How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

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jacob
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How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by jacob »

(I've meant to put up and pin a few pieces of advice for successful journaling for a while. I figured a good journal strategy would be obvious but it really isn't. However, a good journal strategy is similar to a good blogging strategy. There are two cardinal rules. If you follow both, you'll quickly become engaged and part of the community. If you follow only one of either of them, you'll meander along. If you ignore both, engagement fails, and most will give up.)

(I'll try to work towards a nicer formulation of this eventually.)

The cardinal rules:
  1. Create your own journal and update it regularly. It matters less how often you do it as much as whether you're regularly updating it (pick a schedule, any schedule, and stick to it!). Aside from that respond to people's comments on your journal when they comment. It's a bit like seeding a garden by season but watering your plants when they need it. Seriously, people will lock in on your schedule once you maintain one. Don't fail them.
  2. Comment on other people's journals. You definitely don't have to comment on all journals. It's better to seek out journals you find interesting and engage with them consistently on a regular basis than engaging everywhere at random in time or space. They in turn may come back to your own journal. This gets the ball rolling and this is how connections are built. Historically MMGs have formed from these informal mutual journal relationships. Exceptions exist, but they are not the norm. This is how connections are made.
Also consider,
  1. It increases the chances of people checking out your own journal (and commenting on it) if you focus on quality comments over "quantity comments". What is quality? It's simply a comment that one has put some thought/feeling into. For example, an "I agree" one-liner is nice, but it's not something that's likely to make anyone go looking for your journal. In particular, it's possible to make a "career" as a valued community member simply by being a good commenter.
  2. Read http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule2.html and think about how you're posting and what you're posting. If you don't want to see something (like your exact NW, your political opinions, ... or even what you really think about your mother in law) end up on the front page of the news, forwarded to the inbox of friends and family or your boss, or recorded by various governments, you should never post it electronically. You might even consider never writing it down. Keep in mind that privacy is not an absolute. It's rather a matter of which degree an adversary will go towards finding it out if you triggered or pissed them off. There are two strategies here. Either live in a way that doesn't create adversaries xor refrain from saying anything that can be used against you. It is wise to think about this not just on the forum but also life in in general. Cleaning stuff up later is a pain and it will only go so far.
I tend to take these social media lesson for granted because I practically grew up with them during my formative years on the internet. They're pretty simple, yet maybe not that simple? They parallel IRL lessons, right? Here's how I'm doing. How are you doing?

jacob
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Re: How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by jacob »

Fun fact: Historically, people have reached FI around the time their journal has ~500 entries and replies (combined).

This observation likely measured sustained commitment over time. It corresponds to about 20 interactions per week over 5 years. Or 10 over 10 years.

IlliniDave
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Re: How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by IlliniDave »

jacob wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:42 am
Fun fact: Historically, people have reached FI around the time their journal has ~500 entries and replies (combined).

This observation likely measured sustained commitment over time. It corresponds to about 20 interactions per week over 5 years. Or 10 over 10 years.
2/wk in 5 years and 1/wk in 10 years? Math works out better and that seems more in line with the rhythms in most journals. I'll have to go back and look but I recall having been pretty close to your predictions (which you had stated prior).

jacob
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Re: How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by jacob »

IlliniDave wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:19 am
2/wk in 5 years and 1/wk in 10 years? Math works out better ...
Ha! Thanks for catching that one. I clearly need more (or less) coffee.

UrbanHomesteader
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Re: How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by UrbanHomesteader »

Could someone post instructions on how to post photos and links in a journal?

jacob
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Re: How to start a journal and make it work for yourself and others

Post by jacob »

UrbanHomesteader wrote:
Wed Jan 18, 2023 5:13 pm
Could someone post instructions on how to post photos and links in a journal?
Photos:

viewtopic.php?t=7320
viewtopic.php?t=2907
viewtopic.php?t=10362

which I posted like

Code: Select all

https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?t=7320
https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?t=2907
https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?t=10362
TL;DR - You need to host them somewhere else and post them like

Code: Select all

[img]http://somewhere.com/yourphoto.png.png/[img]

Links:
app.php/help/bbcode
app.php/help/bbcode#f4r0

TL;DR: - You can either to it the lazy way and just paste them in like above, or surround the link with url codes, like

Code: Select all

[url=https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/app.php/help/bbcode]here's a link to the bbcode instructions[/url]
which will appear as: here's a link to the bbcode instructions

It basically works like primitive HTML except it uses square brackets rather than angle brackets. Wikipedia markup is similar albeit slightly more complicated.
app.php/help/faq#f3r0

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