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I'm looking for a web application to act as personal journal. I don't mean a blog, I mean a personal private place for me and only me.

I tried using a document in Google Docs but the mobile use was very, very painful (actually, it didn't work at all) and I was forced to manage the dates myself.

One potential solution is Evernote. The mobile app is good, it supports lot's of different formats (like audio entries). It automatically timestamps things. I don't like that it asks for titles. I want to open it and write away and not have to think of a title (or end up with untitled entries). The big con is that my private journal entries are mixed with lot's of other information which I may browse in front of other people (I keep clippings of things to remember, passwords, hostnames, meeting notes, etc).

I tried penzu.com. The UI has a couple of issues, but once you learn them, it's a nice UI. It also requires titles or "untitled" is show instead (WTF?). I haven't tried the mobile application because you have to pay for it. My concern is, will they stay around? or go away with all my data. The navigation from entry to entry doesn't seem to be the best.

Any other apps I should try?

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You could use TiddlyWiki. It can be downloaded and you can use it as a single file on your computer (it can be downloaded and used standalone as an HTML file you open with a browser), but there are also places where it is hosted and is an app on the web.

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  • This is what I use for my stuff. Not only can you easily move it around using Dropbox so making it public by accident is difficult, there are plugins available which will do some in-browser crypto to password-protect your notes.
    – ssokolow
    Aug 29, 2011 at 2:02
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I am not sure what difficulties you had using a blog but go give Posterous a shot. You will be able to post by Email, Web or the Posterous App. At one point I used a script to post directly from my laptop using hotkeys.

As for privacy you can set the privacy level of the blog.

Privacy enabled

So now when anyone checks they will arrive at

The site is password protected

The only problem I can see is the whole "Untitled" issue. Since it is for you alone, you can always access all posts from the settings.

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  • I understand it can work, but I feel uneasy about putting personal information in a web app designed to disseminate information. Those apps tend to have a lot of features to push information to RSS, Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc. Only one has to be poorly blocked to cause a disaster. Thank you.
    – pupeno
    Aug 26, 2011 at 6:30
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The best option I've used is OhLife. It emails you every day at a configurable time, you respond with your thoughts, activities, etc., and it compiles it all together. You can export all of your entries as plain text at any time.

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