Co-founder of Kursikl to students: “Forgive me for everything”

The co-founder of Coursesicle, a popular course scheduling app, recently apologized for a manic episode last year in which he sent several controversial push notifications to students.

A year after sending disturbing push notifications to students via his popular course scheduling app, Coursicle co-founder Joe Puccio apologizes to users, saying the incident triggered a mental health episode. Puccio, who reached out to student publications across the country to convey his apologies, said he was going through a manic episode at the time he sent out the notices.

A year ago, in February 2022, Puccio sent out millions of notifications, including “Twitter is going to die today”, “I love you” and “I’ll shut up if you open the app, click on a naked body and follow the instructions.”

During the outbreak, Puccio was quoted in Motherboard article explaining that he was trying to wake people up to the dangers of capitalism. Kursik will return to normal “as soon as we feel like we’ve achieved what we wanted,” he told a Motherboard reporter.

Puccio says more than 10,000 NYU students use the Coursesicle website and app, which allows students to enter the name of an NYU course and instantly display it on a digital calendar. He said the biggest impact of his actions is that the University of North Carolina High School, a subsidiary of Chapel Hill, temporarily blocked a student app on the school’s Wi-Fi.

course, are you okay? pic.twitter.com/VFjBJRhNWN

— Chardorn (@char_dorn) February 8, 2022

Dan Ahmad, an NYU sophomore who regularly uses Coursicle, said he personally encountered Puccio’s problem with the app but continues to use it. He said he received various strange notices on Kursikle during the incident.

Ahmad also said that he contacted Puccio on Twitter and Reddit after reading several long social media rants and offered to speak to him to help clear his mind.

“My conversation with him was limited because he insisted that he was fine and that all communications with him should be public so that others could see them,” Ahmad said. “It was clear he was in trouble, but there’s little you can do for someone you don’t know personally.”

The Coursicle employee is now in constant contact with Puccio, who was hospitalized after the incident but has since recovered. According to him, an employee can block his access to the company’s servers to prevent similar incidents in the future. Puccio also published an apology essay on his blog.

“I hope this essay helps in the fight to destigmatize mental illness and also explains what happened to our users,” Puccio wrote in an email, apologizing to several WSN editors. “NYU students use Coursesicle and have probably been affected by crashes and notifications, I believe it will be helpful for your readers as well.”

I just want to see my schedule

— Chandler Cagle (@chandlercagle_) February 7, 2022

Puccio said he wants to use the apology as an opportunity to educate people about mental health issues.

“I want to use this as an opportunity to evangelize and educate people about mental health issues,” Puccio said. “This is a very candid essay that attempts to show people what these diseases do, so hopefully if you get to know them yourself, it will be empathy.”

Ahmad, a student at New York University, found Puccio’s apology satisfactory. He said people tend to turn a blind eye to mental health issues and that Puccio’s online followers are the only reason he got the help he needed.

“We all knew that Puccio had a mental disorder,” Ahmad said. “We removed his notifications and continued to use his app. After reading his apology, I’m just glad he’s better.”

Contact Jezen Saada by phone [email protected]