MAJOR WIP

a lot of neocities users keep a diary, and it's pretty neat to see what's going on with people in a way that offers more in-depth entries past twitter or facebook status updates. but... there's a fair amount of options in how to go about it

i'd like to take a look at various digital journaling methods i've seen used, and i suppose compare and contrast their pros and cons. hopefully, if you want to get into the world digital journaling, this article will help you figure out what method is right for you! note: a lot of this is your mileage may vary! for example, i personally find engagement important so i don't feel like i'm writing to the ether, but maybe you don't care about that. ie, what's a pro to me might be a con or "so what?" to you

these are the primary methods i'll be taking a look at:

manual .html files

twitter

tumblr

bearblog

cutenews

dreamwidth (+ similar, such livejournal, insanejournal, etc.)

manual html

this is what a lot of neocities users think of when they hear "diary"

pros:

comments (sort of)

tagging (sort of; you can, but you have to do it manually)

complete and utter customization of everything

privacy (sort of? don't share the link if you don't want it found sorta deal)

cons:

manually coding and uploading updates (and everything else)

no rich text editor or hybrid option, so everything has to be hard coded

networking is more difficult (depending on where you're hosted you can technically have followers like neocities, but you still have to manually set up things like comments

it's more difficult to allow readers to subscribe to keep up with your updates (it's doable, but extra steps you have to take)

urls can be annoying depending on how you set it up ex subdomain.domain.org/diary/page.html over simple subdomain.domain.org setup

my personal consensus: totally fine for it's purpose, and total customization is a big plus, but there's better methods out there

twitter (aka timeline microblogging)

pros:

convenient, doesn't require manual coding or uploading (just hit send)

allows reposting of similar content

access via mobile app or desktop

can make your profile friends-only

allows direct uploading of media such as images and videos

you get notifications when another user engages with your content or follows you

sort of offers bookmarking via likes

but can be a con in that likes in themselves operate like a timeline
block function

cons:

very limited customization
barely any ability to make a profile literally where "carrd culture" comes from
there's a character limit for each tweet
no static tagging; hashtags can post in a tag but once your post is buried good luck finding it later, and then that means it ends up in a site-wide tag, not just tagging for your personal usage
algorithms make it difficult to discover others and be found
there's typically ads on your timeline presented to you and your audience
speaking of ads, they're often targeted... ie, companies harvest data on you
notorious for drama

twitter is fun, but it's best for fast and loose musings and browsing other media. it's biggest appeal is retweeting to get content such as that fanart or meme you liked on your own timeline - but then again, if you can't find it later, it begs the question of what the point of that is

while anyone can vent (i've defo used it for venting) making threads is in a way more frustrating than being able to make a full on post about what you're discussing

personal consensus: not ideal for in-depth journaling and better suited to being more of a casual thought-stream

cutenews

still working on this

bearblog

admittedly, i've not used this, because i haven't felt a need to. but based on what i see of it, it seems like a more convenient version of html. i'll get around to covering this better in the future

dreamwidth

i saved the best for last 😤 i kid, i kid. it's all up to personal preference. but i'd be lying if i denied having a bias

pros:

convenient, doesn't require manual coding or uploading (but allows manual coding if you'd like)
allows for easy networking via built-in friending, commenting, and subscriptions

allows non-users to comment without an account if you'd like

also allows rss feed subscriptions if you'd like
various privacy settings; entries can be completely private, semi-public to friends, or completely public
large character limit for each post (10,000)

allows for different icons and easy switching of them in entries and comments
mood themes, babey!!!
offers communities, so while your primary account works as a personal journal, it also basically acts as access to various forums as well
notifications when another user engages with your content
timeline feature (reading page) to see what folks you follow are up to

cons:

smaller community due to lack of popularity
not as "modern" as other platforms

does not allow direct uploading of media; you have to have urls for images. technically does offer some image hosting, but only offers 500mb of storage
- workarounds are using public image hosts like imgur and built-in share functions for things like youtube videos. using html or rich text editor to get media onto the post itself is like a 30 second difference in comparison to direct uploading imo
i personally find 100% customizing my theme to be a lot more involved. it's doable, but definitely a "working on it a while" situation
- this might be offset by there being so many base styles, and them having a ton of built-in options anyway?
there's a cost to upload custom mood themes ): they gotta cover their server costs somehow though, and without ads supporter features like this aren't something i can be mad at