Saturday, March 29, 2008

Is this Juicy?

I have to hear your opinions on this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/fashion/16juicy.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=fashion&adxnnlx=1206806357-vMRPG2FS2XSd3RHzhng60w
It's a story on the Juicy Campus Web site, of which we are, thankfully, not currently a part. I visited after reading this piece and was astounded.
Where does this fit in the sphere of information? Is it ethical to allow anonymous posts? What are the social implications? What recourse do people have when they are the focus of posts?

9 comments:

Meredith C. said...

I feel as though this site is not concerned with ethics. No, I don't feel as though this site is ethical, regardless of whether or not they require users to identify themselves when posting information. The social implications seem to be fairly obvious. A site like this has the potential to ruin a person's reputation, even prevent them from getting a job if an employer were to read the posts and believe what they were reading.

Mims said...

I'm quite honestly surprised no one has sued for libel yet. A Web site like that is completely ridiculous for college campuses. Celebrity gossip sites usually discuss celebrities--people who have volunteered themselves to the public eye. College students haven't at all and should not have to be subjected to gossip. HONESTLY, how low to you have to go to post about your fellow classmates ....

dewitt1688 said...

This site sounds horrible. However, now that it's out there, it seems like putting an end to the site or others like it seems pretty impossible. Eliminating this one will certainly inspire another of the sort. The disclaimer isn't enough. Many of the site's visitors may not even know what those terms mean. The site should not be allowed to continue. Like mims said, most of the people being discussed did not place themself in the public eye knowingly. The site is nothing but bad news.

sbg said...

My brother attends Cornel University, a college campus that has displayed disastrous results from this cruel and pointless site. I agree with mims completely in that college students do not lend themselves to the public eye and publishing confidential information, such as someone's sexual orientation, especially when they have not made this information voluntarily public, is outrageous. This site needs to be eliminated and thankfully has not yet reached our campus. I agree with dewitt1688 that I am not sure how this site and others like it can be put to an end, does anyone have any thoughts? Can this site be sued for libel when they are not endorsing any comments published via this wed site?

Becky said...

This site is disturbing and trashy. Thank goodness UW is not a part of it. I agree that it should be eliminated but also agree that new "imitation" sites could pop up. Understanding that it is out there, I also think that if an employer looks at it and makes a decision based off a libelous statement, they have poor hiring tactics. What employer would look at a bathroom wall for background information on a potential candidate? I think its ignorant and judgmental to believe silly "high school" comments that clearly indicate someone has a grudge against another person. In this case, information in the form of video clips is hard to deny, making me sad that people's naive, bad decision making is so much easier to document and use against them than it was before technology.

Stephen said...

I agree with everyone else that I think this is a terrible website. While I can say I would never post on it if it came to our campus, I can't deny that I would look to see what is on there.

It is far from ethical to allow anonymous posts. If the site forced people to identify themselves and validate it with a confirmation link through their school e-mail, it would solve most of the problems. People out to seek revenge would look foolish. People who want to attack others would at least have to face the consequence of having that person retaliate. It could still easily turn ugly, but at least there would be some accountability.

I think most people celebrated that when they left high school to go to a big public school, they were done with high school gossip. Why would we want to bring it back now?

cvan said...

The openness of the internet has made this site possible. I don't think there is anything wrong with the administrators of the site, they are just trying to let people have a voice. The openness means that for every single blog post/message board answer/web site edit that makes our public sphere more valuable, there are plenty of entries that are counterproductive.
I agree with becky that for a hiring department to use a resource like this is kind of sneaky. On the other hand, though, potential employers deserve to know who they are hiring if they are going to invest money in hiring and training a person.

KB said...

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why it isn't here? I looked at the other campuses it supports and it's at 5 other Big Ten schools and one other school in the UW system.

Does anyone think we'll be seeing this soon?

Kendra Zager said...

In response to the dated comments here, Juicy Campus did make it the UW-Madison and it had serious repercussions on the students who were slandered on it.

However, I read on another class blog that it is shutting down today due to economic reasons. I am so happy to see it go!

http://www.dukechronicle.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=b9aa337d-d540-494a-96de-9f0b4f0bc0fb

The previous link is to the article.