• Juicy Campus has become another victim of the economy
• The Web site had been very controversial, allowing students to write hateful things about each other that were almost never removed from the site, despite how inappropriate
• A new Web site, CollegeACB.com is taking its place, stating that it will be a much more classy discussion forum
• Many students see this new Web site as the same exact thing as Juicy Campus, and they think it will cause the same hurtful things to be said

JuicyCampus.com, the controversial college discussion forum, was officially shutdown last Thursday, citing a lack of a steady stream of content to support it.

Matthew Iverster, the founder and CEO of JuicyCampus.com, issued a press release concerning the matter.

"In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved," Iverster said. "Juicy Campus' exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn, and as a result, we are closing down the site."

While Ivester thanked everyone who participated in meaningful discussions through the Web site, it was not posts about the easiest classes and best dorms on campus that raised eyebrows.

It was discussion pegs like "Biggest Sluts" and "Biggest Creeps" on campus that proved to be very offensive and controversial.

Patrick Clough-Androes, a junior in the College of Communication, said he felt a lot of people were probably celebrating the departure of the much maligned Web site.

"I am very happy to see Juicy Campus gone," Clough said. "I saw some of the garbage that was written about my friends and it disgusted me. There are probably a lot of people who are very happy right now."

While people who had their names slandered on the Web site can breathe a sigh of relief, a celebration might be premature.

Less than 24 hours after Juicy Campus was shut down, a new Web site was up and running in its place.

CollegeACB.com has bought Juicy Campus' traffic for the next two months in a reported five-figure deal. As part of this agreement, users trying to log on to Juicy Campus are forwarded to CollegeACB.

Ivester said Juicy Campus was shut down due to the economically hard times. However, CollegeACB President Peter Frank explained how image was a part of Juicy Campus' demise, and how it will play a major part in attracting advertisers for the new site.

"Juicy Campus made a point of trying to encourage really salacious, juicy posts," Frank said. "While we are not adverse to gossip, we are really about actual discussion."

Frank thinks closer moderation and a stricter adherence to their terms of service will help them gain respect and advertising loyalty.

"So I hope that advertisers will see that their ads will be displayed on a discussion site, not a gossip site, and I think that will let us get local ads and higher quality advertising," he said.

Frank also stressed adamantly that CollegeACB will not just be moderated by the people that run the site, but users will also have the ability to flag posts. If a post has enough flags, it will automatically be deleted.

"I sort of have a problem with Matt (Ivester) hiding behind the fact that there were too many posts to possibly moderate," Frank said. "We are not going to use that as an excuse. We're going to do our best to look at all the posts and delete what we don't think is right."

But despite some of Frank's assurances, students around Marquette are not quite sold that CollegeACB will be any different from Juicy Campus.

"I don't trust them," said Lauren Lazzara, a junior in the College of Communication. "When it comes down to it, the only thing they care about is making money, and they don't care how they do it. I would be pleasantly surprised if I were wrong, but I highly doubt that."

Frank said he has no problem if people think of his site as a lesser evil.

"We're trying fill the void that Juicy Campus is leaving, but in a classier way," Frank said. "We are under the opinion that we have to have some level of gossip because we know people are going to go somewhere to get it and we figure it might as well be us."