52 comments

• 

  mia

  3 years ago

  i've been using opendiary for a couple of years now with no hassles at all. however, i have attempted to contact the diarymaster on two occasions with no response. although i wasn't bringing up anything particularly important, it didn't instill much faith. there have also been a couple of bad hacker attacks and some people still don't have their journals back.
  if you want to contact the diarymaster i suggest you create an opendiary account and leave a note on the diarymaster's diary. you can access it from the homepage. if you've already tried that, you have my sympathy.
  mia
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• 

  Chelsy

  3 years ago

  I've been using OpenDiary since I was in 6th grade.
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• 

  kait

  3 years ago

  I certainly hope you're not trying to imply in that note that users should have their full names, addresses and telephone numbers displayed on their diary.
  
  People accidentally plagiarize in diaries all the time. And since it's for personal use, and not literature being sold to the public, it has absolutely nothing to do with you.
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• 

  JB

  3 years ago

  Kait,
  
  I'm not implying that at all. Still, nearly every other blog provider offers some means of contacting individual diary owners. Be it an email address, a PM feature or an IM name. OD is the only one I know of that forbids people from posting contact information.
  
  However, I'm not talking about the individual diary holders, but rather, the administrators. By law, under the DMCA, they have to provide for a designated agent to deal with copyright infringement taking place on their servers. However, I have found no valid contact information for them.
  
  Finally, if it is my work, it is my business, it's that simple. U.S. copyright law allows for up to 150,000 in damages for intentional acts of copyright infringement, regardless of whether or not profit was made. Plagiarizing work is illegal, profit or not, and I speak for a great number of people when I say I don't want my material being copied and pasted under other people's names.
  
  It's that simple.
  reply
• 

  Julie

  3 years ago

  Hmm...I've also been using OpenDiary for almost five years without any problems. I did try contacting the diary master once regarding a little "stalking" issue...he never responded...so I just made my diary inaccessible to certain people. Other than that, no problems!
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• 

  Niina

  3 years ago

  I don't believe there are ppl like you. If you don't like it (the site) stop going there. What can you gain for pursueing this getting the site completely deleted mission? There are hundreds of thousands people who like the site and haven't seen much problems in it. Only one time have I stumbled into explicit language and someone "out there" did delete the entry content. Right now I want to say things to you that won't do any good, and you'd probably sue me for saying them so I'll leave this matter here.
  
  Have a nice day
  reply
• 

  Ed

  3 years ago

  I may be off but it seems Nina hasn't quite gotten the point of the post here. Some major misinterpretation going on when she suggests "if you don't like the site stop going there", as though "liking" the site has anything to do with the real problem at hand.
  
  To the whole point of that's been raised, I'd suggest filing a DMCA complaint and let the company running Open Diary deal directly with the fall out of not being in compliance with Federal law. They don't want to deal with you, they can deal with the authorities and the courts.
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• 

  Kim

  3 years ago

  If you dont like opendiary or the way it is.. then dont go there anymore. AND why would you trust total strangers with things if you REALLY don't want them taking your stuff?
  
  GET OVER YOURSELF AND MOVE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  
  -thank you
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• 

  Aim

  3 years ago

  Kim, you are definitely missing the point here. It isn't about not visiting Open Diary. It is about the fact that someone on Open Diary is completely plagarizing another person's work. Open Diary is not dealing with the plagarist and won't even post up-to-date contact information. That is ILLEGAL. I'm sure JB would be completely satisfied if Open Diary just removed the offending entry/blog. But since they are not allowing themselves to be contacted in regards to that, JB has no other recourse but to report Open Diary's violation to the appropriate organization and have them deal with the issue at hand.
  
  So, to recap, the issue is NOT that JB doesn't like Open Diary. It is that Open Diary is allowing plagarism on its site and offering no channel for the violators to be reported. If they won't comply with federal regulation and allow JB to contact them regarding the plagarism, why should he be nice and just avoid the site? He has every right to report their violations.
  
