Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What Is DearDiary.Net?

DearDiary.Net is an online diary site which allows people to keep their diary online. It is intended that it be used more like a personal (but publicly available) diary rather than a blog, but there is no reason it can’t be used as a personal blog too.

Are Commercial Sites Allowed?

No. This is a personal diary site. Any commercial use of the site is considered to be spam and will be removed without warning.

Is DearDiary.Net Free To Use?

Yes, DearDiary.Net is free to use. However, we now have utilised the services of Patreon so that regular users can contribute to the running costs of the site. Patreon patrons will gain access to additional features such as;

  • No Adverts appearing on their diary or on other diarists sites when they are logged in.
  • Additional Plugins available.
  • Additional Themes available.
  • Priority Support if something goes wrong.
  • New features will be released to Patreon patrons before the general public.

Why Are There Adverts On My Diary?

We show adverts using Google AdSense on diaries that are not supported by Patreon patrons. This is to help offset the costs of running the site. It is a fairly new phenomenon but has come about because after 20 years of spending our own money to support the site we decided it was necessary to have the site at least pay something towards its own costs. Adverts are removed for Patreon supporters.

Where Has My Diary Gone?

If your diary was last used prior to some time in 2016 then it’s likely that it is on what we call the ‘Legacy System’. The legacy system was originally written and released in 1999 and has not had a significant update since then. The legacy system is very very unstable as a result. The new DearDiary system is incompatible with the legacy system.

All is not lost though. To regain access to your diary you can use the Migrate menu option at the top of the page. You will be asked a series of questions to ensure that the diary you wish to migrate is yours. Follow the prompts and your diary should be migrated within a couple of hours.

How Does This Notification System Work?

The explanation for how this works is too big for a FAQ post. With that in mind, we’ve produced a whole tutorial post for how to use the Notification System. You can read that post here.

How Do I Add Entries / Content?

If you don’t know how to use WordPress, there’s loads of tutorials available online. DearDiary.Net uses WordPress with various bespoke plugins to provide the specific DearDiary functionality. But most of it is standard WordPress. Here’s a link to an article showing How To Use WordPress for creating content.

If you get stuck, please Contact Us.