Why did you make me reincarnate?

Jiang Mingbai's expression was filled with excitement: "Damn, if this works out, our forum will be buzzing with excitement!"

The group discussed some more details, and Xu Chaoyang presented several eye-catching solutions.

Xie Shu discovered that although this junior from the School of Management did not know how to write code, he could talk about these things very eloquently, and some of his views were even novel to Xie Shu.

For example, forums cannot be just academic exchange tools, otherwise user stickiness will be too poor. Users need to feel a sense of belonging so that they will stay and produce content spontaneously.

They wholeheartedly agreed, saying that the school's official forum interface was too ugly and the operation was counterintuitive, so few people posted there.

Seeing Xie Shu's interest, Xu Chaoyang briefly explained Facebook's early development path. After listening, Xie Shu remained silent for a while, clearly considering whether this move was feasible.

Xu Chaoyang gave far more than just funds; he even explained how to set up user levels to increase interest and how to use a points system to encourage posting.

These common internet tactics were a game-changer in 2002.

Xie Shu and the others weren't fools, and they quickly understood his line of thinking.

That evening, Xie Shu sent an email to everyone in the discussion group, outlining the proposed solution.

The post concluded with a note: "The server rental and event promotion costs were fully sponsored by Xu Chaoyang, a student from the Finance Class 2 of the School of Management. It is recommended that he be listed as a co-initiator of the forum project."

From that day on, Xu Chaoyang received calls not only from Lu Qingqing and Ming Songhan.

Xie Shu would send him several messages a day, all asking questions about forum operations.

The forum officially launched on the second weekend.

There was no official announcement or publicity, except that Jiang Mingbai posted a message in several college QQ groups.

The gist is that we created a campus forum with a section where people can upload photos and participate in a contest. Everyone is welcome to participate. Even the name was just randomly chosen: "VV Goddess Contest".

For the first two days, there was not much activity. A few students registered accounts sporadically, and most of the photos they uploaded were casual everyday snapshots.

Jiang Mingbai looked at the dozen or so users in the backend, scratched his head and said that it was probably doomed. Xie Shu didn't care, saying that it was just an experiment anyway, so if no one played it, just leave it.

Things suddenly changed the following afternoon.

The incident began when a user with the ID "West Lake Reeds" uploaded a set of photos showing the profile of a female student from the Foreign Languages ​​Department reading by a library window.

This user is probably a photography enthusiast. They used very professional equipment, and the resolution is much higher than those previous mobile phone photos, making the girl look like a cover model.

"This is a masterpiece, it's so beautiful that I couldn't resist sharing it with everyone."

Within two hours of the post being published, dozens of replies appeared, all asking which college the girl was from.

In just one afternoon, the post received over 500 views.

Jiang Mingbai sent Xu Chaoyang a message on QQ: "Holy crap, Chaoyang, look at the posts in the Goddess section, it looks like it's gone viral!"

After seeing the message, Xu Chaoyang logged onto the forum. The post had already been pushed to the top of the section, and the number of replies was still increasing.

Scrolling down the comments, everyone said this selection was interesting and started actively voting and posting.

"Anyone from the School of Earth Sciences? I heard you have a really pretty junior named Jiang Banxia, ​​can I have a picture of her?"

In less than half an hour, Jiang Banxia's photo was uploaded.

The poster claimed to be a student from the Geology Institute and uploaded a side profile photo of Jiang Banxia by the laboratory window.

She was wearing a white lab coat, and her hair was a bit longer than it was in high school, casually tied back.

The comments section exploded, with one person typing a long string of exclamation marks, saying that the Geology Department actually had beauties of this caliber.

Jiang Mingbai was looking at the data in the background. The number of registered users had exceeded one thousand in a very short time, and the server almost couldn't handle it.

Xu Chaoyang looked at the photo, his expression unchanged.

He never expected that he would see Jiang Banxia again after starting university in this way.

It's not surprising, really. She was already famous in the Geology Institute. Even without this forum, she would be a well-known figure on the Yuquan Campus.

"Should we try to control ourselves?"

Xie Shu asked on QQ, "There are too many posts. If this continues, it might cause trouble."

"Find a few senior students to review them. As long as the photos don't involve privacy, there shouldn't be a big problem," Xu Chaoyang replied.

Xie Shu did as instructed and pinned the announcement protecting personal information, which only made the comments section even more lively.

"The official involvement means this event is quite formal."

As more and more people uploaded photos, someone from the law school uploaded a photo of their famous senior sister, which received unanimous praise. The humanities and foreign languages ​​departments argued for several pages in the thread because of the differences in the styles of the two candidates.

Meanwhile, a student who had just finished playing Legend of Mir at an internet cafe opened the forum and scrolled through the name wheel idly. His eyes lit up when he saw Jiang Banxia's photo.

He casually forwarded it to Sina.com, adding the caption: "The number one goddess of Zhejiang University's School of Geology."

This post spread like wildfire, like a pebble thrown into calm water, and even made it to the front page of a major online portal.

Many people registered on the VV forum just to see the original post, and the number of users quietly reached a staggering five thousand late that night.

Even Xu Chaoyang was somewhat surprised, as he had originally thought that the goddess voting was at most a small-scale entertainment activity.

A few colleges at Zhejiang University were just having fun, getting some students involved, maybe two or three hundred people at most for the sake of excitement. Unexpectedly, a casually taken photo increased the forum's traffic by more than ten times.

As Xu Chaoyang was thinking, Xie Shu suddenly sent him a message.

"Teacher Wang is coming back tomorrow and says she wants to talk to you, so be prepared."

On Wednesday afternoon, Xu Chaoyang met the legendary eccentric mentor in the duty room. The mentor was in his early twenties, wearing a plaid shirt that was worn soft from washing, and spoke with a slight Shaoxing accent.

"Xiao Xie told me about the server issue."

Wang Yu cut to the chase without a word of politeness: "You're a student from the School of Management, what made you think of investing money in the forum?"

"Senior Brother Xie mentioned it briefly, and I found it quite interesting."

Xu Chaoyang didn't beat around the bush and said everything he had in mind, including the forum's positioning and operational strategy.

After listening quietly, Wang Yu nodded with a slight brightening in his eyes: "You have a lot of ideas, even though you don't understand the technical aspects..."

He tapped his fingers on the table twice: "Since you paid for it, the domain name belongs to you now, but the idea is mine. Let's set some rules to avoid future disputes..."

The important part of this meeting is coming, and Xu Chaoyang is taking it very seriously.

"The technical framework and copyright belong to our academic group, there's no room for negotiation on that..."

"no problem."

"But you rented the server, and the forum's initial explosive popularity is all thanks to you."

Wang Yu looked at him through his thick glasses, "You have actual control of the website. The team is only responsible for technical maintenance and iteration. To put it bluntly, we are technical consultants. The website is yours. Remember to treat us to a meal when it gets big."

This person was indeed as eccentric as the legends said. Xu Chaoyang was worried that he might try to take the fruit, but he handed over the ownership without saying a word.

Xu Chaoyang said sincerely, "We can invite you now."