Poll: Do you read or write online diaries?

If you read blogs, try out the FHDC aggregator. It's spiff-tastic! ;-)

Hello, my name is Melinda and I am a blog/diary/journal addict. I read them (like a fiend... you know, a fiend who is addicted to reading blogs/diaries/journals) and write them. I don't know how I ever lived without them. Sad. Truly sad.

I used to read and write a lot more than I do now. I've lost interest in a lot. Also, everyone's migrated to livejournal. Phoo. I like it HERE but nobody uses it. It's the only place I can do from work.

LJ 0wnz j00 !!!!1!

I loves my FHDC diary hoobajoob! I've become sadly addicted to not only writing my own but commenting to EVERYONE elses. my vurtual mouth just wont quit.

heh... makes it sound like I'm giving everyones diary bj's... oh well. ;-)

I find it quite beneficial to my mental health to have the opportunity to share everything I experience with people who [pretend to] care. Mine is called Life Under the Dead Ohio Sky.

got a livejournal. most of the posts these days are friends-only, tho.

Ummm....I have a diaryland , a Livejournal as well as a Fruhead diary as well. LJ seems to get updated most often these days but I try to keep all of them going. :)

I thought about starting one, but I decided that, at least while I have classes and such, reading other people's diaries/ljs/etc. is more than sufficient as a procrastination tool.  Maybe I'll move into writing over the summer.

I once had a diary online.
It actually stayed about for  a while, a few months at least.
It's gone now. I never felt much interest in updating it.

That said, I read other diaries obsessivly at times.

Maybe I'll get a domain some day..

(I am shocked daily at the amount of time I spend with LJ and LOTR. It's scandalous.)

I've been more of a reader recently... I dunno, my life has been too... I dunno, I don't read books much anymore and I don't write much anymore, it just sucks like that. Alas. C'est la vie.

However, I do have an OpenDiary (which sucks now and they took my money and I don't know how to get it back) and have been using a LiveJournal much more often. It's more conveient, je pense.

--Rachel :o)

yeah.

I keep a Movable Type-powered blog on a friends server. I think I've shied away from setting up an account anyplace else because I wanted to set things up my own way, and not be restricted by anyone. With this setup, within the bounds of what privledges and services my friend gives me, I've got total control over my account, and the webspace, and can post pretty much whatever I like, subject to no one's restrictions but my own.

OK, I'm done gloating, or whatever it is I'm doing. with my readership right now, it's probably a little overboard. :-P

-- Pauley

Well that is what I have here. I just like to be part of a community (*cough*slash*cough*) as well. So I have two. :)

Oh, I'm not arguing against community. I just like the freedom I have where I am, and I don't have the the content or the motivation to work more than the one journal. :-P

-- Pauley

Well, y'know, you need a hobby. Like slash. ;)

I'm with you on that, Pauley. I definitely see the point of "community" within blogs, but I don't think that you need a proprietary community to accomplish that. "Good" blogs software accomplishes this through offering RSS feeds, post comments, blogrolls, and trackback. When you use something like Diaryland or LJ, you're stuck with their community, from their other blogs. When people start moving en masse between these places, you end up with multiple blogs and lots of confusion. It's far better to use an open standard that can independantly interoperate.

/me should get off his ass and slap the Entropy blogs into shape so that he could start a new blogging service offering this stuff..

Yeah, actually despite the slash jokes, I participate in several different communities via livejournal that have nothing to do with slash... Quakers, Green Party, Marx Brothers fans, Mac enthusiasts, Folk music fans, Yes fans... I really like the fact that those communities are there, with more appearing all the time. It gives me a great way to find other people interested in those things. I love my personal, not-affiliated-with-anything-else blog because it is 100% me, and I can do anything I want with it, but LJ has given me a way of reaching out to other people that I simply don't get from my own blog. It's something I actually haven't found anywhere else really.

Plus all the stuff Jaci said. :)

Fruhead.com is a pure example of a community that WORKS.  And I can see it working for fans of other bands, or other likewise interest.  Hey Josh, could you write an Entropy engine for fans of barbershop? :)

Yeah, I agree. I love this community (obviously).. but it is it's own little microcosm.

LJ is a bigger, more diverse universe.

It's great because everyone is searchable by their insterests, etc. I have people on my friends list who I've "met" only because I noticed that they were the only other person who had an interest in a particular band, for instance.

It's very cool that way. I stumble across random people's journals all the time on there that are interesting, and have people stumble across mine. That's one of the really cool things about LJ.

Also, consolidation into one screen rocks. I can just open up one link, my friends list, and in addition to people's journals, I'm also reading community threads... viewing comics.... etc.

Hey, I forgot I could do that! Kind of nice, the top people on my list aren't people I know, though Lawrence and Nate are in my top 10. Jaci, you're 128 for me. :) I think my interests must be weirdly diverse though... even my top user (I'm not counting the community which is at the very top, folkfans) only shares 10 in common with me (out of my 92 interests).

Yeah, Lawrence is my top match.
:D
Oh the irony, eh Lawrence? hehehe

hrm. but you're number 24 for me. :)

my top match among people I know is Carey, at number 6. then Jaci at 13.

i'm also the top match for gordon and ellen r. (again, imagine that). my top 5 matches are gordon, steph, jaci, lawrence, and ellen r. paul, andy, emilie, a.j., and nate are also in my top 100 or so.

Heh, I just added a few interests, totally random, and suddenly Jaci's in my top 20 and Carey is on the list. Also Lawrence has moved up to #3. It's all very interesting.

As cool as their community features are, the fact that they don't support outbound RSS and trackbacks mean that I'd never recommend any of my friends to use them. It's fine as long as everybody who reads you has an LJ of their own, but there's a whole world of diversity out there beyond their walls. Now if they'd only add RSS and trackbacks, we'd be set. Grr.

I'm sure they're working on it.

They only recently started getting support for outside rss feeds built in. It's only a matter of time. :)

It's ridiculously easy to offer outbound RSS feeds, while it's quite difficult to write an aggregator for other RSS feeds. I suspect LJ isn't very motivited to offer this feature because it would mean fewer people would use their service.

Well, either way.
:)
Personally, I haven't found another place that offers the flexibility, customization and options LJ does. (no offense, josh...)
So, I don't see myself changing from that.

whoa, sweet! now we're talking. thanks for the info :)

Kickass! :D Thanks!!!

(How did I not see the announcement on that?!?!)

wow. I'm gonna add some more interests, then. I will become the center of livejournal. muhahahahahaha! :)

Well, you're still #1 in my interests match, Carey ( I know, shock horror)  but I'm insanely excited that Andy is now #2! Cos when I first checked, he didn't even make the top 150. Yes, we cheated so we'd match better. So what?

any way to put http://www.pepysdiary.com on there?

I did diaryland for 2 (?) years, interspersed for a few months with an fhdc diary.

Then Carey gave me an lj code and I've been addicted like an addict ever since. Not that I ever have that much to say.

That being said, it still hasn't stopped me from starting a fakejournal for davy jones in addition to my own.

I'm sorry, I'm too tired to do html here--- if you're dying of curiosity, there's links to both my lj and the joke one on my profile.

Yep, choose "Other Diaries" and use this URL:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/syndication/rdf_about.php

So you finally added Baby snuff porn on your interest list?

I *heart* Davey and his Breasts!