The tumbling economy has claimed another victim: gossip.
Citing a plunge in advertisement revenue and a lack of funding from investors, the college gossip Web site www.JuicyCampus.com announced it will be shutting down today.
The site, which was up and running for about a year and a half, allowed users at about 500 campuses across the country to post anonymous comments about any topic of their choosing.
Many of the posts, however, had raunchy themes like, "Who is the sluttiest girl??????" or "Porn Star on Campus?"
Many posts referenced students by name.
As a result, the site was threatened with lawsuits and was even investigated by the attorneys general of at least two states.
After receiving complaints from students, UF Student Body President Kevin Reilly also sent a letter, along with former UF chief information officer Marc Hoit, to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum urging him to look into the Web site.
McCollum's office said at the time that it had already been monitoring the Web site for reasons of public safety and medical privacy.
"I think its great that it's shutting down," Reilly said on Wednesday.
"I don't think it added anything positive to our community or to any other university community," he said. "Good riddance."
But others were less pleased.
"It sucks," said UF business administration sophomore Evan Fournier. "It was a good time waster."
"It shouldn't be on (the Internet), but when it was on there it was kinda funny," he said.
Flavia Cervantes, a UF marketing sophomore, said she's glad the Web site is closing but thought it wouldn't put a stop to Internet gossip.
"I feel like something else will pop up like it," she said.
Sure enough, users of the site were already discussing alternatives on Wednesday, such as www.getitgreek.com.
