by Brian Solis
I was just reading over at CNN that we have a new distraction for college students looking to learn all about life to help them stay on track to effectively evolve into tomorrow’s leaders.
JuicyCampus.com is garnering a ton of attention this month because, unlike other college-focused startups, it is a forum for anonymously sharing sex, hat and gossip rumors and related innuendo.
Yep…brilliant. However, not only is it attracting users, it’s stirring up an incredible amount of backlash.
It’s nothing more than a basic discussion forum focused on “juicy” topics. It’s also nothing less than infectious, and I’m not talking about STD’s or whatever they’re called these days.
While it can be entertaining, it could also cause serious and sometimes irreparable damage to one’s online reputation. Search has a long lifespan.
According to the Associated Press (AP) The Cornell University junior was in his dorm between classes when the text message came in from a friend. Check out JuicyCampus.com, it said. The student, who did not wish to be identified, found his name on the Web site beside a rather descriptive passage about his sexual exploits, posted by of course an anonymous student on campus.
“I thought, `Is this going to affect my job employment? Is this going to make people on campus look at me? Are people going to talk about me behind my back?” said the student. He also wondered about his 11-year-old sister, who is spending more time on the Internet. “What if she Googles me? What will she think about her big brother?” he said.
What’s even more interesting, is that the site is designed to protect and encourage users to contribute outlandish and revealing posts. Unlike other Social Networks that maintain logs associating IP addresses with content, JuicyCampus masks that process and also directs posters to free online services that cloak them.
But, they do have have standards…
According to the site blog, “If your school calls upset about some girl being called a slut, we’re not handing over access to our server data. If the LAPD calls telling us there is a shooting threat, you better believe we’re gonna help them…”
Lovely.
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