Logs Redesigned - Dear Diary, It Finally Happened

Your logs used to look like every other thread on the forum. They deserved better so we turned them into what they really are: diaries.

What changed

• Your entries look like diary pages. Every post you make in your own log now opens with a big date. Scrolling through a log reads like flipping through a journal.
• Every log has a cover. Your title, your motto, your name and how long you've been logging sit at the top of every page.
• Comments look the same as always. Posts from everyone else stay regular forum posts so conversations are still easy to follow.
• Photo galleries. Two or more photos in a row turn into a neat gallery on desktop. A click on any photo shows it big. Phones show photos the same way as before.
• A comfier reading width on desktop. Long entries are much easier on the eyes now.

What you can do

• Add a motto. On your own log you'll find "+ Add a motto" right under the title. It's one short line (up to 100 characters) and it shows on your cover and under your log's title in Checking In. "Edit motto" lets you change it any time.
• Mark as reply. Answered a comment in your own log and now it looks like a diary entry? "Mark as reply" under that post turns it back into a normal post. It sits next to Edit (on phones it's in the ••• menu). "Mark as entry" switches it back. Nothing in the post itself changes and you can sort out as many old posts as you like.
• Browse by month. This button on the cover lists every month with an entry. One click takes you to the first entry of that month. Very handy for long logs and for catching up on someone else's.
• Read as a journal. This hides comments and replies so you can read a log as one story. It only changes what you see and "Show replies" brings everything back.
• My Log. If you already have a log there's now a My Log button next to Start a Log in Checking In. One click and you're home.

Starting a log
The button in Checking In now says Start a Log. You pick a title, add a motto if you like and write your first entry. It doesn't need to be long. "Day one. Did the thing." absolutely counts.

What we didn't add
Streaks, counters or anything else that keeps score. Some of you log every day, some once a week and some whenever life allows. All of it is a log and nothing here will ever make you feel behind.

This is all brand new so if anything looks odd on your log we'd love to hear about it. A screenshot helps a lot.

Thank you

 

[Nox]

Love love love the My Log button!
Could it maybe link to the bottom of the log instead of the top?

 

[neilarey]

Could it maybe link to the bottom of the log instead of the top?

done!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

View attachment 9970
Love love love the My Log button!
Could it maybe link to the bottom of the log instead of the top?

I had my log URL on my profile set to do this, but this option is no longer possible. If I add /unread to my log URL, the site now automatically converts it back to the link to the first entry.

I was using /unread rather than /latest so I wouldn't miss any replies to my thread since my last check-in. I think this is the most convenient option for other visitors to my thread as well. Would it be possible to get this functionality added back in to our profile pages--perhaps as an optional check box where we could choose from link to start/link to end/link to unread?

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

This is all brand new so if anything looks odd on your log we'd love to hear about it. A screenshot helps a lot.

I love the intention behind these changes. But a couple of them are doing undesirable things to my log.

1. Is there a way to turn off photo galleries for a post? It looks great for images in standard photograph aspect ratios. But it makes a mess of anything far removed from a squarish aspect ratio.

e.g.: My beautiful little tracking graphics like:


get turned into:


2. The big dates look beautiful. But they're almost always wrong. e.g.:


I normally make my log entries the day after the fact. And when I stay up late to do it at the end of the day, it almost always ends up being after midnight. The big dates would be a nice feature if we could choose the date they display. (Actually choose the date. Not just an option to choose yesterday's date. Log posts do sometimes get made more than a day later.) But displaying a huge date that the system picks from our time of actual posting is more bug than feature to me.

3. Is there a way to bulk "mark as reply" ALL existing posts in a log? My log is 52 pages long at this point. I would much prefer to revert my posts back to the way they used to look than have them all display with big incorrect date headers and oversized boxes in place of my original graphics. But I'd rather not have to do this individually to hundreds of posts.

 

[neilarey]

Update time! Thank you all for the feedback and a special thank you to @Laura Rainbow Dragon and @Nox for testing everything so thoroughly. Here's what changed:

Titles are now yours
The automatic dates are gone. They were often wrong (hello, after-midnight loggers and weekly updaters) so an entry now only gets a heading if you give it one.

Post a Log and Reply
In your own log you'll see two buttons under the reply box:

• Post a Log posts a new entry. The Entry title box above the editor is already filled in with today's date. You can keep it, change it to any date or title you like or clear it for no title at all.
• Reply answers comments in your log. Replies look like normal forum posts so they don't get mixed up with your entries.

Add title and Edit title
Your entries (older ones too) now have Add title or Edit title next to Edit. Saving an empty title removes it completely.

Photos
One or two photos now show centred at their real size, one per line. No cropping and no stretching. Galleries only start from three photos in a row.

Links
My Log now takes you to your first unread post, or to your newest one if you're all caught up. Links to a specific post (including /unread) land in the right place again.

If anything looks odd or doesn't work the way you'd expect we'd love to hear about it right here. A screenshot helps a lot!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Yeah! Looks and works great now! Thank you!

I neglected to mention in my first post (being too focused on the bugs) that the "Browse by month" feature is super useful for me. Thank you so much for adding this!

 

[Anek]

I don't know if it's meant to be like this but today in people's logs their name and avatar don't appear above their post. When people comment on other people's logs, names and avatars appear. Just the log owner's doesn't.