By Laura Pelner
Staff Writer

A group of Purdue students has taken one of its hobbies and turned it into a forum that is accessible to the nation. The group created the Web site drunkatpurdue.com and, due to the popularity, the group plans to expand the site.

The group, which consists of nine Purdue friends, wishes to keep their real names secret for legal reasons.

Drunkatpurdue.com was formed in January 1999 and has been in operation ever since. The site has received comments of opposition as well as comments of praise and has attracted attention on Purdue's campus and nationwide.

The site has cleared more than 25,000 hits, and the creators have received e-mails from schools across the nation and even as far away as England about adding pages about their respective schools.

Because of this, the creators said they have big plans for the future, including the possibility of expanding the site to drunkatcollege.com. They have "passed Purdue" and are looking for full commercialization this summer.

The person most involved with the site's creation and upkeep both financially and with dedication calls himself "Neverclear" and is a sophomore in the School of Science.

Neverclear said the site is "not supposed to be taken seriously." In fact, one way to find it without knowing the exact address is to look in the "comedy" section of the Yahoo search engine for the link.

Throughout its lifetime, drunkatpurdue.com has received mixed reviews. Neverclear said, "With every 1,000 friends you get 2,000 enemies." He added that even representation of the responses is to their credit.

The opposition has not discouraged them, though; it makes them laugh.

"We do not force people to look at the site," they said. The creators encourage those who dislike it to leave.

"Ninja," a freshman in the Schools of Engineering and a creator, added, "We don't care about the pessimists."

For them, the purpose of the site is to show that there is more than one aspect of college life, and "people have to kick back and have fun and balance the different parts." Drunkatpurdue.com, the creators said, offers a look into what people do other than go to school.

Purdue has shown a lot of opposition to the Web site, which Neverclear and Ninja said is not right because "Purdue doesn't look at the skill required to make it; they only see 'drunk'."

The creators added that what they are doing is really an application of the material they are taught in school.

A disclaimer written by the creators emphasizes both the comical aspect and the individual choice to access the site. The disclaimer pops up before anyone can enter the Web site, and it is there to tell people what the site is about.

"By hitting 'OK', people lose their right to complain," Neverclear said.

Drunkatpurdue.com has many parts to it. The creators mentioned that the site offers a forum for people to "spout off whatever they feel like." There's a place for people to get together and write down what they're thinking, a section of real stories and pictures from people, and a mailing list for the more faithful members.

There is a somewhat controversial party list, which the creators said is underground and only for regular followers.

"Nobody has been busted because of our site," they said. They added that the people who submit the parties are "normal students — not those who run it."

Moreover, the creators said they have no plans to discontinue the site, despite the arguments that have been raised. They emphasized that they are "not about representing Purdue as a drunken college experience," but only want to show that there are different aspects to college life other than academics.