JuicyCampus, the online gossip forum created in August 2007 for college campuses, was shut down last Thursday, according to a press release distributed on that day from Matt Ivester, the founder and CEO of JuicyCampus."In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted and venture capital funding has dissolved," Ivester wrote in the press release.

"I'd like to thank everyone who has engaged in meaningful discussion about online privacy and Internet censorship," Ivester wrote in the press release. "JuicyCampus has raised issues that have passionate advocates on both sides, and I hope that dialogue will continue. While there are parts of JuicyCampus that none of us will miss-the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks-it has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life. I hope that is how it is remembered," he wrote.

The media contacts from JuicyCampus did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The site was controversial at Brandeis as it started gaining popularity last semester when students, under the protection of anonymity, began posting libelous information. "The site enabled some students who are ethically and morally challenged to anonymously hurt, through the words the world could read about other Brandeis students," Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

While the Web site had over a million visitors each month from over 500 campuses, "Those in the administration that knew of [JuicyCampus] were appalled that it existed and that our students would post messages on it," Sawyer wrote.

"I despised every aspect of [JuicyCampus]," said Damien Lehfeldt '09, who created a Facebook group called "Shut Down Juicy Campus at Brandeis" over Thanksgiving break. "It was a complete contradiction to everything this University stands for. Students were singled out and encouraged to kill themselves. Some posters wrote about their desires for cancer to take the lives of their professors," he said.

Other students took a more ambivalent take towards the Web site. "I knew that those posting the horrible things about our peers had serious problems that they have yet to face. But similarly, I felt that those who took the accusations too seriously really needed to take a cold hard look at who they were and why they were letting a Web site upset them so much," Alissa Cherry '10 wrote.

Efforts had been put in place by the administration to help students who were worried about the posts cope with the Web site. The administration discussed the possibility of blocking the site from the school server, Sawyer explained. "We assisted individual students who were seeking advice regarding the site. We worked with student government regarding the proper Brandeis response and to educate the student community," Sawyer wrote. He added that the adminstration also assisted groups such as anti JuicyCampus Facebook groups that were creating strategies for attacking the site through legal means.

The Student Union had been aware of the Brandeis JuicyCampus page and was in communication with the Department of Student Life regarding how best to address the situation. The Union encouraged students to write to advertisers on the Web site and post friendly lyrics on the site, which ultimately dropped the number of posts targeting Brandeis students.

"We always felt that any restriction of free speech by the University should be avoided ," Student Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09 wrote in an e-mail to the?Justice.

Some students thought that by spreading the word to decrease the number of people who actually visited the site, they could ultimately shut it down. Rachel Horn '09 wrote in an e-mail to the?Justice, "Ultimately, I hoped that through student efforts to publicize the harm that many JuicyCampus posters did to others through their unnecessary attacks, other people would stop visiting the site as a show of support, and it would be shut down when advertisers realized they weren't going to reach a good audience."

The shutting down of the Web site came as a surprise to some who didn't think it would be terminated for financial reasons. "I thought it would probably be brought down by someone suing the Web site for slander or by a large public outcry against the site," Sarah Gelman '09 said.

However, Lehfeldt explained that the site began to lose major advertising sponsors like Google, Victoria's Secret and Toys"R"US after students from different universities e-mailed sponsors to make them aware of "the kind of malice JuicyCampus promoted." "Slowly, these sponsors withdrew from the Web site, and toward the end, [JuicyCampus's] advertising was from companies like "Pimp Out Your Cellphone," Lehfeldt said. "I didn't even bother contacting them. I knew we had won at that point," he said.

Horn said she felt let down by the Brandeis community after learning about the site. "I always appreciated our community here because I felt that, at heart, most people here were really kind and represented a more mature cross-section of students than your average college," she wrote. "After reading what some people put on the site ... some of my positive feelings about the general Brandeis community were erased."

"I think that the shutdown of JuicyCampus is a huge victory for our community," Gelman said. "It served no real purpose except to disseminate nasty gossip," she said.