The Daily Jolt is back.
Founded in 1999 by a group of friends between Amherst College and Brown University, the Web site was created for their specific campuses. From there, the Jolt quickly spread to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire colleges and is now at more than 200 campuses.
This fall, the Daily Jolt released a new version of the Web site. In addition to a makeover updating its look and feel, the site has a number of new features allowing users to communicate and comment.
"The Jolt has always been the authentic voice of students on the UMass campus delivering a truly local online experience that is both at arms length to the administration and a hub for the community," said Max Woolf, general manager of The Daily Jolt.
A new flyer-board feature allows users to upload and add images for events, announcements and classifieds as an exact replica of a paper flyer. The site also has a marketplace and textbook exchange, as well as weather, professor quotes, a blog for students, dining hall menus, Collegian news and forums.
"I like that even though the site has been around the UMass campus for a few years, we're basically starting all over because its a totally new site," said UMass senior, Daily Jolt editorial and publicity assistant Andrea Schneider. "And I think although CampusLive has a lot of the same features, The Daily Jolt seems more like a community; I feel like the people who visit the site have been for years."
"The Daily Jolt has seen and is acting on two distinct trends in forums and message boards; one trend is for complete transparency and the other is for complete anonymity," Woolf said.
The forum is a central feature of The Daily Jolt. It allows students to have conversations on a range of issues relating to life, campus and the community.
With respect to offering a place for transparency, The Daily Jolt has created a "Conversations Forum" where every post includes the user name of the individual making the post. An equal but opposite "Confessional Forum" aka "JoltSecret" has been created to allow thoughts, opinions and statements to be posted anonymously.
The "Original Daily Jolt Forum" will continue allowing users to choose between posting their identity and posting anonymously.
"The Jolt wants students to have a choice without restricting or restraining, while at the same time, continuing to have moderation as needed," said Woolf.
The Daily Jolt was born out of the UMass community and aims to continue serving that community. It is run by five students at the University, who are in contact with General Manager Max Woolf via e-mail, phone and instant messaging.
The UMass Daily Jolt can be found at http://uofma.dailyjolt.com.
Katherine Neubert can be reached at kneubert@student.umass.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!