Simeon McMillan | Meaningless gossip

It used to be you'd find Penn students glued to Facebook, YouTube and bad Chinese soap operas on their computers. Now procrastinators have one more thing to add to their Ivy League idleness.

JuicyCampus.com, an online gossip Web site, guarantees its users complete anonymity to spread any rumor about any student on any campus.

Understandably, the prospect of having one's dirty laundry aired out to the world scares many students. Some schools have even considered banning the site from their computer networks.

But frankly, I'm not worried about this Web site, and you shouldn't be either. People don't take Juicy Campus seriously because it's based on all shock and no substance. Pretty soon, the site's popularity will lose momentum faster than Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign. It's only a matter of time.

Drew Tye, president of Penn's Panhellenic Council, knows all too well about the nefarious Web site. Some of the most popular gossip postings were sexist rants against fellow sorority members, pledge classes and even arbitrary rankings of entire chapters.

"The Panhellenic community is not supportive of this site at all," said the College junior. "I've never looked at the site, just out of principle."

Turns out several thousand Penn students didn't have as much self-restraint as Drew.

According to the Web site's self-reported tally of readers, posts only a few hours old had page views higher than Philadelphia's murder rate. As of Wednesday afternoon, 998 people wanted to know who was the "Hottest Beta Pledge", and 1,806 others wanted to know who was "Hot n hung???" as the poster all too vividly put it.

Sadly, I wasn't on either list.

To put this in context, as a writer last semester on The Daily Pennsylvanian's opinion blog, I would've given my left hand to have over 200 views on any of my posts. Make that 1,806 views and we'd be popping champagne like we just won a championship game.

Despite the site's obvious popularity though, most universities aren't laughing. The student government at Pepperdine University even voted to ban the Web site from campus.

Other opponents have warned of the potential harm it could cause students during the job recruitment process.

After all, Wharton's not the only school where students have the audacity to care about employment, despite a popular misconception on campus.

Fortunately for us, Penn has sane student leaders with better sense than to try to ban garbage they have no control over.

"I don't think our student government will be making any formal statement on banning it from the university" said Penn Undergraduate Assembly chairman and College senior Jason Karsh.

"Any company that would go to the Web site, type your name in and make a judgment based on what they see is probably not a company you'd want to be working for."

If student governments at other schools are looking to ban things that make their respective student bodies' look foolish, they should start at the front of the line. If we can ban gossip, why not other activities?

Maybe they should outlaw large red Solo cups, ping-pong balls and phone calls made between the hours of two and six o'clock in the morning - all of which are activities that signal you're probably about to make a poor life decision.

Like it or not, students have been ruining their own reputations long before gossip Web sites ever came along.

And Web sites like these tend to fade fast. Words like "man-whore" and "slut" can only be read so many times before they start to lose their bite and put you to sleep faster than a Friday morning math recitation.

Sadly, by virtue of rendering an opinion, I'm reluctantly giving free exposure to a poor business venture.

So to all the students who feel they've been wrongfully accused on the Web site, I urge you to come out from your self-imposed exile.

And to the creators of JuicyCampus.com, I don't know how you sleep at night, but my publicity check better be in the mail.

Simeon McMillan is a Wharton senior from Long Island, NY. His e-mail is mcmillan@dailypennsylvanian.com. Common $ense appears Thursdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.