What do students write online when they don't have to sign their names? The Brown forum on the new gossip Web site JuicyCampus.com, which allows students to leave anonymous posts, shows the myriad topics, from "Best Professor Ever" to "Biggest Hipsters on Campus," that students want to discuss online.
By last month, the Brown forum had been added to the site, along with those for 50 other schools, such as Cornell, Yale and Boston University, according to the site's founder, Matt Ivester.
Looking to create a place for students to share their college stories, Ivester and his team initially launched JuicyCampus at seven trial schools across the country in Oct. 2007. Although JuicyCampus has attracted media attention - including critics at Cornell, Yale and Loyola Marymount University - many Brown students have yet to hear of the site.
Graham Browne '08 hadn't even heard of JuicyCampus before a friend mentioned that Browne was listed as one of the University's "hottest guys" on the site. He said he was initially "really nervous," and wondered who posted it and what purpose JuicyCampus served.
"I felt kind of embarrassed. I felt kind of weird. ... Eventually I laughed it off," said Browne, who also said he thought the Daily Jolt forums provided a similar outlet for students and that he would continue to visit the Jolt rather than JuicyCampus.
According to one of the Jolt's administrators, Amy Chang '08, the differences between the two sites lie in what they offer. Though both sites provide a space for students to post anonymously, the Jolt also serves up dinner menus, contests and news links, among other features.
Furthermore, the Jolt has a "pretty strict policy about attacking people by name," said Adam Cambier '09, a Herald opinions columnist and another one of the Jolt's administrators. On the Jolt's forums, with rare exceptions, potentially defamatory posts are reported and deleted, Chang said.
JuicyCampus, however, will not delete a post unless it is spam. The site will fully cooperate with police when public safety is a concern, Ivester said. But a student's name can be specifically mentioned without the moderator removing the comment, which has led students at other campuses to complain about the site to their schools' administrators, according to the Yale Daily News.
Neither Chang nor Cambier expects JuicyCampus to rival the Jolt in terms of popularity, as the Jolt has "cornered the market," Cambier said. Brown is the Jolt's most popular campus, Chang said.
Still, Cambier said, "they stand to do well for their niche."
Other students, such as Frankie Martinez '10, heard of JuicyCampus through Facebook advertisements. Although Martinez said he is a frequent user of the Jolt, he said he would use JuicyCampus more if it had more posts.
"The Jolt will always do better," Martinez said. "There's a small subset of people here who just want gossip."
Nevertheless, Ivester said he believes that, because JuicyCampus has not pursued much marketing and has relied primarily on word of mouth, it is only a "matter of time" before it becomes a more recognized name on campuses.
