If you've ever wondered about the guy who sat next to you in French class freshman year, or the girl in the library wearing the Ramones tee shirt, here is your chance to find out all about them.
Following the success of such wildly popular Web sites as last year's Friendster, UB has launched their own social networking service called UBfacebook.
In it, students and alumni can create their own personal profiles, sharing as little or as much information as they want.
Those searching for information about other students were previously limited to the bare bones material available in the UB Student Directory. While the directory provides information such as student names and majors, the UBfacebook allows access for much more.
The profiles contain standard contact information and vital statistics, but with many more details than those offered in The Student Directory. According to what each person has decided to share with the online community, students can find dorm addresses, screen names, even cell phone numbers and home addresses.
Students can enter their political views, list their favorite music, movies, books and hobbies, and then click on each category for a compilation of other students with similar interests.
This feature might not work as well for people like Dan Gajewski. Under the interests category he listed "shiny objects." There were no matches. Perhaps it will be his sense of humor that will draw people in. The self-portrait photo he selected for his profile looks like a Pez dispenser with the head of a Keebler elf.
Kurt Denniston, who listed "stuff," and "things," as his interests, had better luck. There are at least 27 other folks out there who enjoy such generalities.
The face book offers a search feature, so users can look for a specific person by name or according to a number of different search criteria. Students can also browse profile after profile, clicking on whatever thumbnail photo catches their fancy.
Each file is equipped with messaging capabilities and its own mailbox. The profile even asks for your dating status, suggesting it can be used as a sort of matchmaking service.
Some people, like Mike Ramirez, sophomore legal studies major, find that feature a bit disconcerting.
"There are stalkers out there, people might get obsessive, they see someone's picture and they might fall in love with them and follow them around," he said.
Another place that dating pops up is in a drop-down list offered for the fill-in-the-blank category of "I want to meet people for ..." The options, besides "Dating," include "School stuff," "Friendship," "Relationship" and "Whatever I can get."
Many students said they see the face book as an exciting opportunity to make new friends and to keep in touch with old ones.
"Because UB is such a big campus, the face book is a great opportunity to meet people who you wouldn't have the chance to talk to under ordinary circumstances," said Franci Grossman, a senior psychology major.
Grossman, who just recently posted her profile, originally went to the Web page just to check out what other people had posted.
Like Friendster, UBfacebook urges users to invite friends to use the community. Those friends are kept in rosters, which can come to include friends-of-friends, and provide for an ever-widening social circle.
Katrina Zak, a junior English major, decided to join UBfacebook about a week before the start of the new semester.
"They sent out an e-mail towards the end of the summer promoting the site, so I thought I'd check it out," Zak said. "It seemed like a fun idea; another way of meeting other UB students."
Out of the close to 30,000 students who attend UB, there are only about 1300 existing profiles. That might change once the word gets out and individual Web communities begin to grow.
"When I received the e-mail about the UBfacebook I dismissed it, questioning whether or not it was worth my time," said Kristen Howard, a junior Biology major. "Now that I know a little more about it, I can see how students could enjoy it."
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
