Topix was originally set up as a hyperlocal news aggregator - every community got a separate page. It never took off in the big cities, but in small towns across America it became popular as a place to exchange gossip, the more salacious, the better. Each poster can be as anonymous as they like, with a new name for each post if they want, and are identified only by geographic location.
So you get unsubstantiated allegations such as a (named) woman who worked at the local dentist as being a home-wrecker with herpes, a guy who worked at the gas station as being a drug dealer, a mother as being "a methed-out, doped-out whore with AIDS, and a 13 year old girl being "preggo by her mommy's man."
The site is particularly popular in what social scientists call "the feud states": the Ozarks, Appalachia and the rural South.
In theory the site screens out offensive content that is racist or threatening or obviously libelous, but much remains. The owners say they get about one subpoena a day for the IP addresses of anonymous commentators either for police investigations or for civil suits. Topix, as an Internet forum, is protected under free speech laws, but individual posters can be sued if they can be found. But many don't have the money to sue, and as one woman said: "In a small town, rumours stay forever."
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