Site eliminates need for awkward face-to-face gossip
By:
Hallie Johnson
Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: News
As if college students didn't have enough Internet platforms on which to gossip, complain, defame and joke like junior high schoolers, a new website proves that the life-long traffic in rumor and ridicule will bear at least one more.
Pitt is now the newest member of JuicyCampus.com, a college campus gossip website. The website is an open forum that will allow the Pitt community to make anonymous posts about campus social life, academics and any other topic.
Founded by Duke University graduate Matt Ivester, the website has over 50 universities utilizing the discussion forums so far.
"Our idea was that some of the most hilarious and entertaining things in the world happen on college campuses, and JuicyCampus could be a place
to share those stories," Ivester said.
Beginning at Duke, the site quickly gained momentum, and as the numbers rose, so did the gossip.
The gossip ranges from funny to cruel, to desperate, defamatory and sometimes even intolerable.
Nevertheless, universities expressed interest and became a part of the JuicyCampus family.
Universities such as Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania are members of the site, along with Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Brown and Yale.
Samantha Ku, a sophomore at the University of Miami, said that it hasn't gained much momentum at her school, but predicts it will.
"If people start to take it seriously, it will really take off," she said. "People here have heard of it because it was advertised on Facebook."
Danielle Cary, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, just discovered the site on Facebook through an advertisement, "Whitewater Just got Juicy."
Currently, the most popular discussions have to do with fraternities and sororities.
"It's going to make a different ball game than Facebook," Pitt sophomore Katie Furlong said. "It could be used as a resource like Ratemyprofessors.com, but it could also perpetuate negative greek stereotypes because of its anonymity."
Pitt is now the newest member of JuicyCampus.com, a college campus gossip website. The website is an open forum that will allow the Pitt community to make anonymous posts about campus social life, academics and any other topic.
Founded by Duke University graduate Matt Ivester, the website has over 50 universities utilizing the discussion forums so far.
"Our idea was that some of the most hilarious and entertaining things in the world happen on college campuses, and JuicyCampus could be a place
to share those stories," Ivester said.
Beginning at Duke, the site quickly gained momentum, and as the numbers rose, so did the gossip.
The gossip ranges from funny to cruel, to desperate, defamatory and sometimes even intolerable.
Nevertheless, universities expressed interest and became a part of the JuicyCampus family.
Universities such as Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania are members of the site, along with Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Brown and Yale.
Samantha Ku, a sophomore at the University of Miami, said that it hasn't gained much momentum at her school, but predicts it will.
"If people start to take it seriously, it will really take off," she said. "People here have heard of it because it was advertised on Facebook."
Danielle Cary, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, just discovered the site on Facebook through an advertisement, "Whitewater Just got Juicy."
Currently, the most popular discussions have to do with fraternities and sororities.
"It's going to make a different ball game than Facebook," Pitt sophomore Katie Furlong said. "It could be used as a resource like Ratemyprofessors.com, but it could also perpetuate negative greek stereotypes because of its anonymity."
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