Square One. Starting An Online Journal

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I've been contemplating this for awhile now, and just looked into starting up an online journal. Since you guys are seasoned veterans, can you lend me some advice? There seems to be so many sites out there. I need a beginner site, where I can pull templates and graphics and stuff, and that will help me learn the basics and build from there. Help?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Answers

It depends on what kind of journal you want to keep, but I've been very happy with Diaryland, which now offers both single-entry and blog-style templates.

It also depends on what kind of community you want to get into, too; if you know other people keeping journals, you might want to follow them. LiveJournal has a really good system set up allowing its members to comment on each other's journals. Diaryland's community tends to be a little teen- dominated, but two of my college friends have their journals there.

If you have your own URL, there are places where you can get code -- I think Greymatter is well- respected.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


diary-x worked really well for me when I first started and the crowd is a little less "teen diary" than diaryland.

On the same subject, does anyone around here use the journalling script? I need something that will allow me to update my site from work via a webpage rather than ftping the files.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


I don't have my own URL yet, but want to learn a thing or two about code and stuff so that I can get into that later. I've been looking into sites like diaryland.com and my-diary.org, and can't see how they're really that different. I got space on my-diary.org but really don't like it so far because its so plain...no graphics or anything. I want someplace that's fun...but definitely not filled with pre-teen love stories. Is that avoidable?

I know some people with on-line journals, most notably hannah beth, so would love to pimp off those people and get started! I have checked out greymatter, but truthfully it looks a little over my head. Any one heard of diary-x.com?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


Both Diaryland and Live Journal are easy to use.They both let you design your own template,or pick one of their templates - which you can alter. Are you starting a community or a diary? If it's a diary you're after,you don't have to worry about what other people do on their diaries.Just start your diary,add your links,do your thing. A good place to study HTML so that you can adjust your diary is http://www.webmonkeys.com Another good place is http://www.echoecho.com Good Luck

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Short of buying your own domain, I would use diary-x. It seems to be the least crazy-teen-goth-anorexic-woo!-type place, and also, Jesus's Journal is hosted there.

What better endorsement than the Almighty's?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001



Probably many will disagree, but geocities is easy as pie.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

diary-x.com does have templates but you can use your own design. I don't remember if graphics files have to be stored elsewhere and linked though since I didn't have any when I was there.

If you want a blog format (or a journal in blog format) blogger.com is a good place to jump off of. They have a great community for answering questions and giving help and basic tutorials. Plus you can host with them but then move it later if you get your own site.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


There's a good question...is it easy to move my site later if I start out at diary-x and then buy my own domain?

And a dumb question: What exactly is a blog anyway?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


I started on geocities and then moved all my archives over to my domain, which was a huge pain in the ass, but I did over months and months.

You'll have to know basic HTML to do geocities, but it's easy since they have a built in editor. Plus you can go to some site with simple layout and just copy the code.

I like diary-x over diaryland. Not sure why. Even though I read lots of great journals on diaryland it just leaves a teeny-bopper taste in my mouth.

And a blog is like a weblog or something. Melissa, who posts here, has a blog and a journal, at mesawyou.com - easy way to tell the difference.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


I like diary-x a lot, too, and I'm a proud diary-x user who still plans to someday move all my stuff over to my own domain (I'm currently moving stuff over little by little to www.internetpersona.com - the only thing that's available for public viewing so far is the index page, which takes you straight back to diary-x). I have found diary-x to be very versatile - if you want to use a pre-made template, you can. If you don't, you don't have to. If you don't know any html when you start, you don't need to. If you want to learn some html and start incorporating that into your journal, you can do that. (I've done that.) You can take a look at the design of my early entries, as compared to the current one, to see how flexible diary-x has been for me. As far as images - you didn't used to be able to host images there, but now you can pay $12 a year (not bad for a year) for a smallish-mediumish amount of space to put some images. (I have all my "main" images hosted there, for faster load time.)

Plus! Double super bonus? If you have questions about how to use diary-x, you can email me, and I will answer them. :)

My journal, by the way, is at jessamyn.diary-x.com. I love diary-x!

Oh, and as far as learning very very basic html? Check out www.bignosebird.com - that's where I have been going for very basic things ever since I started my journal (like, as basic as - how do you italicize? how do you center text? how do you make a table, and what *is* a table? etc.).

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001



Ditto everything Jessamyn said about Diary-x. I too am sort of former diary-x'er (not everything is moved to my new place yet) and overall I was pleased with it.

A couple of things to keep in mind about d-x are that it seems a little slow right now but they are really close to getting a new server which will speed things up. Also, Stephen (d-x god, coder, whatever) is working on some updates to it that will allow for things like comments (a la Livejournal) and better stats tracking.

Good luck!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


Wonderful! Thanks for all your help...now I can't wait to get things moving. I'll let you all know when everything is up and running...hopefully it'll go pretty smoothly. Thanx again.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

From what I've seen of online journals, Diary-x has the most flexibility. My site is on my own domain using journalling script (which someone else set up for me). It's pretty much the same thing as diary-x without having to use the url. I love it. If I didnt' have my own domain, I'd use Diary-x myself.

