No Stupid Questions

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

Just a warning on running a service like this - any website that allows arbitrary text entry from anonymous users will be found and flooded by bots very quickly.

The most innocent, least damaging version of what happens is adbots posting links to shoddy websites selling "essential oils" and other homeopathy nonsense.

More obscure but more malicious, text posts are used to control botnets for cybercrime. Basically a human running the botnet will post a string of letters and numbers to a website which the bots have been programmed to look for instructions. Websites that allow anonymous text entry are convenient for this because if the criminal activity is investigated, it's hard to trace the instructions from the controller back to a real person.

Just be aware that people will abuse your service for purposes you did not intend. You'll probably need both automated tooling for identifying and blocking bot traffic, as well as human moderation.

Well, there's actually been research into it.

Since that shit is dry as hell, and there's available articles about it, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/202202/why-it-feels-so-good-confess

This one gives a nice overview.

So, I'd say it's pretty realistic to say that "confession" has mental health benefits.

That being said, true anonymity is going to be vital if you're going to try to build something online. Not just for the people that might want to use it, but for you too. You really don't want the legal issues if someone were to confess on your service and it became part of trial evidence. You may be thinking it's not a big deal, that it'll never happen, but it does happen already with social media.

The less you'll be able to provide, the less hassle you'll have. So keep that in mind. Reddit, Facebook, VPNs, they all deal with legal requests regularly, but they have legal departments to handle those to keep a barrier between the people running things and the consequences of users' actions/words.

Me? No fucking way I'd even confess to jaywalking online, period. And I have never done that (that's actually true, I've never been in a situation where it was useful. Small towns and infrequent visits to cities ftw?). I'd also advise anyone else to never do so.

Also, if you're a priest/minister and your religion has a confessional seal, you have pretty robust legal protection about not having to break it, in many places. Therapists also have a degree of confidentiality that they're legally required to maintain. Your online service has neither. So you'll also have responsibilities above and beyond what therapists or ministers have. Well, you may, since local laws vary, and I've never heard of a lot of legal precedent around mandatory reporting for online services. But even if you aren't currently required to report a range of things, not doing so might open you up to lawsuits and/or eager prosecutors looking to set a precedent.

I guess what it comes down to is: yeah, it could help people. But better you than me

A few universities have "confessions" pages on facebook/reddit. I think a key requirement for your platform would be to set up some ground rules and have manual approval for each post.

Even then, you might start to see soapboxing and hate mongering in the longer posts that moderators don't have the capacity to deal with.

The other solution would be to keep the person anonymous to readers, but not anonymous to the moderators, to prevent one person or entity from sending in a bunch of harmful posts. However, that comes with its own problems like data leaks harming legitimate users

About 10 years ago there were several apps like that: Whisper, Secret, Yik Yak, etc. All faced controversy and went out of business. Today you have Hush.

I have had similar thoughts. I certainly have some deep regrets that I never discuss. I wouldn't feel comfortable putting them online, though.

PostSecret and /r/confession are/were like this.

I think it's healthy. There's some growth as a human that can only be done through engagement. I consider it good for growth and mental health, especially if people can reply back and give you honest feedback (which being anonymous might help with)

I'd expect any online thing to be traced back to the person if it was juicy or otherwise usable as kompromat. There was just a news item about using LLM analysis to de-anonymize people, fwiw.

I'm sorry Lord, I farted earlier, in church, but couldn't apologize, as we were having a prayer..

I think that it is probably good. On the other hand, I don't think that you necessarily need to build something specifically for that purpose because the internet was basically built from the ground up with anonymity in mind. Some of the internet has moved away from that, but there's still plenty of capability for people to be anonymous if they want to be.

Network size will be the main problem. Many many many projects with delightful features have been deployed. Extremely few last because only a few people end up using them. Not to discourage you, but be prepared.

Also, consider how the service will be used for spam. I set up a simple link shortener a few years ago. Like 2015 or maybe earlier. I didn't advertise it, but spammers still found it and abused it, so I had to take it down (too lazy to create a login system or anything, just decided to abandon it).

Especially an anonymous service will require moderation. Are you prepared to moderate it? Have to report certain illegal content to the proper authorities; and/or authorities might subpoena you for information about postings.

Again, things to consider.

Also, currently, people post to places like reddit and various other places already. So you want to figure out what makes your platform different, better, and attractive to audiences.

I think old school version of this is writing a letter then not sending it or burning it. Unsent letters are a historical gold mine.

More importantly, the presence of an audience make it likely people will embellish or lie to get responses. Which is why anonymous confessions are always more dubious than anything else.

It’s been done with real postcards. Not that you can’t try a different take.

This site has been around since 2004:

https://postsecret.com/

Just don’t open it to comments. People don’t need that and it’ll get ugly.

This idea reminds me of https://postsecret.com/ . I don't know if it's helpful, but it's interesting.

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.

Sounds like PostSecret but entirely online.

I'm sure there can be a lemmy sub for this, though, but I encourage you to keep building.

Well, it could go either way.

One of the reasons therapists exist is they're not blank voids like the internet.

They can respond in human ways, be real and realistic. Help put the confession into context of a person's life.

Without that, it's a role of the dice. Some people will come away feeling lighter.

Some will come away with a sensation of having talked themselves into believing they're a piece of ****.

I guess that's why AITA is such a popular format.

Can users talk to each other like with messages or is it like writing a letter in a bottle where there is no way to have a back and forth chat?

Check out the "game" Kind Words, kind of a similar concept.