  Good for you.
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• 

  The DiaryMaster

  3 years ago

  I am the publisher of OpenDiary - I found this thread through another blog where the writer had complained about plagiarism by one of our members, which was investigated and deleted. We do provide a reporting mechanism on the site, with selections specifically for reporting rules violations such as this (this mechanism is, in fact, what was used by the previously mentioned author's friends to let us know about that violation).
  Barring that, please feel free to email me at monitor@opendiaryplus.com to report any incidence of plagiarism on our site - personally, I find this sort of behaviour despicable and will do what I can to stop it.
  Thanks.
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• 

  Lynsey

  3 years ago

  I think that OD is a site for nothing more than theft and an area for nasty housewives to attack others for not sharing like opinions. I would love to see the site crash and burn.
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• 

  Neenie

  3 years ago

  i have been using opendiary 4 awhile and have never had any problems. You dont understand what your taking away, your not just taking away a web site, but peoples entries that take them so long to write and are the 1 thing people can turn to and rely on.
  Plz dont take something so important away.
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• 

  stormy

  3 years ago

  have had troubles in open diary with a certain person. As stated above "nasty housewives to attack others for not sharing like opinions". I deleted my OD due to this person. I complained aobu it & theyre still there. Sad thig is this person has very many fake diaries.
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• 

  Tittsalot McGinty

  3 years ago

  If you post anything on the internet, it has a chance of being copied and pasted into someone's blog, diary or ezine. You know, you are not the only one who has had work stolen from them. I have copied and pasted information from vairous websites and people's blogs, into my diary. What are you going to do about it? Nothing. Im not selling my diary, Im not making any money off it. Im posting it in a closed community. And you can leave your email, IM, ICQ, Yahoo profile..you can post pics or you can be totally annoymous, fake...just like here. Who are YOU anyway?
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• 

  I dont' get it

  3 years ago

  I might be a little late, but what was the plagiarism? Did you take an article that you had sold for money to a magazine and post it? Did you take anything that was at all for sale and post it? Doing so would probably remove your claim to plagiarism since you are releasing this to an open forum that anyone can read. Since you didn't charge to read it, and didn't sell it to someone who did.. and I doubt that you copyrighted it.... I just don't get it? What did they steal, your quiz??? OD is a place for people to type junk.. some people like the junk, some don't. Some develop meaning into this type, others certainly don't. Its not a magazine. I would agree with a few of the users above, though not quite so violently, but if you want something to be private and have homage paid to it, or royalties paid for it... why on earth would you post it in a completly open online forum that requires no identification at all?
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• 

  Amy

  3 years ago

  i have been on o.d. for a while now and i find sometimes people do do that, but wen i see it its only minor things like songs that theve written on there or book pasages i dont think it realy maters that much! wen i first started on there sumtimes people would diss me in there notes an so i just turned my o.d. favs only, i think wat ur doing is stupid, it duznt realy matter so get ova it! l8er
  red_tiger_eye (o.d.)
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• 

  miss boots

  3 years ago

  wat! u cant do that! u would be takeing so much away from the people that depend on that site! it is a place for people to express themselfs without people judging them! that site has given me so much self confidence. it gave me the assurance in needed to tell my friend i was bi! withouit it lots of people would get seriously pissed! please just leave it!! jst leev us alone and go on with ur life! wat ur trying to do is stupid! its not a big issue and it duzznt mata!!
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• 

  irina

  3 years ago

  I've been using o.d. since 7th grade, and I admit that there are a few kinks that need to be worked out and I should note that it has improved over the past 5 years, but I don't think plagiarism is a problem particular to sites like opendiary.
  
  Any work you post on the internet runs a risk of being plagiarised, and thats that. It doesn't matter where its posted. If its on the internet- thats fair (well, actually, unfair) game. Unfortunately, thats the way it is. And I say this as someone who posts fiction and poetry.
  I know it might get stolen, but thats a risk I choose to take.
  
  While I agree that there should be a way to contact diary owners who have disabled notes or set their diaries to 'favorites only', I particularly LIKE the idea that you can control how much contact info you put out. In my opinion, opendiary is better than myspace in that respect because it emphasizes reading over oggling half-naked pictures that fourteen year old girls put up.
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• 

  Braian Kassia

  3 years ago

  Seems like a lot of people don't understand that copyright has nothing to do with making money off of someone else's intellectual property. Copyright is about an artist being able to determine where and how their work will be seen or heard. I applaud your efforts to protect the plagiarised.
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• 

  Kelly

  3 years ago

  I think this site might help explain things for those that don't understand plagiarisim. As previously stated, the information doesn't have to be sold to be considered plagiarism.
  