There are lots of templates out there as well as sites that are dedicated to making free templates for other people to use. Just as long as you put up a link. It's pretty cool.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


I want to ditto the love for diary-x. As a once-and-again user, the flexibility over there is very nice, and the community is better-respected, I think.

Now, in the beginning, you might be frustrated by use of variables over there, but they have made it much easier with the special entries. You'll see.

Also, I highly recommend that you read Diane's article, something like "So You Wanna Start an Online Journal?" Anybody have the links they can share?

Also, I got lots of helpful info, especially in re: file storage, over at the Online Journals thread at 3WA. It's an older forum, so you can go through the archives and find lots of public feedback on just about any journal topic - should you start a notify list? What are the design things that turn readers off? - etc.

As for basic HTML info, I have been using Annabella since 1998. Even though I can work a table like nobody's business now, I still bookmark her page everywhere I go, because her table of all browser-safe colors is unbeatably handy.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


I'm on my third journal. This is the first one that isn't anonymous and I think I like that. I truly advise buying your own domain. It's awesome and you don't feel like you're just biding your time until you can afford one. It was only about 35 dollars a year at freehostspace and I think their hosting is awesome. I ftp, they host. It's great.

I used to be into html, but now I find it's easier to use commercial software. I'm using webexpress. It cost about 60 dollars and I think it's the best thing out there short of dreamweaver. At 300 dollars, I can't afford dreamweaver.

If you're going to self design, plot it out first. You DO NOT want an index page that's the same as the archive page that's the same as the today page. It took one mis-done journal to make me realize that.

And let me tell ya, have a little faith. You too can do your own graphics and not worry about stupid linkware. I have no art training or computer design training and I did mine. There are two themes in the pre-made: flowers and lace gaggery or jewel and metal overthetopulence. Do your own.

Have fun. There's no exam on this. You learn on a curve.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001



Slickery: I use the Journalling Script, and I adore, love and worship it. I might be useless, but feel free to drop me a line if you have questions.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Thanks, Emily, I might take you up on that.

I use WebExpress too. I thought I was the only one! Fairly cheap and damn easy to use. I've never used Dreamweaver so I can't compare but it kicks the hell out of Frontpage.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001


So today I decided I wanted a blog that multiple people can access and post comments. But since the comments, if this goes as planned, would be about my novel, I'd want it to be as private as possible.

Diaryland allows for password-protecting but not for multiple posters. Blogger allows for multiple posters but apparently the only way to keep it Googlenonymous is to go through a server that allows for password protection. I suppose I could run Blogger through my server space on Diaryland (since I have a Gold membership) but that seems awfully convoluted.

Does anyone know of (a) a Blogger-like service that allows for maximum privacy or (b) good ways to protect this blog if I go the Blogger/Blogspot route?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002


Hm ...WG, only thing I can think of is starting a community on livejournal - allows for multiple posters, has comments and on there there's a way to make it friends-only / private. of course, only prob is that now you have to be a paid member or get a code. so, yeah, half baked advice...hee.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

I just started my journal online. http://smokinginbed.diary-x.com/ I don't know any html, so it pretty much sucks, but with diary-x it only took me a couple of hours to set up.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Kim: I really like Diary-X. I have Zee HTML Knowledge but am restricted to an ancient Mac (LC 580) which balks at running IE or Netscape 3.x+, and a slow modem (14.4 on a good day) that cannot keep up with my WPM typing speed (truly, I DO know how to spell! Honest! I just don't catch all the dropped ASCII characters...part of the reason I've been quiet on Greenspan forums, since I can't go back and edit anything inadvertently moronic...or genuinely moronic, for that matter...) and D-X still works for me pretty well. Whereas my computer has eaten several long entries, that has never been due to D-X farking up. I have not bothered to use my Mad Phat HTML Skillz much, as it is too much of a pain to do so on this computer, but the template I chose is generally non-offensive, even if annoyingly wildly popular.

Diaryland, in addition to having the aforementioned poster personality crises and 'lack of street cred', bombs my browser. On a personal note, I disabled Java Script on my browser specifically because of intrusive Diaryland adverts which would force my browser to load the advert instead of the info I actually wanted to read in the first place. To cap my disguntlement off, I DID try using D'land for a while, and they LOST my entire journal.

I'd like pitas.com if it worked with my browser; several friends use it for short blog-type writing. Then again, I'm probably too long-winded to use pitas.com well.

I shouldn't pipe up, I'm weeks behind on adding entries, but my mom (ack!), who has been known to play in a polka band while wearing live crustaceans on her head, and The Age'd Sainted Matriarch (cranky but beloved) are visiting this week, all while one roomie is moving out and two are moving in, and the Rental Hut is in disarray, and there's a new game in this house called Which Cat Shat on That? (wherein an anonymous feline (choice of three culprits) expresses displeasure by pooping on the couch, a new unfun development) so I should be Entertainingly Traumatized at least once...come see me at http:// britpoptart.diary-x.com if you like, and / or if you want to nag me for being a lazy non-updating bum.

And yes, I've seen Pineapple & Jessamyn's journals (as well as most of the MATH+1 crews') and mine SUX in comparison. (Maybe I should try to channel Latrell "Spree" Sprewell again once in a while to liven mine up.)

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2002


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