Frequently Asked Questions

Dear Nobody is an anonymous space to share letters, confessions, and stories. We publish selected submissions to the Mailbox to help others feel seen and less alone. No accounts, no tracking, no judgment.

Dear Nobody is operated by Intelliquinte L.L.C., a small independent team dedicated to creating safe, anonymous spaces for authentic human expression.

We're not backed by venture capital and don't sell user data. Our focus is building something meaningful, not maximizing engagement or revenue.

Sometimes words need a place to exist outside of us. Not every thought needs a reply. Not every confession needs absolution. Not every letter needs to be sent.

Dear Nobody exists because some things are too heavy to carry alone, but too fragile to share with someone who knows your name. It's a space for the unsent, the unsaid, and the unfinished.

The Three Voices aren't categories — they're impulses. They reflect three ways of expression:

• Write — Letters unsent, words to someone who'll never read them
• Confess — Hidden truths you need to release
• Explain — The full story, the context, what really happened

Each one is a release valve when words have nowhere else to go. The forms are the same — choose whichever feels right for what you need to express. There's no wrong choice.

Yes. We don't ask for your real name, email, or any identifying information. We don't intentionally retain IPs or use cookies to identify you. Our infrastructure providers may process network data — see our Privacy Policy for details.

Important: Please avoid including details in your writing that could identify you or others (full names, specific addresses, workplace names, etc.). Your anonymity is ultimately in your hands.

We don't collect identifying information — no accounts, no email, no IP logging in our application. Our infrastructure providers (Cloudflare, Supabase) may see request metadata as part of delivering the service. We do not receive or store those provider logs, and we do not have access to or control over them.

For stronger anonymity, consider using Tor Browser or a VPN. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes, completely free. Reading and writing are free forever. We don't have premium tiers, paywalls, or hidden fees.

We're focused on building a space for authentic expression, not monetizing your data or attention. Our funding comes from the parent company, not from ads or data sales.

Several key differences set us apart:

• Strong privacy — We don't intentionally retain IPs, emails, or identifying data at the application level
• You control your content — Delete anytime with your Private ID, no questions asked
• Human moderation — Every public submission is reviewed by a real person
• No engagement farming — No likes, comments, or viral mechanics designed to keep you scrolling
• Transparent practices — See our live statistics and exactly how we operate

Please do. If Dear Nobody has been meaningful to you, sharing it helps others find a space to release what they're carrying.

You can share:

• The main site: dearnobody.org
• Individual letters using their Public ID link

Please don't share someone else's letter in a way that could identify them or use it to mock or harass.

The only required field is your letter content. Everything else is optional:

• To — Who you're addressing (defaults to "Nobody")
• Pseudonym — How you want to sign it (defaults to "Anonymous")
• Visibility — Public (Mailbox) or Private (just for you)
• Category — Help readers find similar content
• Trigger warnings — Help readers prepare

Keep it honest. That's what matters most.

10 to 5,000 characters (roughly 750-1,000 words max). The 10-character minimum ensures submissions have meaningful content.

Shorter, focused letters are often more impactful for readers, but write what you need to write. Some things require more space.

Yes, you can submit as many letters as you'd like. Each submission receives its own unique Public ID and Private ID for separate management.

There's no limit, but please don't spam. Quality over quantity helps keep the Mailbox meaningful for everyone.

You'll immediately receive a confirmation with two important codes:

• Public ID — Used to find your letter in the Mailbox (safe to share)
• Private ID — Used to manage or delete your submission (keep this secret!)

Save both IDs immediately. We cannot recover them for you.

If you chose Public visibility, your letter will go into the moderation queue for human review before appearing in the Mailbox.

No. We don't support editing after submission. This is intentional — it preserves the authenticity of what you wrote in that moment.

If you need to make changes, you can:

1. Delete your submission using your Private ID at Access & Control
2. Resubmit with your changes

No. We don't collect contact information like email addresses, so we can't send notifications.

To check your submission status:

• Use your Private ID at Access & Control to see your letter's current status
• Search for your Public ID in the Mailbox once it's approved

Small typos are human. They don't disqualify your letter from publication.

If the typo significantly changes the meaning or you've included something by accident (like identifying information), delete and resubmit using your Private ID.

No. We moderate for safety, not morality. Our team reviews for guideline violations (illegal content, threats, etc.) — not to judge whether your confession is "acceptable."

This space is for honesty. We encourage accountability and self-reflection, but what you need to release is between you and Nobody.

