It's Not All Greek To Us

A couple of weeks ago myGreek.org launched at Penn. Pretty much everyone we know, Greek or not, got an email about this "Greek social networking site," so we were intrigued. We snooped around the site for a week or so, and we have some thoughts.

1. Anyone can join. And we mean anyone. Yes, anyone can join Facebook now, but you need to have a valid Penn email address to be part of the Penn network. Not true over at myGreek. There is literally no verification, so that totally cute girl listed in the TriDelt composite could very well be a creepy guy who lives in his mom's basement. There is a "secure your chapter" option, but it doesn't look like anyone (save for Beta and AXO, that is) is using this feature.

2. Penn chapters include Theos, Owels [sic], and Bones Gate. Doesn't sound too Greek (or legit) to us.

3. The whole "subscribe to a house thing" HAS to be illegal for sorority rush. You see, users can subscribe to houses they are interested in rushing (or interested in partying at). The houses in turn can text you with information about events and parties. While this is totally in the domain of frat rush, it certainly does not fly for sorority rush. Even if texts aren't sent out, we're guessing that confirmed chapter presidents are privy to those lists — a big Panhel no-no. And if this isn't the case, freshmen can still gauge a house's perceived "popularity" by the amount of subscribers it has as those numbers are displayed prominently on the site.

4. The Campus Buzz section is pretty much JuicyCampus 2.0. An unmoderated anonymous forum for "campus stories?" More like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

5. We totally get that this was started by a Beta junior as part of the Wharton Venture Initiative Program. And we're all about the entrepreneurial spirit here at UTB. But all of the pictures in the photo section are from Beta parties (including our personal favorite, in which the boys move a car on State Day) and the Buzz section has some (planted?) Beta mentions as well. We guess you have to start somewhere.

Have you tried out the site? Let us know what you think in the comments.