Tough economy, disgust and waning interest cited for demise of gossip site
Critics had hoped the better angels of human nature would kill off the popular campus gossip site JuicyCampus.com. Some prosecutors were trying to use the law to do the trick. In the end, the site’s much-criticized founder insisted he was merely the latest victim of the economic downturn.In any case, the site one college official recently called a “virtual bathroom wall” of hateful and degrading speech was offline Thursday — much to the relief of administrators and many students nationwide.“We’re very happy,” said Erika Lowe, vice president of the student government at Western Illinois University, which had been working with administrators to block the site from campus computers there. “While we support free speech, there was nothing positive coming out of this Web site. It only served to dampen spirits and ruin friendships.”Pablo Malavenda, associate dean of students at Purdue University, said JuicyCampus drew heavy interest after its launch on the West Lafayette campus last year, but it quickly became boring.“There was a drastic drop-off in complaints and even any mention of JuicyCampus as the fall semester progressed,” Malavenda said. “Finances is probably the biggest part of why they folded, but I wouldn’t doubt if they just lost their market, as well.”Malavenda said the site was a “distraction” for students and advisers.“Students eventually get over it, and they get disgusted by it as easily as we do,” Malavenda said.After its launch on seven campuses in 2007, JuicyCampus spread nationwide, and founder Matt Ivester said the site was getting more than 1 million unique visitors monthly.JuicyCampus hit Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame in January 2008 and expanded to nine other Indiana schools in September.Ivester said the site was all in good fun, but the anonymity it granted its gossip-posters seemed to bring out the worst in people.Fraternities and sororities cruelly attacked one another. Typical posts identified women who had gained weight, and one named a rape victim and said she “deserved it.”JuicyCampus was a reflection of the vital role the Internet and computers play in the lives of college-age Americans, said Steven Vibbert, professor of public relations and research methods at Butler University.“Previously, people in college would gather in the Union, and they would sit at a corner booth and gossip about people, organizations and classes,” Vibbert said. “Now, they don’t go to the corner booth; they gossip technologically.”Although that type of gossip quickly dissipated, slanderous statements on JuicyCampus.com stuck around.“You just couldn’t stamp it out once it got out there. This stuff is just tenacious,” Vibbert said. “It gets in one place, and it’s a little bit like dirt: It blows to another one and blows to another one.”JuicyCampus may be gone, but Vibbert said college students still have that strong urge to gossip.“This is a niche that something will fill,” Vibbert said. “The next version will be more permanent and more durable and probably more irritating.”A public relations firm representing the company said Ivester was unavailable for a telephone interview Thursday, and the site was offline. In a farewell note on another blog site, Ivester wrote that “in these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved.”He denied that legal troubles were to blame or that advertisers were avoiding JuicyCampus because of its content, but he acknowledged that some users had gone overboard.“While there are parts of JuicyCampus that none of us will miss — the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks — it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life. I hope that is how it is remembered,” he wrote.“Keep it juicy.”