InsaneJournal

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Aside from personal journals, InsaneJournal offers its users the ability to join asylums [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72] and create asylums [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=78]. This type of journal allows users to post in it to share information with other members [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=74]. Most asylums are based on or specialize in a specific subject/topic (such as music, video games, religion, etc.). If you'd like to know what asylums are available to join, see [http://asylum_promo.insanejournal.com/]. If you'd like to find a particular asylum to join, post and ask in [http://asylum_quest.insanejournal.com/].

Every asylum has at least one maintainer. This user controls the asylum's settings and has administrative privileges for maintaining the asylum.

Asylums can be accessible through the following URLs:
http://www.insanejournal.com/users/asylumname/
http://www.insanejournal.com/~asylumname/
http://www.insanejournal.com/community/asylumname/
If the asylum has Self-committed [paid] or Permanently Insane account status, it can also be viewed at [http://asylumname.insanejournal.com/].

Joining an asylum is different from adding it to your friends list. When you join, you will have posting access to it. You will also have viewing access of its friends only (or members only) entries. Listing an asylum on your friends list will only allow you to watch the public entries posted on your friends page. You can join an asylum without watching it on your friends page, or you can watch an asylum without joining it (however, you will not be able to see its members only entries).

Asylums are "group" or "community" journals in which multiple users can post in. They can have a wide range of purposes, but most asylums specialize in a specific topic, interest, or hobby. There can even be several asylums that share the same interest, since every InsaneJournal user has the ability to create their own asylums.

For example, [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/beauty/] is the asylum where people can join and share information and tips on beauty.


Help on finding asylums can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=71]. Once you have found an interesting asylum, see [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72] for how to join it. Then, you can post in it [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=74]!

Being a member of an asylum isn't permanent. You can leave any asylums at any time you'd like [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=73].

If you're interested in creating and maintaining your own asylum, information is provided at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=communities_man].

You can find asylums by several different methods.

The InsaneJournal Asylum Promotion [http://asylum_promo.insanejournal.com/] is often updated with entries listing and describing asylums. Asylum maintainers will join to post about their asylums to get more members. You can search through this Official Asylum's entries to find an interesting asylum.

There are at least three ways to find a particular asylum that specializes in a certain interest field. You can do a search based on an interest [http://www.insanejournal.com/interests.bml], which will list the asylums first. The InsaneJournal Asylum Quest [http://asylum_quest.insanejournal.com/] is the Official Asylum to join and ask if there's a specific asylum that you're looking for.

If you have an Early Inmate, Self-committed [paid] or Permanently Insane account [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=8], you also have access to a specific asylum search directory at [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/search.bml].


More information on asylums can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/].

You need to be a member of InsaneJournal first before you join any asylum. Some asylums will allow you to comment on entries without being a member, and others will not, but in order to post in any asylum you must have your own InsaneJournal account. Check out the following FAQ to learn how to sign up for an InsaneJournal account: http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=11 . Once you have an InsaneJournal account, joining an asylum costs nothing, and you can join as many asylums as you want.

Next, visit the Asylum Info page of the asylum you wish to join. This can be found from the front page of most communities, or by visiting http://www.insanejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=asylumname (where "asylumname" is the username of the community you wish to join). If you see an IJ-tag that links to an asylum, there will be a compass icon beside the asylum name. You may also click on that to visit its Asylum Info page.

All asylums will have a link at the top of the page reading "To join this asylum, click here." If it is an open asylum, you will then be able to confirm your option. If it is a closed asylum, you will see a list of the maintainer(s) of the community, whom you must contact in order to join. Eligibility for membership in an asylum is determined by the owner. There is no other way to join an asylum, and there are no InsaneJournal rules to define what an owner may or may not set as their requirements for membership.

Joining an asylum will usually give you both membership and posting access. Membership is the ability to see Members-only posts, if there are any, and also means that your journal entries appear on the asylum's Friends page. Posting access means that you can add an entry to the community's journal, as explained at http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=76 .


