CollegeACB promotes itself as a rare online forum that allows students to converse openly without the risks that come on Facebook, where everything a user posts or writes can be found by parents, professors, and potential employers.
The site’s facelessness—like many gossip sites that preceded it—has led to strings of sexist, homophobic, and racist rants, along with personal attacks that include students’ full names and the names of their sorority or fraternity houses.
There are many CollegeACB posts that ask for advice on how to handle breakups with girlfriends and boyfriends. Thoughtful responses to personal questions can be found on any of the individual campus pages available on CollegeACB.
Peter Frank, the former manager of CollegeACB, said in a Jan. 11 blog post that he sold his stake in the site and new management had taken charge.
In an eMail message to eCampus News, a CollegeACB spokesperson who did not give his or her name said the site was working with campus leaders at various schools to clean up the strings of offensive comments that populate the site.
The spokesperson said CollegeACB officials have been in contact with student leaders at the University of Maryland (UMD), which until last week boasted a form “filled with hateful and disparaging posts” on CollegeACB.
“We have seen a dramatic improvement in content with no decrease in page views” on the UMD page, the spokesperson said. “We think that under the right environment and with the right encouragement, all college campuses can be like that.”
CollegeACB’s front page features a pledge to host a “more positive and productive place to have anonymous conversations,” adding that visitors would have the ability to remove content they found offensive.
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