JuicyCampus, or how I learned I have genital warts
Full disclosure: I don’t actually have genital warts, but that’s what JuicyCampus would have you believe.
The site, which was launched in October 2007 and took a big leap in popularity after the welcomed disappearance of the slightly less heinous — but equally frustrating — Rumor Royalty, is an online forum dedicated to revealing the latest gossip on campus. More than 500 campuses are featured on the site, and from what I can tell, posting about Northwestern began back in August and September.
The problem is that there is no filter for the content posted on JuicyCampus. Anyone can post anything anonymously. It’s part of their mission statement. The “About Us” section states that JuicyCampus was launched “with the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses. Today it is a forum where college students discuss the topics that interest them most, and in the manner that they deem most appropriate.” Where Rumor Royalty wrote about “actual people” and their “actual lives,” the users at JuicyCampus can post whatever nonsensical and most likely fabricated story or bit of gossip that comes to their empty and malicious little minds.
To be fair, the only post on the site featuring me was actually well-deserved. I was at home over break when I received a phone call from a friend at school. She had been browsing the “Hottest Guy!” thread and saw my name. Unfortunately, my name wasn’t there as one of the hottest guys at Northwestern (ohmigod WTF!?!?!), instead there was this:
After a few minutes of confusion and anger, I knew what had happened. I had received my just comeuppance. Days before the original post was made, I discovered JuicyCampus for the first time. I stumbled across the “Hottest Guys!” thread and decided to play a harmless prank on a friend of mine who I knew occasionally read the site. He has a bit of an ego problem, so I figured I would add his name to the list and see how he reacted. The joke worked to a point. He had a big arrogant smile on his face the next day. I let him live in his deluded little world for a few days while another friend of mine and I laughed in the background. I’ve done nicer things in my day, I know. So, when the above post appeared a little more than a month later, the dots were easy to connect.
It’s easy to criticize a site like JuicyCampus when you’re the victim, but the truth is that many Northwestern students read and post things far worse than my genital warts scare on JuicyCampus every day. The plague of mindless bullshit that is sorority and fraternity rankings carried over from Rumor Royalty. Posts about penis sizes, “bone-able” teachers, and whether squirrels are creepy or not appear every day. There are disgusting, mean and downright false postings about girls who are among the top-searched terms. There are accusations made about specific people’s sexual orientations. All of it goes up without an ounce of truth or decency.
Is JuicyCampus really to blame, though? It’s the Northwestern students who create the content on the site — I’m guilty of it myself. There are times when 100 posts can appear in a day. What JuicyCampus does is provide a canvas for portraits of lies and malice to be painted for which no one ever has to take responsibility. What would have been said in jest to a friend or behind someone’s back has a place to call home on the Internet.
The only answer is to stop. Stop reading, stop posting, stop caring and just be nicer. It’s easy to forget that what’s written on JuicyCampus is about actual people. People who have feelings and whose names and reputations can be laid to waste by bitter anonymous postings of a cowardly, bored and conniving person on a gossip site.
And just as a reminder, I have never and do not currently have genital warts. No warts. Got that? None. Kevin Sullivan, no warts. That’s actually kind of the point of the article.
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Remember when Rumor Royalty still existed? That wasn't a good thing. Or you can return home.
This sounds an awful lot like you not being able to take a joke. Get a life.
Brian Tank
January 20, 2009 at 1:55 am
Kevin, I wanna give you a big bear hug.
Tyrell Sutton
January 20, 2009 at 2:00 am
This article sounds like what someone with genital warts would write so that people don’t think they genital warts…
Shawn McKlein
January 20, 2009 at 2:01 am
Wait…this happened in November and your still talking about it. I’d say good advice is to let it go. And whats so wrong with genital warts?
Michelle Goodens
January 20, 2009 at 2:04 am
The sad truth of this article is that it set out to do something remotely noble (keep people from bashing fellow students), but somehow along the way it became Kevin Sullivan’s immature way of saying that he gets the final word in a petty matter that he began. This is not an opinion, in fact, it is a clear reflection of Mr. Sullivan’s lack of self confidence and poor writing technique. If this is how all of your articles will be written I recommend something that will require substantially less subjective input.
Don’t get me wrong though, that last paragraph was HILARIOUS, and it definitely wasn’t overshadowed by your clearly defined lack of writing talent earlier in the article.
John Marquette
January 20, 2009 at 4:06 am
As someone who has been written about on a gossip site before, I have to say I agree with your article, Kevin. I’m a pretty easy-going person, as are you, and I have to wonder whether the people saying you need to lighten up and take a joke have ever been written about before. It’s often not a great joke. (And I feel bad I forgot to tell you you were on there, but I did break my no-posting rule to write you didn’t have genital warts, haha)
Alex Johnson
January 20, 2009 at 9:04 am
one of the big downfalls of JuicyCampus is that they won’t remove content from their site, even if you contact them and explain to them that the information they are disseminating is false
http://radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/06/juicy_campus_online_gossip_college_std_list_01.php
Ellen
January 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Great article, Kevin. But it doesn’t change the fact that you still have genital warts.
Eric
January 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm
He does not have an ego problem!
No way
January 23, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Kevin Sullivan gave me genital warts.
Kevin's Victim
January 24, 2009 at 2:10 am
Wow, way to bash someone just for taking a personal experience and using it to write about a cultural phenomenon.
Some people obviously didn’t read this part of the story:
“It’s easy to criticize a site like JuicyCampus when you’re the victim, but the truth is that many Northwestern students read and post things far worse than my genital warts scare on JuicyCampus every day.”
Mimi
February 1, 2009 at 10:21 pm
NBN comments are just like JuicyCampus
lawl irony
asdf
February 28, 2009 at 5:59 pm