Written by Amethyst Martinez
The marketing campaign, powered by the newly introduced “Fizz” app, is happening everywhere on campus, including through flyers tucked under dorm doors, Rider student social media, and direct messages on LinkedIn. .
The new social media app, which allows students to anonymously discuss college-related topics, was launched on Rider’s campus more than a week ago and has taken on a life of its own ever since.
Fizz says it has no relationship with the universities it serves. This means that schools cannot access the application’s content or data. Essentially, this is a wasteland of anonymous postings in which rider officials have no say.
The free app has no ads, the website says it doesn’t generate any revenue, and is currently dependent on a team of investors to run it.
Multiple Rider students have been contacted on LinkedIn for job opportunities to become moderators on the app, responsible for creating posts while screening out dangerous and negative content.
Cecilia Simon, a junior political science major, was approached for a job on LinkedIn, but was ultimately “ghosted” by the employer.
What was expected of her? Simon was paid about $500 a month to do moderator duties, such as deleting posts that didn’t follow community guidelines, and was required to make at least 30 posts a day.
Simon said the representatives who contacted him were looking to hire students who were familiar with the university’s culture and community.
Employee contracts included non-disclosure agreements, which prevented moderators from speaking to Rider News unless they were granted complete anonymity.
One of the app’s paid moderators estimated that about 10 students, including themselves, currently moderate the site.
Moderators were also contacted about job opportunities through LinkedIn, as employers can see their educational background and where they went to school.
“We have to…post every day, every time,” the host said. “We use apps all day long.”
The hiring process includes a training session for moderator duties that outlines what types of content are not allowed, including bullying and personal information, hate speech, misinformation, obscene content, spam, and illegal content. It was.
According to the Fizz website, moderators can see other posts that other users see, but they can also remove posts that don’t follow the guidelines.
“All moderators are trained to be objective, and Fizz moderation works like a democratic voting system, so no single moderator has the power to remove a post,” Web said. It is written on the site.
The app is now expanding externally to other schools across the U.S., according to the website, after two Stanford University students noticed a lack of connection between their communities due to campus restrictions due to the pandemic. It was started by.
Fizz launched on Rider about a week ago, and anonymous moderators estimated that about 1,000 students at the university were using the app.
“We’ve seen significant growth over the past week, and more and more people continue to get the app,” they said. “I think a lot will happen by the end of the month.”
When asked if he had ever seen bullying or hate speech on the app, the moderator said it was miniscule compared to the amount of daily postings by students.
Fizz also features an on-app leadership board of top users, including number of posts, highest likes, and more.
Rider News spoke to the student who ranks No. 1 on the Fizz Karma Leaderboard. The student requested anonymity due to the app’s secret posting method.
They currently sit around 16,000 points on the leaderboard, almost 10,000 points higher than the second place holder.
The student said Fiz also contacted him on LinkedIn about a year ago, but he no longer works for the company. They decided to give the app a try after seeing flyers scattered around campus this semester.
“I feel like this app is going to languish a little bit unless we introduce more ways to be different, if that makes sense,” the student said. “Since this was a new app for Rider, I thought I had to work on it and let people know that you all need to step up.”
He is also a moderator of reported posts for students’ top scores, but is unpaid by the company.
“This is basically a council of moderators that makes sure all content is regulated, but free speech is not taken away,” the student said.
Posts on the app vary. These include oversharing bad habits, complaints from roommates, the daily monotony of student life, and dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with the university.
“I starved to death on campus. [because] They decided to close all restaurants,” wrote an anonymous poster who cast 112 yes votes.
“If you think we should be eliminated, make a noise.” [W]Please remove Endy’s and replace it with something better,” said another poster who upvoted the post with 814 votes.
Overall, the social media app has expanded to other universities across the country and is gaining popularity among students, even as other anonymous posting apps such as YikYak, founded in 2013, have languished. , must prove its longevity.