Registry FAQ

• Use the new "Modify Resource" form linked on every page. You have to enter the URL as currently listed, and fill out all of the information (even if it's only the URL or another single field that's being changed).

• The Registry hasn't been updated since your submission.

  The Registry is updated as often as possible (with the date of the last update included on every page), but there is no set schedule. At best, we upgrade weekly, at worst, monthly. Since we've recently upgraded, you should not see the ridiculous delays we've subjected you to in the past. (And, you should now get an automated e-mail notice when your site is added.) Still, if you think we're taking too long, just drop us a note.

• Your journal is part of a "hive site."

  There are many wonderful services on the web today that make starting an online journal as easy as filling out a form. Unfortunately, starting one is much easier than keeping one: a vast majority of such journals are abandoned after only one entry is posted, if a first entry is posted at all.

  The Registry is already rife with abandoned sites and dead links. A "hive site" can have as many as 10,000 accounts, and the Registry simply cannot take them all. Although we know there are some very devoted, prolific, excellent web diarists that use such sites, we regretfully exclude them from the Registry.

  If you started your journal on one of these sites, and have found it to be a rewarding practice, we recommend you consider investing a little extra time into building your own site. There are many free hosts out there (Geocities, Xoom, Tripod, etc.) where you can build a space all your own. In the mean time, be sure to take advantage of your host site's own listing services to stand out from the crowd.

• We edited your submission.

  It's in there, but not where you expected it to be. Note that sites that begin with 'the' and 'a' ("The Diary of a Girl" or "A Man's Journey") are sorted alphabetically by the next primary word ("Diary of a Girl, The" and "Man's Journey, A"). We may also need to shorten excessively long journal titles. We definitely remove frills (i.e. "~*~{[mylife]}~*~") and enforce reasonable capitalization. Finally, if you use a redirect service (i.e. "http://come.to/me"), or list a generic main page rather than a diary-specific page, we will frequently determine and use the actual/best URL in the Registry.

• Your submission was invalid.

  We may not have been able to find any relevant content on your site. The Registry is a directory of independently maintained diaries, journals, and personal weblogs. We will not list pages of poetry, pages about your pets, resumes, technical or sparse "what's new" or "site update" logs, etc.

  No, there are no rules to online journaling, but readers expect to see dated or ordered writing, preferably with intuitive indexes and archives. If you think your site was erroneously excluded because we just didn't appreciate your break from convention, drop us a line.

• You mistyped your URL.

  We are generally able to untangle typos and other colorful mistakes, but the one thing we need to find and list your site is the URL. If the indexes were updated since your submission and none of the above situations apply, this is probably the case. Please resubmit your site.

• Your site was unreachable.

  The Registry system — backed up by our hearty crew of link wranglers — will occasionally check URLs in the registry, and if they receive page not found (404) or other errors in trying to access your site, they will flag them for removal from the database. If access to your site was affected by a server outage or something beyond your control, we understand and apologize for your removal from the registry. Please resubmit your listing.

• If you have deleted your journal site so that no material is available, use the "Modify Resource" form (entering the URL as listed) to expedite removal. Otherwise, it'll get caught eventually during sporadic link checks.

• If your journal site is still being maintained or archived, however, and remains freely accessible, in most cases we will retain your listing in the Registry. Of course we would be happy to edit your listing to change or omit information you no longer want visible, such as location or birthdate. Just fill out the "Modify Resource" form.