about a feature · updated 2026-05-26
Leave one small thing behind.
Find it again next time.
The I-Was-Here wall is an anonymous constellation of notes left by past visitors. Each glowing dot is one person's mark — a glyph they picked, a colour they liked, eighty characters of whatever felt true at the time. It is permanent. It is unsigned. And when you come back, your own marks will be waiting.
Open the wall
How a trace works
- Open the wall. Scroll to the "I was here" section on the homepage, or jump straight to whattodowhenhigh.com/#i-was-here.
- Tap "leave a trace". A small glass card opens.
- Pick a glyph and a colour. Ten symbols — star, moon, flower, heart, sparkle, and others. Eight tones from marigold to lilac.
- Write a short note. Up to eighty characters. A feeling, a song, a thought.
- Place it. Your mark drifts into a random spot on the cosmic canvas. It is now permanent, anonymous, and visible to every visitor.
It takes about twenty seconds. There is no signup, no email, no payment, no app to install.
What people leave
The wall has been used for:
- Songs that landed hard that night.
- Things someone realised about a person they love.
- Gratitudes — for a parent, a friend, a quiet moment.
- Dedications — "this one's for ___".
- Reminders to a future self ("you'll be ok").
- Beautiful one-line observations: "the moon felt close tonight."
- Small dares: "remember this feeling."
It is not a comment section, not a forum, not a chat. It is closer to writing on a wall in a quiet temple — slow, considered, mostly private even though anyone can read it.
The privacy contract
- No IP addresses stored.
- No cookies, no fingerprints, no analytics.
- No account, email, or phone number required.
- Stored fields: glyph, colour, text (≤ 80 chars), anonymous position, timestamp. Nothing else.
- Your device remembers which traces are yours, locally, so they pulse when you return.
- Glyphs and colours are server-side allow-listed to prevent injection.
Common questions
Can I delete a trace? Not yet. They are intentionally permanent — that is what makes leaving one matter.
Can other people see mine? Yes — that is the point. They will appear as a glow in the constellation alongside everyone else's.
How long do they last? Indefinitely. The wall is capped at the most recent five thousand traces to stay performant; only after that ceiling do the oldest ones fade.
Why no editing? Because permanence is the point. A note you can take back later means less. This is closer to writing your name in wet concrete.
The bigger idea
Most of the internet is loud. The "I was here" wall is the opposite of that — a small, generous gesture you can make without anyone knowing it was you, and that you can return to without anyone knowing you came back. It is one of those small, almost-spiritual web objects that the internet used to be much better at making and has mostly stopped.
If a hundred people leave a trace tonight, the wall is a kind of community. If only one person does, the wall is a kind of solitude. Either is enough.