Site keeps students posted

Johns Hopkins senior launches a network of anonymous, and often vulgar, message boards

Mann said they are working to balance protecting students from being defamed and hurt, but also creating an open forum that requires little to no human editing.

They have added a registration requirement for posting comments, which prevents people without a campus e-mail address from using the site for that campus. And there is also a new feature that allows users to band together and cause offensive posts to be deleted.

Now that he's gone public with his role as a JHUConfessions creator, Mann made a confession of his own recently: to his parents.

"My goodness," said Dr. Donald Mann, a Cleveland physician, while looking at his son's site for the first time. "Flattering comments, derogatory comments, bigotry, very explicit comments about sex functions, sex organs, sex practices ... it's enlightening."

Is he proud of his son, the publisher? Absolutely.

"It shows entrepreneurship and motivation," Mann said. "And we strongly believe that speech, all speech, should remain uncensored. This is just one more way to do it."

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