cover image COMING CLEAN: The Best and Worst of DailyConfession.com

COMING CLEAN: The Best and Worst of DailyConfession.com

Greg Fox, . . Andrews McMeel, $12.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-7407-4177-7

Since 2000, DailyConfession.com has served as a haven "where people could unburden their souls and receive honest and humane responses." When Fox first launched the site, there were only a handful of visitors each day, but by December 2003, he had 8.5 million visitors a week. At the site, people confess to whatever they like, and other visitors respond. While Fox edits out "obscene, racist, or sexist rants" as well as "vicious" attacks on confessors, and promises to vet criminal material with the proper authorities, everything else stays, if Fox decides it's sincere. While such inclusivity may work online, pagefuls of repetitious responses can be tedious in a book. Predictably, sexual infidelity is a big theme, but there's also an extraordinary number of people reporting on pee, poop and fart obsessions. Most responses are variations on "you go girl," "you're pathetic," "euuuuw" or netspeak's "lol," except for the routinely sensible remarks by "Gramps" (who may be Fox's alter ego). Apart from its meandering, unfocused arrangement, the book suffers from competition—with itself. Why spend $12.95 on the book when the same material is available free, online? There, readers can also respond to what others are writing or confess to something and have people "lol" or "lmao" or even "roflma." Btw, a helpful glossary of netspeak is included. B&w illus. (July)