The Chronicle

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
Last update: 4/16/08 at 7:29 AM EST

A good friend might stab you in the back, but a random Facebook friend could prove equally venomous.

At least that's true for an individual under the alias of "Christy Boggs," who has been adding students as friends on Facebook over the past two weeks and posting their pictures on DukeGoneDirty.com, a gossip forum accompanied by photographs of students, said Jamie Pootrakul, the athletic department's assistant director for compliance.

The site, a Duke-specific version of USAGoneDirty.com, is dedicated to showcasing the "funniest, dirty, stupid and simply ridiculous pictures and videos" of "the city" of Duke, according to the site's home page.

Users e-mail or post unflattering or embarrassing pictures of their friends or enemies, which are then commented on by other individuals, said one of the creators of the site under the alias "Lance Lohan." The entire process is anonymous.

"Our goal is to obviously have people at Duke get into the Web site," Lohan said. "We are hoping that kids are going to go out and get drunk at their [fraternity] parties and take funny pictures at those."

Although many students have complained that the pictures on the site have been posted without their permission, Lohan said pictures from Facebook-as well pictures taken in public places like bars and clubs-are public property. Hence, pictures are almost never removed from the site.

"If someone complains the right way or has a good argument, then we'll take [the picture] down," he said. "But that's really rare. We've taken down less than three pictures in our history."

Lohan added that the site does not display pornographic or especially offensive or incriminating material.

"[We've] never had nudity on our Web site," he said. "It never shows something porn-style-ish. Maybe just a girl by the lake and her friend pulling down her bathing suit showing her butt or something."

Pootrakul said sophomore Will Smith, a member of the men's track and field team, informed Leslie Barnes, director of student-athlete development, about the fictitious Christine Boggs. Barnes then sent out an e-mail to all student-athletes warning them not to friend the mysterious user.

Smith said he was easily able to determine that the profile was not genuine.

"She friended me, but I didn't accept her because it looked like a fake profile," he said. "The person was way too good looking, didn't go to this school and they just friended everyone and their dog."

Lohan refused to comment when asked whether the individual sending in pictures was a student at the University but said there is someone in every one of the featured "cities" working for the Web site.

The creators decided to make a Duke-specific site after receiving suggestions that a smaller private school like Duke with wealthy students would be interesting to feature, Lohan said. The site is usually popular with schools that have a vibrant greek life, he added.

"Some sorority will start bashing another sorority, and that's how it grows into something popular," he said.

New pictures are uploaded to the site every day. Lohan said the creators' goal is to have 20 different cities or schools posted on the site, and he said he hopes to eventually include a gossip section similar to that of Juicy Campus.

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