New gossip Web site is still too juicy

By Editorial

We can celebrate one thing: Juicy Campus is gone.

We have one less thing to worry about as we go about our lives. But this only seems to be partially true. And while we are glad that Juicy Campus no longer rears its ugly head through cyber space, it feels like a case of taking one step forward, two steps back.

And we were never naive enough to believe there would be no copycat sites to bear the flag after Juicy Campus had gone, but it's another thing to be automatically redirected to the site's successor, CollegeACB.

The new site's press release says, "We wish to promote deep and thoughtful discussion -- as well as the occasional 'gossipy' post." It also says it relies on user moderation.

And though they have added a report button and new guidelines, how much has really changed? A brief once-over of the site -- something we had to do in the name of research, which left us feeling dirty afterward -- showed us that the kinds of posts are exactly the same.

A new philosophy and a cleaner interface does not heal anything if we as a campus community have not matured.

We ask that students remain steadfast in resisting the urge to gossip. We've come a long way since Juicy Campus first started to make waves on our campus. It's initiated discussions on accountability and responsibility.

Our student organizations took the lead in facilitating events that spurred dialogue.

We don't want all the work we've done as a student body to combat this site to be undone just because Juicy Campus is gone.

After all, gossip exists in other forms, and it doesn't go away just because someone decides to hit the "report" button.