The economic downturn may have affected tuition and student life, but students may not have predicted that it would affect college gossip as well. A popular outlet for gossip among Binghamton University students, Juicycampus.com, closed down on Feb. 5.

As of Feb. 2, all posts on the Web site were no longer available to the public.

“What a wild ride this has been!” said Mark Ivester, founder and CEO of Juicy Campus.

Juicy Campus was a Web site where college students could publicly and anonymously post any comments or rumors they desired.

According to Ivester, the site has become synonymous with college gossip.

“It is more popular than I could have ever expected,” he said. “It’s clear that we have provided a platform that students have found interesting, entertaining and fun.”

Ivester said Juicy Campus has raised issues that have passionate advocates on both sides.

“I hope that dialogue will continue,” he said.

Sammi Azoulay, a sophomore accounting major, said it was interesting to see what other people thought about professors, classes, sport teams and fraternities.

“If you don’t go out a lot and you want to learn more about your school, you could have done so on Juicy Campus,” she said.

Kristy Farmer, a freshman biology major, said that she didn’t like the Web site because it seemed to be a breeding ground for hateful attacks against others.

“People who couldn’t bear to say things to others face to face hid behind this Web site,” Farmer said.

According to Ivester, the depletion of online ad revenue and venture capital funding contributed greatly to the site’s shutdown.

“Juicy Campus’ exponential growth outpaced our ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn,” he said.

Leslie Lander, associate professor of computer science, said that when a Web site gets more successful it may need to invest a lot of money in infrastructure and Internet connections to handle the load of users.

“If there is not enough computer power, the Web site dies when too many people log on,” he said.

The Web site, Lander said, might also need venture capitalists, who invest in companies, or advertisers who would pay the site for advertisements to fund these additions.

“However, both advertisers and venture capitalists don’t have a lot of money to spend in the current economic disaster,” he said.

Other Web sites, Lander said, could very well face the same problem.

“It depends on how long the economic crisis lasts,” he said.

There are parts of Juicy Campus, Ivester said, that few will miss, such as the mean-spirited posts and personal attacks.

“However, the site has also been a place for the fun, lighthearted gossip of college life,” he said. “I hope that is how it is remembered.”

All traffic to Juicy Campus will be directed to Collegeacb.com. According to the Collegeacb blog, the replacement site is similar to its predecessor but will rely on user modification to eliminate posts that are threatening, racist or otherwise illegal.

According to the official Juicy Campus blog, the site’s team has worked over the past few weeks, considering methods to keep the site open.

“It was not until Feb. 2, 2009 that the site’s leadership made the difficult decision to shut down,” the blog reported.

The site is not shutting down as a result of lawsuits or any other sort of legal trouble.

“Juicy Campus’ services and policies have always been well within the law,” the blog said.

As of now, according to the blog, Juicy Campus does not have plans to return. However, Ivester is currently brainstorming plans to create a new Web site.