The Student Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Student Center (Student.com, formerly studentcenter.org) is a large online community website aimed at teens, college students, and young adults. It is approaching 1,000,000 registered users. The Student Center's parent company also owns and manages the smaller social networking site Campushook, which it acquired in 2004. The Student Center's main offices are located in Irvington, New York, about 22 miles north of New York City.
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[edit] History
Jeff Edelman founded the site in 1995. Initially very small with little content, the site was maintained by a few volunteers who ran the discussion forums and chatroom. The site slowly began to expand between 1995 and 1999, adding more content and gaining a steadily growing core of regular users. In March, 2000 Matthew Hollander assisted in improving the site by introducing a login system, a point system, and a fortune wheel. In the summer of 2001 the popular game "Pets of War" was created along with the "Casino".
The forums on the site used to run on Phorum; however, on November 27, 2003 this software was replaced with PHPBB-based boards, which offered many more features for both end-users and moderators. The site has over 800,000 members and is growing.
The Student Center's main URL changed in late 2005 from its original URL, www.studentcenter.org, to the more succinct www.student.com.
[edit] Features
Users on the site can create profiles about themselves, and add other users as "Buddies" and "Friends". The primary difference between these is that "Buddies" do not require the other user's consent, while "Friends" have to approve the request to add them. Every user also has a "Guestbook", where other users can tag them with short messages. "Tagging" is a common way for friends to keep in touch.
There are also forums (based on phpBB) integrated with the profiles and login system. There are currently 54 major forums, grouped into several categories: "SCN Headquarters" (for feedback, announcements, introductions, etc.); "Advice and Sexuality" (including, among others, Homework Help, Tech Advice, GLB Forum, Puberty, etc.); "General" (BS Forum, Debate Board, Science Board, etc.); "Lifestyle" (Automotive, College, Fashion, Food, Health & Fitness, Jobs, Multi-lingual, Pets, Photos & Artwork, Religion, Travel etc.); "Entertainment" (Art, Games, Movies, Poetry/Lyrics/Creative Writing, Sports, TV, etc.); "Regional Forums" (USA Students, Canadian Students, European Students, etc.) and "Student Center Games" (which has forums dedicated to the various online games found on SCN). In addition to the "major" forums, there are also state-specific forums, found on the state homepages within the site. (Please note this is an incomplete list of forums, and is used to illustrate the diversity of interests found on SCN.) Each of the forums has a designated moderator, selected to make sure no inappropriate content is posted and to settle any debates within forums.
There are also "Groups". These are partly based on the Phorum software used prior to the introduction of PHPBB, and allow users to create groups of like-minded people on pretty well any subject they have in common. Groups can be public or private, unlimited access or invite-only. Once in a group, members have access to that group's own message board (from Phorum), shared calendar, bookmarks, picture spaces, and a mass-email facility. A user can be—and often is—a member of many groups.
SCN also offers a range of other teen-oriented features. There is a live online chat system, as well as many user-submitted articles on a wide variety of subjects. There is an "Advice" section, which allows users to submit questions to nominated advisors on various topics. There are many online games to play, and users can create their own online polls, questionaires and quizzes. Every user can also create their own blog. In June 2006 it was announced that the website would soon have its own radio station.
[edit] Online Radio
On June 26, 2006, Student.com launched a 24/7 online streaming radio component to the site. Andrew Tergis (student.com ID—TheTerg) and Selmaan Chettih (student.com ID—playswithallmasks) were instrumental to getting the online radio up and running. Each has a rotating 3 hour block DJ block during the week, with details on their profile pages. Also agreeing to help with the DJing were David Nager-Sadoff (Student.com ID—DNSTruth) and Max Fox (Student.com ID—FaxMox). The radio is live weekdays from 4 to 10 pm EST, but streams music automatically in the off hours.
[edit] Points and prizes
The points system of SCN awards 10 points to each user for every page they view on the site, up to a maximum of 500 points per day. Once they have reached 500 points, users may spin the "Point Wheel", in the hope of winning some more points. Users can also increase their points by playing the casino games on the site (no actual money is involved). Chips on the casino may be cashed out towards points, while the prizes for the top-scoring users are a fixed number of bonus points. Points may be used to bid on items in the auction section of the site. These items range from sweaters to DVDs, and the person who bids the highest number of points wins that particular item.
The first time a user logs in on a specific day, they are invited to pick up a random playing card from their own unique "deck" of 52 cards. The first person who collects all four aces from their "deck" wins a prize. It follows that the shortest length a contest can run is four days. The probabilities are also very much against more than one person winning the prize on any one day (though if this should happen, it is likely that they would both receive a prize).
The latest way to get points is the SCN daily section. Everyday there is a new Question, Poll and Factoid to be answered. Points are handed out each time you answer them and the more consecutive days in a row you answer them the more points you get.
[edit] Statistics
- Total membership between 800,000 and 900,000.
- ~60,000 unique visitors per day
- Large foreign userbase: about 20% of registered users are in non-US, most being from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand
- The Male to Female ratio is 57:43
- The most popular age for people on the site is 17 with 16.44%, followed by 18 with 15.37% and 16 with 13.83%
- 24.65% of users are aged 20+
- The median age of users is 17.9
