By Crystal Becerril > Senior > English and Journalism > Boston University; Photo by AR > Sophomore > Graphic Design > UMBC
The idea behind sites created so that college students can rate their classmates has been widely spread before the overrated 2010 film, The Social Network, brought attention back to it.
But what people really think about these sites, where to find these sites and how to get on them today is not something as commonly known.
“I guess my feeling is that as long as no ones feelings are being hurt and there’s no sexism, racial or religiously related topic, I think its fine to have it,” said Jenny Zhang, a student at the University of Vermont.
But are these topics found on some websites?
Take for example, Collegeacb.com. This website took over things once juicycampus.com died out. Using an acronym for “anonymous confession board,” this site aims to promote postings in all categories, saying they look to “push the culture of the site in a more positive and productive direction,” according to the website.
It offers a “crush list” took where you can add names and emails of people, who are able to see that you’ve added them only if they add you to their list too.
You have to create an authenticated account on here, but once you do, you will see that topics range from “Biggest boobs” to sorority/fraternity feuds to “Relay for Life.”
It seems the site’s attempts to clean out the gossiping forum didn’t exactly follow through.
“You never know who is looking at the website. There could be kids in middle school reading it when they shouldn’t be expose to these kind of things,” said Zhang.
Aside from leaving a moral lesson for the younger generation, these sites create a platform for something every college student dreads: an impression to a future employer.
Though collegeacb.com allows anonymous posts, another site to check out is Universityrated.com. This is less of a forum, and more of a public domain for ranking girls.
The site shows several pictures of girls from different schools that you can browse through and rate on attractiveness.
All you have to do is register and activate to view pictures from all campuses, but it’s strictly female–for now.
Picture uploads are public and display the first name of the girl, so search for your own name if you are curious—you may find your profile picture!
Regardless of your own privacy with pictures, websites like these can cross those boundaries, despite their security policies. You have to catch the threads or photos in order to report them, so it could be a good idea to have a quick glance—just don’t get too addicted.
