University Compliment Facebook Pages
About
University Compliment Pages are anonymous Facebook pages where students at specific universities are invited to privately message compliments about other students which are publicly posted on the main page. The posts are often genuine compliments directed at a specific person or group of people but sometimes include inside jokes within the school community similar to University Meme pages.
Origin
On September 12th, 2011, a group of four undergraduates at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada started a Facebook account titled Queens U Compliments[1] (sic) with the idea that other Queen's University students could send a message to the profile's inbox sharing positive praise of someone else on campus. One of the four creators, Rachel Albi, Erica Gagne, Jessica Jonker or Amanda Smurthwaite, would then publish the comment from the account. As of January 2013, the account has 5000 friends and 208 additional subscribers.
Spread
Shortly after the Queens U Compliments took off, the creators started a private group called University Compliments[2] as a hub space for other universities and institutions. By November 14th, the Facebook trend had been picked up by various college newspapers including Yale[3], Penn State[4], Tufts[5], University of Arizona[6] Princeton University[8] and New York University.[7] Many of these articles discussed the pages in a positive light, but a few doubted whether or not the students at their universities would abuse the anonymity as a platform for veiled harassment or mean-spirited discourse disguised as a compliment.
News Media Coverage
Facebook University Compliment pages saw their first boost from news media coverage on November 29th, 2012, when TIME's tech blog[9] featured an article about the Queen’s University page. Following this report, similar articles about Facebook Compliment pages were featured on the Huffington Post[10], CBC News[11], NBC News[12], New York Daily News[13], The Observer[14] and Seventeen Magazine.[15]
Notable Examples
Messages
Pages
- Arizona State University[31]
- Bates College[20]
- Boston College[19]
- Boston University[40]
- Brown University[24]
- Chapman University[16]
- Cooper Union [37]
- Cornell University[60]
- Drew University[29]
- Emerson University[41]
- Harvard University[59]
- Hofstra University[44]
- McGill University[42]
- New York University[22]
- New School[47]
- Penn State[28]
- Queens University[43]
- Rider University[25]
- Rutgers University[36]
- Santa Clara University[35]
- Sarah Lawrence[38]
- Seattle University[45]
- Stanford Compliments[26]
- State University of New York Geneseo[34]
- Swarthmore College[27]
- Syracuse University[39]
- Tufts University[23]
- University of Arizona[33]
- University of British Columbia[32]
- University of Calgary[17]
- University of California, Berkeley[53]
- University of California, San Diego[50]
- University of Canterbury, New Zealand[49]
- University of Central Missouri[51]
- University of Los Angeles[52]
- University of Massachusetts Amherst[18]
- University of Michigan[48]
- University of Oregon[56]
- University of Southern California[30]
- University of Texas, Arlington
- University of Texas, Austin[57]
- University of Tulsa[46]
- University of Washington[55]
- Western Washington University[54]
- Yale University[21]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Facebook – Queens U Compliments
[2] Facebook – University Compliments
[3] The Yale Herald Bullblog – Ways Yale kids are gonna ruin Yale Compliments
[4] Onward State – “Penn State Compliments” Page Spreads Happiness
[5] The Tufts Daily – Tufts Free Compliments helps promote positive psychology on Facebook
[6] Daily Wildcat – UA Compliments page on Facebook gaining popularity
[7] NYU Local – Can NYU Have A Successful Facebook ‘Compliments’ Account?
[8] The Daily Princetonian – With anonymity, students compliment each other on Facebook
[9] TIME – All You Need Is (Facebook) Love: ‘Compliments’ Accounts Go Viral at Colleges and Universities
[10] Huffington Post – University Compliments Pages Spread Kindness And Good Cheer
[11] CBC News – Queen's University Facebook page sparks anonymous compliments trend
[12] NBC News – Cyber-graciousness: Students set up Facebook sites for compliments
[13] Daily News – Cyber-graciousness? New craze in Facebook pages allows users to anonymously post compliments about community members
[14] The Observer – Spreading happiness, one compliment at a time
[15] seventeen – students spread happiness on facebook!
[16] Facebook – Chapman University Compliments
[17] Facebook – U of C Compliments
[18] Facebook – UMass Amherst Compliments
[19] Facebook – Boston College Compliments
[20] Facebook – Bates College Compliments
[21] Facebook – Yale Compliments
[22] Facebook – NYU Compliments
[23] Facebook – Tufts Free Compliments
[24] Facebook – Brown University Compliments
[25] Facebook – Rider Compliments
[26] Facebook – Stanford Compliments
[27] Facebook – Swarthmore Compliments
[28] Facebook – Penn State Compliments
[29] Facebook – Drew Compliments
[30] Facebook – University of Southern California
[31] Facebook – ASU Compliments
[32] Facebook – UBC Compliments
[33] Facebook – UA Compliments
[34] Facebook – Geneseo Compliments
[35] Facebook – SCU Compliments
[36] Facebook – Rutgers Compliments
[37] Facebook – Cooper Compliments
[38] Facebook – Sarah Lawrence Compliments
[39] Facebook – Syracuse University Compliments
[40] Facebook – Boston University Compliments
[41] Facebook – Emerson University Compliments
[42] Facebook – McGill University Compliments
[43] Facebook – QueensU Compliments
[44] Facebook – Hofstra University Compliments
[45] Facebook – Seattle University Compliments
[46] Facebook – University of Tulsa Compliments
[47] Facebook – New School Compliments
[48] Facebook – University of Michigan Compliments
[49] Facebook – University of Canterbury, NZ Compliments
[50] Facebook – University of California, San Diego Compliments
[51] Facebook – University of Central Missouri Compliments
[52] Facebook – University of Los Angeles Compliments
[53] Facebook – University of California, Berkeley Compliments
[54] Facebook – University of Western Washington Compliments
[55] Facebook – University of Washington Compliments
[56] Facebook – University of Oregon Compliments
[57] Facebook – University of Texas Austin Compliments
[58] Facebook – University of Texas Arlington Compliments
[59] Facebook – Harvard Crushes and Compliments
[60] Facebook – Cornell Compliments
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Top Comments
Duchess BrushieBrush
Jan 05, 2013 at 02:54PM EST
Sleeping Entity
Jan 05, 2013 at 01:08AM EST