The web site allows students to post information about events and other subjects online via text message. All of the messages are posted in a Twitter-like format on rrrage.com.
"My goal was just to create something that students could use and find useful, but I'm not trying to do anything overly ambitious like build the next Facebook or anything like that," he said.
Wansley said he built the web site on May 10, and it became available the following day. There have been 3,000 page views, 1,000 different viewers and approximately 50 posts thus far.
Wansley said he was inspired to create the site while working in Palo Alto, Calif., this past winter.
"I was unfamiliar with the area, so I used Twitter to find out what was happening at night or on the weekends," he said. "It enabled me to see what other people were doing that might interest me, and I figured a similar online forum might be useful for Dartmouth students."
Wansley stressed that he does not want the web site to be similar to the now defunct JuicyCampus.com or BoredatBaker.com, both of which were primarily used to share gossip.
"Those sites ended up not being interesting or useful, since people just posted a bunch of noise," he said.
Wasnley said he plans to monitor the web site and delete posts that he deems to be offensive, as total anonymity can bring out "the worst in people."
"Hopefully, if I'm reasonably vigilant about getting rid of posts, people will realize that such comments will be deleted and certain norms will develop around the site," he said. "My goal is for it to just be a fun service for people to figure out what's happening around campus."
He acknowledged that the site is similar to Twitter, but explained that rrrage.com is more about the community, while Twitter focuses on individuals.
"Twitter is trying to capture what the individual user is interested in, but rrrage.com is very much about what the entire Dartmouth community is doing," he said. "It has a central focus which Twitter doesn't have."
Students can submit posts by sending a text message to 41411, a number handled by the company TextMarks, which connects text messaging with online content.
"Basically, when TextMarks gets a text, they pass that message along, and the server immediately displays it on the web site," Wansley explained. "It doesn't have to go through me, which enables it to be really fast. Within a couple seconds, the message appears on the screen."
Students may find it easier to post directly from a computer, Wansley said, but he believed that requiring students to post via text message would decrease the possibility that the web site would be used for gossip.
"I decided not to go that route because of the worry that it would become like JuicyCampus," he said. "People sitting at a computer in the library are more likely to just post noise or gossip, rather than use the site to talk about useful information."
Some students interviewed by The Dartmouth said they believe the site still has the potential to facilitate offensive communication.
"The only time I've been on the web site, I saw a post that personally named an individual as being really drunk," Alyssa Penick '12 said. "For me, that signaled that the site definitely has the potential to become a gossip-filled web site."
Lucy Zuraw '12 also said that the web site may be hurtful.
"I think there is a gossipy nature that is kind of built in to the fact that people will be posting about what parties are fun or not," she said. "The idea behind the web site seems like a good one, but I'm not sure if it will work out the way it is supposed to or how useful it will end up being for the student body."
Brandon Aiono '11 expressed a more optimistic view regarding the web site's future. While students may post gossip, the web site could be helpful if students use it the way it is intended to be used, he said.
"I posted on the web site during Green Key weekend, and I definitely salute Andrew's efforts at making what amounts to a Twitter for the Dartmouth social scene," he said. "I'm excited to see where it goes."
Aiono warned, though, that the web site could be problematic because it is unsecured, which means law enforcement officials or Safety and Security officers could use the web site to learn about unregistered parties or illegal activities.
Wansley said that he does not anticipate that this will become a problem, particularly given that users post anonymously.
"I don't think this site will provide [Safety and Security] with any information that they wouldn't be able to find out on their own just by walking down Webster Avenue," he said.
