Editors Note: PostSecret is not a for-profit company as far as I can tell. But it is beautiful and interesting and I feel like profiling it here because, as we say in our About section, we are profiling companies “that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the web 2.0 space”. Clearly, PostSecret is making a cultural impact on the web.
Website: PostSecret
Location: Germantown, Md.
Launched: January 1, 2005
What is it?
Postsecret is a weblog that asks people to submit 4-by-6-inch postcards that contain anonymous secrets. The postcards are scanned and placed on the website. PostSecret has thousands of daily visitors and a quick check of RSS reed subscriptions shows thousand of people get RSS feeds daily with new postcards.
In their own words, “Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.”
It is a beautiful site and a wonderful idea.
A few Comments left on PostSecret:
“When I read these, I don’t feel so alone.”
-Calgary
“I wish I could give all these people on the site a hug and tell them it’s ok to be human.”
-Washington DC
“Your site is truly inspirational, I’m left feeling full of compassion for my fellow human beings - We’re the same the world over.”
-England.
“I cryed when i saw your site. Its truly amazing that so many people have so many secrets like mine. I wish i could just tell most of these people it will be ok, cause i myself have never had anyone tell ME that…and it would help.”
-West Virgina
“So many of my secrets are there, without even sending a card.”
-Mexico
Screen Shots:
Relevant Links:
NY Times on Postsecret
Technorati Tag: Postsecret
Delicious tag: postsecret
Flickr tag: postsecret
BoingBoing on Postsecret
Internet Archive
SophisticatedSecrets on PostSecret
Travels with Rhody on postsecret
Tom Keating on postsecret
See all
Post
I recently fell in love with PostSecrets. I find them very intersting and it made me start thinking of what I would post, it wasn’t hard thinking of one.
Anytime I am ever away from my boyfriend I fall back into depression, the depression that he got me out of that he has no idea about.
There is something incredibly haunting about PostSecret.
Sometimes I cry after encountering secrets that are particularly close to the being I hide during daylight. It turns out that a stranger with a homemade card can accomplish far more than the the one who is supposed to be “close”.
And I keep wondering if someone paused and dropped a tear after seeing my secret. Even if not. It turns out I don’t hate the world, if looking through the postsecret lense.
hi,
i personally think that postsecret was the most amazing thing ever made.
Everrone one needs someone to tell their secret to…
this site makes me feel for the first time in my life normal. it makes me feel alone no more
I Am absolutely obsessed with Post Secret. I read it every single sunday. I am just fourteen years old, but I have gotten my friends into it, and it gives us all hope, and strength. Sometimes I honestly believe Post Secret should be a requirement in schools.
tahnk you, for once, im no longer terrified.
Hey. I am fourteen, too. I think this website is fairly sexual sometimes, but it gives you a look on the real world out there. I love feeling that I’m not alone when I see how so many other people have the same secrets as myself.
I love post secret, every sunday I go on it and save all the postcards that I like or ones that mean something to me. I hope to get the post secret book soon I can’t wait
postsecret exposes every natural human tendency and emotion even those we hate to admit to.
post secret helps me understand my own emotions and thoughts…it helps me put things in persepective…
i’ve read it every week for the past year…occasionaly more than once a week…
i stopped me feeling like a freak and helped me feel accepted
x
I really enjoy reading post secrets. They are very interresting. It makes me happy to read other peoples secrets they share.
i like this site but im a bit afraid of it and some of the things that people say…
I’d like to personally thank the guy who made this. Several of my secrets are there too. It really made me realize that other people have my prroblems.
I have the book of all the postsecret’s and I enjoy reading it all the time. I would love to send in a secret but I fear that it will be put in the next book and everyone including myself will see it!!
I love post secret.
I read it every sunday;
No matter what.
I think its a great way to let people know that they’re not alone. And that everyone has problems.
We all have secrets. And sometimes it hurts less if we share it.
Post Secret is a way of letting people hurt less by sharing they’re secrets.
Thank you Post Secret.
I too am a Postsecret Admirer. Does anyone know how to get hold of the website creator?
I too am a Postsecret Admirer. Does anyone know how to get hold of the website creator?
i truly love reading post secret every week.. its something to look forward to. it is amazing how much better i feel after reading these its fun to read them but also each one impacts my life. thank you
Postsecret was a wonderful discovery for me. It touched me so much that I, myself, had to mail in a secret. I believe in the power of letting go of something you keep so tightly bound inside of you…and the best way to let go, is to do it for all the world to see.
Post secret is my new salvation. I read on a postcard today “His depression is killing me. I would rather be happy than loved. This provoked a lot of thought from me. I always assumed that being loved would make me happy. Maybe that isn’t so. It was really kind of an epiphany moment. Would his love make me happy? Does one equal the other? This one postcard could change my life…if not for post secret I would never have come to this realization on my own.
I am moved to know that I am not the only one with issues.
I stayed for 8.5 years with a man who used me, stole from me, degraded me and beat me, because I thought that some day I would deserve him.
Thank GOD for new found self esteem. I have a long way to go!
Post secret is great and is the inspiration for my new website - The Dollar Wish Blog - http://thedollarwishblog.blogspot.com
Check it out if you like post secret and send me your wishes.
I love postsecret.com.
I love reading everyones secrets and knowing that some one out there feels the same way that I’m feeling.
