Gossip site JuicyCampus shuts down
February 4, 2009
After a year and a half of thoughts, comments and gossip, JuicyCampus was forced to shut down its Web site Feb. 5.
The JuicyCampus team decided to pull the plug when a decrease of online ad revenue placed financial strain on the Web site.
“It’s kind of unfortunate that someone was forced to shut down due to (lack of) monetary ability,” said El Elsiddig, junior in Business. “They’re ending a part of their life.”
JuicyCampus was a blog that focused mainly on college students. Over time, the site’s reputation developed into a college gossip blog that received ire from some students and universities.
Yet even though the site was partially controversial, it was still considered to be extremely popular.
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“We’ve expanded to more than 500 campuses across the U.S.,” said JuicyCampus founder and CEO Matt Ivester on the site’s official blog. “And have more than a million unique visitors coming to the site every month. It’s clear that we have provided a platform that students have found interesting, entertaining and fun.”
While it may be interesting, not everyone considered it entertaining.
“I think it’s (an) almost cowardly way for people to talk about other people behind their backs,” said Katie Charnas, junior in LAS. “It’s different when you say, ‘Oh, I had a guy in class that did this,’ but when you include a name, it crosses the line.”
The site’s features of protecting each poster and uncensored posting caused some universities to ban the site from their campuses.
“It creates biases against people,” said Nijika Rustagi, junior in Business. “I don’t really know the point of it, and I don’t know how it could be used for (a) beneficial purpose.”
Ivester said on JuicyCamus’s offical blog that the site doesn’t intend on coming back online.
However, with the absence of JuicyCampus, some believe that it will only be a matter of time before something else takes its place.
“There will be another JuicyCampus that someone will find or start,” Charnas said. “It just so happens that JuicyCampus is the most popular one right now.”
