In 2013, a new trend gained a following across the country. High schools and colleges throughout the United States and Canada created community “compliments” pages on Facebook as a way to combat cyber-bulling.

The idea behind these pages is that any Facebook user can submit an anonymous compliment about anyone else. Unlike Formspring, which sends any submitted comment or question to other users, a moderator is in charge of the compliment site and filters out all negative comments.

In late December of 2012, a student at New Trier started a Facebook page called New Trier Compliments. The page instantly exploded in status and even inspired copycat pages like New Trier Compliments 2.

The founder, who wished to stay anonymous said that s/he started the account after seeing the positive effects of other area high school compliments sites.

Originally, the idea of the account was an experiment to see if it would work in the cutthroat environment of New Trier. The page became so popular that the founder had to reach out to another student to keep up with all the incoming messages.

Today, New Trier Compliments isn’t as popular as it was a year ago, but it still brings a smile to a person’s face every once in a while.