We Built a Site That Asks: Am I The Only One?
Source: Dev.to
Introduction
You know that feeling when you catch yourself doing something slightly weird — like rearranging items and thinking, “Am I the only one who does this?” That question haunts all of us, and we got tired of Googling it.
What Am I The Only One? is
A brutally simple anonymous social platform where you can:
- Post your question – “Am I the only one who…”
- Vote – “YES, same! 🙋” or “Just me 🤷”
- See the real‑time percentage of people who feel exactly the same
There are no followers, likes, or social pressure—just raw, honest data from the collective human experience. The questions worth asking are often the ones you’re too embarrassed to Google, such as:
- …still checks the fridge every 10 minutes hoping food appeared?
- …has a full internal monologue narrated by David Attenborough?
- …has decided they’re “a night owl” purely to avoid morning responsibilities?
Features
- Anonymous posting – no usernames attached, so you can share without fear.
- Instant voting – thousands of users can vote in real time, with results displayed as a percentage.
Technology Stack
- PHP 8.3 – server‑rendered, no framework overhead.
- MariaDB 10.11 – relational data with fast vote aggregation.
- Tailwind CSS – dark glass‑morphism UI.
- Apache + Let’s Encrypt – deployed on AWS Ubuntu 24.04.
The site avoids SPAs and heavy front‑end frameworks; it loads in under 200 ms globally.
Voting System
Votes are tracked using IP + User‑Agent fingerprinting for anonymous users, allowing you to vote without creating an account.
Content Filters
A two‑tier filter protects the platform:
- Profanity filter – word‑boundary regex matching on 30+ terms.
- Illegal content filter – phrase matching for harmful categories.
All posts pass through these filters before reaching the database, ensuring clean content with no moderation backlog.
Try It Out
Go post something embarrassing at and find out whether you’re actually the only one who laughs at their own jokes before telling them.