I started my undergraduate education at Stony Brook in 1998. It really didnt take me long to realize something: there is no gentle way to phrase it, "Stony Brook Sucks". I was a commuter student majoring in Business and Economics. If one thing Stony Brook was good at it was feeding my boredom. Life as a commuter is difficult. You feel like an outsider, relatively disconnected from "college life". I would sit alone eating cheese fries in the SAC trying my best to get involved. I would read signs, read the Press, and uh sometimes even the Statesman. But still, it was difficult to get connected with what went on at the school. I even attended a couple of meetings of the Commuter Association, the 'kids' that ran that looked like they practically lived in their office and didnt take kindly to strangers. I came to a realization that Stony Brook doesnt want me to connect. Ok, maybe thats an exaggeration - but it sure wasnt doing anything to help me.

In my senior year, the fall of 2001, I decided to do something about it. Until that fateful day I cant tell you how many times I uttered the phrase "Stony Brook Sucks". It was almost a mantra of mine. For a place with such (self proclaimed) academic esteem - it just sucked as a school. I had a background in web design, I've launched and assisted with several internet entrepreneurial ventures. This was the wild west days of the internet. I snatched up domain names left and right. I have owned over a hundred domains. Simply put I had the idea to use the web as a launching board to my concept. I wasnt trying to make money. And to answer the many critics, this wasnt a site simply to rant and complain. This was a site designed to bring students together as a community. It just so happened that the uniting factor was a shared notion that our school sucks.

So I started up a website with a self defining name: stonybrooksucks.com. I took some photos of funny things on campus. I wrote up some content, made a nifty logo. When I felt the site was ready for the world, I quietly spread the word. I've got a penchant for business and marketing so I gave it a shot.

I knew that this was more than a website, its a brand, its an image, its a community. I knew that grassroots marketing was all it needed and word-of-mouth will take over from there. All I'll say is that my first marketing efforts involved a pencil and the desk in each one of my classes. A handful of times I wrote the domain name very small in the corner of a chaulkboard. I would use the computers at the sinc sites several times a day. Somehow my website would accidentally become set as the home page on every pc I used. Eventually they got hip to that, so instead I would just leave the webpage open on the computers when I left. I was told once via email by "campus security" that the people running the sinc sites were "looking for me". Probably to shake my hand. For some period, I once photocopied a bunch of twenty dollar bills. I called this the Funny Money Campaign. On the back of the bills was my web address printed boldly - no sales pitch, just the web address. I still remember sitting in my backyard laying out about a hundred fake bills fresh out of the washing machine. I dyed them and laundered them to make them more realistic. Its hard to believe, but I actually didnt use some of them in my campaign because they were just too real, I was afraid someone would try to use them and I would be the one getting in trouble. So the concept was simple, I left the bills subtly around campus. My favorite thing was to stick them in crack of the seat on the campus bus and sit back and watch people slyly grab it. Lucky for me, they would usually read it and than just stuff it back in for the next victim. Now my most sucessful marketing campaign was my most simple: post-it notes. It sounds like I'm making something out of nothing, but this was a structured campaign. I wrote up a couple hundred of these. It was simply a post-it note with the web address written on it with a thick marker. I would place these strategically next to door ways, stair cases, halls, etc. I would sometimes sit back and watch literally hundreds of people open a door and look right at it. I knew it wouldnt be long...

So from all of my geurilla marketing efforts, the most fruitful turned out to be the first and most simple of them all. A few weeks into the site's inception, I only had a couple hundred hits. I received an email from a student, Dan Hofer. He told me that he found my site when he saw the web address scribbled on a desk in Philosphy class. It turns out he sat at the same desk I did, in the session immediately following mine in that room. Dan was a writer, for none other than the Stony Brook Press. He wanted to write about my site. Dan wrote something that really showed what this site is about, he said "[this site] is the first step in the direction of change for the students". This is really what it was all about from the start and The Press's article helped tell it how it is. I truly give all credit to Dan and The Press for writing and printing this article which helped my site sky rocket.

It wasnt long until the site was than featured in the Statesman, and then on USB-TV. Traffic was piling in. I couldnt keep up with the site maintenance. The message board was unruly. I created t-shirts and decals. I held contests. I welcomed scantily clad women to scribble my web address on their bodies and post the photos. I would overhear people talking about the site all the time. I was a real celebrity... an anonymous celebrity. I've always maintained my anonymity with this site (the image of me above is the first time I've shown myself). Among family and friends, and an occassional trusted classmate I would tell them that I run the site. Not to get all conspiracy theory on you, but I really didnt trust the university with knowing who I am. Afterall, I hated the school, the last thing I needed was failing classes and having to stay any longer. I had professor's salaries listed on the site. Because this is a state school, salaries are public information. Believe it or not, it was a professor who originally posted the list on his own site, albeit this was a controversial feature. It was with his permission that I transferred it to my site. I was told that this was the talk of the faculty room. Professors were clamoring to compare salaries.

My site has always stirred controversy. Frankly it was part of the magic. To this day people say things like "if it sucks so much, why are you still here?". I wont answer that question for myself, people have all different reasons they may want or need to continue at this school. But to say that answer is to leave is just absurd. I intended on fixing the school in my small way.

It was a lofty goal, but I let the numbers speak for themselves. I like to think I 'beat' the school. Stony Brook is one of the larger universities in the country, and they could not find a way to connect to their students. In the days before myspace and thefacebook, with just one website: I created a place, a home, to bring people together. To date, this site has generated over 800 thousand hits, which is a remarkable feat for a local-based site.

I've seen at least a dozen imitator sites launched over the years. How do I keep such a close eye on it? Its easy, all of the sites used my own message board to try to promote theirs. Today, I dont think any of these sites are still standing. I've had many features over the years: a message board, an events board, the ever popular professors who suck list with over one thosand names gathered over the years, we tried our hand as a textbook exchange site, and we even helped hundreds of people get some lovin' with our singles site (I still hear about hookups that were directly caused by that feature). I've received a letter from the President of the University wishing me well, and I've gotten an email or two from P.E.T.A. The site has even featured a cameo by the lovely Playboy and import-car model Kaila Yu. Read the discussion section on the wikipedia article about Stony Brook University. There has been an ongoing argument between wikipedia moderators on whether or not stonybrooksucks.com is a relevant link to be included in the article on Stony Brook, at one point the content of this argument alone (which I had not participated in) is longer than the entire wikipedia entry for the school.

I've maintained this site for the better part of a decade. I'll be the first to admit, I havent done it justice lately. Being disconnected from campus and having 'moved on' in life, I feel that the responsible thing to do is pass the torch. I know that there is a student out there who wants to make the most of this site, update it, promote it, and even profit from it. I am entertaining all serious offers.

Thanks for the memories.

Webmaster