# Silent mode

> Everyone writes on their own in a section; stickies stay face down until they're revealed.

Silent mode keeps a section’s new stickies hidden from everyone but their author until someone reveals them, so nobody anchors on the first idea.

![A section called What hurts in silent mode: other people's stickies lie face down with their authors' initials, and the header shows Silent, counts per person and Reveal 8.](https://tack.social/_astro/silent-light.C7UhxTSw_2b5LGr.webp)

## Starting

Facilitate → Silent mode → **Start on a section…**, then click the section (sections are outlined while you pick). With a section selected on its own, the menu starts it there straight away, and so does **Silent** in the section’s bar. On a board without sections, **Make one here** makes one in view.

Everyone’s told what to do, with **Go there** to get to the section: “Priya put “What hurts” in silent mode: add stickies there, and only you can read yours until Priya reveals them.” People who open the board while it’s on are told too.

While it’s on:

- Stickies you add in the section, or in a section inside it, show your text to you, marked “Only you can see this until it’s revealed”. (So silent mode on a section around three columns, as in the Retro [template](https://tack.social/templates.md), covers all three, and one reveal turns them all over.)
- Everyone else’s lie face down, showing only their author’s initials and colour.
- The header shows **Silent**, who started it, how many stickies each person has written, and **Reveal** for whoever may reveal it. Everyone else reads “Priya will reveal”.
- Making issues from a face-down sticky waits for the reveal.

Stickies that were already in the section, or that are dragged in, stay face up: everyone’s seen them. A face-down sticky dragged out of the section stays face down. Several sections can be silent at once.

## Revealing

**Reveal** (in the header, or in the Facilitate menu’s Running now) turns every sticky over at once, in a wave across the section. It can be revealed by whoever started silent mode, or the board’s owner. If the person who started it has left the board, anyone who can edit it can reveal it, so a section is never stuck face down. Revealing can’t be undone.

Until anyone has written something, the button is **End silent mode** instead: started on the wrong section, it just ends.

## How private it is

Hidden text never goes into the board itself. Your browser sends what you type only to the board’s server, which keeps it and sends it only back to you (to your other tabs, and when you come back). Nobody else’s browser has it until the reveal, so nobody can peek, however they look.

If you’re not signed in, Tack recognises you by a random secret your browser keeps, so your hidden stickies come back if you reload.

People with view access can’t start silent mode, write in it, or reveal it.