Hi --
As I posted earlier, Frank Warren of PostSecret is fine, he is on vacation, I know this because I called the cops .
As I also mentioned earlier, I can't get on PostSecret anymore because everyone sharing their secrets, and wondering where Frank was, and yelling at eachother, has either caused the server to crash, is just so chock full of delicious word that my computer can no longer download the page .
Now I am the biggest Luddite in the world. I am the last adopter. I work in the technology industry, and my cell phone is so old that it is being held together by a twist tie for an outdoor garbage bag. When I am with colleagues and have to make a call, I literally run and hide. I started this blog the week after the NY Times said blogging was over, then rarely posted to it.
Even I know that 4,000 posts to a website with no advertising on it (meaning no cash behind it) is going to crash its servers, or be so chock full of delicious words that it will crash it's users browsers, rendering it unreadable.
So even I know, that unless Frank Warren's intention was to crash his own site, or my web browser, he probably didn't mean to leave the comments on, as so many people -- many of whom talk about him as if he is Jesus -- have said. Soooo many people went on and on about how Frank meant to bring the site to the next level, meant for everybody to share on the comments board, meant to let the great social experiment get even greater.
If that is the case, then Frank didn't know that 4,000 posts to a website with no advertising on it (meaning no cash behind it) is going to crash its servers, or my damn web browser, or both.
I don't know what it is about the blogsphere that makes so many people feel as if they can assume what other people's intentions are. I have a tremendous admiration for Heather at Dooce, who puts her life out there every day and then deals with it when people make comments about her parenting, her appropriateness, and why she does what she does, when it isn't anyone else's business.
But the reality is bloggers aren't people you know, uh, unless you're reading the blog of someone you know. Der. Readers don't have the right to assume they understand what's going on with bloggers, or project their own feelings onto them.
Do you agree, or is this just part of the deal of belonging to a community, that the person putting their opinion out there has to accept the labels, taunts, attacks and misperceptions of others? Because most healthy people, if presented with that in real life, would walk the hell away.
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9 comments:
Yes. Yes. I commented back to you on my blog, but there is a slim chance that you may not get back there so-
Yes. I have found your blog to be very interesting, and I love you opinions, so bolding stated.
PS: I'd be honored to be added to your blog links. :)
I agree he should have posted a vacation response. However he must not have known it would crash his server. He's using a free blogging site so he may not be all that computer savvy as to know what would happen with so many comments. Regardless I find it humorous, in a strange freaky way, that people are worried about him and go through the trouble of calling the cops. I hope he gets a PO Box now.
I also thought he was publishing all postcards. Now I feel like why bother to send him one if it's not going to be artistic enough to be put online? I was going to suggest he make everyone send their postcard in with $1 to pay for a real webpage. But if he doesn't publish your card, you might get upset so that idea wouldn't work. Or that would force him to publish new entries daily to accomodate all the cards which would be all the better!
I've followed blogs that have stopped blogging for months at a time, I just assumed their life got busy and they didn't have time for blog. I even forgot about my blog for awhile and it wasn't until someone posted a comment on it asking if I was still around did I remember to go back to it. I honestly didn't know I had a following. I don't even know how to turn comments off, sure I could search the help files, but it wouldn't have occured to me.
I wanted to add that I can't see any comments on his site, so either blogger.com disabled it or he's back from vacation and still can't be bothered with it.
I'm starting to think not announcing his vacation was a good thing since everyone knows his address and someone might break in his house while he's gone.
Hi Anon --
Good comments all. Thanks,
Jen
Thanks for giving an answer to all the Postsecrets fans - some people were really freaking out!
I think Frank Warren had all the right to take vacations, but it would have been nice to let people know he wasn't posting for a week (or more).
I also missed the new secrets at first, but later I learned that there are a lot of similar or inspired-by-Postsecrets sites, where people can post or read secrets, and even comment sometimes.
They usually post EVERY secret they get (70 per day, from Monday to Friday, in the case of http://community.livejournal.com/ljsecret for example).
There's actually a whole list of these sites on the Postsecrets page on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postsecret).
So there's A LOT of secrets out there! And people don't have to depend on one site and one person if they want to enjoy them (or if they want their secrets posted).
