InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "how you doin'?"

There are currently several options for updating your journal. They are explained below:

The most common way to update your journal is through the Update Journal page. The URL for this page is (http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml).

Some users prefer to have all options of their journal displayed through one page when updating. This is available through the InsaneJournal Portal, which is located at this link: (http://www.insanejournal.com/portal/).

Rather than updating to your journal, it is possible to post in an Asylum journal. This FAQ describes what an Asylum is: (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=70). For information on posting to an Asylum, please consult the following FAQs: (http://insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=74) and (http://insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75).

Rather than updating through the web interface, it is possible to post an entry through downloadable software known as clients. More information about clients can be found here: (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=129).

In addition the methods mentioned above, Self-committed [paid] and Permanently Insane (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=10) users can update through email. The process of updating through email is explained here: (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=155).

Journal entries when you update your InsaneJournal may be changed using HTML. If you do not know how to use HTML, you may search for an HTML tutorial over the internet.

Here's an example of an HTML tag for a link to another journal:

<a href="http://www.insanejournal.com/users/exampleusername/">This is an account specifically reserved for FAQ and Support examples!</a>

The opening tag contains the URL of the journal, next follows the text you want to appear as the hyperlink, and then just add the closing tag.

The same tags are used to link to a website:

<a href="http://www.insanejournal.com/">Check out InsaneJournal!</a>

You can also use these tags to make an image into a link:

<a href="http://www.example.com"><img src="http://www.example.com/image.jpg" border="0" alt="title or description" /></a>

If you would like a border the color of a link to appear around your image, you may change "0" to a positive number. For more information about adding an image to your journal entries, see http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=6 .

Note that any images you would like to use in this manner must be uploaded to a webspace provider that allows remote loading. For more information on image loading requirements, see http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=47 .

There are also some InsaneJournal-specific tags you can use to make links. For more information on them, see http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=49 .

First, you need to choose the icon theme that you want to use. All of the available themes can be previewed at http://www.insanejournal.com/moodlist.bml . (Note: InsaneJournal does plan to include more mood icon themes in the near future) .

Once you have decided which theme you want to use, select the theme from the drop-down menu at the bottom of http://www.insnejournal.com/modify.bml and save your changes.

Now you can post using mood icons from both the Web Interface and from your downloaded client.

USING THE WEB INTERFACE:

In order to update from the website itself, click on the update journal option which usually can be found under the home category (Or you can go directly to http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml or http://www.insanejournal.com/portal/) on all site schemes. From there you can select which mood to use under the event box.


USING A DOWNLOADED CLIENT:

Many clients available for download include the ability to add a mood icon to your journal entries. For more information about your preferred client, consult its documentation or its menu options. See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=129 for information on downloading a client. (Note: Not all LiveJournal clients are supported by InsaneJournal)


One of the many benefits of a Paid Account (other benefits are listed at http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=10) is the ability to create your very own custom mood theme.

To learn more about custom mood themes, please read http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=44 .

InsaneJournal User saku (http://www.insanejournal.com/users/saku) updated this FAQ.

USING THE WEB INTERFACE:

Choose the full Update option by using this link: http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml?mode=full, or by clicking on "Update" in the sidebar then clicking the link in "For more options, click here." at the bottom of th page. You can then type in your "Current Music" in the corresponding text box.


USING A DOWNLOADED CLIENT:

Many clients available for download include the ability to enter a "Current Music" with your journal entries. For more information on your preferred client, consult its documentation or its menu options. See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=158 for information on downloading a client. (Note: Not all LiveJournal clients are supported by InsaneJournal


To read a more about how the Visions client grabs the current music, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=28 .

There are 4 InsaneJournal-specific markup tags. They can be used in journal entries, comments, and the Bio section of the User Info page [http://www.insanejournal.com/editinfo.bml]. Further details on each tag are described below.

Setting the "Backdate Entry" option, available for each journal entry in an individual journal, ensures that the entry will appear only on pages where its placement is based on the date and time you specify, specifically the Recent, Calendar, and Day views, but not the Friends view. You cannot backdate entries to communities, because a community is usually a forum for recent news or events in which backdating is unnecessary.

The date and time of a backdated entry do not have to be in the past. You should also use this option if you would like to make an entry with a future date or time. If you give an entry a future date or time without selecting the "Backdate" option, and subsequently try to make a post dated earlier than your future-dated post, you will encounter an error and InsaneJournal will not accept the entry.

On someone's Friends page, the placement of your journal entries is based on when you actually posted them, not on the dates and times you entered. Checking the "Backdate Entry" box prevents your entry from appearing on those pages.

The option doesn't have any effect on your own Recent Entries pages, because sorting of the entries there is always based on the date and time you specify, and you can always find an entry through the Calendar view (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=24).