Yes. Click "Add Options" when writing to access the optional second step, where you can select common trigger warnings:

• Abuse
• Self-harm
• Violence
• Addiction
• Sexual content

Adding trigger warnings helps readers make informed choices about what they're ready to read. It's encouraged but not required.

Categories help organize the Mailbox and help readers find letters that resonate with them. Available categories include:

• General (default)
• Love
• Grief
• Mental Health
• Advice
• Other

If you're not sure, leave it as General. Our moderators may suggest a different category during review.

Beyond agreeing to our Terms and Guidelines (required), you can optionally consent to:

• Research — Allow anonymized use in academic research about mental health, expression, or related topics
• Marketing — Allow short excerpts in promotional materials (social media, prints, apparel, books, etc.)

Both are completely optional. Your submission will be published regardless of your choice. Learn more about consents →

The Mailbox is where approved public letters are displayed for others to read. It's a collection of anonymous human experiences — letters, confessions, and stories from people around the world.

Think of it as a public archive of things people needed to say.

You can browse the Mailbox in several ways:

• By category — Filter by Love, Grief, Mental Health, etc.
• By type — Show only Letters, Confessions, or Explanations
• By Public ID — If you have a specific letter's ID, you can access it directly
• Chronologically — Browse newest or oldest first

No. Dear Nobody is intentionally one-directional. There are no comments, replies, likes, or social interactions.

This is by design. Not every expression needs a response. Sometimes words just need a place to exist. The absence of engagement mechanics also protects writers from harassment and removes the pressure to perform for an audience.

No. We don't track or display view counts, likes, or engagement metrics on individual letters.

This is intentional. We want you to write for yourself, not for an audience. Your words have value whether they're read by one person or thousands.

The 18+ Archive contains letters with mature themes that aren't appropriate for all audiences:

• Explicit sexuality
• Graphic violence
• Detailed trauma descriptions
• Addiction content
• Other adult themes

The Archive is hidden by default. You must opt in to view it, confirming you're 18 or older. Writers can also mark their own content as 18+ during submission.

Yes, public letters can be shared using their Public ID link. However, please:

• Don't share in a way that could identify the writer
• Don't use letters to mock, harass, or ridicule
• Respect the vulnerability of anonymous expression

Sharing thoughtfully can help others feel less alone. Sharing cruelly defeats the purpose of this space.

We collect the absolute minimum needed to operate:

• Your submission — The content you write (to, message, pseudonym)
• Metadata — Timestamp, visibility choice, category, trigger warnings
• Optional fields — How you heard about us, consent choices

We do NOT actively collect:

• IP addresses
• Email addresses
• Browser fingerprints
• Device identifiers
• Location data

Note: We don't ask for your real name or identity, but if you include personal details in your submission content, those become part of your submission. We encourage keeping submissions anonymous.

We use minimal, functional cookies only:

• CAPTCHA verification — Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent spam
• 18+ preference — Remembers if you've opted into the mature archive (stored locally, not sent to us)

We do not use tracking cookies, analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or any cookies that identify you across sessions or sites.

You choose your visibility at submission time:

• Public — Your letter goes to the moderation queue. If approved, it appears in the Mailbox for anyone to read.
• Private — Your letter is stored but never published to the Mailbox. It won't appear publicly, but our team (moderators/founders) can still access it for safety and operational purposes.

"Private" means private from the public — not hidden from Dear Nobody's team. You can change your mind later by deleting and resubmitting with different visibility.

Go to Access & Control and enter your Private ID. You can:

• View your submission's current status
• Delete your submission permanently
• Revoke optional consents (before publication only)

Deletion is instant and permanent. No waiting period, no approval needed, no questions asked.

Unfortunately, we cannot recover or reset Private IDs. This is a security feature, not a limitation:

• We only store a one-way hash of your Private ID — the original is never saved
• If we could recover IDs, someone could impersonate you to delete your content
• Recovering IDs would require collecting identifying information, defeating anonymity

Save your IDs immediately when you submit — in a password manager, a note, or somewhere safe.

No. Your Private ID is never stored in plain text. We only keep a one-way cryptographic hash for verification. This means:

• No one at Dear Nobody can see your actual Private ID — not admins, not moderators, not engineers
• We cannot reverse the hash to recover your ID
• Only you can manage your content

This is the same approach used by responsible services for password storage.

No. Because we don't store your Private ID, we have no way to verify that you're actually the person who wrote the submission.

