“Hello girls: Wanna get laid for free?”

This was one question posed in StrangeTalk, an ISU online forum.

Member Toolgirl posted, “Happens every night if you’re a girl – only the guys are desperate geeky computer nerds.”

Although this may be an extreme example, StrangeTalk is a diverse Web page that allows ISU students to post electronic messages in different forums about many topics.

Last fall when StrangeTalk began, few people knew about it. Growing quickly, StrangeTalk has been updated to Strange Talk2. Since it began, the Web page has gone from a couple people posting to becoming a very popular forum, sometimes involving around a thousand, according to Josh Carlson, junior in computer science.

Carlson took over StrangeSearch and StrangeTalk from former ISU student Dan Dunham a year ago.

“StrangeTalk caters to everyone from keeping people up to date with what is going on to giving suggestions,” Carlson said.

Ben Hagen, senior in political science, helped design the web pages and put StrangeSearch together with Dunham, who has since graduated and left StrangeSearch and StrangeTalk to the next generation of students. Hagen said that when StrangeTalk was started it was just a feature of StrangeSearch before it became its own.

“I was surprised at how it took off and had an image by itself,” Hagen said.

Aaron Fister, senior in management information systems, has been posting messages since March and now has 200 posts. He has been posting to promote “Ames Music Live,” a local music program, on ISU4. He said StrangeTalk is a good way to network and involve other students around campus.

Fister also said that posting party announcements may not be the best idea.

“This is hearsay, but I’ve heard that DPS does monitor the board and they have busted a party by using StrangeTalk,” Fister said.

Known as Travman on the site, Travis Simpson, senior in management information systems, has 520 posts since January. He said that StrangeTalk is a good thing because it allows students to express their ideas, love lives or whatever else is bugging them.

Regine Edwards, senior in anthropology, has 350 posts and thinks it is weird being a girl and going into the music portion of StrangeTalk, because most of the users are guys.

“I use the music part of StrangeTalk to find out about the new bands and albums, but I don’t usually post there,” Edwards said.

Corwin Fullbrook, sophomore in pre-journalism, works for “Ames Music Live” as a sound producer and has been posting comments about upcoming concerts.

“Recently I hosted a concert at the Terrace Room in Friley with local bands,” Fullbrook said. “It was a great turnout, but I don’t know if it was from using StrangeSearch or by word of mouth.”

To visit the site, type in strangesearch.dhs.org/strangetalk or strangesearch.dhs.org and click on StrangeTalk located under its link StrangeSearch.

StrangeTalk has a chart showing the forums, the number of topics posted and the last person to post. The forums include Iowa State, gaming, ISU network, computers, events and entertainment, music, sports, and classes. The topics and posts all vary with each forum.

If students or others want to post or reply, they must first register by clicking on register under the StrangeTalk2 logo and signing up for a username. Then they must click on one of the forums and the browser will show a list of topics.