The "Backdate Entry" option can be selected on the full Update Journal page (http://www.insanejournal.com/update.bml?mode=full), and can be modified later by editing (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2).

By default auto-formatting is enabled. Auto-formatting does the following:

* Automatically inserts breaks between lines for you. If you hit enter to move down to the next line, that is how the post will appear on your journal.

* When linking to a site, some HTML will be created for you. For example, if you type http://www.insanejournal.com/ in an entry, it automatically becomes a link.

If you prefer to format posts yourself (for example, using
to create a line break), then you should select the "don't auto-format" option. If you don't know what you want, you probably want to keep it unchecked.

Alternatively, you can disable auto-formatting using the IJ-specific tag . For more information on the tag, see http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=49 .

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=133 .

USING THE WEB INTERFACE:

Go to the "Post Comments" or "Read Comments" page for the entry you want to edit. (It doesn't matter if there are comments or not, either page will do.) On a small blue toolbar near the top of the page, if you're logged in, you should see an Edit Entry button (a blue pencil icon). Click it to go to the Edit Journal Entry page. There you can make the changes you want, or delete everything from the Event box to delete the entire entry. Click "Save Journal Entry" to finish.

You can usually get to the "Post Comments" page by finding the entry in the appropriate journal, and clicking a link which says something like "Comment on this". However, if comments are not enabled for the entry you want to edit, you can still access the entry through the Calendar view, located at http://www.insanejournal.com/users/exampleusername/calendar/ (where 'exampleusername' is the username for the journal the entry is in). On this page, you should see links to each month's list of "subjects". The list includes entries for which comments were disabled. Clicking on the subject of an entry takes you to the "Read Comments" page for that entry. (Don't worry, reaching the page doesn't allow people to comment if you do not enable your message boards.) From there, you can edit the entry as explained above.

You can also edit entries in your own journal at http://www.insanejournal.com/editjournal.bml .

See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=119 for instructions on editing an entry from an asylum journal.

DELETING ENTRIES

Deleting an entry in your journal is simple. You can also delete entries that you have made in an asylum journal or any entry in a community if you are a maintainer [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=76]. Note that any deleted content cannot be restored.

When using the web interface, you must first edit the entry as explained at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2]. From there, you can easily click on the "Delete Entry" button. You can also manually clear off the Event box and click on "Save Journal Entry". You do not have to clear off any of the other fields, such as the date and time.

No. Your journal entries are kept forever unless you choose to delete them. By default, only your last 20 journal entries or so are displayed on your main journal page, but you can change that (http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=56). You can always access all your old journal entries from the Calendar page. See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=24 for information about how the Calendar works.

To lighten the load on InsaneJournal's servers, only the last 75 entries can be displayed using your Recent Events view. If you wish to read older entries, you can access them through the Calendar page.


However, InsaneJournal accounts can automatically be deleted. See http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=135 for details on why and how to prevent yours from doing so.

If you wish to download your journal, you can do so using the journal export tool at http://www.insanejournal.com/export.bml .

It is currently only possible to export your journal month by month, and only in CSV (comma separated value) or XML (extensible markup language) formats. While these are useful for keeping an archive, they are not designed to be human-readable, and it is not currently possible to import these files into a InsaneJournal account. In order to read your entries from these files, you will need to save the file from within your web browser and then use a third party program to read the file. For instance, many spreadsheet and database programs are capable of reading CSV files.

Note that this method will not download any comments associated with your entries.

An alternative option is to use a downloadable client, some of which have download or backup features. You can find information on these at http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=129 .

Finally, it is possible to download your journal entry by entry, by viewing and saving the web pages. This is the simplest way to back up your journal in a way that is easy to read, but it is also very time-consuming. Another advantage that this option offers is that it allows you to download the comments each entry has received. You can navigate easily through your entries by using the green arrows shown at the top of each comment page, which allow you to move back or forward by one entry.

If you wish to print your entries, or have limited bandwidth, you may wish to set InsaneJournal to use the "Lynx" site scheme before you attempt to view and save your journal using this method. This scheme offers a smaller, simpler page layout. In order to change your scheme, visit http://www.insanejournal.com/manage/siteopts.bml . After you are finished, you can return to that page to reset your scheme.

Currently, InsaneJournal does not provide any means to delete all of the entries from your journal with one command. To do this, you must delete each entry individually as explained at http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=3 .

However, the process of deleting all of your entries can be done more quickly using a downloaded client, because using a client avoids waiting for pages to load on the Internet. For more information on your preferred client, consult its documentation or its menu options. See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=158 for information on downloading a client. (Note: Not all LiveJournal clients are suppported by InsaneJournal)