How do I join an asylum and read its entries on my Friends page?
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: https://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 https://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 https://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 (https://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=16).