“The Daily Jolt is really about having both constructive and positive conversations about things going on, whether it’s to find out about a class or get advice on life questions or to talk about news and events as they happen, in a real time way,” explained Woolf.
From the start, the Daily Jolt has been helping people on college campuses such as Amherst’s communicate about on-campus news and events. The Jolt has always been known for its forum, which allows users to post in a blog format. Additional features range from a food guide to an events calendar to job listings. The new Jolt will allow users to post on the front-page blog as well as to include their own personal blogs on the site. The overall site has an updated look and feel in hopes of making it more user-friendly. One of the main new features is the flyer board on the homepage, a green initiative that provides students and groups with an easy way to let people know about events on campus without having to print out flyers.
Three Amherst students — Jen Romanowicz ’09, Krystyn Elek ’10 and Santiago Angel ’10 — run the Jolt. “The Daily Jolt is really about the Amherst community, and [these three students] are the ones who actually promote, moderate, and update the content on the site,” Woolf explained.
As Romanowicz detailed, “We’ve lost a lot of steam over the last few years. People used to go to the Jolt for dining menus, weather and links, all of which are now available on the campus intranet. Events were another mainstay of the old Jolt, but Facebook events exploded in popularity and events submitted to the Jolt decreased. And then the debut of the Amherst Confessional and the increased anonymity allowed by that site took a lot of traffic away from the forum. We are updating the site so that the new Jolt can continue to add something to our school’s online community. It is more user-interactive than ever before. I believe it will fill a niche not yet occupied by the plethora of other Amherst websites. It provides a space for students on campus to come together, let each other know what’s going on and argue over how we feel about it.”
When asked about the new Jolt, Angel said, “I don’t know what’s going to change, that doesn’t affect me at all. I just have to write the front page.” Angel met Woolf while bartending at the College’s reunion weekend in the spring of 2008. “I was bored and intentionally trying to piss off some alums. Max came up to me and offered me a job writing for the site,” Angel explained. “I didn’t want to do it at first, for obvious reasons, but he offered me an obscene amount of money. So I do that. Also, I get paid to spam the Confessional,” Angel admitted, adding, “Oh whoops Max, was I not supposed to say that? How awful of me to compromise the sterling dignity of the Jolt.”