One of the many major lessons an economics student learns is no matter how good or bad the economy is doing, there are winners and losers. A perfect case occurred Thursday when Matt Ivester, CEO and founder of Juicycampus.com, cited inadequate online ad revenue because of the economic downturn as the reason for shutting down the Web site.
Juicycampus.com was a discussion Web site that encouraged rumors and gossip and calculatedly hateful discussions of people and organizations in colleges across the United States. The Web site began in smaller private universities, but exploded to more than 500 campuses across the U.S. with more than 1 million users a month.
The Web site encouraged gossip by stressing rules that all posts were anonymous, making it very convenient for users all over their respective campuses to speak up about whomever or whatever they wanted. Some of the more popular discussion topics included ‘biggest slut on campus,’ and ‘biggest tease.’
While few students knew about the Web site, many people were hurt by the remarks, especially in the local Greek community on which much of the discussion was focused.
‘I thought it was a waste of time, people saying hurtful things about others for absolutely no reason at all,’ said Bethany Johns, music business junior and victim of the Web site said. ‘I was indifferent.’
Although Johns was able to look past the hateful comments, others weren’t and numerous lawsuits had been filed against the site. Many college administrators had also blocked the Web site from their schools’ Internet servers.
‘I’m really excited (the Web site shut down) because it was pulling the Greek community apart based on rumors without truth. I always thought it was immature,’ Jasmine Taillon, political science senior and member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority said.
Earlier this year, UH’s Panhellenic Council held an emergency meeting to address some of the comments made on the Web site.
‘It was an open meeting where all (Greeks) were invited to try to figure out a way to either shut down the Web site (or) discourage sororities from using it,’ said Aurora Castellano, public relations junior and member of Chi Omega sorority. ‘(The Web site) went against everything the Panhellenic Council stands for.’
Even though hurtful remarks were a staple of the Web site, some did receive flattering remarks.
‘It was pretty cool to have the compliments, but it was not something that I wanted to be associated with, positive or negative,’ Paul Brohkin, vice president and founder of the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity said. ‘My life is a little different now that it’s gone. Now I do not have to worry about my fraternity brothers posting on the Web site.’
However, most students didn’t care about the site’s closure.
‘The site was irrelevant to the majority of the UH population,’ political science senior Michelle Pena said. ‘It seemed like the comments were just petty attacks from one group to another. Most of UH did not even know what Juicycampus was.’
