msg:
I’m hating Secret in ways I haven’t hated software.
It’s so close to what I care about, which is connecting strangers in new and thoughtful ways. But the use of “friends” in some posts without even fucking knowing who is on it makes it about supposition rather than curiosity, a halfass compromise between anonymity and conventional social graphs.
As with all compromises, it diminishes meaning rather than augmenting it. It’s as if it was designed by people who have spent more time in social software than in cities.
But most of all what I hate about it is that the first users that I’m encountering are confirming this sensibility of users who experience the world in the banal and narrow framework of startup high school jackpot culture. This no doubt reflects the intersection of my social graph with early users of the app. But whisper was not and is not like that. Those aren’t my people and wasn’t that supposed to be the point? Isn’t that what’s interesting about strangers?
Thinking about it helps me recall the genius of Karp’s social structure for tumblr. It requires such thoughtfulness. This ain’t it.
I chalk this up to secret spamming your feed with content you have no interest in. If it was truly just your “friends” IMHO it would be a richer environment for connection + the ability to share who you are.