Juicy Naming

Always Anonymous. Always Juicy.

Admit it. Even though you know there is no chance that this blog will contain anything “juicy” enough to require anonymity, you read on . . .

Sure, www.JuicyCampus.com does what a provocative name is supposed to do; it draws attention to itself. Thousands of students across college campuses log on to the website each day. But is the risqué name somehow inspiring risqué content on the site?

The format is not new. Through JuicyCampus.com, each campus around the country has its own page, which is organized as a simple list of message-board headlines that can be clicked on for a more detailed view and responses.

What is new, or at least startling enough to rattle campus leaders across the country, is the level of venom with which students are posting on the website. JuicyCampus has attracted particularly salacious and derogatory messages about fellow students, leading to several campus leaders calling for a ban of the site on school grounds.

Of course, slanderous online gossip is not limited to sites such as JuicyCampus. Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook have rules against obscene or defamatory postings.

But no other social networking site has inspired such outrage across multiple student organizations.

So here’s the question: Are postings on JuicyCampus extreme because the name itself is a sort of call-to-action for lurid conversation? How much, really, does the name of something affect the way people utilize it?

If two social networking sites were launched concurrently, one named “Bathroom Stall” and the other called “Campus Connections” – which one would you read?

Contributed by: Maghan Cook