Published: Febrary 14, 2008

The word “blog” is not easily defined. It’s short for “weblog,” but what is a weblog?  What exactly is appropriate material for a blog?  If you can come up with solid answers to these questions, we’d like to hear them.

One lingering question in the minds of The Observer editorial board members is the following: What is a blog?  We’ve tried all year to come up with an answer but have struggled to clearly define it.  Now our Fordham community is being overrun by blogs, especially gossip blogs that are capturing the attention of students, faculty and administrators.

FUrez Hilton, the well-known Rose Hill-based blog that receives over 1,000 hits a day, is Fordham’s premier gossip blog.  It’s odd to think that our middle-sized Jesuit university has a gossip blog, but we do and people enjoy reading it.

But each undergraduate class at Fordham Collage at Lincoln Center does not exceed 500 students, so chances are you know almost everyone and his or her personal business.  It’s the nature of a small school, so why do we need blogs to tell us about the campus gossip?  Gossip flies in McMahon Hall, so if you’re a resident, you’re probably up on the latest news anyway. Spend enough time in the cafeteria or second floor lounge of the Leon Lowenstein building, and you’re bound to hear or see something juicy.

Students have tried to create blogs that top FUrez Hilton, but none have succeeded.  Gossip Boy, FUperficial, UgotRammed and LC Beverage are  four copycat blogs that emerged since FUrez Hilton’s inception.  All of them have since been deleted, having lasted only a short period of time, except for LC Beverage, which is now a private blog.

Even though Gossip Boy only posted once, the post came off as malicious and that is unnecessary negativity for the Fordham community.  FUrez is successful because his posts are tasteful, witty and entertaining, not mean- spirited.

FCLC students should get their gossip the way it was intended to get around—through old-fashioned word of mouth. So does that mean that FCLC needs an anonymous blogger of our own? We don’t think so.