Web site dedicated to ‘juicy’ campus gossip

The intimate details of students’ personal lives are traveling through the grapevine of campus gossip in colleges across the nation as students share their most scandalous stories through the online forums of a newly developed Web site.\nJuicycampus.com allows users to anonymously create and respond to posts containing campus gossip. Students can also vote on which posts they think are the “juiciest.” IU was just added to the Web site in January. \nDuke University alumnus Matt Ivestor designed the Web site as a place for students to tell each other about what was happening in their lives. \n“I was thinking back to my college days and remembering all the hilarious things we used to do,” Ivestor said. “We wanted juicycampus.com to be a place to share those stories.”\nLaunched in August 2007, juicycampus.com started at seven colleges, including Duke University, Pepperdine University and UCLA. Because of the strong reception the Web site received from those schools, it has spread to 50 additional campuses. The Web site has so many users that it requires constant server upgrades to meet user demand, Ivestor said. \nTopics in IU forums range from “Best Valentine’s Day Story” to “Group Sex.” Many posts include the first and last names of individuals and disclose what could be considered revealing information. \nIn response to concerns over inappropriate posts, Ivestor said it is up to the users to regulate the content.\n“We leave it to our users to create the community they want to create,” Ivestor said. “It’s up to them to use the site responsibly.”\nFrom a legal perspective, students have freedom in the information they want to share.\n“As a general matter, you can say anything about anybody as long as it’s true,” said Fred Cate, IU law professor.\nCate said for something to be a violation of a privacy law, the average person would have to think it is “outrageous” for the information to be shared.\nThe Web site itself is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states that a platform provider cannot be liable for another person’s speech.\nFreshman Katherine Burgess said she thinks that when deciding what to write, it’s best to follow the Golden Rule. She suggests asking, “How would you feel if you got on the site and something bad was written about you?” \nIvestor said the Web site’s unexpected success shows there is a high demand for this type of site. He said he hopes to add new features and see the site’s popularity continue to grow on college campuses.\nBecause IU was just added to the list of supported campuses in January, it hasn’t had as many posts as other colleges yet. \nOnly time will tell how IU students will respond to the site. But freshman Andy Waldenmeyer said he isn’t concerned.\n“I think it will be a big joke,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will ever take it seriously.”