, the site drew ire and legal action from around the country for its anonymous, sometimes insulting, gossip.
The site, which spread to more than 500 colleges and reached more than 220,000 posts, invited students to “to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It’s totally anonymous – no registration, login, or e-mail verification required.”
But too often, contended Student Government Association Greek Community Legislator Gabi Band, the posts took on a vicious, personal tone.
“JuicyCampus will be remembered as a venue where childish, immature views were expressed and where people were just irresponsible,” said Band, who sponsored legislation condemning the website last semester. “There was more victimization than there was fun.”
An e-mail seeking comment from JuicyCampus founder Matt Ivester was not returned, but his farewell blog post signaled disagreement.
“It’s clear that we have provided a platform that students have found interesting, entertaining, and fun,” Ivester wrote.
Discussion topics on the site ranged from the trivial (Natural Light or Keystone?) to the functional (does anybody know where my keys are?) to the goofy (which sorority is best with logarithmic expressions?) to occasionally, the relevant (what do you think of the Purple Line?), but the focus of the site, like that of its college demographic, often turned to sex.
Numerous posts asked users to rate the “hottest” person on campus, the hottest sorority, the hottest fraternity, even the hottest Rugged Wearhouse employee and hottest bouncer at Cornerstone. (A sample response: “[name deleted] looks so hot in that yellow shirt.. i want to get
kicked out jsut so he can manhandle me.” [sic])
In between the silliness, anonymous personal attacks accused named students of everything from infidelity to rape. One poster compared the site to a “real life version of Mean Girls.”
Former Sigma Kappa President Marissa Shirron said posters wrote about her and her sorority sisters, commenting on their attractiveness and alleging the promiscuity of some members.
“It’s upsetting to me, but I know that it was more upsetting to some girls in my house,” Shirron said. “Nobody likes to see mean things written about them.”
Band wrote a letter to Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler expressing concern about the website. He received a response from an assistant attorney general stating “other campuses have voiced similar concerns” and vowing to explore options “to limit the possible harm that the site may generate.”
New Jersey authorities subpoenaed JuicyCampus more than a year ago, and Ivester was facing a lawsuit from a University of Delaware student seeking the identities of her Internet tormentors.
The site’s blog notes that “No charges were ever brought against JuicyCampus by any [Attorney General],” and states that legal action was not responsible for the site’s termination.
Tennessee State University blocked the website Nov. 12, according to the school’s student newspaper, prompting JuicyCampus to consider a lawsuit against the school.
“While there are parts of JuicyCampus that none of us will miss – the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks – it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life,” Ivester wrote.
But some will remember it differently.
Lamented one user, “now where am i gunna anonymously hate on everyone in college park? [sic]”
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