Me/Them

Enter the 4-word access code from your Me/Them card:

How it works

Pick up a Me/Them card. Tear off your Me card and keep it. Share the matching Them card with one or more humans. Now you’re connected

When it’s convenient — right now, in a few hours, later this week — you can use your Me card to post a message. That message is secure: it is only visible to people with a matching Them card. That message is anonymous: it is not linked to any account or identity

You can use a Them card to view the message posted for you. If you check for a message before the matching Me card has been used the website will let you know. Check back in a day or two, so that the human you are connected to has a chance to post

All messages are deleted 90 days after they are posted or updated. Expiration helps with technical security and is intended to mirror the ephemeral nature of human memory: it fades into legend if we do not keep it alive¹. In a world that often tracks and records every piece of our past it can feel safe to know that not everything is permanent

Q & A

Q. What can I post here?

A. Basically anything. Many people post things like:

• Phone numbers
• Pie recipes
• Email addresses
• Social media handles
• Ask & offers, Wanted/for-sale
• Links/URLs/websites
• Calendar/event info
• Poems
• Street addresses
• Pictures of neat rocks/dogs/planets

At preset the system can only display plain text, but in the future it is likely to support formatted text, images and other types of data. Let ZiB know if you have ideas about what it should do

You may not use this system to harass or harm any human, nor for any unlawful purposes. But the content in each message is between Me and Them; so long as you are safe with and respectful of each other you may post anything you like

Q. How do I reply to a message? How do I check for replies?

A. You cannot. This system intentionally provides one-way communication, in the same way that handing someone a physical note provides one-way communication. If you want Them to be able to reply to you, be sure to include contact info in your message (you can edit your post to add it if you forgot)

If you would like replies built into this system please talk to ZiB about how you would use that feature

Q. How secure are these messages, really? I didn’t even log in!

A. Me/Them messages are protected online by a 40-bit key — the 4-word access code on your card — which provides more than 1 trillion possible combinations. Given enough time it is possible to guess any code, but it is exceedingly unlikely anyone (or any computer) could guess your particular code even if they tried hard for the whole 90 days. Me/Them is likely to support additional security options in the future, but right now it only supports this mode

Me/Them messages are encrypted on disk to protect against offline attacks. But messages are not secret from the server itself (or the people who directly operate it). If you want your message to be end-to-end encrypted consider using a tool like GPG to protect your message before posting it, or talk to ZiB about other ways to keep safe

Q. I have other questions

A. Talk to ZiB

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