AlexMar 15

Is it actually healthy for people to have a place to confess things anonymously?

https://lemmy.world/post/44304402

Is it actually healthy for people to have a place to confess things anonymously? - Lemmy.World

Serious question. Most people carry things they never tell anyone. Not illegal things. Just thoughts that would damage relationships or reputations if they were said out loud. Regret about past decisions. Things people hide from partners. Thoughts about friends or family they would never admit publicly. Therapists exist for a reason, but most people never go to one. So I was wondering something. Would it actually be healthier if people had a place to post these thoughts completely anonymously? No identity. No profile. Just the confession. I’m building a small experiment called Backroom around this idea where people can post one-line anonymous secrets. But I’m honestly curious if people would actually use something like that or if most secrets are better left unsaid.

Show threadRoidingOldManMar 15
The Catholics have had that for thousands of years. So maybe there is something to it.
Show threadAlexMar 15

That’s actually a really good point.

Confession probably worked for centuries because people needed a place to say things they couldn’t say anywhere else.

Backroom is basically trying to recreate that idea, just anonymously and without religion.

Show threadnomadMar 15
The church invented that to control the secrets in any congregation. So yeah, bad thing. Backroom sounds like a fun idea. How would you ensure peoples anonymity and privacy? How would you fund this?
Show threadAlexMar 15

Good question.

The idea is basically to remove identity completely. No accounts required to read. Posting is session based and nothing links back to a person. Even chats auto-delete after 24h.

The goal is that the secret is the only thing that exists. Not the person behind it.

Funding later would probably come from hosts running rooms people pay a small amount to enter. But right now it’s just an experiment to see if people actually want a place like this.

Show threadnomadMar 15
So no logging IP addresses of people posting or anything like that?
Show threadAlex

IP addresses are only handled at the infrastructure level for basic abuse protection.

They are not connected to posts or identities and nothing is stored that could link a confession back to a person.

The whole design tries to separate the secret from the individual as much as possible.

Mar 15 at 9:43pmWeb