This protects you:

• No one can impersonate you and request deletion
• Even Dear Nobody staff can't modify your content without authorization
• Your control is absolute

You must use Access & Control with your Private ID.

We comply with valid legal requests, but there's very little we can provide:

• We don't have IP addresses to share
• We don't have email addresses or names
• We can't identify who wrote what

If legally compelled, we could provide submission content and timestamps — but nothing that identifies the author. Our privacy-first architecture limits what we can disclose, by design.

See our Privacy Policy for details on legal requests.

Your submissions are protected with multiple layers:

• Encryption in transit — All connections use HTTPS/TLS
• Encryption at rest — Database is encrypted
• Private ID hashing — We use PBKDF2 with unique salts
• Infrastructure — Hosted on Cloudflare Workers with D1 database

We don't store sensitive data we don't need. What we don't collect, we can't lose.

Yes, for policy or legal reasons. While we cannot delete on your behalf (we can't verify identity), our moderation team can remove content that:

• Violates our Community Guidelines
• Contains illegal content or is required by law to be removed
• Contains identifying information about real people
• Poses active safety risks

This is standard content moderation — not deletion on your behalf. See our Terms of Service for details.

All public submissions go through a review process before appearing in the Mailbox:

1. AI pre-screening — Our AI flags potential concerns and suggests categories (takes ~2 seconds)
2. Human review — A trained moderator reads your letter and makes the final decision
3. Decision — Approved (published), Held (needs clarification), or Declined (violates guidelines)

Note: Private submissions won't go through the public moderation queue, but our team can still access them for safety and operational purposes. "Private" means private from the public, not from Dear Nobody.

Most submissions are reviewed within 24-48 hours. During high-volume periods (viral moments, holidays), it may take longer.

You can check your submission's status anytime at Access & Control using your Private ID.

Yes, but with strict limits. AI assists our moderation process:

• Flags potential guideline violations for human review
• Detects crisis indicators (self-harm, suicide mentions)
• Suggests categories and trigger warnings
• Helps prioritize the moderation queue

AI never makes final decisions. Humans review everything and can override AI suggestions. Our Transparency page shows exactly how often humans disagree with AI.

Absolutely not. Your submissions are never used for AI training.

We use inference-only AI (Cloudflare Workers AI with Meta's Llama models). This means:

• AI analyzes your text once, then "forgets" it
• There is no training endpoint — the capability doesn't exist
• Your words cannot improve or modify the AI model

You can verify this yourself — see the "For Skeptics" section on our Transparency page.

Yes. Using your Private ID at Access & Control, you can view what our AI flagged about your submission, including:

• Suggested categories
• Detected themes or trigger warnings
• Any safety flags

Full transparency — nothing hidden.

Letters are declined when they violate our Community Guidelines. Common reasons include:

• Contains identifying information about real people
• Targets or harasses identifiable individuals
• Contains hate speech or slurs
• Contains sexual content involving minors (zero tolerance)
• Provides detailed instructions for illegal activity
• Contains active threats of harm

We moderate for safety, not quality or morality. If your letter was rejected, check the guidelines and consider resubmitting with changes.

Currently, we don't have a formal appeals process. However:

• You can delete your submission and resubmit with modifications
• You can contact us if you believe the decision was made in error

We're a small team and review every submission carefully. Mistakes are rare but possible — we're human.

AI cannot delete submissions. Only humans can approve, hold, or decline content. AI flags and suggests — humans decide.

If your submission was removed, it was a human decision. We track our AI override rate on the Transparency page to show how often moderators disagree with AI recommendations.

Yes. "Private" means your letter won't be published to the public Mailbox — it doesn't mean hidden from Dear Nobody's team.

Our moderators and founders can access private submissions for:

• Safety monitoring and crisis detection
• Platform integrity and abuse prevention
• Operational and legal purposes

Private submissions simply won't appear publicly. If you need something truly private, consider not submitting it to an online platform.

We remove content that includes:

• Personal identifying information — Full names, addresses, phone numbers, workplaces of real people
• Harassment — Targeting identifiable individuals with intent to harm or humiliate
• Hate speech — Slurs, discrimination, or dehumanizing language targeting protected groups
• CSAM — Any sexual content involving minors (zero tolerance, reported to authorities)
• Illegal instructions — Detailed guides for committing crimes
• Active threats — Specific, credible threats of violence

See our full Community Guidelines for details.

