**note: You might have noticed a large delay between the time a tweet is submitted to SecretTweet.com and the time it is published to @SecretTweet or @SecretTweet3. I’ve had some personal problems (link) this month that have taken a large portion of my time and desire to work. The site should pickup in the coming weeks and resume to its previous status (meaning new features, faster approval time, etc – just like before). Thanks for understanding.
**

Hi guys
If you haven’t noticed the pattern, I usually push out major updates on a monthly basis. So, since June is right up on us, it’s time to start working on new stuff. If that’s not awesome enough, you guys get to choose what it is. The highly requested mobile posting has been ready for nearly six months, I just haven’t had the time to turn it on. That will be done very soon. Here are some other ideas I’ve been tossing around:
- Receive comments/replies to a specific tweet via email.
- An ad free option (this used to exist but was later removed. I’m probably going to bring it back).
- Profiles for submitters (age and gender, perhaps location).
- Your idea, suggestion, comment here! Tell me what you want to see changed, added, removed, done, or tried.

Comment on this post or send a direct message to @secrettweet (if you send an @reply, I probably will not see it, there are just too many to read them all – direct messages, please .

Hope you guys are enjoying the start of the summer! Personally, I can’t wait for vacation time!

Regards,
- Kevin (@mozunk)
The SecretTweet Guy

Hi there!

A note on the new design As promised a few weeks ago, a new design has been released. Yeah, there are a few bugs that have yet to be worked out and I’m working as fast as possible to get those fixed (I have a life outside of SecretTweet, ya know LOL). Regardless, if you notice a bug or anything that you think is wrong, leave a comment on this post with a brief description of what’s wrong – I can’t fix things unless I’m aware of the problem.

So what’s new?

• - The site should meet most of Section 509 guideliens (http://www.section508.gov/) that would prevent anyone from reading the site. This is something I’m striving to implement site-wide. If you’re disabled and you or your software have a problem reading SecretTweet, send an email to community@secrettweet.com. I’ll fix whatever is wrong.
• - The old CAPTCHA has been trashed and a new one using the reCAPTCHA service is currently in use. It’s a tad bit harder to read but I have no problem using it. No more CAPTCHA errors! (Should’ve done this a long time ago)
• - The tagging system that everyone seemed to ignore (for some reason) has been ditched and a new, simple search has been added to the bottom right of the site. As with the design itself, it’s new, but I don’t think there are any bugs that will prevent it from functioning perfectly. If the search becomes a popular tool, I’ll beef it up and add a few bells and whistles.

Changes regarding how tweets are handled A change to how secrets are handled is starting Saturday, May 9. The unabridged section and @SecretTweet3 will be publishing a lot fewer tweets while the moderated version (the version you see on SecretTweet.com and @SecretTweet) will be publishing a lot more tweets. I’m considering ditching the unabridged section and @SecretTweet3 all together and just publishing the most popular tweets to @SecretTweet. What do you guys think?

SecretTweet on Facebook and MySpace
I’ve refrained from putting SecretTweet on platforms other than Twitter. I recently created groups on Facebook and MySpace, though. You can join the Facebook group here and you can join the MySpace group here.

I welcome your opinion on the new changes and I also welcome any ideas to improve SecreTweet that you may have. You can comment on this post, JOIN THE FORUM , or email community@secrettweet.com.

Best Regards, @mozunk Kevin Smith

PS: Happy Mother’s Day to you moms out there

A new look/design will be coming soon. A few new features will appear, too. Expect things to change in about a week and a half (maybe two).
As far as what new features are coming: all pages are being rewritten to update them and to streamline the content, you’ll be able to search through all the tweets, the tagging system has been rewritten, and a few other minor things that will make the experience on the site overall easier to navigate.

Here’s a very rough preview of what the new design might look like:
http://hellokevin.com/st-design.jpg - Click!

Leave your feedback in the comments or on the new forum (http://secrettweet.com/forum)!

A new look has already popped up on @SecretTweet. Changes are coming!

Regards,
@mozunk
ST Admin Guy

I accidentally overlooked my calendar marking that read “ST 1 YR” – oops.

So what has happened in the first year? A lot.
- Within the first week, submissions went from 1 per day to one per hour (now we average 11 submissions per hour – *THIS* is why all tweets are not published to @secrettweet and are sometimes published to @secrettweet3 instead).
- We (are about to) reach 20,000 followers (that’s averaging 55 STAYING, new followers per day!)
- 34, 087 people have released their secrets for us to read. Thank you.
- 17,142 replies have been made (within the past six or so months – replies are a fairly new, and controversial, addition to the site).
- I launched a blog to help explain what is going on behind the scenes and to encourage more interaction with you guys (http://secrettweet.com/updates)
- We received mentions by LA Times, NY Times, El Pias, Fox News, hundreds of other new outlets, and thousands of other websites and blogs (thanks!)
- I opened up the moderation process to the public. Over 670 moderators have registered, about half of them are active on a weekly basis. Without you guys, I couldn’t keep up with the content and the site would ultimately fail.
- And, finally, a forum was launched on April 1 (One day before the one year anniversary). Since the launch three days ago, the forum has averaged: 14 new users per day, 85 new posts per day, 9 new topics per day, and 12,658 page views. I encourage you to join and take part in the on-going conversations or start your own! Register here http://secrettweet.com/forum/index.php?action=register

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has felt comfortable enough to share their secret with everyone else. Thank you for tweeting, blogging, writing, and talking about SecretTweet. Thanks for replying with supportive and encouraging comments (and thank you for flagging those that aren’t). Thanks for reading this, for being as enthusiastic about your experience on the website as I am. Hopefully I will be writing another post like this on April 2, 2010, and many years after that.

