Anyone who has browsed Bored@Baker quickly learns that anonymity can turn the best of us into jerks. However, it also lets students share opinions they normally wouldn’t. An open dialogue held on Tuesday as part of the ongoing Words and Their Consequences series discussed student opinion about the website, as well as online anonymity, cyber bullying, accountability and the fine line between free speech and hate speech. Despite what you might think, the conference wasn’t just a bunch of kids going around in a circle complaining about bullying. While this was discussed, vocal participants also showed up in favor of the forum. Supporters viewed the site as a place where people can discuss campus happenings and offer views that would not otherwise be stated. And this is a valid point. Like several students said, when something happens, you can either wait for someone to write an article about it in a few days or you can head over to Bored@Baker and jump into a discussion that’s already started. The anonymity that allows discourse that open, however, can cut both ways, as those with more critical views of the site suggested. While it allows posters to share opinions they wouldn’t ordinarily share were it attached… Read more »
The Dartmouth Gossip fiends at Dartmouth and other Ivy League institutions will have to seek new venues to continue their anonymous posting — BoredatBaker.com, the infamous online message board for Dartmouth students, and its parallel sites have been taken offline due to concerns regarding their content, according to an open letter written by Jon Pappas, the sites’ creator. The sites have recently been used by a “small group of people” to post attacks on specific individuals “in a repeated, persistent manner,” Pappas wrote. The attacks included personal information — such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses — and malicious statements, according to the letter. “It is clear that [Bored-at] is not mature enough to moderate or control itself well,” Pappas said in the letter. Pappas wrote that the Bored-at sites are not and were never intended to be a venue for posting personal attacks. “Since I dont [sic] have a solution for this problem right now, like I’ve done in the past, I’ve decided to take down the sites for the time being,” Pappas wrote. Personal attacks became a problem for some Dartmouth students when the site launched in 2006, The Dartmouth previously reported. The site was previously taken offline… Read more »
BoredatBaker.com, the popular — and controversial — online message board for Dartmouth students, was taken offline on Dec. 8 due to an influx of “racist comments and hate speech” on the site’s sister forum for Columbia University, BoredatButler.com, according to site creator and Columbia alumnus Jonathan Pappas. Pappas, who created Bored-At online forums for 11 universities across the country, suspended all of the sites. “Recently, we’ve had a very small group of people basically patrolling the sites posting racist comments and hate speech and they were just relentless,” Pappas said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Although the controversial comments were posted only by “one or two” individuals on the Columbia campus, Pappas said he decided to take all of the sites down to prevent similar attacks elsewhere. “I decided that if the project wasn’t mature enough to handle those situations, then [the sites] shouldn’t be up,” he said, stressing that his decision to suspend the sites was not in response to any external criticism. Users who attempt to access any of the Bored-At sites are redirected to a page explaining the suspension of service. Pappas said he plans to relaunch the sites after he makes changes to allow the… Read more »