How big can a town with a dark secret get?

I've been wondering, how big can a Town with a Dark Secret get before the secret gets out? In this town, almost everyone is aware of the secret, though some are more in the know than others. Now, I imagine a town of a few thousand people could keep a secret from the outside world. The town might even get to a population of ten thousand without the secret getting out. However, as the town gets larger and has more contact with the outside world, it would get harder and harder to keep things under wraps. So, at what point would it be impossible to keep things a secret?

I would say about 2. Two people. After that, it leaks.

honestly, id say it depends on the secret. something physical could be hidden as long as nobody enters the town. something among the people, though, would require little contact with outsiders.

also, a self-sufficient town could grow pretty big if they lived in a remote area.

I suppose that's true. A secret like "Joe's Pub has the best pint in town, and it goes half off on Wednesdays" might be kept secret for quite a while (in fact the larger the town gets, the less likely anyone else will find out). But anything that, you know, threatens the world as we know it will become common knowledge the instant any inhabitant feels a grudge against the rest of the community (so, pretty much right away).

Supernatural masquerades aside, of course. Town inhabitants could be prevented from speaking to outsiders by mystical means.

Even if someone did have a grudge against the rest of the town, they might fear the consequences of the secret getting out or retaliation from the rest of the townsfolk. If they did come forward, they'd either be desperate or feel like they have some sort of protection.

It would also depend on ease of contact with the outside world. A lot harder to hide a secret if you can just take a picture with your phone and app it. But a lot harder if you have to write a letter to be delivered by a man on a horse.

If the whole town is indoctrinated into a cult-like mentality, it can also be much easier to maintain fear and distrust of outsiders and prevent people from escaping or leaving of their own will. This generally requires strict isolation.

Edited by Fighteer on Aug 24th 2020 at 4:38:49 AM

Have you ever seen an episode of reality TV? Or a talk show? Or 90% of the internet? Humans love spilling secrets, and gossip is probably the single most common subject of everyday speech. At the very least, the fact that a growing modern town acts like a cult will be common knowledge, and journalists around the world will make it their business to find out why.

Oh, you're absolutely right that it cannot survive outside contact. You need isolation, both physical and mental.

Would this be a complete isolation? Unless the very existence of the town was kept a secret, it seems to me that government officials might come around every so often to collect taxes or take the census. Would contact with the outside world be handled by trusted/influential members of the community?

What about a twist on this? Everybody in town knows the dark secret except for one resident, who has had it kept from her because of "protection."

You could make a mini-plot of the officials who show up being presented with a masquerade or something and the tension over whether someone breaks.

Anything works, as long as it is well-written. But planned economies have never ended well, and towns thrive on a very large number of small economic exchanges with the outside world. That's the very engine of economic growth.

Edited by DeMarquis on Aug 25th 2020 at 12:18:30 PM

From my experience nearly nothing as I used ai cores from the start of a colony and people were already kicking down my door about the ai cores