The Day I Accidentally Invented Sarahah
Okay…before we go any further, I did NOT invent the sarahah website, but six years ago I launched a website that I thought would be kind of fun and within a couple of weeks, I realized that what I created was something much uglier than I intended.
The website I started was called thingsicantsayonfacebook.com. Yeah, I know, long name. But I wasn’t trying to be internet famous, I was just trying to be funny.
Why start the site? Because there were (are) things that I wanted (want) to post on Facebook that my mom would (would) see. Nothing awful, no confessions about actually being Kaiser Soze or anything—although I was in a barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois—but sometimes there are things you just don’t want your mom to read.
So I started a site. You could post whatever you wanted, anonymously, and get it off your chest. (Honestly, when I type that sentence, I sound like such a naive dope that I cannot stand it.)
Most posts were pretty funny and I started getting a little traction, but I think it took 48 hours or so before I got the first truly awful comment. And ALL of the ugly comments were either really racist, really anti-homosexual or so specific that everybody knew who they were talking about.
I thought it would be a funny site, I swear that was my idea—I didn’t want to start a site where people just killed each other. And instead it turned into ugliness. Quickly. Racist stuff (amazing how quickly those shitbags come out from the woodwork when they can be anonymous) and such. I was really upset about that, so I instituted a policy where all comments would be monitored and anything that contained hate speech, just wouldn’t be posted.
That helped, but I was the guy who had to go through everything. And there were too many awful comments. I just couldn’t live with it. I thought I created something that would be fun and it…well…wasn’t.
So I killed the site. Immediately. There is still a Facebook page, which I have tried to delete five times, but somehow is still there. But the website is gone and will always be gone. I’m not Pollyanna and I know that awful stuff exists, but I don’t want something I do to contribute to that awfulness.
So when I saw all of these posts about this #sarahah thing, I shuddered. Hey…let’s give everyone a chance to anonymously say whatever they want about you! That sounds awful and, from what I’ve heard, awful is exactly what it is.
If you’re still reading this (and even if you’re not), you deserve better. Don’t give people an anonymous chance to say nasty things about you anonymously because that is exactly what they will do.
Until then, I love you all. Ha. Just kidding. Unless Daisy is reading this. I really do love her. She’s adorable. The rest of you I can deal with. At the same time, though, I’ll never leave an anonymous nasty comment about you.
