User:HazelrahWiki/draft1

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Xoxohth, also known as AutoAdmit, is a group of internet message boards targeted at prospective and current college and graduate students. It is best known for its law school message board and its spirited debates over prestige, law school rankings, law firms, and the law in general. Because of its popularity among law students and the unmoderated nature of its discussions, Xoxohth has frequently drawn the attention and criticism of the legal community.

Xoxohth was founded in early 2004 by Jarret "rachmiel" Cohen. Its initial community was comprised of users dissatisfied with changes made to the Princeton Review message board in March 2004, such as IP tracking and stricter moderation of discussions.[1] Xoxohth is thus notable for its flexible registration system and minimal moderation. This allows users to anonymously share sensitive information regarding law schools and law firms, but also makes Xoxohth a frequent target of trolling. Xoxohth currently receives over 700,000 unique visitors a month (with an estimated 100,000 regular readers) and about 12,000 posts a day.[1]

[edit] Characteristics

Xoxohth prides itself as "The most prestigious law school discussion board in the world." Many discussions on Xoxohth frequently revolve around prestige, particularly the relative prestige of different law schools, law firms, career options, or other subjects. Xoxohth thus attracts a number of members who are, or claim to be, students at top law schools or associates at high-paying law firms.

[edit] Criticism

Several law professors have criticized Xoxohth for encouraging offensive trolling under the cover of anonymity. In a heated exchange, Brian Leiter of the University of Texas at Austin accussed Xoxohth of being "a massive forum for bizarre racist, anti-semitic, and viciously sexist postings, mixed in with posts genuinely related to law school."[2] In response, Eugene Volokh of UCLA suggested that Xoxohth may provide "a public service" by being a forum where the legal community can quickly respond to extreme or unpopular opinions. [3]

Xoxohth is currently the subject of a series of blog posts entitled "Xoxohth, Civility, and Prestige" by Dave Hoffman of Temple University. Xoxohth has also been noted in mainstream publications such as the Boston Globe [2] and is a popular reference for articles in law school newspapers such as the Harvard Law Record, e.g. [3] and [4]

On November 29, 2006, a group of paralegals at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, a large New York law firm, posed as Milbank attorneys on Xoxohth and posted a fictitious Milbank internal memorandum announcing year-end bonus compensation amounts for the firm's attorneys. [5] The hoax was staged a few hours after a Wall Street Journal article reported on the mounting speculation over law firm bonus amounts for that year.[4] Because the fake internal memo announced bonuses that would have made total compensation only slightly higher than the past year, the post immediately evoked a sharp response from associates at other law firms who had expected a higher raise and feared their firms would match Milbank's announcement.[5] The pranksters soon confessed to the elaborate hoax, prompting David Lat to criticize Xoxohth for its lack of reliability and for needlessly sparking a frenzy.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Hoffman, Dave (2006-11-01). Xoxohth 1.1: The Past and Present. Concurring Opinions. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.
  2. ^ Leiter, Brian (2005-03-11). Penn Law Student, Anthony Ciolli, Admits to Running Prelaw Discussion Board Awash in Racist, Anti-Semitic, Sexist Abuse. Leiter Reports. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.
  3. ^ Volokh, Eugene (2005-03-06). More About Online Racism and Anti-Semitism. The Volokh Conspiracy. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.
  4. ^ Koppel, Nathan. "Jury's Still Out on Wall Street Law Bonuses", Wall Street Journal, 2006-11-29, pp. C1.
  5. ^ During the hoax, Xoxohth moderator Anthony Ciolli revealed, "It seems like virtually every firm in the Vault Top 50 is represented in the IP logs for this thread right now" (referring to the top 50 American law firms as ranked by Vault, Inc.).[1]
  6. ^ Lat, David (2006-11-30). Associate Bonus Watch: The Milbank Memo Is Fake. AboveTheLaw. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../h/a/z/User%7EHazelrahWiki_draft1_213b.html"