How discovery works
Where We Went is a travel blog you read on a map. When you make a story public, a stranger can find it three ways — by place, by name, or by time — so someone who lands on one journey can wander into others. Each of those three is a switch you control. Here's what each one means, what none of them ever touch, and how to turn any of them off.
The three ways strangers find you
Every story you write carries three things: a point on the map, some words (its title, your handle, place names), and a date. Those are the only three ways someone who doesn't already know you can stumble onto your stories — so they're the only three switches you need.
- By place — someone dropped a pin near yours, opened “others were here” at the bottom of a story, or roamed the maps and landed on your spot. They found you by a location.
- By name — your stories turn up in search results and on place pages like /places that gather everyone's stories about a place. They found you by words. This is also how search engines list you alongside other travelers.
- By time — you appear in “what's new” strips and, later, season and year views. They found you by a date. Turning this off is the away-from-home switch: strangers can't infer you're travelling right now.
🎲 “I'm feeling lucky” — landing on a random public story — isn't any of the three (it asks for nothing at all). The master switch below covers it.
What these switches never touch
Turning a key off never hides your blog — it only stops your stories from being gathered together with strangers'. These always stay exactly as they are:
- Your own map and story pages, at their own web addresses.
- Direct links you or anyone else shares.
- People who follow you — your stories still reach their feed and email digests.
- Email subscriptions people signed up for.
- Your byline on comments you've left.
Public still means public: your own pages keep their addresses and stay reachable. These switches are only about being grouped with other travelers inside Where We Went.
How to turn them off
Open Settings → How strangers can find you. The master switch, "Let strangers find my public stories," covers everything at once (including 🎲 lucky). Beneath it, the three keys — by place, by name, by time — let you keep some ways and drop others. The master switch always wins: turn it off and all three go quiet at once.
It takes effect within about an hour everywhere. Your own pages update right away; the shared place pages and strips are cached at the edge for speed, so they catch up on their next refresh.