The creator of Boredatbutler.com, responding to a request by Columbia officials to remove the Web site's implied affiliation with the University, enacted multiple design changes over winter break to the popular discussion forum known for its often offensive content.

Andre Clarke, SEAS '05 wrote a complaint to University President Lee Bollinger criticizing the forum and questioning the presence of Columbia's crown logo and the name of the Web site, which only allows visitors who are either logged on from the University or who have a Columbia e-mail address to post.

"Columbia students are posting extremely racist and derogatory comments and what they believe to be 'jokes'," Clarke wrote in his e-mail to Bollinger. "I find it appalling and shameful that almost three years after the incident involving The Fed's 'Wacky Fun Whitey' Black History Month comic strip we find the comments on this site as a sign of Columbia's 'progress'."

Clarke attached thirty minutes-worth of comments from Dec. 14, 2006. Among the posts was one calling Columbia men's basketball head coach Joe Jones "a fuckin KFC eatin 40 ounce havin porch monkey" and another reading "Why are jews so good at math? They got all the answers burned on their arms."

Soon after receiving Clarke's e-mail, University administrators notified the creator of Boredatbutler.com, Jonathan Pappas, CC '06, and within two days Pappas took down the crown logo and put a disclaimer at the bottom of every page stating that the forum "is not affiliated with Columbia University."

Clarke was not the only one disturbed by the postings. "I have a hard time believing that one hundred percent of these comments are jokes," Gustavo Garcia, SEAS '06 said. "I think their [Columbia University's] number-one interest is removing themselves. ... They should try to make people aware of this instead of taking such a passive move."

Pappas, Clarke, and Garcia said they believed that the controversial postings were made by a few individuals rather than by a large number of students.

Pappas has since introduced Boredatbutler.com Beta. In addition to removing the logo and adding a disclaimer, which Pappas said satisfied administrators, he has changed the colors and layout and has enabled users to directly post YouTube videos.

Pappas also revamped the Web site to include a swear-word-counting algorithm that rates the appropriateness of a post based on the number of controversial words and removes the post should the count get too high. When asked what the underlying objective is for Boredatbutler.com, Pappas said he wants to "create a forum or a space where people can speak freely ... an infinite spectrum of extreme brilliance to extreme ignorance. Every once in a while the brilliance of someone's comment will shine through."