February 22, 2004

Freeopendiary.com

Hello everybody,

I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room the other day (long story…maybe some other time), and I was reading a magazine in the Marie Claire/Redbook/Women’s Day genre. Not my normal reading, but that was all that was there. Not that there’s anything wrong with women’s magazines. Really.

Anyways, I read something that struck me as wisdom. I’m paraphrasing and adjusting what it said, and I have no idea what the article was or who wrote it, so I can’t give proper credit. The idea is not mine – I’m just relaying it and embellishing it.

What the author said was this:

If you are lucky enough to find yourself with some extra capital to invest in yourself or your family, consider investing it in an experience instead of spending it on a material thing. I don’t mean not to buy your family the things they need – but if you find yourself with a little extra, think about buying yourself or your loved ones some memories.

Instead of putting down $50 at Best Buy for Digital Armageddon 4, take your kid to the zoo for the day. Instead of buying yourself another pair of Manolos for $400, sign up for the scuba diving lessons you’ve always wanted to take. If you have kids, they won’t remember how fast their computer was, or what kind of stereo they had, when they are grown. They will remember that you took them for a day of sailing or horseback riding or a walk through the Grand Canyon.

After all, a person’s life is the sum of his or her experiences – not the sum of the things they own. When you find yourself at the end of your days, you’re not going to look back and say, “I sure am glad I had that 56″ plasma TV”, but you might say “I sure am glad I took that hiking tour through Tuscany”.

Not trying to be preachy – I just thought it made a lot of sense. And if expensive shoes are your thing – no nasty notes, please.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday. I’m getting a lot of mail today (and over the weekend) about http://www.freeopendiary.com. I’ve written about this several times before, but I’m going to write again to try to explain.

At the moment, if you type “www.freeopendiary.com” into your web browser, you are going to get an error. This is related to a DNS problem with a name server that is out of sync, etc., etc. blah blah blah. The key point is that, right now, the address doesn’t work. It will be working again by the end of the day.

However, please note the following:

I don’t want you to use the http://www.freeopendiary.com address anymore. When I merged freeopendiary.com with opendiary.com some five months ago, the intention was to discontinue the use of the freeopendiary.com address and have everybody use the opendiary.com address. This only makes sense – it’s shorter, easier to remember, and it’s the name of the site.
This doesn’t mean Free Open Diary has closed or gone out of business. The site that used to be Free Open Diary (originally Open Diary) was merged with the site that used to be Open Diary Plus. Both sites together are now Open Diary, at http://www.opendiary.com. All of the diaries that were on Free Open Diary were moved to a new server, along with all the diaries from Open Diary Plus. No free diaries were removed or deleted.
We DO still offer free diaries. The large majority of our members are free users, and we still offer diaries for free even though it’s not called freeopendiary.com any more. When you first sign up for a diary, it is free – and remains free, unless you upgrade it to OD Plus.
If you see your diary with an opendiary.com address instead of freeopendiary.com, that does not mean you have to pay for it. There seems to be a segment of users that think this whole combining the sites thing was some sort of corporate conspiracy to extort subscription fees from all of our free members. On the contrary. I combined the sites so that people who wanted to subscribe to OD Plus could do so without moving their diaries to a different site, and so that OD Plus subscribers who had friends with free diaries wouldn’t have to go to another site to visit them.

Given all of the above, there are still people who have freeopendiary.com addresses in their browser bookmarks, or links to freeopendiary.com addresses on their own websites. Because of this, I have not turned off the freeopendiary.com name. If I did, all of those links would stop functioning.

So, I am adding a redirecting function that automatically sends you to the corresponding opendiary.com address if you type in or click on a freeopendiary.com address. This should be working later today, and should eliminate the confusion. However, for your own sake, it would be easier to just use the opendiary.com address, and change your bookmarks to reflect it. If you continue to use the freeopendiary.com address, you may run into problems in the future with links not working, or the system logging you out unexpectedly.

To start using opendiary.com addresses, just substitute “opendiary.com” whereever you would use “freeopendiary.com”. For instance, my diary address would have been “http://www.freeopendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=C100003”. The correct address is “http://www.opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=C100003”. The only difference is removing the “free”.

Minus five points to the first person who leaves me a note saying, “Does that mean I have to pay for my diary now?”

The DiaryMaster

I like your new style in your entries. You know, the OD gobble-de-gook in the main section and the tidbit things in the box.