Best Regards,
Kevin Smith
@mozunk
@SecretTweet Guy

I sent out a tweet (http://twitter.com/secrettweet/status/1427594496) with a poll (http://twtpoll.com/jm3czb) asking if you guys would be interested in having a forum/message board. It came down to pretty much a 50/50 split (was actually expecting LESS of you to vote yes!).

Based on the response thus far, I’ve decided to give it a whirl. I’m working on installing the forum software right now. Depending on how long it takes for me to get things setup, get the forum themed to match the site, and do a few security measures, it should be live by Friday!

I’m asking for your input on what you want to be included in the forum. I have a healthy list for myself, but I’m curious what topics YOU want to have. Those of you who voted “Yes", what topics do you feel should be up for discussion? You can leave them in a comment on this post, send them as an @reply to @mozunk or send them as a direct message to @secrettweet. Just let me know some how. The forum will be practically free of ads so this whole thing is being done entirely for YOU and your enjoyment

So throw your ideas at me and we’ll see what comes of this experiment.

Regards,
@mozunk
SecretTweet Admin Guy

I understand that, for one reason or another, some users don’t want to have others comment on their SecretTweet submissions. So now, when you submit a secret, you can disable comments by checking the box right above the submit button. When you do this, users will see “The submitter of this SecretTweet indicated that he/she doesn’t want comments/replies to be shown for this specific SecretTweet.” instead of the comment form. Also, public replies will not be shown.

Also be sure to keep sending me feedback for features you want to see or problems you have stumbled across. It’s much appreciated!

Regards,
@mozunk
Kevin Smith
SecretTweet Guy

I’ve adjusted the way to have your public replies to @SecretTweet be indexed. There’s no more need for the tilde (~).

New format is just “@secrettweet number reply".

Send a tweet with the following format:
“@secrettweet ****** your reply here.”
Reply to @secrettweet with the tweet number followed by your reply. The tweet number is published at the beginning of EVERY tweet (starting 4/15/08).
If you follow this format correctly, your tweet will show up in the replies for the corresponding tweet (it may take up to 15 minutes to be picked up by the SecretTweet bot, though).

Here’s an example of the proper way. If you look at Secret 21801, you’ll notice the reply shows there. You can also reply anonymously by clicking the “View Comments” link under each tweet.

——-
For those of you who are in the habit of using the old format, don’t worry, I’ll continue to support the indexing of those replies as well. This newer format just save one character and it’s less confusing.

I added RSS feeds for EVERY tweet’s comments. So, if you’re like me and an RSS freak, you can subscribe to a tweet’s comment feed. There’s a logo () at the bottom of every tweet now. Example:

Now for some more “major” news: advertising! If you’re interested in advertising on SecretTweet.com or in the @SecretTweet/@SecretTweet3 Twitter feeds, check out the advertising page for some basic information.

You can now comment on the unabridged submissions. It works exactly like commenting on the approved submissions. Bring any problems you encounter to my attention.

Enjoy!

Regards,
@mozunk

I try very hard to refrain from becoming involved with the content on SecretTweet. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t even comment on any of the submissions on the site or mention them on my own Twitter stream. I want to remain in the background as much as possible. There are times when a submission comes in that I feel, as a human being, I have to do something, say something, or act somehow…but I can’t. I don’t know who is behind the submission.

There are thousands of different categories of tweets that have poured into the Direct Message box of @SecretTweet (to those of you who send them, yes, I do read them) and to SecretTweet.com itself. From the humorous, to those relating to relationships, to those relating to personal vices, to those relating to personal struggle and suicide.

I created SecretTweet on April 2, 2008, as a way to share some of my own secrets. Less than a year later, I would have never thought that so many people (approximately 35 thousand daily) and over 5,000 followers on Twitter would come to do the same and offer guidance and support through comments. Since I launched SecretTweet, 24,385 individuals have taken their own lives. One every 17 minutes. Suicide related submissions come in to SecretTweet several times per day and I wish I were able to be beside every individual…but I can’t be. I can, however, point you in the right direction and give you the promise of hope. Everyone, including myself, experiences hard times in life. There are times when there seems no hope, no other option except to take your life. If you’re in this situation, get in touch with Hopeline.com (1-800-Suicide). They are not government affiliated so your privacy is a guarantee. If you don’t want to call Hopeline, call a friend or family member. If you don’t want to do either of those and you trust in me, email me (mozunk@gmail.com). I will listen.

With warmth,
Kevin Smith
@mozunk
SecretTweet.com Owner
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