Boredatcolumbia

Former B@B logo

Boredatcolumbia, formerly known as Bored at Butler or B@B (with various capitalization schemes, a choice of "at" or "@", and various domain name suffixes), is a hangout for bored people. It is "the last resort, when there's no one on aim, no one on fb, nothing new on the net." The most common word is "sex."

The website was set up by Jonathan Pappas CC '06, a Sigma Phi Epsilon brother from West Virginia. He said that the site "illustrates what many college students would say if they weren’t culturally pressured to be socially acceptable. That was the idea to it. Take a college student, strip them of their identity and see what they have to say."

Originally set up to entertain procrastinating students at Butler Library, the website soon spread to other universities. After Columbia asked Pappas to stop using its crown logo due to the controversial language that often appeared on the site, Pappas used it as an opportunity to transform what had become a growing "boredat" empire.

Demographic analysis

Anyone accessing the site from a Columbia I.P. address can post comments anonymously.

• Many B@B visitors happen to be fucking idiots. And some aren't fucking idiots. They're just idiots themselves. Just good old, plain jane idiots. Damn straight.

• The larger majority of B@B visitors are Columbia gay men, looking to hook up with each other in the stacks or equally sketchy areas. It has been suggested that, while straight couples nearly never hook up, more than a few gay students have found temporary love thanks to the anonymous message board.

• B@B access requires a valid columbia email address or a location on the Columbia network in order to be able to post.

• As in all chat rooms, most of the "women" are men.

Frequent discussions

• Words like "fuck," "dick," "pussy," and oddly enough "shaving"

Life at Columbia

• Barnard jokes
• GS students (they're old, they smell, and they're annoying)
• Midterms (midterms are a bitch; I don't want to study for midterms; I'm going to fail all of my midterms)
• What's the average GPA?
• Is my GPA high or low? (answer: low, ha ha)
• Manhattanville (Should Columbia buy all of Harlem and build a huge student center + park + new dorms there?)
• I don't want Matthew Fox, I want George Bush
• Barnard girls are ugly/fat/lesbians vs. Columbia girls are ugly/fat/lesbians

"Self help"

• I have no life! / You have no life!
• I'm fucked! / You're fucked!
• I hate my life! (there's a good chance I'll jump under a moving car next week)
• What's the best way to kill yourself?

Sex and relationships

• Sex with ugly people vs. no sex at all
• Should I ask the girl opposite from me out?
• Talking to girls (has anyone tried yet?)
• Who wants to have sex in the stacks (answer: nobody, ever)
• Relationship advice (why do you guys always go for the boobs first?)
• Should I shave? How?

• Should I trim? Oh shit I accidentally cut off my balls!

The December 2009 Hiatus

As of December 2009, the entire Boredat Empire has been shut down. In an open letter, Pappas explained that a recent slew of racist and homophobic comments pushed the content on the website beyond tolerable. Pappas hinted that he would like to "build" the empire again with the help of coders from various Ivy League schools, and that the shutdown was "temporary", he offered no guarantees.

Boredat went back online January 3, 2009. It is currently in beta and still has a few bugs.

External links

• Bored@Butler
• The New Yorker, "The New Bathroom Wall"
• The Dartmouth, "Bored at Baker lets students opine on anything, anon."
• U.S.News, "Tired of Writing Stupid Papers? Post Something Stupid to a Website..."
• Daily Pennsylvanian, How BoredatVanPelt Are You?
• Harvard Crimson, "He Was Pretty Bored, Too"
• Daily Pennsylvanian, "Sex in the stacks? Message site attracts the distracted"
• Daily Princetonian, "Students alleviate boredom on blog"
• Harvard Crimson, "Bored at Lamont"
• Yale Herald, "Around the Ivies"
• Cornell Daily Sun, "Blog Fights Library Boredom"
• IvyGateBlog.com, "Students United by Internet, Soul-Crippling Boredom"
• The New York Observer, "Ivy League Logs"