  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research...
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• 

  R

  3 years ago

  Regarding the 'Diary Master's' response here - I did once email monitor@opendiaryplus.com regarding one user's breaking of the opendiary rules, and I never received any response, nor was any action taken against the user. So your pretence that you will do 'anything you can to stop' abuse is just that - a pile of crap.
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• 

  JL

  3 years ago

  I've used OD for a few years now, and have had contact with the DM a few times as well. In fact he recently responded to one of my inquiries about a week ago.
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• 

  Amy

  2 years ago

  I have been on OD since right after it started. I have seen the good and bad. You are allowed to post information on contact but its frowned upon due to harassment issues that have occured in the past. If you are on a faves only diary you can block who can see your writing. If there are any problems you can always report the offender yourself to appropriate authorities and they can force the DM to release signup info on that specific diary. Now that there are message boards its easier to contact users since once they sign up there is a private messaging service. Every month there are more upgrades to the site to ensure the safety. In reality though you are responsible for what you post and if you dont specifically post that it is your writing and any unauthorized use can and will be punishable you are taking risks. So many people post articles or stories and dont state its their own. Others see it and like it and repost. I can understand if the other person states specifically that they wrote it. Other than that take it as a compliment that someone liked your writing enough to c&p it for others to see.
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• 

  Lindsey

  2 years ago

  The DM is a very busy man, and sometimes it can take a couple weeks to get a response to a rules violation. He can't respond to everyone immediately because of the sheer bulk of reports he gets.
  
  The thing is, it will get done. It may not be as quickly as you want it to be, but any problems will eventually be resolved.
  
  I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this.
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• 

  Former ODer

  2 years ago

  I have had the exact same issues with Open Diary, with the exact same lack of response from the "Diary Master." It seems to me that he responds if and when he wants to, regarding issues brought up by folks he likes and knows, not by your average user.
  
  I eventually left the site because, as one commenter pointed out, it IS largely used by "back-stabbing housewives." (Nothing against housewives, of course.) It is a very cliquish place where not being "in" gets you less than nothing - harrassment, theft of your work, and no means of contact with the Almighty Diary Master.
  
  "The DM is a busy man" is rubbish. If you own a site, offer a service on the site and make money from it, you need to back it up with actual SERVICE.
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• 

  slvhwke

  2 years ago

  Hi :)
  
  I must say - I love reading other people's poetry - and if something is really moving - i post it on my blog.
  
  However - I do always put the author's name, the website I got it from and state that it isn't my work. Sort of like referencing it.
  
  Er...is this ok to do? I never really considered I might have to ask permission.
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• 

  JB

  2 years ago

  slvhwke,
  
  The answer to your question isn't easy. Legally, it's not, that's technically a copyright violation. Ethically, however, it's most likely fine.
  
  Most poets and authors don't mind if you use their work so long as you credit it. Still, it's a good idea to go ahead and ask permission or look for a Creative Commons License that offers permission to do such copying just to be safe.
  
  Some people have VERY strict ideas about copyright. I'm not one of them (see the CC license below) but I do know many who are.
  
  Hope that helps!
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• 

  Dee

  2 years ago

  Wonderful and very informative.
  
  I have to agree with Former ODer up there. There is an EXTREME lack of response and MANY people I've 'met' on there have had their lives 'stolen' (for lack of a better word) & nothing seems to ever be resolved.
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• 

  Stephanie

  2 years ago

  I've been with OpenDiary for a while now, and I have to say that as with most anything you put on the internet, people are going to steal it. OpenDiary offers a "Favorites Only" and "Private" option when you write an entry, as well as a "Public" option. If you do not want your work stolen, I suggest you take the steps to protect it. Click the drop down menu and click either "Fav's Only" or "Private" and stop complaining. You're the one that put it out for the world to see in the first place.
  And, do those of you that write poetry and such know that by posting your work publicly, you are practically giving up any rights to it anyway? Check with an agent and see what they say. If you have it posted to a closed community, however, you still have rights to that work.
  I may be babbling, or possibly making zero sense, but think before you all start to complain about having your work stolen when you post it for everybody to see.
  Thank you.
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• 

  Angela

  2 years ago

  I actually have a friend back when OD switched to "freeopendiary" and paying accounts were called "OD+" who tried everything he could to get his girlfriend's diary up and running after she was charged the fees for OD+ and then never was updated. After trying and trying in different ways to get the DM to update the girl's diary, he managed to get a hold of the DM's personal info (name, address, etc), although I'm not sure how. When he let on that he knew this info and was planning on taking legal action if something wasn't done immediately, the DM magically appeared, updated the account, and apologized for the "mix-up"...
  
  The past of OD was pretty crappy. I'm hoping the future is better. Because OD is, by far, the best diary site. It's got awesome features and is so user-friendly a monkey could figure it out. I just wish that until the DM can get it all working beautifully, all the psycho people would start their diaries at Blogger or something. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen because those sites are NOT as user friendly, so all the idiots go to OD... Sad, but true.
  
  Anyway, it seems as though the DM is doing what he can these days (actually making appearances and keeping accurate, active logs), so hopefully all these type of posts go away soon.
  
