When financial troubles caused juicycampus.com, a site that allowed students to anonymously post rumors, shut down in February, the news came as a relief to many at Ohio University.
To the chagrin of some, however, other anonymous campus gossip sites have since come into the spotlight.
The new sites, including campusgossip.com, collegeacb.com and collegetrashtalk.com, all state that their purpose is to provide an open forum for students' expression.
We started it for fun
said Lance Lohan, co-founder of campusgossip.com. There was nothing like it at the time.
Campusgossip.com allows people to post gossip, pictures or videos on its message boards, with a special section for revealing photographs.
While juicycampus.com was known for its drama-filled content, campusgossip.com says it edits posts to its Web site.
Campusgossip.com began in 2007, but took a back seat to the more popular juicycampus.com, which did not edit its content, Lohan said.
Lohan said that the site only posts about half of the hundreds of posts sent in daily.
The site tries to post only funny or outrageous pictures, not those that simply bash others, he said, admitting that some material on the site does bash people.
Unlike other sites, campusgossip.com is monitored at all times and deletes posts upon request, he said.
I think those sites are just stupid said Robert Leary, president of Student Senate, adding that students should resolve conflicts face-to-face rather than on anonymous sites.
With few-to-no posts, the new sites don't seem to have gained much popularity among OU students thus far.
Campus gossip Web sites are a waste of time, said Ana Gicova, a senior studying business, adding that people who write on them should get a life.
One group of freshman women said they did not know about the sites.
Leary said he hasn't heard much about gossip sites so far this year, but some students came to Student Senate with concerns last year.
OU can't do anything about the sites so it is difficult when students come to Student Senate or the administration to complain
Leary said.
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Culture
Caitlin Bowling
