Last semester, freshman Nate Schloss came up with the idea to create a website for Hopkins students to share their experiences through a format much like popular websites FML and MLIA. Schloss posted the website on his Facebook page during the first week of Intersession and called it mylifeishopkins.com (MLIH).
“[I came up with the idea] when I was supposed to be studying for finals last semester,” Schloss said. “I was just downstairs in the study room in AMR II and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really bored. I should make a website . . . what if I make FML for Hopkins?’”
Anyone with a Hopkins email address has access to the site, whcih is anonymous in the sense that students can create their own usernames once they register. According to Schloss, around 13-14 percent of undergraduates have registered since the site’s launching only a little over a month ago.
While freshmen Jonathan Katzman and John Luck helped Schloss in coming up with the name of the website, it was Schloss on his own who designed the whole thing in a surprisingly short time.
“I spent longer cleaning it up but it was mostly ready in two hours,” Schloss said.
Schloss, who is the Technology Editor on The News-Letter and a computer science major, has acquired his web design skills from years of experience. “Since I was about 10 or 12 [years old] I’ve been designing websites . . . I’ve been into computers since I was really young and I probably had a computer since before I could walk,” he said.
He also practiced building websites while working with the marketing and creative consulting firm Reason Media Group over the past summer.
While the website is now moderated by Schloss himself, along with his freshmen friends Katzman, Luck, Tom Andreaci and Kevin Son, the website had to go through a test period before Schloss decided to go public.
“Over winter break, I had people test it . . . and then there was a lot of clean-up involved in that three-week test period.”
Facebook and word-of-mouth are the only methods Schloss himself used for publicity, but friends of his used the website collegeacb.com to promote the site.
Many people who had heard of this website were discouraged by having to use their Hopkins e-mail. “I heard about it through college.acb but I didn’t want to use my e-mail to sign up so I didn’t do it,” freshman Sheehan Hsu said.
However, Schloss sees the recent addition of the previews on the homepage as a way to overcome this setback. “I think needing an email was [preventing people from signing up] but the amount of people who have signed up has increased since I added previews,” Schloss said.
Schloss seems happy with where his project is at this point. “[I meant for people to post] ‘Oh that’s what happened to me today, that’s so Hopkins,’” Schloss said.
That seems to be the case for many of the people who have posted their stories. “I actually have [posted on the website] something [that] happened to me that I knew was relatable,” freshman Nusaiba Baker said. “I love the site.”
Now with 116 likes on its Facebook page, MLIH is growing day by day as more people hear about it and sign up. “It grew pretty quickly,” Schloss said.
“I was worried when I posted it that nobody would use it but even the first day people were posting things so I was really happy about that. And there are always new members registering each day and traffic’s going up.”
As the site becomes more popular, some students can’t help but compare it to collegeACB.com (short for Anonymous Confession Board).
Collegeacb.com, which was opened in early 2008 under the name JHUConfessions.com by two recent university graduate students, Andrew Mann (Hopkins) and Aaron Larner of (Wesleyan University), is now a place where Hopkins students can talk and rant about the topics of their choice free from social constraints.
Baker voiced her preference for the new FML-inspired website over JHU Confessions. “In my opinion, MLIH is hilarious because it encompasses real life occurrences,” Baker said. “JHU Confessions is a gossip site that tends to be more offensive than interesting.”
Luck, who is a moderator on the site, foresees competition between the two websites. “I see [MLIH] as a growing rival because a lot of people are starting to visit both sites now,” he said.
As a website in its first stages, there is a lot of work that is still being done in expanding the project. Schloss discussed making new additions to the website in the future, but refused to disclose any details about the features.
“I don’t want [to] go too much into the changes but there’s gonna be some features in there that [will maybe] make it a little more interactive,” Schloss said.
Schloss also discussed the possibility of spreading the website to other schools, as well. “Somebody e-mailed me from [Boston University] asking [me] to make [the website] for them, so at some point I might take advantage of that and extend it to [Boston University] . . . but I’m gonna wait for it to be good here,” he said.
