PostSecret is an online blog gallery, started by Frank Warren in 2005, which features secrets from around the world written on postcards. The cards are mailed anonymously to Warren (commonly referred to as Frank), and reveal some of people’s most innermost thoughts and secrets.
The confessions are then uploaded to the popular website.
Since its debut in 2005, the site has taken off to the point that its visitor count is now well over 305 million, with Frank uploading a new set of cards in a post every Sunday.
And now, Connecticut College has jumped on board with a site of its own, entitled ConnSecrets.com.
Craig Durham, University of Colorado-Boulder graduate and friend of Julie Bergstein ’12, was inspired by PostSecret and decided to create some websites of his own targeted at college students’ secrets.
“Before we started Connsecrets, my friend Zach Cohen and I started a site at [our school] called BuffSecret.com about a year ago,” said Durham.
After all the success of BuffSecret, Cohn and Durham decided to working on more. At present, there are now three more sites modeled after BuffSecret.
He started with his alma mater, and then soon after decided to expand to other colleges. Presently, he has sites operating for schools in the Burlington area, Amherst area and now Connecticut College.
The site ConnSecrets.com features typically “Microsoft Paint” style submissions, where students craft a secret, save, and then upload their piece to the site. Some other secrets feature pictures with text written over them, similar to the PostSecret theme.
One special perk of ConnSecrets is that anyone who views the website has the opportunity to comment on the posts, leaving their own thoughts or reflections. PostSecret unfortunately only offers the chance of “Email Messaging” a response to a post, and it is not always certain one’s comments will be posted.
Upperclassmen may recall a former website that in recent years received frequent use – ConnCollConfessional.com which featured campus gossip along with secrets posted anonymously.
But ConnSecrets is not exactly the same.
“Craig and I really want to make it known that [ConnSecrets] is in no way like what ConnCollConfessional was,” Bergstein stressed.
ConnSecrets also differs from PostSecret, Durham explained because “you submit the secrets online instead of mailing them; and you can comment directly on each secret.”
“Zach and I screen all the comments, and don’t allow anything mean spirited, and never allow names,” Durham added. “This separates our sites from the more gossip oriented sites like CollegeACB and ConnCollConfessional. We want the site to be a place where students go to share ideas in a safe, non-judgmental way.”
Part of the reason PostSecret has been so successful is due to its commitment to sustaining a community support system free of judgement. Likewise, Bergstein and Durham are aiming to accomplish just that.
“One of the site’s main attributes is to help mental health awareness and create a support group. Since the site is just starting here, and since Conn definitely has somewhat of a tendency to gossip, it’s really good to make it known to the community that this is not what ConnSecrets is for.”
Though if gossip is what you’re looking for, consider CollegeACB.com. CollegeACB (Anonymous Confession Board) is a “Juicy Campus Replacement,” which closed due to lack of revenue, and offers students an open forum to post anything they choose.
What CollegeACB currently lacks that ConnCollConfessional did provide is private access to solely Connecticut College students, in which either being connected to Conn’s network or signing in with a ConnColl.edu login was required.
At present, some of the cool bonuses CollegeACB offers, such as “Rating” posts with a positive or negative vote and even crafting a “Crush List” comprised of up to five students, (in which students who list similar matches on their Crush List would be revealed to each other) seem to be unavailable to Conn students.
This appears to be because the site, when one registers, insists on providing a “ConnecticutCollege.edu” email address, which is in reality “ConnColl.edu.”
