postsecret

PostSecret began as an art installation for Artomatic 2004 in Washington, D.C. Washington, DC (UPSI) - Thousands of fans worldwide were stunned to find today that the popular ongoing artistic experimental website PostSecret had been shut down overnight and replaced by a heretofore unknown blogger profile simply called "Nicole". Rumors have spread that the website was shut down over concerns of national security, but spokespersons for the White House, Department of Justice, FBI, and the CIA have steadfastly refused to confirm the allegations.
When news of the site shut down broke early this morning, bloggers began combing readily available archival content online, and many insist that they have found a posting from early February 2007 which may be responsible. The postcard in question depicts President Bush in a boat fishing with his father, the former President, and scrawled across the picture is the phrase, "I miss the way I used to feel." On the reverse of the card and in the same handwriting are two simple sentences: "I made a horrible mistake when we envaded(sic) Iraq. I'm sorry".

Handwriting analysts have compared the text with the president's infamous handwritten "bathroom break memo" from a UN meeting in 2005, and have declared the postcard to be a match within 98% certainty.

PostSecret was established as an ongoing social/artistic experiment in which people are encouraged to submit their darkest secrets under conditions of anonymity. Created by Frank Warren, it has displayed upwards of 2500 miniature works of art from people in the United States and across the world. Warren had recently begun branching out into YouTube with a new experimental "PostSecret Mini-Movie".

Warren today vowed to "continue the experiment in whatever capacity". "It is very liberating to finally be able to reveal that the problems at the website were due to ongoing secret FBI investigations since July of this year. Secrets are toxic, and this has been once again demonstrated to me firsthand. The spirit of the site remains intact, and anyone, no matter their stature or occupation in life should have the benefit of confession."




The simple concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions were (or are) made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before. Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams.

Since Frank Warren created the website on January 1, 2005, PostSecret has collected and displayed upwards of 2,500 original pieces of art from people across the United States and around the world.

The site, which started as an experimental Blogspot and is updated every Sunday with approximately 20 new pieces, has a relatively constant style, giving all "artists" who participate some guidelines on how their secrets should be represented.

From June 24 to July 3, 2007, the "Comments" section of the site was enabled. While a comments feature is frequently present on blogs, it had been previously absent from the PostSecret site. Many visitors viewed the presence of a comments section as out of character for the site, which was previously distinguished as a non-judgmental space for participants to reveal personal secrets. Many visitors felt that the new section contradicted the purpose of the site, as evidenced in numerous comments criticizing a postcard in which the author claims to have fed bleach to his/her cat.


Breaks from updates

The PostSecret blog, as it appeared on the morning of September 16, 2007.
For the second time that day, Blogger took down the PostSecret site (see above).The site was not updated on the Sunday of July 1, 2007 while the address and instructions for visitors to send in their secrets was removed. Also notable was the deletion of a long-visible post ― which contained contact information for Hopeline, a suicide hotline the site previously supported, and the story and picture of "Casie", a young woman who fought depression and found help through the site.

On Sunday, July 8, 2007, PostSecret was updated as normal, with the address and instructions for users wanting to mail in their secrets, as well as the Hopeline and "Casie" posts, all reinstated. Also included on the page for one week was a rare message from Frank explaining the recent events, confirming the comments section would stay unavailable and stating that he had needed a break from the project for a week, but that he hoped to go another 130 weeks before he took another.

However, Sunday, August 12, 2007 constituted a break of sorts. In lieu of posting standard secrets, Frank posted the link to a video he had uploaded to YouTube [1] entitled "New PostSecret Mini-Movie", expressing his feelings about the project and promising that the next week would bring more secrets. [2]


Blogger problems

Shortly after noon EST Sept. 16 2007, Frank's explanation of the outages.On Sunday, September 16, 2007, the traditional PostSecret blog was gone. In its place was a new blogger site belonging to someone named "nicole". It was suddenly and mistakenly shut down as Blogger (service) thought the PostSecret blog was a 'spam blog'. This error was fixed and Frank's site was put back up with the secrets from September 9th. A few hours later, just minutes before noon EST, the website was pulled down again, this time displaying a Blogger error message. Shortly after noon EST, with the site having been restored, Frank posted an explanation (see right). Not long thereafter, that day's secrets were posted as normal.





Previous PostSecrets
The website does not provide any way to go through archives and view old posts. There are, however, places online which keep their own archives from the PostSecret collection. One website in particular is the PostSecret gallery at Defunktion.net; it should be noted that this mini-gallery does not update and has had the same static collection for some time. It is not a replacement URL for the PostSecret blog.


Public attention
The project has received some national news coverage, being featured weekly in Washington, D.C.'s City Paper as well as in the All-American Rejects 2005 music video Dirty Little Secret. Artwork from the site was blown up to poster size and used as the background for the shoot.

In the sixth annual Weblog Awards, the PostSecret website received five Bloggies in 2006: Best American Weblog, Best Topical Weblog, Best Community Weblog, Best New Weblog, and Weblog of the Year.

In several schools, such as Martingrove Collegiate Institute, students started up their own post-secret walls, putting up secrets on pieces of papers anonymously.


Books
Selected postcards, including some not on the website, were published in PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives (ISBN 0-06-089919-0). It was published by Harper Collins/Regan Books and released on December 1, 2005.

A second PostSecret book, My Secret: A PostSecret Book (ISBN 0-06-119668-1), was released on October 24, 2006. It is also published by Regan Books.

A third PostSecret book, The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book (ISBN 0-06-119875-7), was released on January 9, 2007.

A fourth PostSecret book, A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book, is set to be released on October 9, 2007.


Historical analogues
The 1973 book Variable Piece 4: Secrets by the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler (one of many works in his Variable Piece series) was a compilation of nearly 1800 secrets written down by random people.