CAMfess is a new video hosting site that is billed as “the world’s first website that allows users to confess secrets through video blogs.”
The idea is simple enough: confess your secrets, fears or admit mistakes to anyone who would care to listen, or to friends.
Users can confess to the world and remain anonymous. CAMfess features “the patent-pending Camfess Anonymizer(TM)”, which allows users to automatically disguise their voice or face on a submitted video (see video below for an example).
This is where is becomes perhaps more amusing, because the folks at CAMfess cite religion as a marketing angle
“The act of confession - widely encouraged by religion and psychology alike — makes people better. Admitting to mistakes, expressing a regret, and giving apology to people they may have hurt, is now available through the web.”
I’m not sure whether to be amused or disturbed by CAMfess. It’s like a poor man’s Post Secret with a touch of Jerry Springer. In the age of reality television, an age where voyeurism has reached a height never seen before, there will undoubtedly be a place in the market for CAMfess.
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Huh??? Patent for disguising their voice or face on a submitted video ?
Am I being sued if I mimic Homer Simpson voice on a submitted video ?
“I’m not sure whether to be amused or disturbed by CAMfess. It’s like a poor man’s Post Secret with a touch of Jerry Springer. In the age of reality television, an age where voyeurism has reached a height never seen before, there will undoubtedly be a place in the market for CAMfess”.
Very well said. With the ability to disguise…Jerry Springer may even be child’s play…
if it becomes even a tad famous it should be only a matter of time before some one comes up with a crack that decrypts the voice encryption or watever………..the day that happens camfess goes straight down the gutter
bottomline: u must be a dim wit to think that you can post your voice to be anonymous through some encryption
This is a great idea!
NOT.
This is lame. Confessions are meant to be anonymous and given a degree of barriers to ensure it is. Grouphug.us is all text. PostSecret had an artsy self expression angle. Even a boring ol’ confessional booth HAS SCREENS because YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSE TO SEE EACH OTHER. It loses its soul like this. Let’s paste wacky stuff on people’s faces and change their voice, that’ll definitely makes this entertaining! No, it just makes this sad and cartoonish. Jerry Springer had scores of producers and writers on staff, if kids want to be creative, they have YouTube.
…Teeesst-iii-ffFyy
Another point:
Why are lame stuff like this being featured? What about you write up a profile for some of the companies that had a booth at Techcrunch9 or at least an update? Stuff like profil.es, collegewiki.com, real time matrix? That’s at least 5 post material right there! If they’re good enough to sling you some cash for a booth they must be worth writing about right?
Actually on a second thought, after having talked to most of them it’s probably a good idea you don’t, cause most of them were just stupid.
“Confess yourself to heaven, repent what’s past, avoid what is to come… And do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker.”
–
Alaska
many of them have already been run, and if we only ran sponsor posts..well suffice to say the barbs would be worse still than those you’re writing at this time.
Doesn’t appeal to me. Guess I’m getting too old!
@Duncan,
For the sake of journalistic responsibility I went through the TC9 sponsor list and looked through TC archives to match up what company was profiled and 8 out of the 25 don’t have any mentions.
I also considered, also for the sake of journalistic responsibility, that there can be a perceived sense of conflict of interest but considering that that in the past others have always done the dirty work (Nicky G posting all those “Thank the Sponsors” posts) surely it wouldn’t be a big deal if you wrote the posts. Because again, if they paid money to exhibit at the party they surely can be profiled.
But hey I’ll confess, not through this crappy site though, that I have another reason for wanting to see posts about the companies at TC9: some of them were really godawful lame. My top three lamest: Dial Directions, collegewiki.com, and Jaman.
Typo! Please exchange “cite” for “site” in the following sentence:
“This is where is becomes perhaps more amusing, because the folks at CAMfess ___site___ religion as a marketing angle”
TechCrunch really needs to hire copyeditors. What do those “interns” do anyway? There’s no school, tell them to proof read all these posts!
CamFess is straight up dumb - who cares - how about something a little more interesting - like a Julia Allison profile!
Duncan, sorry to point out your typos in public, but the word you want is ‘cite’ not ’site’.
Cite, not site. Proof yet again that spell-check is no match against basic English and re-reading before publishing.
Also “the world’s first website that allows users to confess secrets through video blogs.” has got to be one hell of a joke from the copywriter. Nearly any video sharing site on the web (ala YouTube or Vimeo) “allows users to confess secrets through video blogs” the point, as always, is who cares to watch them? People can post ego-porn to their own sites as well, that doesn’t make the service, or the providing of such service any more worthwhile or notable.
I think the site is lame. I am not a big fan of Duncan either, however, if you are looking for literary excellence, this is not the place to find it. Try your local library.
What’s wrong with YouTube?
My first camfession:
Those who can, try and build companies. Yes, mayb companies with poor business models, etc., but at least they try.
Those who cant, come and post comments on how lame these startups are. And how lame techcrunch is for mentioning them.
I blame the spell checker, it did have a c to start with! But thanks for pointing it out.
Alaska
as I’ve said numerous times before, damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
I confess I’m intrigued.
And how much funding did they get I wonder? Duncan, if you are running out of things to cover just take a look at our startup, at least we provide a service and already have great traction. URL in the post.
Anatoly:
here here!! But you have to admit that that site blows!!
“the patent-pending Camfess Anonymizer(TM)”, which allows users to automatically disguise their voice or face on a submitted video (see video below for an example).
What? How about using a freaking mask if you want to hide your face?
Having a website where you can find confessions may be appealing. But, what’s makes Springer or a show like Cheaters interesting is the unexpected stuff. We like to someone shocked by some news or being caught in the act, or to be surprised ourselves by someone’s actions (the stabbing of the Cheaters host). Here, despite the confessions, you won’t be shocked by much.
Given that, I’m going to create a website where people will confess to others something awful they did and/or tape people cheating on somebody. Can a VC show me some love and hand over the cash for this?
“the world’s first website that allows users to confess secrets through video blogs.”
Yes, very true… Confessions, as we know, are wildly popular yet illegal on all the other video sites.
(look how low res and cheap the logos and nav bar are
is it just me or does it seem there are a lot more TC posts per article than there used to be? anyone have an opinion on why?
i actually like this duncan fella. the more he posts, the more the readers want to just bash him. i actually read the posts for his articles nowadays just to see people tee off on him. i say thank you duncan for doing your part to make TC fun to read.