ADDING AN ASYLUM TO YOUR FRIENDS PAGE

When you join an open asylum, you are asked whether you also want to add it to your Friends list. Participating fully in the asylum is a single-step process when you accept this option.

To read the journal of a closed asylum, or of one you don't want to join, you can add it to your Friends page as a separate step. Provided that you're logged in, all you have to do is add it to your list of friends (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=16).

Adding an asylum to your Friends list does NOT allow its members to see your Friends-only posts. Further details can be found at http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=77 .

Most asylums first require that users become members in order to gain posting access to the asylum journal. See [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72] for information on joining an asylum.

For asylums that allow posting access to all InsaneJournal users (including non-members), there will be a pencil icon on the blue toolbar in the Asylum Info page. By clicking on that icon, it will take you to the update page where you can post your entry to the asylum.

Any asylum may also be moderated, which means that entries you make in the asylum journal will need to be approved by a moderator. You can only have one entry in the moderation queue at any given time.


* Posting through the Web Interface:
Visit the web update page [http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml] while you're logged in. You can select the asylum you wish to post in from the drop-down menu labeled "Post to".

* Posting through a Downloaded Client:
Once downloadable clients will be available [http://www.insanejournal.com/download/], they will include the ability to post in an asylum.


If you are unable to see the drop down menu for posting to an asylum on the update page, it is likely that the issue is related to the autofill function in Firefox.

The issue of the autofill function not working correctly with the site has already been noted, and the site administrator is already working on coming up with a solution that does not compromise security but still enables the function to work. However, such development will take time, and we seek your understanding and patience until then.


The solutions to regain the ability to select asylums are:
- to disable autofill for InsaneJournal;
- to login once using a fake account (eg. user, with password as the password) as this will store the entry so that the autofill function will not automatically work, and allow the site to work correctly for you.

Information on the different security levels can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=63].


In order to post a members-only entry in an asylum, you will need to select the "Friends" security level on the update page [http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml]. Only the members of the asylum, while logged in, will be able to view the protected entry.

The "Private" and "Custom" security levels cannot be used while updating in an asylum.

No. Joining an asylum or adding it to your Friends list will not enable the members of the asylum, the maintainer of the asylum, or the asylum account itself to view your Friends-only entries. The only people able to see your Friends-only entries are the users whom you list individually on your Friends list.

If you posted the entry yourself, you can both edit and delete it, as long as you are still a member of the asylum. If you are the community's maintainer, you can delete the entry, but you can't edit it in other ways.

While editing entries, if you receive an error message that states "Client error: Invalid text encoding: Cannot display non-Unicode posts unless default encoding has been selected", see http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=21 . This process will need to be done by the community maintainer.


USING THE WEB INTERFACE:

See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2 for instructions on editing an entry.

See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=3 for instructions on deleting an entry.

If you are the maintainer of the asylum, but are getting errors when trying to delete the entry, make sure you are logged in to the maintainer account.


USING A DOWNLOADED CLIENT:

Many clients available for download include the ability to edit or delete entries in an asylum. For more information on your preferred client, consult its documentation or its menu options.

For whatever reason, you may leave an asylum at any time by going to its Asylum Info page and clicking on the "leave the asylum" hyperlink at the top. You will then also be given the option of removing the asylum from your friends list.

If the asylum you would like to leave has been deleted or suspended, and you can't view the Asylum Info page, you can go to the Admin Console [http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console/] and execute the following command:

community [asylumname] remove [username]

When entering the command, remove the [ and ] symbols. These are simply used for reference purposes. Replace [asylum] with the username of the asylum and [username] with your own username.


Note that leaving an asylum using the console method will not remove it from your friends list. Information for removing an asylum from your Friends list can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=16].

A list of all the InsaneJournal Official Asylums can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/officialasylums.bml].