A lot. We're not here to police thoughts or judge your experiences:

• Dark thoughts and difficult emotions
• Confessions of things you regret
• Anger, grief, jealousy, shame
• Descriptions of past experiences (even traumatic ones)
• Adult content between consenting adults (in 18+ Archive)
• Controversial opinions (expressed without hate)
• Profanity and strong language

We moderate for safety, not morality or palatability.

Generally, no. We're not law enforcement, and most confessions don't trigger legal obligations.

However, we will report and cooperate with authorities for:

• Child sexual abuse material — Always reported (legal requirement)
• Credible, imminent threats — Active plans to harm specific people
• Terrorism planning — Credible threats of mass violence

Confessing to past events (crimes you've already committed) does not typically trigger mandatory reporting. However, we encourage seeking appropriate professional help.

The 18+ Archive contains letters with mature themes:

• Explicit sexual content (between consenting adults)
• Graphic violence or gore
• Detailed trauma descriptions
• Substance abuse content
• Other adult-only themes

The Archive is hidden by default. You must opt in to view it, confirming you're 18+. You can also mark your own submission as 18+ during the writing process.

Click the Report button below any letter in the Mailbox. You'll be asked to select a reason:

• Contains identifying information
• Harassment or targeting
• Hate speech
• Illegal content
• Wrong content rating (should be 18+)
• Other concern

Our moderation team reviews all reports promptly. You don't need an account or ID to report.

When you submit a report:

1. The report enters our moderation queue
2. A human moderator reviews the content against our guidelines
3. Action is taken if necessary (removal, re-categorization, etc.)

We don't notify reporters of outcomes (we don't have your contact info), but we review every report seriously.

Dear Nobody is not a substitute for professional help. If you're in crisis, please reach out to trained professionals:

• 988 — Call or text (U.S. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline)
• 988lifeline.org
• findahelpline.com — International resources
• Crisis Text Line — Text HOME to 741741 (US)

Visit our Crisis Resources page for more support options.

If we detect crisis indicators in a submission, we display crisis resources. We cannot respond personally or provide crisis intervention.

Yes. We don't remove content simply because it expresses difficult emotions or describes experiences with self-harm or suicidal ideation.

However:

• Submissions with crisis indicators will display crisis resources
• Detailed instructions or methods are removed
• Content glorifying or encouraging self-harm is removed

Expression is allowed. Dangerous instruction is not. If you're struggling, please reach out to crisis resources — writing is powerful, but professional support is irreplaceable.

Dear Nobody works on all modern browsers:

• Chrome (desktop & mobile)
• Firefox (desktop & mobile)
• Safari (desktop & iOS)
• Edge
• Brave and other Chromium-based browsers

We recommend keeping your browser updated for the best experience and security.

Not currently. Dear Nobody is a web-only platform accessible from any browser.

On mobile, you can add Dear Nobody to your home screen for an app-like experience:

• iOS — Safari → Share → "Add to Home Screen"
• Android — Chrome → Menu → "Add to Home Screen"

We strive for accessibility:

• Semantic HTML structure
• ARIA labels where needed
• Keyboard navigation support
• Sufficient color contrast
• Form labels and error messages

If you encounter accessibility issues, please let us know. We want Dear Nobody to be usable by everyone.

We use Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent spam and automated abuse. Unlike traditional CAPTCHAs:

• Usually invisible — no puzzles to solve
• Privacy-respecting — doesn't track you
• Faster than reCAPTCHA alternatives

If you see a challenge, it's usually brief. This helps keep Dear Nobody free of spam while respecting your time and privacy.

Try these steps:

1. Refresh the page
2. Clear your browser cache
3. Try a different browser
4. Disable browser extensions that might interfere
5. Check your internet connection

If issues persist, check our social media for any announced outages, or contact us.

Common reasons for submission failures:

• CAPTCHA failed — Try again; refresh if needed
• Content too long — Check the 5,000 character limit
• Required field missing — Ensure the main text field isn't empty
• Network issue — Check your internet connection
• Server error — Rare, but try again in a few minutes

Your browser should show an error message explaining the issue. If you see "Submission successful" with IDs, it worked.

Yes. VPNs work fine with Dear Nobody. Since we don't intentionally retain IPs at the application level, there's no conflict.

Note that some VPNs may trigger more CAPTCHA challenges due to shared IP addresses. This is a Cloudflare security measure, not something we control.

Not currently. We may open-source parts of Dear Nobody in the future, but privacy and security are our priorities. We'd rather be careful than fast.

You can verify our claims about AI, data collection, and privacy using the methods described on our Transparency page.