The Premise...
A daring attempt on writing a journal online, hoping for a better service+secrecy+eco-friendliness started on September 3rd and ended on September 4th! In lesser than 24 hours.
The image below is the snapshot of the my twitter page, which almost captures the bitterness in its pure entirety.
The irony is when a paper pulp journal keeper is momentarily enthused in maintaining a journal online.
Why would someone vacillate?
Here are the reasons...
- tagging your entries
- attaching pics
- auto-save
- secrecy:password protection
- privacy:you can write everything you want, whose gonna read it anyways?
- keeping certain entries Super-protected with passwords
- printable, if need be
- get the entries delivered to mailbox, at the frequency you choose
- get a remainder to the inbox, replying to which you can update your journal
- An android, i-phone app that can sync both your PC and Mobile app contents/entries
- and so-on!
The Short Lived surprise...
After the account was successfully created, without much of a form to be filled in. I learnt that these features are available to only pro-users. Almost 50% of the available options in the list above are for the pro users. SO...the screen below is probably the screen you would see often!
So, to make it a little easier on your eyes and the mind, I am re-writing the above list with colors; and with the colors pointing to the differences in the "free" and the "pro" versions...
- tagging your entries
- attaching pics
- auto-save
- secrecy:password protection
- privacy:you can write everything you want, whose gonna read it anyways?
- keeping certain entries Super-protected with passwords
- printable, if need be
- get the entries delivered to mailbox, at the frequency you choose
- get a remainder to the inbox, replying to which you can update your journal
- An android, i-phone app that can sync both your PC and Mobile app contents/entries
- and so-on!
So..the solution?
I gave up on the idea of using a system that has been designed for online journal keeping. I mean, it all makes sense...why would it be free when the companies invest so much starting from the domain to the servers? The "pro" version is just justified.
I now have not given up on online journal keeping yet. But I prefer to use a faithful tool that has been there for as long as the Internet has existed : The E-mail.
How?
I just typed my entry for the day as an e-mail, attached the related pics, in fact one video as well (adding video in online journal keeping websites is still unavailable at large).
- Our email accounts are no doubt private and secret.
- You can add pics and videos and also other file formats (ebook, podcasts, pdf, whatever etc)
- you can color, bold, italicize the important words
- auto-save and drafting, at times also future mail option comes in handy
- one can also use the subject line: something like this : "Ram.N - Sep 4th - The Hangover Sunday"
- So, if need be, the mails can be searched, sorted and printed.
- you could share it with anyone, if you want, to by just forwarding it
- It's an email account. So you can use your phone of whichever OS, or a PC to update your day's entry
- You can write your entry whenever you check mails. And for most of us, the "Whenever", is perhaps synonymous with "always"
Moral of the story
Lets not re-invent the wheel. The tools are all around us. Already dominant and efficient. Just a bit of lateral thinking, and there we are. "Web is what you make of it" ;)
Wish you a Happy online journal keeping. You already have an online journal by now don't you?!
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