Have you heard the latest?
After the notorious gossip site JuicyCampus shut down last spring due to lack of advertising revenue, several new sites have popped up in its place. Though they may not be seeing as much widespread student hype as their predecessor, they do have a few new tricks of their own.
This time they come armed with options for photo, video and even naked content.
The new queen bees on the scene are CollegeACB and Campus Gossip, though none seem to have reached the status of JuicyCampus at this university — at least, not yet.
“I mean, I’ve heard of F––– My Life and Texts From Last Night, but I have never heard of any gossip websites,” said sophomore journalism major Tom George, who has written for The Diamondback.
CollegeACB, or the Anonymous Confession Board, was founded by two recent college graduates from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins University who bought the old JuicyCampus website after its demise. Now, students and gossipers are directed straight to the CollegeACB website. Page views have gone from 60,000 to around half a million a day.
“We offer a unique service, allowing students to dictate conversation without fear of retribution,” owner Peter Frank said. “For many, it is probably simply a procrastination tool. To others, it may be an invaluable outlet to receive advice from their peers about relationships, classes and the school.”
Even without outward student notoriety, this university’s feed is pretty active on the site. Threads like “Best Looking Gays?” to “Hottest ginger on campus” are among the discussion topics posted. Others target specific people, or certain sororities and fraternities.
“We don’t call for salacious gossip,” Frank said. “Yes, most posts are rather unfortunate, but we aim to give a student-controlled discussion forum. If the content is ‘bad,’ it is because that is what the students have created of their space — not because we asked them for ‘dirt.'”
Campus Gossip has seen no traffic from this university so far, but the site paves way for a new age of gossip websites with picture and video posts. Pictures on the site range from groups of friends scantily clad in Halloween costumes to shots of girls barely clothed. For the more risqué shots, there is a “raw” section — for those 18 or older — where nothing is blurred, blacked or censored out.
Lance Lohan co-founded the website in 2007, and he later merged with usagonedirty.com, a website focused on picture content. Lohan said people from approximately 50 to 100 schools post regularly. About 10 schools are really active, he said.
“It’s a place for students to share funny things that go on on-campus,” Lohan said. “You can find out about where to live, where to eat and all that stuff, too. It’s a cool outlet and online space for students to share and recap crazy experiences they are having because obviously college is that time of life for everyone.”
Lohan also said the site has no problem with removing content if they are contacted, but he said they have received very few complaints.
“Most of the time we understand,” Lohan said.
Vice President of Student Affairs Linda Clement said she thinks that the sites counteract efforts to build university cohesion and called for students to take action.
“I think the sites are incredibly destructive for the community,” Clement said. “At the university we want to build a stronger community and this seems to break it down. I wish students would do something creative like boycott the sites.”
Senior English major Henry Mills experienced the backlash of gossip sites firsthand when people posted about him on JuicyCampus. Mills said he felt the comments were hateful, adding he regretted the anonymity of the site and wished there was a way to open up dialogue.
“Words can be harmful, too,” Mills said. “Words in themselves can be an attack. Where do you draw the line? The nature of the site was to turn university social settings into an unsafe place for people. It did make me uncomfortable.”
Others such as sophomore letters and sciences major Shana Cynamon, think the sites do no real damage. She said she once even wrote something about her roommate on JuicyCampus as a joke.
“I think it’s funny,” Cynamon said. “I don’t think it’s anything.”
But her friend sophomore biology major Jessica Metcalfe disagreed.
“I think they are completely degrading,” Metcalfe said.
Both girls hadn’t heard of the newest sites. Mills still saw time for the situation to change.
“I guess there’s a demand in our culture for this kind of hateful gossip,” Mills said. “It doesn’t mean it can’t be changed or counteracted.”
tousignant at umdbk dot com
