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A new international website geared toward college students allows them to flirt anonymously with others in their area, and it is gaining a following at the University of Maine.
LikeaLittle.com has more than 13,000 fans on Facebook and has spread to more than 100 campuses worldwide. Evan Reas, a 2009 graduate of the Stanford Business School and CEO of LikeaLittle.com, founded the company with two friends from India.
The website was inspired by the many social interactions, romantic and otherwise, that college students face every day.
“One of the things that interested us was, ‘How do you connect people around a certain location?’” Reas said. “It can be awkward to talk to people or meet people around you because you fear rejection.”
More 50 messages have been posted to UMaine’s page, referencing familiar locations like residence halls, classrooms, fraternity houses, the Memorial Union and Orono House of Pizza. Comments range from harmless to provocative, and students seem emboldened by the anonymity the website provides.
When a post or reply is made, the author is provided a random fruit name to keep their identity a secret. Page moderators delete any posts that include real names.
“This gives people an outlet to say things they wouldn’t say if their name were attached to it,” Reas said. “Everyone has those kinds of thoughts.”
Respect, privacy and safety are important issues for college forum websites. Some may recall the controversy over popular gossip website JuicyCampus.com in 2009. The website made waves at UMaine and other college campuses with cases of harassment, and eventually shut down due to financial difficulty.
According to an article titled “Juice on the loose” in the Feb. 2, 2009 edition of The Maine Campus, “In a survey of 200 UMaine students, 175 felt the site could severely harm someone’s integrity and character. The other 25 agreed with Juicy Campus, stating that everything posted should be taken with a large grain of salt.”
Reas and his business partners hope to create a different reputation for LikeaLittle.com in order to avoid being linked with gossip websites.
“We really want to be the opposite of what Juicy Campus turned into,” he said. “This is about compliments and being positive toward the people around you.”
LikeaLittle.com filters certain words and phrases that Reas and his colleagues have deemed too negative for the site. They also aim to recruit at least five moderators from each university to monitor their campus’s page and delete inappropriate posts.
The feature that best separates LikeaLittle.com from more infamous forums is the ability to delete posts you find offensive. Any student with a university issued e-mail address can use it to delete a post from their campus’s page.
“If you confirm that you are a part of the community, you have the power to delete anything you want,” Reas said.
Reas attributes the success of the website to its positive and social nature.
“Mostly we hope people will form relationships with those around them, romantic or just finding something in common,” Reas said. “The way we see it, Facebook allows you to connect with people you already know. We want to be the place you can meet new people.”
The site’s founders knew the website would appeal to college students more than any other demographic.
“Flirting and dynamics of how people interact is something that all college students are interested in,” Reas said. “You always hear people say, ‘Oh, I like this girl’ or ‘I like this guy and I don’t know what to say.’”
The makers of LikeaLittle.com launched the website as a side venture they programmed in less than 24 hours. Since then, the site has taken off with surprising speed and they are able to work full-time improving and expanding it.
“The initial site we did took less than a day to actually program,” Reas said. “Since then we’ve been adding new features as we hear what people like.”
He expects to add chat features to the website, which will allow users to have live conversations with others nearby. Location-based games, like playing truth or dare with a random user in your residence hall, are also in the works for the website’s future.
Reas emphasized that he is focused on improving the website and making it more user-friendly.
“One of our principles is being transparent and open to feedback and questions,” he said. “If anybody has any ideas to make the site better or if they have concerns, I would love if they e-mail me.”
LikeaLittle.com also offers opportunities for students interested in marketing or programming to get involved.
“We are always looking for people who are really excited about what we’re trying to do,” Reas said.
The flirting website has expanded solely through word-of-mouth. Students can establish their campus’s page and become a moderator, which helps the site spread to new universities.
“One of the biggest things we push for is to have good moderators to make sure things stay positive,” Reas said. “We don’t like negative posts. We don’t like sexist posts. If people are interested in being moderators — we’d definitely like that.”
Fourth-year business marketing student Josh O’Donald is the founder and sole moderator for UMaine’s new LikeaLittle.com page. O’Donald first learned of LikeaLittle.com through another social media website and signed up to found UMaine’s page. He is still learning how to moderate the page and edit posts, but has high hopes for the website and is sharing it with his friends.
“I think it’s cool that it’s really taken off and springs up on college campuses,” O’Donald said. “It’s good that there are people at each campus moderating the page so it’s not a national thing — it’s personalized for each school.”
O’Donald is familiar with gossip websites like JuicyCampus.com and CollegeACB.com, but said LikeaLittle.com has a different message for students.
“It could have the potential to be like that, but as long as there are moderators, we can keep that stuff down,” he said. “It will stay a fun, flirty, silly website.”
O’Donald said there will be students who will use the website negatively, but he thinks most students will use it in the way it is intended.
“I was looking at it today and since just a week ago there have been quite a few posts,” he said. “I think it’s very much a word-of-mouth website, and I think it will be used in a positive way.”
