In 1999, eneriwomaninterface won A List Apart and High-Five's Web design contest. In addition to the general praise for the site design, one judge had this to say, "I get the feeling that the EneriWoman is not counting on you looking at this site. It has the feeling of reading someone's diary or notes to herself. This personal quality is sometimes a little scary but then I think she is making this site for herself and just giving me access.” [my emphasis]. This response raises several questions about the relationship of the site to women's autobiography and the mechanisms by which we read it as such:

• What can be said about the function of confession in the eneriwomaninterface, particularly when considered as a feminist autobiography?
  
  
• What is the implication of characterizing such a complexly-designed piece of work as a "diary" or "notes"?
  
  
• What does "scary" mean in this context?

The segment "I am afraid of being afraid" provides perhaps the most direct example of the kind of confessional writing referenced by the design contest judge. Against a black-and-white photo montage, the user is presented with a very long, scrollable list of fears ranging from the material ("I am afraid of being broke.") to the interpersonal ("I am afraid of other people's expectations."). In a text box beneath the list, a frenetically scrambled line of type regularly resolves itself into the phrase, "If I was weak, forgive me . . I was terrified." While other segments of the interface provide introspective commentary of one kind or another, this segment clearly invokes a confessional structure, configuring the user as confessor. The list of fears reads like a list of sins, particularly against the plea for forgiveness that accompanies it. Here, though, the technology permits Chan to conflate confession and absolution, by constructing the plea for absolution as a moment of visual resolution. >>>