The popular Facebook pages “Spotted at CU” and “Spotted at UOttawa” have joined to launch their own social media website.
The SpottedU website and related iOS and Android apps officially launched Sept. 3. Connor Hicks, a third-year Carleton computer science student, and Brandon Danis, a second-year University of Ottawa (U of O) computer science student, co-founded SpottedU.
Currently, only Carleton and the U of O are available on the device.
The Spotted pages on Facebook have been a place for curious university students to post funny or interesting things happening on their respective campuses. It is also popularly used for people watching, where students will post “sightings” of students they think are cute and would like to talk to.
When a student wants to post on Spotted, they message the Spotted account with their entry. The message is then posted anonymously by the admins for their peers to see, like, and comment on.
The website and apps will take SpottedU off Facebook, Hicks said. He and Danis are not admins of any of the original Facebook pages.
Hicks said the response has been good so far, and they have almost 400 users already between the two schools currently offered.
“I think a lot of people really liked the Facebook groups. They were really quite popular, but the problem with the Facebook groups was that they were inconsistently moderated,” Hicks said. “You could post something and have no idea whether or not it would actually end up getting posted.”
Hicks said students sign up for the site with their university emails and can post things they spot. Students must use their academic emails to ensure all posts on the page are coming from actual students at the school.
Hicks added these posts go to a team of moderators who make sure the post follows all of SpottedU’s posting rules. If it does, it is posted.
While users can view the pages for other universities, they can only post on their own campus’s page.
There are only a few rules on posts: posts cannot contain personal information, contain discriminatory content, be spam or repeated posts, or be advertisements, Hicks said.
Hicks said he and Danis came up with the idea while working together on an internship and both worked for a year to put the app and website together.
Hicks added SpottedU is completely anonymous, unlike the Facebook pages. The the moderators do not know who is making the posts.
Emma Fowler, a third-year English student, said she probably wouldn’t use the app because she wastes a lot of time on social media. Fowler said she has never used the Facebook page either, but she wouldn’t mind if she ended up on SpottedU.
She said she thinks people like the Spotted pages because they have a concept of anonymity.
“It’s a way to connect with fellow students without actually having to know those fellow students personally. It’s kind of a way for them to share their thoughts in a common space,” Fowler said.
Stephanie Richardson, a third-year cognitive science student, said she would use SpottedU because she thinks it’s interesting. Richardson said she already enjoys the Facebook page.
“I wouldn’t find it invasive. I mean it depends on what it said, but in general I wouldn’t care,” Richardson said. “I think people like Spotted pages because it’s funny to read about people you might have also seen on campus and trying to figure out if you know who they’re talking about.”
Hicks said SpottedU is planning on adding more schools, starting with Algonquin College, as well as adding the option of posting photos and commenting on posts.
