Juicy Campus - more updates

The Web site reads like the writing on the wall in a campus bathroom. Its motto is “Always Anonymous … Always Juicy.” And many students around the country are urging its leaders to take down the comments that have been scrawled there for all the world to see.

The site is called JuicyCampus, and it opened this summer. Some of the most viewed topics today are “Who is the sluttiest girl????,” “Hottest Cornell Sophomores,” and “Biggest Cornell Cokeheads?” Anonymous users of the site have posted their picks in each category and in many other, similar topics, and many of the students who are named on the site are not amused.

Pepperdine University’s student government passed a resolution calling on campus administrators to block the site from its campus network.

“We hoped to make a symbolic, public statement that Pepperdine does not support this sort of harmful, libelous gossip,” said Austin Maness, a student at Pepperdine and an officer in the student government, in an e-mail interview. “Furthermore, we had reason to be concerned for the immediate emotional health of a number of our fellow students.”

Critics of the site from Loyola Marymount University started a Facebook group called “BAN JuicyCampus!!!” which has attracted 854 members. An article this week in the Yale Daily News describes reaction to the site on that campus.

Officials from JuicyCampus did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment. But the company posted a reply on its blog to what it described as the many requests it had received from people asking that their names be removed from the site:

“Two of the biggest problems we face when considering this issue are how strict to be and how exactly to implement some sort of restriction,” said the post on the blog. “But what if we decided to eliminate all posts with names? How would we implement it? Could we create a filter? But then people will just start writing Jo-h-nn_y instead of Johnny. Could we manually screen all posts? No, unfortunately not. … So, for now, we leave it to our users to decide how they want to use the site, and what they think is appropriate (subject to our Terms and Conditions).”

The site has set up specific channels for more than 50 college campuses, and apparently it plans to add more soon.

Should colleges block the site? Is this any different than the many sites that have popped up that let students rate their professors?

Juicy Campus creates controversy

JuicyCampus.com asks users to post gossip and promises users total anonymity.

NBC 10's Dawn Timmeney reported that, when you visit the Web site, you find a lot of mean, disturbing and downright nasty gossip. Anyone can write anything about others, and who knows whether it's true or not?

Victims said anonymous posters are ruining their reputations.

The Web site targets students at 50 colleges nationwide. In our area, there are gossip connections for the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Penn State.

There's a lot of raunchy rumors about campus hookups, who's overweight and who's gay. There are religious slurs and some really hurtful comments, Timmeney reported.

Here are some examples:

One post lists a student's name with this comment, "He's abusive, se* hungry, manipulative ... Stay away at all costs!"

Another rates sorority girls with mean-spirited comments like these: rich Jews; sporty, fratty girls; ugly and easy; or piggy piggy girls.

You have no way of knowing who's making those comments, or why.

There has been some backlash, with students at some colleges voting to ban JuicyCampus, but the Web site's founder said it's a place for entertainment and free expression.