But anyway, my love of the website has been thrown out there. And that’s what makes me so disturbed about what I found when I visited the site bright and early on Sunday, December 7, 2008:
Seems innocent enough, right? Until I started thinking. Why would a website that’s hosted by BLOGGER a FREE Google-owned blogging website that I host THIS very blog on need to start begging for donations? I absolutely love this website, but right now, I’m starting to feel like this is the blogging website equivalent to the Catholic Church’s Bishop’s Annual Appeal. To make matter’s worse, every 5 postcards or so, these appeared:
Frank originally claimed to be wanting to donate money to the suicide prevention hotline “Hopeline,” but why would he need to beg for money to keep a free website running? They don’t even have archives on PostSecret; sometimes you’ll get lucky and the previous week’s “secrets” will be up, but most of the time, if you don’t catch them within the first week, you’re out of luck and have to wait until the $30 book is published. And as someone pointed out in an email he posted to the website, “I would prefer any cash donations be directed to the suicide prevention hotline; HopeLine (not PostSecret).”
I can’t help but get the suspicious feeling that Mr. Warren is really only trying to pay for his book tours. We’re in and have been in for the last 12 months a bonafide recession. These are tough economic times and someone who spends their week reading postcards with people’s darkest secrets and deepest fears and insecurities on them should realize this, too. This almost seems silly to question, since the answer is 98% “DUH!”, but is Post Secret really just a business opportunity for Frank Warren?
I guess there really is no such thing as a completely unselfish act and Frank Warren & PostSecret are swept up in the money-making tide. But why am I complaining? I’m still gonna visit the site every Sunday and probably buy the books I don’t have eventually.
I never actually have looked at PostSecret before. I actually had heard about it, but I thought it was popcorn. But that’s Pop Secret. Thanks for sharing the site. I’ll be checking that out more often.
That’s an interesting point about why would he need the money if the site is free. Could it be for hosting all the images maybe? I’m not sure how Blogger works.
Hmmmm. To be Devil’s Advocate, maybe the project has started taking up so much of his time and he has been cutting back on his real job and so needs to be compensated?
I don’t know. That sounds like gold plated crap to me, but it’s another option.
Fishy!
Why not accept ads? Stop begging for money and book purchases. The publishing industry is dead anyways. He could probably make more money direct in his pocket via the web than through his thieving publishing company.