2008 Woodie Awards
Student creates Web site to combat boredom
Domenic Poli, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News
A few hours to kill, homework to avoid and nothing to do - it's something known as boredom, and it affects everyone eventually. Justin Ho said he sympathizes with this and wants to help.
His creation, boredfriday.com, is a brand-new social-networking site at the University of Massachusetts that allows students to post announcements of upcoming events, sell and buy items and even look for peers with a common interest. It also counts down the time until each post is scheduled to happen.
Users can register with an official UMail account.
"The fundamental idea for boredfriday.com is to simply find other people who have nothing to do right now, this second and to make each other not bored, whether it be by playing a sport outside or video games inside," Ho said via e-mail. "I've had one girl try to look for running partners and someone else looking for someone to share fingernail paints with.
"In addition to alleviating boredom, I hope that some people even make friends out of this site," he said.
Users can search the site - which has been public for about a week - or create their own "ticket," something Ho describes as a request with a time limit.
Ho, a 23-year-old senior graduating this semester, likes to use the example of a student who wants to order a pizza, but wants someone to split it with. He said any student can create a ticket with a 15-minute duration that asks other readers if they want to split a pizza. The user would then include relevant information like toppings, and current deals and discounts, place it under the "Food" category, add his location to be more specific and click "Create Ticket."
"Your ticket will then appear on the front page for 15 minutes before it expires," Ho said, adding that the time limit can be extended. "With any luck, another bored and hungry student will see your ticket and respond to you that they're interested."
Students can also post information about classes, search for future roommates, ask for favors and offer professional help.
His creation, boredfriday.com, is a brand-new social-networking site at the University of Massachusetts that allows students to post announcements of upcoming events, sell and buy items and even look for peers with a common interest. It also counts down the time until each post is scheduled to happen.
Users can register with an official UMail account.
"The fundamental idea for boredfriday.com is to simply find other people who have nothing to do right now, this second and to make each other not bored, whether it be by playing a sport outside or video games inside," Ho said via e-mail. "I've had one girl try to look for running partners and someone else looking for someone to share fingernail paints with.
"In addition to alleviating boredom, I hope that some people even make friends out of this site," he said.
Users can search the site - which has been public for about a week - or create their own "ticket," something Ho describes as a request with a time limit.
Ho, a 23-year-old senior graduating this semester, likes to use the example of a student who wants to order a pizza, but wants someone to split it with. He said any student can create a ticket with a 15-minute duration that asks other readers if they want to split a pizza. The user would then include relevant information like toppings, and current deals and discounts, place it under the "Food" category, add his location to be more specific and click "Create Ticket."
"Your ticket will then appear on the front page for 15 minutes before it expires," Ho said, adding that the time limit can be extended. "With any luck, another bored and hungry student will see your ticket and respond to you that they're interested."
Students can also post information about classes, search for future roommates, ask for favors and offer professional help.
Be the first to comment on this story