  Angela
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• 

  Minerva_jones

  2 years ago

  Opendiary is what it is....a wank fest for whiners. I've had a diary there for some years, and it's where I go to bitch.
  
  But it's like the Wailing Wall...no one answers when you want to seriously crank ( or wank!).
  
  Just keep stuffing those notes in the crevices....
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  pinkbarbie

  2 years ago

  i luv opendiary been using it for seven years. i have complained and the diary was deleted as other people complained with them so that is the way. i met one of my mates on opendiary.com
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  Misty

  2 years ago

  I have been with Open Diary for almost 7 years now. Yes, the DM is very hard to track down, and solving issues can be a hassle.
  However, because of the anonymous nature of the site, how can one prove that plagiarism is even taking place? One person can have several diaries under different titles.
  For instance... if I write a famous poem and it is published and well-known (or not well known for that matter) and I also create a diary in which I post said poem, how does anybody know that it's me posting it? How would anybody know that it *wasn't* me posting it?
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  kristin.

  2 years ago

  If you don't like OD, stay out of there. And if your stuff is being stolen, go "Favorites Only" or private.
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  JB

  2 years ago

  Kristen,
  
  I don't run an open diary site. Pepole from OD were taking works from a completely different site that I run. Setting my site to "Favorites Only" is not only useless, but impossible. Please understand what is going on before commenting.
  
  Thank you.
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• 

  holly

  1 year ago

  i really think you need to get a life. have you tried going outside lately?
  
  oh no! watch out for teh internet police!!!11!!1!
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  abby

  1 year ago

  Is someone plagiariing you personally? If not you're sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. Sure, it's sad if someone else is pretending to be someone they're not. But why couldn't you just ignore it. Trying to get OD shut down is just selfish. You're not getting your way so you want to ruin it for everyone else. I've been writing there for along time, along with many others. We record our lives and memories there. That's not something I would want to ruin for others over someone else's childishness.
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• 

  Tak

  1 year ago

  Hmmm, came here quite by accident but it's an interesting entry. I'll have to read more.
  
  I've read over the comments and like many people who've posted here, I've had an OD for years and never had a problem. Probably partly because I don't start "note fights" with people or get my titties in a twist over any minor problems I might have. They always seem to get fixed sooner or later.
  
  As for the plagarism, sure it sucks that you are (were, this comment's a bit late) having trouble contacting the DM and you're right that plagarism should be dealt with. I hope your problem got resolved.
  
  I just have to wonder though...are you going to seriously track down everyone who might have plagarized from you? OD isn't the only blog spot out there after all. And are you going to be the internet hall monitor and complain about all the unethical behavior on the web? It'd keep you busy at least.
  
  When you think about it, aren't there better ways to spend your valuable time? Of course I tend to spend most of my time IRL so the problems there (sickness, famine, war, domestic violence, etc) seem much more pressing than someone stealing my blog entries.
  
  I have to agree with past noters and go a step farther to say if you don't want something plagarized don't write it down or put it out in public or say it out loud. Ideas are the easiest things to steal so if you don't want anyone taking them, keep them to yourself.
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• 

  rosemary

  1 year ago

  I go to OD to just use it as a diary and just like a diary, you can either have it public or private.
  
  If you leave a diary in the open then there is a chance a snoopy sister, brother or parent might find it. However on a larger scale with OD since it is out there for all the world to see.
  
  Also there are plenty of options. From Private entries, favs only, to public.
  
  Yes, stealing from someone whether it be online or not is still stealing and is wrong. However just like the real world if you leave something out, there is a chance someone might steal it.
  
  In a perfect world, people would have original thoughts and would not think about stealing someone elses things, however we don't live in a perfect world.
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  Janet

  1 year ago

  I've been there for over five years now, and the one or two times I've needed to contact the DiaryMaster (that's what the admin calls himself) regarding abusive diarists, he's not only noted me personally, but removed the offensive material relatively quickly. No problems here...
  Maybe he's unsure of whether or not writing in one's own DIARY constitutes plagiarism...
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• 

  Lady

  1 year ago

  Hmm... have been trying to get on OD since yesterday... still nothing. Has anyone heard if the site has been hacked into again? Or why they've been offline for 2 days?
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  Peter

  1 year ago

  As a long time Open Diary member (since 2000), I have a feeling I know who the diarist in question is. But at the same time, I asked myself the same question as I read every Open Diary related post: where's the evidence? Do you expect us to just take your word for it?
  
  It's one thing to stand here and shout from the rooftops that someone is guilty of plagerism, but give us a link to the offender in question and then show us whose work is being ripped off and how. I have no doubt that you have justification for your accusations, I just wish you would share some of it with us so we can 'know' for sure that your cause is just.
  
