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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: December 6, 2012
Amid the stress of Dead Week and impending finals doom, one student took it upon himself to bring cheer to campus with a Facebook community called Georgia Tech Compliments.
Facebook users can send a message to the page with a person’s name and a compliment about him or her. The page manager, who wished to remain as anonymous as his contributors, posts the messages to the page. Fans follow up by tagging the subject’s name, which notifies them of the compliment.
“Tech has the appearance of being cold and unwelcoming, and I was hoping I could do some part to change that,” he said.
The creator started the page as a study break early Tuesday morning, after seeing similar online communities at the University of Southern California and Emory University.
So far, the page has more than 1,000 likes and has posted more than 60 compliments about those in the Tech community. The page manager said he fields around six to seven submissions per hour, with increases after a compliment is posted and in the evenings.
Though starting it during Dead Week wasn’t the plan, he knew it would be a time when people could use a confidence boost. Response to the page thus far has made it worth the sacrifice of precious study time, and two additional students will soon share the load of posting comments.
“It's been extremely rewarding to see people happy and excited just to see that their hard work and dedication is being recognized,” he said.
On Thursday, one anonymous contributor sent a compliment to all Tech students: “You are the brightest, most hard working bunch of people I know. I wish I could give you all a scholarship — what an awesome bunch of students.”
The compliments idea is not the first to circulate among universities nationwide. In February, Georgia Tech Memes joined Facebook after similar pages existed at other universities.
