Deadlines, Love, and Politics: SOASk Me Out Interview

Archie Thomas, BA Politics and International Relations

A group of first-years desperate to find love. It’s a common predicament on campus, but five years ago, SOAS didn’t have a place to anonymously confess your crush and have it published for all to see. So between two classes, this group of five friends decided to change that. On 22 January 2018, the first submission to ‘SOASk Me Out’ was posted, and a cornerstone of SOAS student culture was born.

Today, SOASk Me Out has evolved to become more than just a crush page. The admins describe it as ‘a space for students to feel safe to express their ideas and ask for advice, especially for new students that might not be fully accustomed to SOAS.’ I interviewed the anonymous admins of SOASk Me Out to learn more about their creation, the challenges involved, and their favourite submissions. 

‘It really started as a joke, we spent so long trying to figure out a wordplay with SOAS. We would have never imagined that it would become such an important part of the SOAS student life’

They told me about how the page has grown: ‘It really started as a joke; we spent so long trying to figure out a wordplay with SOAS. We would have never imagined that it would become such an important part of the SOAS student life …we rapidly saw that the students of SOAS needed a space where they could ask for advice, and that’s how the page became what it is today. At that time, there wasn’t any other space to ask for advice or give opinions that weren’t made directly by SOAS. So SOASkMeOut really became a free space to just express yourself as a SOAS student.’

Scrolling through the more than 17,200 posts offers a great insight into the culture of SOAS. Though the page started with the realisation that ‘SOAS didn’t have a crush page like UCL’ it has matured into a page that is uniquely SOAS. The admins ‘take a lot of pride in how this page has developed from just a crush page to a page that actually represents SOAS. The way we discuss in-depth real issues and take into account global context and intersectionality is really unique.’

Of course, it isn’t all a positive reflection of SOAS. ‘We get a bit of everything on this page… I think a good chunk of the submissions are trolls because the page is anonymous. Being anonymous has its disadvantages. If you want to know the best reflection of SOAS they are the people who comment on the posts.’

I asked the admins about their favourite confessions: ‘Some of my favourite confessions are often the ones that start trends. For example, in 2020, a student submitted something like: “is it okay to work for MI5 as a SOAS student?” and it started a huge trend of other students submitting confessions putting their own silly twist on the question.’

Censorship is often discussed on the page. With their claim to be ‘a free space to just express yourself as a SOAS student,’ I asked them about this crucial topic: How does the page censor the confessions? What do you censor? How much do you have to censor? Do you have any specific guidelines for it? 

‘Technically speaking, we do not have official guidelines when it comes to censoring the posts because, as we said before, it’s a page for students to express themselves; however, we draw the line at anything that can be harmful or hateful… we also put up to vote any submissions that we are unsure of. When political/general debate becomes too overwhelming, or people message us with their concerns, we delete all pending submissions and the posts that are causing too much anguish.’

On the page, there are often calls for no censorship whatsoever. The admins explained why this didn’t work when they tried it: ‘the submissions became more and more hateful, and it ended up being a platform for bullying, which wasn’t our intention. Around this time, people would criticise the SU extensively just to be hurtful. We ended up receiving a warning from the SU and feared they would take it to the board of SOAS. Although it was already in discussion between admins to start monitoring the submissions again, this accelerated the process.’

From the interview, it was clear that the admins were proud of their creation, ‘Hearing people talk about it on campus is surreal.’ They thanked ‘everyone who has submitted confessions, liked our posts, given us suggestions and interacted with us on our platforms. Even people who have messaged us to take things down or critiqued us, thank you all so much. We love this page and how it allows people to be involved in the community in such a unique way… We hope we can continue to bring you all entertainment as the years go by.’