OD survey

Before I start this, you may remember in my writing entry, I said about the article that I wrote for the next issue of TTZ that I said was the most fun I had writing ever. Well, TTZ5 is now out and you can download it here

My article is on page 10, but I recommend reading it all cos it’s good.

Now to the survey:

What is your OD username?
williamthebloody

What does it mean and why did you choose it?
It’s one of Spikes nicknames from Buffy. Combine my love of all things Whedon with the fact it features my name and…

What other usernames have you used?
Bungo Loamsdown, sebrof and a few others

What is the title of your OD?
The Skasis Paradigm.

What does it mean and why did you choose it?
It’s from the Dr Who episode School Reunion and I chose it cos it sounds cool. Though I am thinking of changing it to Galactica Actual.

When did you start your Open Diary?
2000. I remember I was supposed to be writing an entry for uni, was messing about online instead and found the site. The rest is history…

How long do you plan on keeping your diary?
As long as I can, to be honest.

How many entries (including this one) do you have in total?
1,572. Christ, that’s more than I thought.

How many of your entries are Public?
All of ’em. I have the philosophy that if I didn’t mind reading it, it wouldn’t be online.

How many of your entries are Friends Only?
None.

How many of your entries are Private?
None. I have saved a few as private, only to put them public later when I finished writing them. Cos there’s no auto save for people like me who don’t like using the WYSIWYG editor (which is damned annoying, especially after the DM made such a big deal about introducing auto save to begin with).

On average, how often do you post?
Whenever I feel the need to.

Are you a regular OD user, OD+, or OD+ Lifetime?
Regular OD at the moment. I want to go back to OD+ but can’t afford it at the moment :¬(

Is your OD public, OD members only, OD+ members only, Friends Only, or Private?
Public. See above.

How many Bookmarks do you have?
Dunno. There’s no counter on the page and I’m not counting them all.

How many Friends do you have?
See above.

Do you consider the people on your Friend list REAL friends?
Yeah, mostly. I think all the people on my list are folks I could have a couple of jars with.

How many notes do you have?
7,854

What kind of notes do you allow in your diary?
All notes. Unless I’m doing a quiz thing, in which case I’ll privatise notes so no-one can cheat.

Do you have the “bad words” filter turned on or off?
Off.

Have you ever received a dirty, mean, nasty, and/or rude unsigned note?
A few times. I usually poke fun at them.

Do you delete notes that you feel are dirty, mean, nasty, and/or rude?
Nope. I tend to leave them and, like I say, poke fun at them.

Are you a regular noter for your bookmarks and friends or do you usually lurk?
I tend to lurk more than I really want to, mostly cos I like to read all the new entries from my bookmarks and then forget to leave the appropriate notes.

Have you ever left a dirty, mean, nasty, and/or rude, unsigned note on another diarist’s OD?
Nope. Wouldn’t do it. I’m not that cowardly.

Who was your first Bookmark/Friend?
Really can’t remember at the moment.

Are he or she still on your Bookmark/Friend list?
There’s a very good chance they’re not on the site at all any more.

Does anyone you know in real life keep an Open Diary?
One of my friends does but she’s never been brave enough to write in it.

Have you ever spoken to anyone from your Bookmark/Friend list on the phone?
Yup.

Have you ever met any of the people on your Bookmark/Friend list in real life?
Again, yup.

Do you feel accepted by the Open Diary community?
I feel accepted by my regular readers, but I’m not really the type to look for acceptance.

When writing an entry, do you write for yourself or for your readers?
Mostly for myself. I’m always kind of amazed that anyone would want to read my inane ramblings but if no-one read that would be fine with me.

When writing an entry, are you completely honest?
I don’t think anyone can honestly answer yes to this, to be honest. No matter what you are doing in life, there is always a small amount of self censorship that goes on. I don’t think that OD is any less true for that.

After writing an entry, how long to you wait before you check for notes?
Depends. I’ve always got the first tab on Chrome open on OD so it really all depends on what else I’m reading online.

If you don’t get notes on an entry, does it make you feel hurt or let down?
Not really. As I said before, I don’t write in here looking for acceptance.

Have you ever written an entry that didn’t allow notes and if so, why?
Nope.

Would you say that your diary has a “theme”?
Random inanity from a geeky Brit.

If you had to classify your diary style (anonymous, confessional, creative, hobby-focused, philosophical, political, technical) how would you classify it?
See above.

What do you like most about your OD?
I dunno. There’s not really one thing that stands out.

Do you ever go back and read past entries?
On occasion. When I worked at the call centre I read all my past entries, while taking calls, in two days.

Can you say keeping an Open Diary has changed your life and, if so, how?
Dunno. It’s certainly given me a place to rant when I needed to and I’ve met some great people on here, I can say that.

Will