JuicyCampus facilitates anonymous gossip
Students, citing lack of privacy, decry malicious rumors; freedom of speech keeps Administration's hands tied
Infamous Hopkins gossip site JHU Confessions has recently met its match with this year's freshman class in the form of the even more nefarious JuicyCampus.com.
Unlike JHU Confessions, which is regularly policed by a moderator who deletes posts he believes to be inappropriate or particularly harmful, the people who run JuicyCampus, including founder Matt Ivester, have taken a very hands-off approach to the site.
Anonymous posters are free to write almost anything they wish, unless their posts contain spam, hate speech or private contact information. The site is therefore rife with posts from college students from all over the country dissecting everything from their particular school's workload to the promiscuity of the freshman class.
Sarah Frank, a sophomore who once frequented JHU Confessions, believes that the lack of supervision on JuicyCampus makes it much less enjoyable than its Hopkins-centric counterpart.
"The difference between JHU Confessions and JuicyCampus is that [the former] was more just for entertainment," Frank said. "There usually weren't any names mentioned, and it was less about bashing specific people and more about making fun of ridiculous things at the school anonymously. But JuicyCampus is full of people just naming 'biggest sluts' or 'ugliest freshman.' It is much more vulgar and not as much fun to read. I don't think it's funny to read about people destroying other people's reputations."
Most of JuicyCampus's more frequent readers at Hopkins are freshman students who did not read JHU Confessions last year. Freshmen contributed to the site's rising popularity at the University due to its universal prevalence at schools other than Hopkins.
"A lot of my friends at other schools used JuicyCampus last year, so I took a look at it once or twice," freshman Jeremy Mann said.
Mann added that while he was not a particularly big fan of the gossip site, he understood its allure.
"Personally, I think the site is stupid and unnecessarily cruel. But I get that the idea of being able to say whatever you want anonymously is sort of enticing. It enhances the whole concept of free speech, for better or for worse."
Unlike JHU Confessions, which is regularly policed by a moderator who deletes posts he believes to be inappropriate or particularly harmful, the people who run JuicyCampus, including founder Matt Ivester, have taken a very hands-off approach to the site.
Anonymous posters are free to write almost anything they wish, unless their posts contain spam, hate speech or private contact information. The site is therefore rife with posts from college students from all over the country dissecting everything from their particular school's workload to the promiscuity of the freshman class.
Sarah Frank, a sophomore who once frequented JHU Confessions, believes that the lack of supervision on JuicyCampus makes it much less enjoyable than its Hopkins-centric counterpart.
"The difference between JHU Confessions and JuicyCampus is that [the former] was more just for entertainment," Frank said. "There usually weren't any names mentioned, and it was less about bashing specific people and more about making fun of ridiculous things at the school anonymously. But JuicyCampus is full of people just naming 'biggest sluts' or 'ugliest freshman.' It is much more vulgar and not as much fun to read. I don't think it's funny to read about people destroying other people's reputations."
Most of JuicyCampus's more frequent readers at Hopkins are freshman students who did not read JHU Confessions last year. Freshmen contributed to the site's rising popularity at the University due to its universal prevalence at schools other than Hopkins.
"A lot of my friends at other schools used JuicyCampus last year, so I took a look at it once or twice," freshman Jeremy Mann said.
Mann added that while he was not a particularly big fan of the gossip site, he understood its allure.
"Personally, I think the site is stupid and unnecessarily cruel. But I get that the idea of being able to say whatever you want anonymously is sort of enticing. It enhances the whole concept of free speech, for better or for worse."
Be the first to comment on this story