Shhh, it's a secret

January 25, 2005 4:44 PM

Post Secret is a group confessional, where the site admin solicits deep, dark secrets from anyone that sends theirs in via postcard, then scans them in, and hijinks/hilarity/psychosis ensues. Kinda like grouphug, but more visual and has a bit of a barrier to entry.
posted by mathowie (25 comments total)

What a great concept!

I swear I went to high school with this guy though. And he's in the right age range too. But I don't think I did whatever it was to him.
posted by fenriq at 4:49 PM on January 25, 2005

I'm white, and I also love black girls.
posted by orange clock at 5:17 PM on January 25, 2005

Very nice indeed. For me, the scanned postcards have the same fascination as the pictures in the sorryeverybody site. I find the form of the message and the reality it hints at as interesting as the explicit message.
posted by Turtle at 5:21 PM on January 25, 2005

I like the idea of using the US Postal system as a filter -- anything too racy/illegal/edgy would get lost in the mail or retained by the carrier, so if you're running the site, you don't have to deal with the craziest of the crazy shit.

It's a brilliant method for keeping things in check.
posted by mathowie at 5:25 PM on January 25, 2005

It looks like an awful lot were handed out to art students.
posted by smackfu at 5:44 PM on January 25, 2005

this is good.
posted by OhPuhLeez at 5:45 PM on January 25, 2005

Interesting and cool idea, but I wonder how many are true (or if that actually matters)? I imagine the number of postcards coming in will diminish at some point as well.
posted by thebabelfish at 6:03 PM on January 25, 2005

What does this one say? My Mom's -----?
posted by climalene at 7:03 PM on January 25, 2005

Mannequin?
posted by rafter at 7:12 PM on January 25, 2005

Aha. I bet that's it, rafter.

But 'Mancians' would be a good name for an alien race.
posted by climalene at 7:17 PM on January 25, 2005

This one is from whoever is throwing the hands in bottles in Clopper Lake.
posted by amarynth at 7:26 PM on January 25, 2005

Oh yeah...it's fascinating to see the ones that I could have done myself.
posted by ChrisTN at 7:35 PM on January 25, 2005

Very cool about the bottles.
posted by stray at 8:23 PM on January 25, 2005

Wow, they're totally awesome.

I don't get the 9/11 'rich Arab' story at all though. Uh, some rich guy "pressured" this person to keep taking classes for him and they did, even though after 9/11 they didn't want to? Huh. Can this easily influenced person also go to work for me tomorrow -- even if I'm wearing a turban?

This leads me to believe that these are definitely best without commentary. The backstory is noise.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 8:33 PM on January 25, 2005

This is cool. Even if they aren't all true, the presentation probably makes up more than half of the interest.
posted by DyRE at 8:52 PM on January 25, 2005

[this is good]
posted by dg at 9:27 PM on January 25, 2005

Now I wish I had a secret.
posted by Eideteker at 9:39 PM on January 25, 2005

RJ, for what it's worth, I think the "because he was a rich arab" acts as an explanation for why the confessor got "a lot of money" for acting as the person's academic stand-in.

Awesome link. As is perhaps predictable, I was the most amused by the poo confessions, especially "I pood in my snowpants once."
posted by arielmeadow at 9:54 PM on January 25, 2005

fenriq, I had the same reaction about this guy, but I think he's the do-er, not the do-ee. Anyone else get the same impression?
posted by Aquaman at 11:16 PM on January 25, 2005

A great idea that would be totally boring (to me) if it weren't for the fact that the secrets are submitted as postcards. I love this one.
posted by taz at 12:22 AM on January 26, 2005

I had the same reaction about this guy, but I think he's the do-er, not the do-ee. Anyone else get the same impression?

Not at all, but at first I didn't even notice that the eyes are blacked out, and that makes a difference. If the picture is of the doer, than the do-ee seems to forgive him to some extent, otherwise he wouldn't have protected his identity by blocking out the eyes.
posted by Amizu at 7:18 AM on January 26, 2005

Amizu: The image wasn't originally blacked out. That must have been added by the editor the weblog between when I first saw it and now.
posted by thebabelfish at 12:26 PM on January 26, 2005

Currently being discussed (again) 56 posts further ahead.
posted by shoepal at 10:22 AM on January 27, 2005

This is fantastic.
posted by The God Complex at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2005

I do like it using slow low-tech to deliver content to the internet.
posted by nanojath at 7:51 PM on February 24, 2005