Online journals.. What can I choose from if I wanted one?

[Elgin Clock]

OK.. so I was thinking, maybe I should have an online journal because
A: I have a pretty bad memory, and I am all nostalgic and what not, and like reading about things I have done, or been a part of.

B: Everyone else has one, so why not me.

C: Cause EVERYONE will read it and be awed at me and my stories and pics...

D: I do a lot of stupid things, and my motto is "Dumb people don't learn from their mistakes, Smart people learn from their own mistakes, but Wise people learn from other people's mistakes", and let me tell you, I can make a lot of people wise by recalling all the stupid things that I have done myself.

Anyways, what kind of journals do I have to choose from, and what do they offer?

BTW, free is a great thing.

I'd like to write a (possibly daily but not always) entry, and upload pics once in a while, like pics from my truck restoration project, and FIRST stuff....

I'd like to also read about something I did a year ago, so if it automatically deletes after a year, month, or week, then that would inhale audibly. I'm just guessing, I don't know if any of the journals do this BTW.

So.. Time for show and tell! What do you use, and is it worthy of my above defined description of needs?

[NoodleKnight]

The most popular ones I know off the top of my head (that are free) are:
Xanga - http://www.xanga.com
Livejournal - http://www.livejournal.com
Blogger - www.blogger.com

Xanga is pretty good; Livejournal can lag really horribly at times, and blogger, plain 'ol classic.

Deadjournal (the opposite of livejournal, duh) isn't free, you either need to be invited by a friend already using deadjournal, or pay.

Or you could be like me and build a server and run your own journal/blogger/etc...

[jonathan lall]

Of the above three, choose Blogger. The other two have many gimmicks but are very annoying and harder to work with. Still, if you have webspace of your own, that changes everything.

[Katie Reynolds]

I use LiveJournal, and almost everyone on my friends list (about 50 people) is a FIRST person. There's also a FIRST community set up in LJ, which is pretty active during the build.

With Livejournal, you can download clients to make updating your blog easier - you don't have to deal with doing it through their webpage, and it gives you all the tags you'll need to work with, and will format entries for you.

Someone said before that LJ gets slow, and it does from about 6-9 CST. The other 21 hours of the day though, it's fine.

[Crash852]

There's also Blog Drive too, although Xanga and Livejournal seem to be the most popular.

Of if you have your own webhosting, you can use Wordpress. I don't have a blog myself, but my computer savvy friends all like Wordpress the best.

[Ryan Dognaux]

I'm a fan of Live Journal because you can make it as simple or as complicated as you'd like. There are tons of options with HTML editting on your journal, or you can just use presets and get it rolling. It's incredibly easy to update, and all your entries are backlogged in a calendar format for easy access.

I <3 LJ.

[Raven_Writer]

I prefer LiveJournal, and I've used Xanga, Blogger, DeadJournal, LiveJournal, EFx2Blog (I believe it is...), and many others.


As for clients for LiveJournal, if you're using FireFox (and/or Mozilla), you can download an extension (Deep Sender) and it makes updating the easiest I believe it can be (which is pretty easy).

For running a blog on your own server, it's a good and bad thing.

Good: You control everything, you can set it exactly the way you like it, no T.O.S.'s (basically)

Bad: Depending on what you do (program your own or use an existing one) you may not get friendly tech support (then again, you may not get that anyways...heh), you have to do all the maintaining instead of someone else, no one to blame for those slow hours ()

** Some (or all) of these points may not be correct or something...but that's the way I see the pro's and con's of running your own **

Personally, I'd say go with LiveJournal (which is highly customizable...even with the free package), see if you like it. Then, if you want later on, set up your own (there's still some free servers that allow scripts [like lycos.co.uk (PHP4/5)]).

LJ is also a good choice because of the community setup they have. I don't belong to any (yet), but there's really a community for everything.

[Brandon Martus]

Free/Hosted: Livejournal or Blogger.
Your own hosting: Wordpress, hands down. Best blogging software, imo.

[Billfred]

I fiddled with LiveJournal once...but I keep coming back to Blogger.

Nice clean pages, not much in the way of ads or pestering from Blogger. (One button, a little search bar at the top.)

[Allison K]

I use LiveJournal, mainly because that's what most everybody else I know uses. I like it because it was really easy to set up but I've been able to add to it to make it look cooler.

LiveJournal also has a nifty FIRST community.

To update you can either use the web service or download a client (if that doesn't make sense it will once you read the site). I use Semagic and have found it to be sufficient.

I'm not a blogging addict, so I haven't tried anything else, but LJ suits my needs.

[Cory]

I use livejournal cuz that's what all my friends who blog use (Well, except you, Kristina )

I like it.

[Dorienne]

I use livejournal. I used to use Teen Open Diary, but I found LJ to be much better. A ton of people I know have LJ, and obviously, so do a lot of FIRSTers. =D But really, they redid the update page so it's a ton easier to work with, and you can customize it to however you want. It's easy to search for people, and you can save entries as memories. They don't delete your LJ ever unless you delete it. If you do that, you have 30 days to renew it. If not, say bye bye to your LJ. But yeah, LJ hands down. =D Besides, I have it, so that's reason enough to get it, Elgin.

[konefku]

http://www.typepad.com/

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I use currently Livejournal, Xanga and Blogger, so I can compare a bit for you.

Ease of Posting: Livejournal wins. As Ryan said up there, you can change HTML options to suit your need. Xanga is ok, and blogger take a little longer and you have to refresh a bit and all. It takes a while to "Republish" as it's called.

Templates: Blogger wins. It's very easy to download or create templates and put them onto your journal, and alter them to include whatever you need. Xanga and Livejournal both make you pay for this creation of custom template feature, although Xanga has good color variety choices.

General Appearance: Blogger is a lot nicer. My template is really efficient, and easy to read. I don't like how Xanga is set up very much, and Livejournal is a decent balance between the two depending on your template.

Community: Livejournal wins. Oh very much so. It's very easy to join communities, and you can stay updated on all your friends doings on your friends page. Xanga does a really annoying subscription thing that frankly gets odd, they send you a load of stuff, but you can see all your friends listed. Blogger is the most technically efficient, because you can access the journals of friends from all different groups. However, you have to exit your journal which is really obnoxious, and you have to program it into your template. Livejournal's robotics community rocks. Xanga's soooo doesn't.

Go for Livejournal.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Live Journal is slow. Beside that it is a great site.

But.... its as slow as molasses, and is very sketchy. Your luck of the server actually being up is as good as the flip of a coin. I wouldn't recommend it.