Context
Dear Next Visitor is a small social experiment in kindness and serendipity. A visitor writes a message for the next person, then receives the message left by the person before them. There are no accounts, feeds or likes. Just a single thought passed from one stranger to another.
The challenge
The exchange needed to feel effortless and private while still protecting visitors from obvious abuse. Its one-in, one-out promise also had to remain dependable when multiple people arrived at the same time.
My contribution
I designed and built the product end to end with TanStack Start and React, using Drizzle and libSQL for persistence, NATS for message delivery, and automated checks to moderate submissions.
Product decision 01
Keep the exchange one-to-one
Visitors cannot browse an archive or collect reactions. Requiring one message before revealing another keeps the experience reciprocal and gives each note a single intended reader.
Product decision 02
Protect the space without requiring identity
Messages remain anonymous and transient, while automated moderation reduces obvious abuse. The product can set a basic safety boundary without introducing profiles or tracking people across visits.
Outcome
One private message exchanged at a time