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by diggum 1625 days ago
About 10 years ago, I taught myself web programming by writing https://dirtywalls.com which is still up and which occasionally I still see used by a handful of the folks I shared it with back then. Same basic idea: pseudonymous message boards attached to real-world locations, where you must be within a certain proximity to read or post.

The concept at the time was "4chan meets foursquare." and the inspiration was rediscovering some graffiti in a bar bathroom that years before had particularly tickled some friends and I. For awhile, I added new locations as I traveled extensively for work, so there are hidden little message boards around NYC, SF, China, Seattle, Europe...

1 comments

Threaded replies is actually the biggest feature on our roadmap!

I do love the idea of "hidden messages", invisible communities that only a few will ever see.

Lots of possibilities, for sure. I liked the idea of a public layer as well as private or protected layers for every space. Patrons of a restaurant could chat on the public board for that location, while employees might bitch anonymously about management or warn each other of problematic customers on the private space. Or residents of an apartment building could complain about noisy neighbors or neglecting landlords without it being completely public.

My concept had a sort of anarchic bent at the time, so anonymity and fighting the man was the guiding principles in theory, but as I was only just learning JavaScript and PHP, ideals were going to be a later development and design phase than I ever achieved ;)