Keeping a journal can be therapeutic provided you can get past those peeping toms, nosey friends and sneaky parents. In the days of yore, they would hide diaries beneath the rug, between clothes or even at the back of a rusty old chest to protect their biggest secrets. And now, it just got easier. All you need is a password.
Online journals are safe, personal, loaded with features and can be made public, only when you want them to be. And, the best part is you won't be wasting precious paper. Here are some good online journals to write into.
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Live Journal can be a blog, diary or any kind of personal web space. You can rant, blog or customise it with templates to make it a journal. And with Live Journal (it is the most popular online journal), you can fiddle around with privacy settings for every entry you post.
It can be private, for friends only or public too. You have a wide variety of ‘journal styles' to choose from and there's also a choice to mood your post.
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There are games, virtual gifts (for which you have to pay a small amount) and search by interest options where you can find new friends.
Penzu
This is the closest you'll get to a real diary. The virtual interface of this online journal is a rich brown, ragged old diary, complete with pages sticking out, paper clips stuck at odd angles and glimpses of a photograph stuck to a page with your journal's name right on the cover.
You can take an avatar, lock your journal, create multiple pages, tag your entries and share them via email or link. The site will also send you email reminders at your set frequency to remind you to write.
Of course, the slightly discomforting side of this otherwise useful site is that most of its better features (encryption locks, export and import features and creating multiple journals) are only available for Pro (or paid) users.
OhLife
Taking off from websites such as www.posterous.com, OhLife is simple, minimalist and easy to operate.
All you have to do is sign up and pick a time for it to email you every day. When you get your mail, just reply with your entry and view it on your journal.
Dreamwidth Studios
Dreamwidth is a social networking-cum-content management site built using the same code as Live Journal.
It has similar features as its parent site but promises to provide more security options.
Its current beta version is open to the public, though when it was launched two years ago, users could only register with an invite code.