Where are the cool kids journaling these days?

January 8, 2018 6:34 PM

Just what it says on the tin... looking for a no muss no fuss online journaling platform where I can keep the entries completely private. The less identity verification needed, the better. I used to use LiveJournal and even Open Diary, way back in the dark ages. Is LiveJournal still a thing or is there something better now?
posted by madonna of the unloved to Writing & Language (14 answers total)

LiveJournal was bought by a Russian company in 2007, and its servers were relocated to Russia in December 2016. The site now bans "political solicitation," such as anything pro-LGBTQ or critical of Russia. So it still exists, but there are some issues. See also.
posted by limeonaire at 6:42 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Lots of livejournal users moved to dreamwidth at the end of 2016. Dreamwidth allows you to make entries private - can't speak to the ID requirements as I haven't set anything up there in over a year.
posted by bunderful at 6:49 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I migrated my now-defunct LJ blog to Dreamwidth in 2009, at the very beginning of LJ's changes/troubles. That it's still around 10 years later, and still committed to the same principles, speaks a lot.
posted by serelliya at 6:52 PM on January 8, 2018

Tumblr and Medium seem to be the popular ones these days. I've never used Medium, but I know Tumblr does allow posts to be published privately.
posted by Ethel Bethlehem at 7:57 PM on January 8, 2018

Prosebox also allows you to make entries private.
posted by rpfields at 8:01 PM on January 8, 2018

Best answer: Dreamwidth, as mentioned above, is excellent. It's LJ+, with principles of accessibility and diversity and greater functionality (which is being added to all the time). Here are a variety of important posts about Dreamwidth — its principles, its founding, its differences from Livejournal, & links to comms that help you get started.

I'm not sure if this would be useful to you, but it's possible to add people to your reading list on Dreamwidth without granting them access to your private entries (this wasn't possible on LJ).
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 10:00 PM on January 8, 2018

Tumblr is a shitshow when it comes to privacy. Nthing dreamwidth - the founders are friends of friends and Good People.
posted by Tamanna at 11:40 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Haven't used it, but I've seen penzu recommended elsewhere.
posted by gennessee at 12:01 AM on January 9, 2018

I still use LiveJournal, and honestly if you don't care for politics, LJ works just fine. All my entries have been private since 2008.
posted by Spiderwoman at 1:49 AM on January 9, 2018

What features do you want? I email things to myself and filter them out into a special tag.
posted by katrielalex at 2:13 AM on January 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Penzu allows a couple layers of security beyond just a simple login.
posted by anderjen at 3:05 AM on January 9, 2018

Best answer: Like everyone else, I moved to Dreamwidth when the whole Russian homophobia thingywotsit took hold, but didn't delete my LJ account. (I would have if I thought it would make any serious difference to anything...) No one really posts much on either now.

I use Wordpress for blogging now and there's an option for private (and for password-protected) entries on that, so I guess that could work for an LJ replacement too.
posted by intensitymultiply at 4:49 AM on January 9, 2018

I use journey, which is optimized for mobile but can be accessed and edited via a regular browser. The interface is simple, I can add pictures, I can export back-ups (e.g. to GDrive) and I can even export a printable pdf (e.g. to print a yearly diary with pictures as a nice little book).
posted by Fallbala at 8:05 AM on January 9, 2018

Best answer: I also migrated my 16-year-old LJ over to Dreamwidth. I still crosspost to LJ for some of my oldest friends who are still there, but eventually I'll just do DW. I'm happy with it.
posted by Elly Vortex at 8:34 AM on January 9, 2018