Move over, Pennster - but don't leave just yet.
Penn's social network for incoming freshmen saw the lowest number of users this summer than ever before in its four-year history.
Pennster managers are currently discussing the future of the site - whether to improve it or can it.
Numbers indicate that though 72 percent of this year's incoming freshmen logged onto Pennster over the summer, already an 11 percent drop since last year, very few actually used its features.
There were roughly two-thirds fewer posts than last year in both general and hall-specific forums.
The site is open to incoming freshmen, who create profiles for themselves and use message boards during the summer before the school year starts. Some message boards are divided by College House and floor.
But with the increasing popularity of other social-networking Web sites - particularly Facebook - Pennster may be more trouble than it's worth.
"I logged into Pennster initially but stopped using it . since nobody else used it," Engineering freshman Rachel Egan said.
Many would-be users said creating a new Pennster profile was too much of a hassle after already having set up a Facebook account.
College junior and residential advisor Jean Lee said she avoided using Pennster because it looked really confusing.
"I was basically too lazy to read the directions on how to use it," she said.
And Pennster organizers do acknowledge the site's drawbacks.
New Student Orientation coordinator Troy Majnerick, who helps manage Pennster, said he accepts that it is less popular than other Web networks.
Facebook "pretty much has a monopoly on social networking," Majnerick said.
In a bizarrely symbiotic relationship, College House Computing used Facebook ads to advertise Pennster to the Class of 2011.
But that's not necessarily luring more students to Pennster.
"A lot of students just friended me on Facebook," Philosophy graduate student and graduate advisor Collin Anthony said. "So I assumed that Facebook was the medium most utilized."
So should Pennster be shut down?
Not necessarily.
Engineering freshman William McGill said he preferred using Facebook but recognized that Pennster had its advantages.
"Facebook could probably replace Pennster, but it shouldn't," he said. "The ability to narrow down students to those who you would be living with was really nice."
Nursing graduate student and GA Mary Dawn Hennessy said she supports keeping Pennster, even though she stopped using it this year in her fifth stint as a GA.
"The thing about Pennster is that it's secure and only certain people can access it," she said.
For now, the future of Pennster remains a bit hazy.
"If it's not serving the students and not providing them a service, then we must decide whether it's worth the resources to develop a new version," Majnerick said.
