Social:Diaryland
Diaryland is among the earliest online diary platforms,[1] launched in 1999 by Canadian developer Andrew Smales. Diaryland has a social networking element in that its members can link to each other's diaries in "Buddy Lists," and leave notes, comments, and questions for each other. In May 2026, Diaryland launched a new version of the service, rebuilt on a new codebase and with expanded features. Version 2 includes a new publishing module that enables members to write, edit and publish newsletters, zines, and Books. All of the original diaries from the first 26 years are still accessible on the site, although there is a one-time fee to resurrect dormant diaries. The online diary is better known today as a blog.
Other early blogging and diary hosting websites included Blogger, LiveJournal, and Diary-X.[2]
History
Smales launched Diaryland in September 1999 after previously creating Pitas, an early weblog publishing service. He said that he wanted to create a system that made online diary publishing easy for people who did not know HTML. By December 1999, Diaryland had about 4,600 active members and was adding roughly 100 new members per day, largely through word of mouth.[1]
A 2011 academic study of the early history of blogging identified Diaryland as one of the early software systems for creating online diaries, emerging alongside automated publishing tools such as Pitas, Groksoup, and Blogger.[3]
In May 2026, Diaryland launched Version 2, a rebuild of the service on a new codebase. The new version retained its diary-writing and community functions while adding publishing tools including newsletters, zines, and books.[4]
Design and community
Diaryland combined hosted online diaries with individual page customization. Members received their own Diaryland subdomain and could choose from a range of templates, while users familiar with HTML could modify their layouts further. In 1999, Salon described the templates as varying widely in color, format, and background design, and noted that Diaryland did not place advertising on members' individual diary pages.[1]
The service also developed a strong social element. In 2001, The Washington Post reported that Diaryland had about 175,000 registered users, roughly two-thirds of them teenagers. The newspaper described online diaries as providing both personal expression and interaction with readers, with writers commonly publishing under pseudonyms and receiving responses from other users.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Dear Diary". Salon. December 10, 1999. https://www.salon.com/1999/12/10/diaryland/.
- ↑ Sorapure, Madeleine (2003). "Screening Moments, Scrolling Lives: Diary Writing on the Web". Biography 26 (1): 1–23. ISSN 0162-4962. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23540385.
- ↑ Siles, Ignacio (2011). "From online filter to web format: Articulating materiality and meaning in the early history of blogs". Social Studies of Science 41 (5): 737–758. doi:10.1177/0306312711420190.
- ↑ SuperLowBudge (2026-07-27). "A Writer’s Guide To The New Diaryland 2026" (in en). https://medium.com/@superlowbudge/a-writers-guide-to-the-new-diaryland-2026-a2b662998aee.
- ↑ Stepp, Laura Sessions (2001-06-19). "Teen Diaries, Online". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/06/19/teen-diaries-online/8d49385b-8352-4869-9d3b-655c41b8faaf/.
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