See – wisdom from women magazines in a doctors office none the less. I like it though and live by it or try at least! =)

B – I raised a rules violation ticket today. I won’t go into details here, but it’s an old saw I’m afraid. Thank for looking into it.

OOooooo- Katia will silently mock you about the shoes thing. 😛

So, wait, then. .. I’m a paid user. If I use the freeopendiary address, does that mean I get my diary for FREE? Ahaha! Ha! Ha! Ha..Oh, I kill myself.

I like the new “adding your life to the business” thing. Keep it up 🙂

I can’t believe people are still using the old site. They’re lucky your generous enough to keep it working by redirecting it…..more than most probably deserve.

Does this mean i have to pay for my diary now 😛 Just kidding, thanks for letting me know though 🙂

Does that mean I have to pay for my memories now?

Thanks for pointing this out again. I have been one of the few people who have been using open diary.

I was wondering what the stuff on the side of your entereis are. I have never seen it before and wnat to know why you started adding it.

Does that mean I have to pay for my diary now?

I really don’t see why this is so confusing to people. It happens all the time in my classes too, and I just want to say “You are in college now! THINK ABOUT IT!!” lol 🙂

Ya know, you are so much more patient than I could ever be. I think I’d have to attack someone with a spork if they kept asking me things I’ve explained repeatedly. How about making this diary a permanent fixture on everyone’s favorite list? That way they’ll know something new is going on. *laughs* <3

minus 5 points from you for confusing us all again!! : )

I was always curious why freeopendiary.com didn’t work but opendiary.com did. Now it makes a lot of sense! I thought that it had been deleted or something and so did many of my FOD friends. I’m glad that I read this entry! :o)

Hey now, I happen to LIKE the side tidbit. And while it wasn’t exactly preaching, I will say preach on 😉

Does that mean I have to pay for my diary now?

I cannot believe people can’t understand this concept!!!

i like the new sidebar with stories from your personal life. it makes you much more a part of the community than just simply a “moderator” if i may say. also, would it be possible for you to redirect people that are still using freeopendiary.com to opendiary.com? maybe have a page pop up that says “you are being redirected”? i’m sure people would get the point eventually. take care 🙂

*leaving a nasty, nasty note*

Hey I will ALWAYS remember how slow my parents computer was!! Haha, it’s a good point though, and it’s good to be reminded sometime that our material possessions are not the most important things. Keep up the good work here, DM. I appreciate it!

lol…how about horseback riding in expensive boots?

Does that mean I have to pay for my diary now? Sorry, it was really hard to resist 🙂

Your last sentence reminds me of how the creator of LiveJournal saw a post by some dumb angsty 12-year-old and exclaimed “Oh my god my users are so dumb!” When I read that, I wondered if you ever thought the same sometimes :X

Wow, I never knew the Diarymaster was a dude, lol. cool. Do you read regular diaries?! Lol dont mind me nitpicking. Im glad you started writing actual entries, now we see you as a person, not a computer dude. Anyway- do I need to pay for my diary now?? HEHEHEHEHE *sorry, had to say it. 😛

*sigh* people just never learn, do they?

it must kill you to have to repeat yourself over and over and over again. i’m off now to buy myself a memory.

i have a question.. is their anyway where i could remove the opendiary tool bar at the top of the front of the diary? coz it covers my picture..

I’d love to know how many people STILL don’t get it! Love the little personal aside. I hope you keep it.

Hey there, it looks as though you’ve fixed the problem where browsers quit OD for no apparent reason. Thanks for that. OD is now once again, enjoyable. We’ve had a tough 18 months of unemployment but now we have a 3 mos. contract and I think I may sign up for a paid OD. I’ve had a couple of diaries here for about 3 years and really love OD. Keep up the great work and thanks. ~ Brenda

*giggles* poor mr dm. *huggz* isabel

Nice sidebar, and that’s so true. I’m going to go write an entry on that concept.

