17 Comments
It’s truly a tragedy of convenience that, apart from class and free food, the sole reason we leave our rooms is to find out what’s happening on campus. And what better way to indulge our laziness than to eliminate the flyers that clutter campus walls and move them online?
PostATime.com, the first branch of a site with national ambitions, attempts to do just that. Its mission is to “replace those useless and wasteful posters” with what the site terms “event based social networking,” say its Columbia caretakers, Michael Vitrano and RJ Assaly, CC and SEAS ’12 respectively. (Vitrano and Assaly also say they weren’t aware of the existence of the strikingly similar CampusPlaybook–or the short-lived CampusBoxOffice–before launching PostATime).
Upon creating an account, Bwog found that the site was quite easy to use. Plus, the interface is quite intuitive for users of CubMail or MySpace.
Actually, the site looks strangely similar to CubMail and MySpace. A comparison and further discussion, after the jump.
Apart from the (uncredited?) use of the Columbia homepage logo, the home page looks very familiar:
Compared to MySpace:
And, for the sake of comparison, here’s Bwog’s (unused) Cubmail:
Although perhaps it’s just something generically Columbian:
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17 Comments
@old The idea is not original and will not work. Flyers reach people who would otherwise not seek out the event you are advertising for. Only people looking for something specific will use the site.
You are not going to make flyers obsolete.
@ohhhh you paid a designer to make your logo, and decided to do the styling yourselves, didn’t you?
@i think that columbia should use FirstClass. it’s essentially a combination of courseworks, cubmail and flyers (which, really, are a gigantic waste of paper) and it’s on your desktop. different student groups and courses can get their own folders that anyone interested/relevant can subscribe to, and there are also campus-wide folders, where all the info that’s currently on the tons of flyers would be available.
http://www.firstclass.com/Divisions/Solutions/Education/?OpenItemURL=S047C5096
@well Columbia is trying to implement Sakai in place of Courseworks.
When approached in the past about implementing a portal like Penn’s or Yale’s using uPortal or some other interface, CUIT simply insisted that there was no demand for it. That’s why my.columbia.edu was never developed after 2002: http://www.wikicu.com/My.Columbia
@uhhhh these kids created a website all on their own and came up with something that is useful, even if you choose not to use it.
the snark just for the hell of it really needs to stop. people just say snotty things because they think they’re witty, not even because they believe what they’re saying. STFU.
@uhhh 2 all on their own?
@sarah I think it’s a great idea. I hate having to always search around for stuff to do on the weekends and end up at the same places. Especially in a city like New York where it’s so hard to meet new people it could be a great way to do so, especially since it seems like you’d meet people with similar interests. I just made an account; hopefully it takes off. I think the idea will only work if a lot of people join. It could be a really great resource. :)
@... they’re about 3.5 years too late on this one. yahoo bought upcoming.org in 2005.
plus there’s going.com.
it sure would be nice to see some columbia entrepreneurs actually build something interesting…
@i s glad you guys put in the work and got this site up and running. it’s a cool project whether or not it catches on. don’t listen to the idiots above (possibly the same idiot?). my guess is that they either have a reason for being down on your site or don’t have the gall, ingenuity and/or follow-through to do something like this on their own. keep up the good work and make more cool things! congrats on launch!
@PosTaTime Logo removed.
@howiknowevents How I know about events, in vague order:
1. Facebook
2. Flyers (Talk about feelings for 30 minutes! Only $5!)
3. CUarts.com
4. Bwog (admittedly)
so.. chances of success for them… not so good
@reamed they’re gonna get cease and desisted by columbia for unauthorized use of their logo. Also, their idea sucks.
@what a stupid website
@campus playbook does the same thing.
@bleh the point of fliers is to get up in people’s faces and catch their attention when they’re going about their normal business. this new site believes people will actually navigate to it to read the same notices. fat chance of replacing fliers that way.
in fact, the digital equivalent of hallway fliers would be popup ads on spec, blog, and official columbia sites everyone has to use, like ssol.
@well The hallway equivalent of popup ads would be random people accosting me in Schermerhorn asking me if I want to make my penis larger. While I’m looking at porn.
@Wait, This doesn’t happen to you already?