These trying economic times have hit the controversial gossip site JuicyCampus.com, which apparently has run out of juice. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education:
On Wednesday the founder of JuicyCampus, Matt Ivester, announced that he would shutter the site as of today because of a lack of revenue.
For a year and a half, the gossip site wreaked social havoc on many campuses, according to some students who say they were libeled or threatened in comments posted anonymously to the forum—which openly encouraged salacious writings. (Its motto was “Keep it juicy.”)
The most popular topics on the site on Wednesday included the kinds of things that had become typical—”Biggest slut in each sorority???,” “Is Lawson a virgin?,” “Gayest Frat Boys?”—with each discussion thread listing students on specific campuses who the authors said fit the labels.
But as word spread of the site’s demise, hundreds of people began posting messages like “JuicyCampus Shutting Down—Goodbye and Good Riddance!!!!” and “Bye bye JuicyCampus—thank God.”
Not much love lost, apparently.
In a farewell post on the site’s blog, site founder Matt Ivester wrote:
Unfortunately, even with great traffic and strong user loyalty, a business can’t survive and grow without a steady stream of revenue to support it. In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved. JuicyCampus’ exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn.
Andrew Careaga 