I hope this information help some of the people who felt their lives were about to end without new secrets to read... I'm certainly happy that F.W. took a vacation and didn't tell anyone. :-)
hmm...i dont buy your story about calling the cops. and I find it strange that Frank would take a vacation without updating the site or letting fans know. what's more is the strange absence of the hopeline "ad" and the story about the depressed girl.
i know he's not jesus and probably needs/deserves a vacation but i find the circumstances strange and a little unsettling.
if i were being optimistic this morning i'd buy your story in a heartbeat. i am not.
...nicole
www.bandddesigns.com/nicole
Nicole,
Well, it is what happened. My husband asked me when I got off the phone how the dispatcher knew Frank was on vacation, and I hadn't asked. You're entitled to believe what you want. I also hope Frank is fine, and I've only posted what I was told.
Feel free to call the Germantown, MD police yourself and inquire if you want to. You can easily Google them.
J
A few things:
Comments had never before been turned ON at PostSecret, although Frank would occasionally post things that had come in through the email. The comments were TURNED on at the same time all the other stuff was taken down. So it wasn't a question of "he didn't mean to leave the comments on," it's a question of a deliberate decision TO turn them on. For the first time.
Also, there were a very few comments which were "deleted by a blog administrator" so there was someone monitoring the site. Considering some of the stuff that was getting left up there, I wondered what could possibly be so bad as to have been deleted. I emailed one of the commentors in question (she'd put her email address as her "name" so it was still visible, daughter.of.lilith@gmail.com if you want to ask her, she's quite nice), and she said that her emails were simply offering e-contact info for some of the people who were losing their minds over the whole thing. Many others made the same offers, but her comment and another one quoting it were selected for deletion, along with a handful of others. Maybe five total. So someone with access to the blog controls was available. Not necessarily Frank, but someone.
PostSecret has had nearly 87 million visitors (85,987,043 according to its counter as of this posting) since its inception on 1/1/05. A rough guesstimate of 2.5 years = 913 days, which = 95,290 visitors a day. According to this site, it gets 2.3 MILLION unique visitors a month. That only works out to 76,600 a day, but even so. 4000 people leaving comments over an ~8 day span would NOT crash Blogger's server.
I believe that PostSecret has support from Blogger in handling the traffic - dedicated servers, etc - I can't swear to that but I know that some other sites do as well, typically called VIP hosting.
True, the blog is "ad-free" (if we don't count Frank's own ads) but he is making a tidy sum from the sale of the books. So it's not quite correct to say there's "no cash behind it."
Additionally, I was checking in repeatedly all week, and the site was never down. I also periodically checked comments, and my browser never crashed. And I haven't heard about anyone else having any of those problems at all.
As to your actual question there ate the end, about "Readers don't have the right to assume they understand what's going on with bloggers, or project their own feelings onto them," I completely disagree - on a technicality. Readers have the *right* to assume whatever the hell they want. Readers do NOT have the right to make DEMANDS on bloggers based on those assumptions, or to vilify them. Blogging is, ultimately, about communication, and communication is by definition trying to understand what's going on with others, and trying to imagine how they might feel.
That does not mean that one has to meekly accept the "labels, taunts, attacks, and misperceptions," but in the world of blogging, whatcha gonna do? Kick 'em out of the house? Call their mother to complain? Key their car? The best you can hope for is to ignore and/or delete them, and hope others do the same, unless they venture into actual threat territory, at which point it's a police matter.
Again: Readers have the right to assume whatever they like. ACTING on those assumptions - or I should say, forcing their assumptions on another - is another matter entirely. For instance: I might write a blog about some woman who's driving me crazy and I can't get rid of her for personal reasons, but she's just making me nuts, and here's how I'm dealing with it. You're perfectly within your bounds to ASSUME that I'm talking about my mother, and perhaps you might even take something away from my post that helps *you* in your relationship with your own mother. However, you are completely OUT of bounds to pick up the phone and CALL my mother and say, "Hey, Elayne's blog says blah-blah-blah, I thought you should know she's talking about you."
Damn, I think my comment is longer than your post. Sorry! (c:
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