Okay…I tried to submit my interests again to see if they would show up on the Author’s Interests page this time and when I clicked ‘save’ it said that the interest already existed! So I double checked the page and NONE of my interests were there! So I checked the ‘Newest Additions’ page just incase and they weren’t there either! Please fix this problem!!! <3 Luv Alwayz <3 *~*Sara*~* *xoxo*

I am enjoying these personal glimpses the past few entries… nice. 🙂

Email address: MrEJTaylor@hotmail.com (Can be contacted there) You took it upon yourself to violate my First Amendment right to free speech by deleting that entry. People found it offensive? That’s too bad. I can name about 50 entries I’ve read here in the last week that offend me, yet there’s no action being taken towards them. I find gay marriage to be highly offensive, it’s against……….

everything I stand for, hell it’s a genetic disease and a mental defect, if you ask me. If my diary is too objectionable to people then they should just go somewhere else and read liberal lies, because there are no lies in my diary. I’ve been called intolerant, I’ve been called not informed, I’ve been called bigot, but I’ve yet to be called a liar. And what about all the “nasty, degrading” notes

I got from all the people responding? Did you go after them as well? Somehow, I do not think so.

Oh, and hey, since you’re on a deleting spree, maybe you can go delete “Literoticans of FOD.” It’s a diary that promotes sexually explicit material to be onviewed on this webpage. Last I checked that’s written in bold that it’s against the rules. Maybe you might wanna swing by there and see how many sick f*cks you have on your site, before you condemn me for speaking political truth.

hi, i have emailed you many times withr regards to problems with my diary. but i have not received any replies to date. please help me sort out my technical problems with my diary. if you require me to send another email again detailing my problems, i’d be glad to do so. thank you

Sideler and I go hiking at least once per week, as you can see by the pics we post. That’s why we left the big city and moved here. There is so much to experience that one cannot perceive in a shopping mall. It has made a huge difference in our family dynamic. 8)

Do I have to pay for my diary? No, jk (bad joke, sorry)- Seriously though- I left a note on the last entry. I really would appreciate some help with this. Please? *begging* My email is- xAngelbaby352x@netscape.net

hmmmmmm ok wots this diary on bout

RTYB: I so agree with you on the experience being better than the “things”! Last year when asked what I wanted for my birthday I immediately replied that I wanted to go to Fort Worth Zoo. It gave my little family one on one time that we will never forget. It is such a great memory for us now. Now that my birthday is coming around again I know that question is going to come up again & so I’ve been

(Cont) So Ive been trying to come up with something that is just as good. I was thinking about this wild cat rescue place they have outside of Tyler. I was thinking it would be so awesome because you can actually “Adopt” an endangered Cat and help their quality of life. What happens is you basically pay for the caregiver, it’s food & toys and activities. Almost like a “sponsor” program.

So far this is my only idea for this year. I prefer things that involve my whole household instead of something just for me. It’s not always easy though because one of my household has done by far ALOT more than I have as he’s 10 years older! If you have any other great ideas let me know! Im open for suggestions!

Thank you for writing about this. I wsas wondering what was going on.

Does that mean I don’t have to pay for my diary? I find myself clever, but fear that someone already beat me to the punch. It’s good to see a technical entry as well as a personal one, and believe me, your last one changed my view on things. Instead of buying my wife presents on her birthday, take her someplace she’ll always remember and look back on. Thanks.

hiya i have a question how do you put pictures on your diary?

I’m starting to get annoyed with people submitting their entries ten thousand times in a row to a circle. Look at the Advice Wanted Circle today, and 3/4 of the entries are from the same person, but for some reason they don’t exist. Also, people have been submitting practically their entire diaries into a circle all at once. The rule that you can only submit one entry to no more than three…

…circles at a time is very good, but I think you should take it a step further and allow no more than three entries per diary per circle, and perhaps make something that pops up when you’ve already submitted an entry, saying “This entry has already been submitted to this circle” or some such, in case an error screen appears (which it often does when I try to submit entries). Anyway, I’m….

…sorry to bug you, but I’m just tired of going to a circle and seeing nothing but crap all from the same diary over and over. Hope you can fix my problem. 🙂 Have a super-duper day.

I want to become an OD user plus, but how do I do it? There are a few people I don’t want reading my diary, so I want to set a password to read my diary. There is no tab that says “Upgrade” or anything. BTW: I love this website! Thanks for creating it! 🙂

what about teenopendiary.com?

So…what you’re saying is…. Sorry…I had to…it’s just the type of person I am. 😉

just to say it for fun….does that mean i have to pay for my diary? just kidding anyway.

Wow, that article really does make you stop and think…thanks for sharing.

Does that mean I have to pay for my diary now? LOL, j/k

So how many points do I get for NOT saying it? *evil chueckle*

I wonder if that [what you restated from the women’s magazine] is what compels me to want to go to a concert for $45 instead of buying a new pair of chucks.. interesting though.. that reminds me, I need to go to another concert.. and soon.