The Chronicle

Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Columns
Last update: 11/8/07 at 7:15 AM EST

Dan Belzer

About a month ago I received an e-mail from a Duke alum named Matt Ivester. I didn't know the kid when he went here, although with a little research I do know he was the one-time president of Sig Ep fraternity in '03-'04, if that is at all relevant.

Anyhow, the e-mail informed me of a new Web site he was promoting-which many of you have probably heard of by now-entitled JuicyCampus.com. After showering me with unnecessary compliments regarding my previous work as the DukeObsrvr, he asked me if I would be interested in dropping some of my "signature commentary" on his site.

At first, I didn't think much of the e-mail. I had seen another site like this pop up before and it was not getting any traffic. Me being me, and being pretty much broke at the time, said that if he would pay me we could talk. Thankfully, I never heard back from him and let the e-mail slip into the back of my memory.

Then, maybe a week ago I started seeing ads on Facebook about this site. I clicked. Why not, right?

Curiosity killed the cat.

To my surprise, there were already four pages of message board posts, along with a substantial amount of commentaries within the various threads. There were also already several online aliases who apparently made it their prerogative to deliver our campus' "juice" to the World Wide Web. The entire Web site is anonymous, unregulated and posts are being added consistently. I think at last count there are more than 20 pages of message boards, with easily more than 1,000 comments.

On the one hand, I was shocked and horrified by the comments I was reading. On the other, I was mesmerized. One look and I was unknowingly sucked into an addiction. I wanted more. More names, more dirt, more hate. I knew it was wrong, and I couldn't morally justify adding to the hateful insanity, but I also couldn't and can't stop reading.

OK, I admit I'm being a hypocrite. Who am I to talk, right? I got this campus hooked on this kind of garbage two years ago with my blog.

Maybe, but if anyone has the credibility to say something has crossed a line, it's me. I am already guilty of pushing the line of acceptability farther than it had ever been. And although I value free speech, truth, dirty language and funny zingers, I have serious issues with personal attacks explicitly by name. If we allow that, then were does it stop?

The possibilities are endless. Anyone with a grudge, or a sick mind, can maliciously and often libelously attack defenseless students. I am aware that a lot of times the posts are not be taken seriously, but I am also aware that certain posts lack any sort of intent other than malice and hate.

Truthfully, there's not much we can do. I am pretty sure the site is legal, and it would be difficult to win any sort of lawsuit or to subpoena the site to release the IP addresses of the anonymous posters. Knowing this school's love affair with gossip, status and elitist superiority, I don't foresee this site dying any time soon.

I also realize that there are a few individuals who may have felt individually targeted by either things I wrote or comments on DukeObsrvr that I didn't manage to delete. To those people, I apologize. Anything written by me was not meant to be personal. I had no vested interest in who people thought was cool or un-cool, or hot, or whatever. My only agenda was to show this school how full of sh- it really was.

Then again, I guess JuicyCampus only further proves my point.

Dan Belzer is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Thursday.

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