Like many freshmen, Dan Wertman remembers stumbling around campus, not knowing what was going on, trying to keep various event flyers organized. But come sophomore year, his frustration came to a head, and he and his friends Murtaza Jafferji and Yoni Sebag designed the interactive social website CampusBash.com.
CampusBash.com is a user-driven site that lists all the different on-campus events. CEO and co-founder Wertman envisions the site as a “central hub” where students can go to organize their social lives.
It’s easy to use. There are category tags on the side if you want to attend a specific event — i.e., free food and music events — and you can click on “Bashcal” up top if you want to know about date-specific events.
Free food at 7 p.m….every day this week!
So let’s say you want to attend a party this weekend. No problem! You’re only a few clicks away from having plans. And if you know the name of an event, you can search for it in the search bar.
But what if you’re not sure which event to attend? The site creators thought of that, too.
Yes, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: we can finally be graded on our social lives. Guests can rate your events, and if your GPA is high enough, you’ll make Dean’s List. You’ll be informed via email if you make the cut.
But jokes aside, the GPA system is a useful tool when trying to decide what to attend. There are also user-generated photo albums for past events so you can get a feel for the different events and hosts.
Furthermore, members can create on-site schedules — or “My Bashcals” — that can be exported to Google Calendar, as well as ID pages. The ID pages display the user’s basic information, such as major, school, and relationship status, and friends can post on their walls.
But Wertman assures us the site is not similar to Facebook. “We’re trying to supplement Facebook,” he said. “Events come with social interaction.”
Currently, the site only caters to Penn and Brandeis. But over the next few weeks Penn’s site will branch out to neighboring Drexel, Villanova, St. John’s and Temple, and Brandeis will branch out to Harvard, Wellesley, Tufts and MIT. The site encourages inter-campus interactions, giving “Bash Passes” to users who are friends with members from affiliated schools. This means you can find out about events both on your campus and on campuses to which you have a Bash Pass.
The list of events on the site isn’t yet exhaustive, but it’s getting close. Within six days of launching, the site already had over 2,500 visitors and 300 consistent users. And the more users the site gets, the more complete the list will become.
“It’s been unreal,” Wertman said, adding that he hasn’t slept very much since the site’s launch.
Wertman hopes CampusBash.com will soon replace flyers — typically passed out on Locust Walk or slipped under doors — at Penn.
However, I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, the site has the potential to keep us more organized, save trees, and limit the daily harassment we experience on Locust. But on the other hand… Oh, wait, there doesn’t seem to be another hand. Though I guess flyering is pretty novel to freshman, so it may become one of those obsolete traditions we tell our children about.
But while we’re still children(-ish) ourselves, reminiscing about morning foot-traffic seems like a distant fantasy. So stop reading this article, go on the site and fill up your social calendar. HC will still be here when you return and need a bedtime story.