In the face of slander, this is what I want to say.

This is my third impulse to stop the "HelloGWU" project.

When I woke up this morning, a friend told me on WeChat that someone was publicly "slandering" me and HelloGWU. To be honest, I was already used to it. Ever since I helped freshmen prevent fraud in 2014, there have always been a few people stabbing them in the back. This kind of familiar argument always appears from time to time, especially when freshmen are about to come, but what can I do besides being angry? I used to be in the student community and many people knew me, so the rumors naturally stopped at people who were familiar with me. Now that I have gradually left this group, I am unable to respond to any "slander", and it will be very weak to prove it.

It has been six years since the HelloGWU project was founded. At first, it was just because I wanted to make it a platform for myself and my classmates. Later, I reorganized the student association and gradually became the largest in Washington. The support and dedication of classmates and friends are indispensable. The original intention of all this is based on realizing self-worth. HelloGWU has always insisted on being non-profit. Due to the influence of the platform, many businesses come to our door every month hoping for sponsorship, advertising, etc. Those businesses that help students, I give very low promotion fees to help spread the word, while those businesses that have other ideas for students, I reject. It's not because I don't need the money, but I don't want to hurt or mislead my classmates.

HelloGWU's current server fee is nearly 500 US dollars per month, and its main source of income is Google AD. Many people are disgusted with those ads, but this is a compromise to maintain operating costs. In 2014, I modified the system to minimize human costs, thereby reducing advertising and allowing HelloGWU to break even (it still cannot make ends meet most of the time). Any development and updates are out of my personal love for the community and do not add any functionality to track or utilize user data.

A few months ago, because the mobile client has not been updated in four years and the experience is extremely poor and always crashes, it was removed from the App Store and Google Play. After it was removed, many friends came to me privately and said that it was inconvenient not to have the APP, so I used the resources I had to create a "foreign place". First, let’s try with friends to see if we can make some meaningful attempts, and second, let’s fill the gaps in the APP. During the use process, we also discovered many problems. It's not that we don't want to solve them, but that we really have limited time. I am very happy to see everyone's happiness after using the product, and continue to design and develop new features, but I have to work during the day, so the progress will be slow.

And for such a service-oriented non-profit project, every time there is a major update (I am so bored that I still update it, look at the website next door, who still updates it, it just works), there will always be someone who comes out to slander it. Most websites of the same type in the United States eventually disappeared, either because the people who maintained them returned to China, or because the costs were too high and they could no longer continue. HelloGWU is also facing the same problem. Now I just rely on my personal enthusiasm and sense of responsibility to keep doing it. I am losing hundreds of dollars every month and have to face groundless accusations. If this is the case, I may not be able to escape the fate of closure in the end.

After reading today’s “slander”, it is not only directed at HelloGWU, but also against me, saying that I have a “bad character” (I don’t know where the fabricated story was, saying that I was blablabla in 2012, I was still in China in 2012), saying that HelloGWU stole everyone’s information (they didn’t even have time to develop, what else do they need from you?), and asked everyone not to register. Regarding me, I have nothing to argue with, because I cannot prove it myself. Everyone is welcome to come and make friends with me and get to know me better. Regarding HelloGWU, I just want to say: "Please be responsible for your words, and don't make the environment worse and make it inconvenient for everyone."

I don’t know if “he” hates HelloGWU’s efforts in cracking down on scammers, the new services we provide, or he hates me and the entire world? Please think about and prove everything, and don't be used by evil people.

In fact, what is even more chilling than the slander is that no one has spoken out. Think about it, for most freshmen, the connection or relationship with HelloGWU has been very weak. They don’t know the operator of the platform or its history. Everyone treats it as a third-party product, so naturally they can’t say anything. You may even feel that it is too different from domestic products and is really difficult to use! (For this, after a period of adaptation, they will find that the HelloGWU experience is not the highest, but at least it is in the first echelon.)

"I don't want to do this, it's boring." This is my first reaction, and it's also my reaction every time. Freshmen come every year, and old students leave every year. I can't let everyone know who I am every year, and I don't have the time or want to do it. HelloGWU itself is a service platform based on personal interests, and you need to contribute money to the project every month. Now there is still such an argument. I am very disappointed and sad. This matter has lost its original meaning.

.........A morning has passed, and I still can't bring myself to shut it down......

Maybe one day when people tell me, "This platform can no longer help me," I will choose to terminate. After all, the people who are really being helped rarely speak out. This is also a reality.