| Great question, I could speak at quite some length about this. My thinking has been that anonymity + knowing that your messages will disappear in a few seconds creates the lowest pressure possible environment to say something that you might not normally want to talk about (IE, venting about something that bugged you, for example.) /b/ is indeed anonymous, but on the other hand, you know your post is going to stay there for a while. People can read it and respond to it for some time after it's been posted. On VentScape, you know that after a few seconds it will disappear, thereby being lower pressure. You bring up a good point, that you aren't talking to anyone directly here, which is true I think. But I also believe, personally, that a lot of the benefit of "venting" is attained even just by getting the words to come out of your mouth. Your vent doesn't necessarily need to be critically discussed with another person to benefit. Is VentScape the world's greatest venting platform? I do not think so. But I do think it allows for a certain kind of pressure free communication that's hard to come by elsewhere, whether that be friendly banter, random chatting, or yes, venting. I could write a lot more about this if you (or anyone else) is curious, but those are some initial thoughts (without being too wordy, hopefully.) |