As this project grows and continues to be shaped by your contributions into something which is, frankly, pretty freaking neat, we have run into a few adjustments we'd like to make on the behalf of our posters and readers. However, we've been struggling for a few days to determine how exactly to address these issues while maintaining the censorship-light approach we know is necessary.
Luckily, a submission we received this morning gets to the point (at least, some of the points):
Can you please put up on the warning label to tell people to NOT give "advice" to the secrets? Responses to the secrets are fine, and those comments that are empathetic. But the ones giving advice are just annoying and defeat the purpose of the project.
While we have presented
here our mission statement, and
here tried to outline what is required from submissions, perhaps it would also be helpful to outline what this blog is
not intended to be.
The
UNC-CH Secrets Project 2008 is not ...
- a forum for public discussion.
While our fervent hope is that it will
generate public discussion, this is not the place for it. If you have a word of encouragement or empathy for someone who has submitted a secret, by all means comment with such. However, please do not assume that by submitting a secret a poster is soliciting advice. In fact, please assume the exact opposite.
- a means through which you can communicate with your friends, enemies, lovers or any combination of the above.
As previously stated, we cannot know what will be a
tipoff to the people in your life that a secret is yours, but if we can recognize that this project is being used as a message board, we will disable comments. If you recognize
someone's secret and want to talk to them about it, be courteous enough to do so in person. We highly support face-to-face communication, and there are several quaint coffee establishments within walking distance that would do nicely for such a meeting.
- an invitation to "out" people's secrets.
Naturally, much of the fascination with this project lies in the possibility that a secret belongs to someone you know. Speculation is inevitable -- we admit that we do it, too -- but in case you missed our catchphrase the first few times around, ANONYMITY IS CRUCIAL. Even though they are online, these secrets are still secrets if unattached to a source, and those who submit want to keep them that way. Please respect those wishes by not indicating that you think you know to whom the secret belongs. It discourages others from posting and besides, you might very well be mistaken.
We are keeping comments open for the time being in the hope that these clarifications will be useful to you. While we're obviously well aware that several secrets and comments have already been posted which don't adhere to these guidelines, we will not be going back and deleting them unless there are requests for specific removals, and we apologize to anyone who feels that their secret was handled unfairly.
As always, we look forward to hearing from you.
