Telling embarrassing stories can certainly be considered humiliating, but, not if you’re completely anonymous. The website, and seemingly overnight phenomenon, Fmylife.com has incorporated embarrassing story-telling and anonymity into a semi-blog format.

Readers can enter a creative nickname and write a short story about an embarrassing moment or time in their day. These amusing and hilarious stories are the perfect means to distract oneself from their problems, and instead join in the accounts of others’ lives.

All entries end with the acronym “FML,” or written out as “F*** My Life.” According to Alan Holding, Fmylife.com moderator and Public Relations officer, “The FMLs are first voted on by the users using the auto moderation system. Based on the votes, whoever’s moderating at the time will select the ones to be posted onto the site based on personal preference, taking into account also the popularity of the story.”

The website also offers readers an opportunity to comment on other stories. While this aspect of the website can be seen as just another way to insult a person who seems down on their luck, many comments are surprisingly serious and helpful. However, a few faithful readers still seem to be amused at another person’s fortune, therefore commenting “FYL…F*** Your Life.”

This self-deprecating lingo may seem harsh and extreme at first glance, but after reading many of the entries, readers can understand that these embarrassing stories are more than just the common “wearing white after Labor Day” or “singing too loud in the shower”-type stories.

Rather, the website includes seven categories to post embarrassing stories and a general format to allow readers the opportunity for the best and most embarrassing stories. These categories include Love, Money, Kids, Work, Health, Sex, and Miscellaneous. Each category contains filthy, disgusting, and sometimes even repulsive stories about readers.

But what sets this website apart is the complete anonymity that readers can enjoy. The Internet, widely perceived as the most public forum for just about anything, does not seem to protect the identity of its users. Sure, websites such as Twitter and Facebook have the opportunity for users to create screen names and false accounts, but these websites routinely monitor its members and try and create a pure environment for all.

Fmylife.com, though, encourages secrecy, and thus does not allow readers to put a face or name to the story that they read. This allows readers to better relate to some of the stories, and feel more confident about posting their own embarrassing tales. Even other websites which promote anonymous story-telling and secrecy, including PostSecret, still have a more serious vibe and tone about them. Entries include topics such as drug and alcohol addiction and suicide; however, fmylife.com focuses solely on the comedic aspects of life.

More importantly, though, the embarrassing moments that we would hate to repeat, but have us laughing on the inside. According to Holding, the website started as a group of friends writing about the awful things that happened in their day. This eventually morphed into a blog, which ultimately became a website. The website originated in France, and has become the most popular entertainment website in France with just over 400,000 hits per day, but has gained international attention.

Holding writes that because of its success, an international and ultimately universal website was needed to accommodate users and allow them to vent about their terrible luck in a public forum. What is really amazing, though, is how rapidly the website has caught on. While it only started in France in January 2008, the English version has been available for the better part of two months, starting in January 2009.

With the economy being the way it is, and more people looking down upon their luck, the popularity of the site has really flourished. According to The Huffington Post’s Peter Dreier’s “This Economy is a Real Killer,” “Dr. Harvey Brenner, a sociologist and public health expert at Johns Hopkins University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center… calculated that for every one percent increase in the unemployment rate (an additional 1.5 million people out of work), we can expect an additional 47,000 deaths, including 26,000 deaths from heart attacks, about 1,200 from suicide, 831 murders, and 635 deaths related to alcohol consumption.”

Though frightening, this statistic reflects the influence of behavior on the economy. Because the unemployment rate has risen, individuals have found more to criticize and worry about in their lives than if the economy were more stable. Holding mentioned that even though the international version is still somewhat new, Fmylife.com receives several hundred submissions daily. While the website is updated every few hours, the likelihood of being published really depends on how embarrassing ones story is.

The best part about fmylife.com, though, is the obvious disregard for maintaining a sense of reverence. Holding said, “We want people to be able to laugh at the stories, whenever possible, so we won’t post shocking and gross stories that have no sense of fun, irony or self deprecation.”

Some of the posts, ranging from losing one’s virginity to dealing with difficult co-workers, are definitely evidence of this. For example, “Dansonn” posted: “Today, after work I went to the parking lot to my car to go home. I found my car doors heavily scratched and all my tires cut, with a note on my windshield. The note read, ‘F*** you, Jackson. Don’t f*** with me.’ I’m Tyler, Jackson is my co-worker. FML.”

While other posts are much raunchier and somewhat disgusting to say the least, all of them are gut-wrenchingly hilarious. While I myself have posted several embarrassing stories to the website, I have yet to be published. There are no hard feelings, though. As I see it, my luck is just a little better than other peoples, as my embarrassing stories have yet to be published on Fmylife.com.