I just recently started reading Post Secret after hearing about the book. I can’t tell you how comforting it is knowing that I’m not alone in the way I feel. Yesterday I was feeling depressed; My boyfriend is about to move out of state. Reading the site helped me to feel happy. It also helped me to understand how lucky I am to be loved by, and to love, my wonderful boyfriend. There are so many people out there who are not as lucky. But don’t give up yet! Love is quite unexpected.
the post screte site is absolutly the most creative and helpful sit that is online if you ask me. I’ve checked the site more then a few times a week and even reading the book I can count endless secrets that are just like me. I tryed to even show my father some of them to try adn get him intrested so maybe he’d understand more of the things that go trhought my head it didn’t help much. But I will still continue to have hope. It’s always so wonderful hearing about the positive adn negative ways people have experiences life.
The only thing i hate, is that they took most of the postcards off. I used to sit and read them. and feel better about the feelings i was having. knowing people felt the same way…but their mainly gone now.
HAYY i just herd about post secret but for some reason the secrets are always the same ones when i read them do new ones eva get posted???
it amazes me that everyone has to feel as if they are perfect. all people need to realize is that no one does everything correctly, and that its okay to end up in bad situations. somehow, you’ll pull out. for every up; there is a down.
and yes. to the above question. new ones are posted every sunday. maybe you should try the refresh button on your computer. and it may work….:)
i still love him
Post Secret bothers me. Human weakness is so banal and despicable and I find it incredulous that so many people can be so whiny. Everyone’s secret is the same, the same boring vaguely philisophical issues. I believe that if people invested their time in reading, rather than writing atrociously boring secrets on postcards– some of them are creative, I’ll give them that– their would be fewer annoyingly depressed people.
I couldn’t agree more. You know all the “poor depressed” people are going to complain about your insight because you’re attacking their bastion.
they are not put up their secrets to whine but to tell someone so they can let go and get on with their lives. and yes you used the wrong “their” maybe you sould get off of your computer once in a while and read a book. sound farmiliar?
To the comment above:
I find it incredulous that you spelled “there” incorrectly.
The site is not a celebration of weakness, but rather a way of sharing the struggles we have with ourselves with others. I think this makes both the reader and sender stronger in knowing that it’s okay to be imperfect, thereby embracing humanity itself.
This is to Dan-
No one asked you to read it. Superiority complexes are interesting to no one. Depression is a serious disease. If this site helps even one person, then it has served a greaterpurpose than your judgement ever will. Learn how to open your mind oh wait, that might mean that you actually have one
When I read this, I felt horrible about all of this. I sat there and thought that these people do have problems. It is a great book.
Dear Dan
Here’s my secret: You are an asshole.
i LOVE post secret
its my secret addiction =P
i look at it every sunday and i always end up wanting to read more!! its such a great site because it tells us that not a single person is perfect and all of us are human!!!!! 1-10 rating on this site i would give a 9.9 because there should be more postcards on every sunday =]
dan shut up just becos u think that your so perfect how could anything be wrong with anyone else ur probly in dinal about your life mayb u shold post a secrect ay??
i have just recently discovered postsecret, is there an archives? to read past postcards?
it’s amazing, it strikes you to the very core.
P.S.
to dan–some advice, if postsecret bothers you, don’t read it, noone says you have to
i like him but i love her, hope u know what i felt for u now
The site reaches out to everyone, it helps anyone who reads it (even sceptics, otherwise they wouldnt look) See that no one is alone in feeling the, happy, sinful, painful, lusting, loathing, sad, unforgiveable, unforgettable things they feel.
.I still love you, so so much. What happend to you?
i read the message you left me. i wish you still cared.
This is the only archive I have seen
http://community.livejournal.c.....tml#cutid1
I told him I’d gotten over my bulimia.
I lied.
It’s worse now than ever before, yet I still cant tell him the truth.
i tell my friends that really care about me that i dont smoke pot. i tell the people who could care less the truth.
he lied to me
he used me
he cheated on his gf with me
i love him
im a strait guy but ive alway wanted to know what it feels like to be a pregnant woman. have a huge belly waddling around, pregnant curves big boobs. then go throug the excruciating pain of giving birth. i have always wanted to know what it was like but i neer will. Unless the movie junior comes true and even then.
hi,
i love post secret, nad i only started reading it today!!! it really makes you realize that u r not alone. all my friends seem to have their perfect lives. not me.
here’s my secrets: i am 13. my father drinks every night. i see a counselor. i have never had a friend over and i think i am fat. i dont think i will ever get married or have sex with a guy i truely love. i long to be loved by a guy that cares about me. i have never been kissed and never had a boyfriend.
o yah to dan the whiner: u suck. u think u r perfect. well ur not. when i read post secret, it touched me deeply. u r obviously an ass.
the secret that touched me the most was the one that said “i have been suicidal for two years. i have wonderful dreams about death and pain. i am only 13 years old.”
i just wanna say to that person, you inspire me. i am sure you have touched many people’s hearts. please, please tell someone you love. u can get help and not have these horrible thoughts. u can inspire many more people. i feel very close to u and i love you, even though i do not know you.
I -really- like this totally awesome guy named Mark…but I don’t think that he’ll never know because I’m a guy too.
ferejpshfgu pmdenkcs oqngo
click here to tell your secrets!!!
sometimes i used to read some of the secrets and think how horrible they were, until i saw one that was my own, and i was to afraid to send in…everyone has secrets and everyone needs to know theyre not alone
GOOD FOR YOU!!!!
This site really helps!!!
Have a good day!