  Do this and I will join your cause and e-mail the DM to call for that person's removal.
  
  
  Peter
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• 

  KJ

  1 year ago

  Lady,
  I have no clue. I found this site when I was looking for answers myself. I sure hope it hasn't been compromised again... I lost my diary in a hack that took place 4 or 5 years ago and they never did recover it for me - nor did they ever respond to my email inquiries about it.
  
  Here's hoping the site comes back online soon and our diaries are all still there (if and) when it does.
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• 

  Me, too

  1 year ago

  I found this site when looking for why I can't access OD, also. I found it very interesting, although I've never been plaigarized (that I know of) and have never plagiarized another.
  
  I'm really hoping the site comes back up soon. If we've been hacked and I've lost another crapload of entries, I'm done, despite having paid for a lifetime subscription. And I want my money back!!
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  rosemary

  1 year ago

  I am not sure what is going on with OD.
  
  I have read, ( a few days ago while it was still up) someone was a fake on there. They created out a life about another person, who they stole their pictures from I believe to be photobucket.
  
  The internet has unscrupulous people that I think are bolder as to take peoples pictures, ideas, etc because they are behind a computer screen.
  
  It's sad that anything you value as worth while needs to be protected in some way.
  
  Just like if your on a bus and expect the driver to watch your purse although your not protecting it yourself.
  
  I did find one person who was removed after they were trying to use a diary for post secrets. I am not sure if it was because of copy infringement or if it was because of the nature of most of the secrets he was seeking out.
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  Michelle

  1 year ago

  I think the ICANN or whatever that bloody thing is finally looked into your complaint. The last two days I haven't been able to connect to opendiary, and neither has anybody I know. If they deleted it I'm going to be pissed. In the next few months I'm undergoing a huge chain in my life and the people I talk to on that site have helped me through some crap. How utterly selfish of you.
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  KJ

  1 year ago

  Michelle,
  I doubt it has anything to do with this 2 1/2 year old complaint. OD has been intermittently offline for at least two weeks now and the servers have been absolute crap with pages timing out, notes not saving, etc. My guess is the servers finally took a dump and the admins are "working feverishly" to bring the site back online. I'm not holding my breath though, they don't handle things very well over there.
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  Jonathan Bailey

  1 year ago

  Everyone: I won't spend long on this but it appears that OpenDiary has been down for a few days and that many of its members have been gravitating here since this entry still ranks high in the search results for the site.
  
  Let me be clear on this. I had nothing to do with the current outage. My issues with OpenDiary were resolved over two years ago. You can read the update here: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/01/04/updat...
  
  The diary master responded, removed the site from the Villains list and have had no interaction with the site since there.
  
  I am sorry. You are free to discuss here but I am not the cause of this in any way.
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  papillion

  1 year ago

  Not to beat an old horse, or anything, but I think I missed something along the discussion about the possible reasons for OD being down. I've had OD for eight years, now, and this is the first time it has been down for so long (that I have noticed.) Can anyone shed some light on this?
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  KJ

  1 year ago

  Looks like OD has shed some light on it themselves:
  
  "On Monday afternoon, during a routine system reset, our webserver experienced a failure of one of its drive arrays. There has been no loss of diary data, because this failure did not occur on our data servers (and if it had, we would have restored it from a backup anyways). The outage in the webserver has caused Open Diary to be offline since that time.
  
  In any case, the sysadmins spent today trying to rebuild the server and get it back online, but have decided this evening to completely replace it. This process will take some additional hours, but will ensure that the site will run correctly when it does come back online.
  
  We appreciate your patience during this time, and will do everything possible to have OD up and running again as soon as possible.
  
  Thanks, The DiaryMaster"
  
  
  I figured it was a server issue. Don't be fooled into believing this was a sudden and unexpected issue though - they were well aware that there have been server problems and have ignored them. It's their fault this resulted in the site completely crashing. When's the last time you saw ebay.com or google.com offline for 3 days? Exactly.
  
  Anyway, I digress. As soon as I can get back to my diary I'm packing it up and moving elsewhere. It's just not worth the headache and complete lack of support... especially as a paid member of the site.
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  Tams Oxymoronic Life

  10 months ago

  I have been trying to access the site for two days and all I get is an error message. But this site came up on Google searching so I just have to put in my two cents.
  So, there have been issues in the past with open diary going offline? How often does this happen? This worries me.
  Also, on the note of plagiarism, I believe that everyone is guilty of it at some point or another, but as a library worker I can tell you, most people do not even know what plagiarism is. I know it was never emphasized in any of my classrooms. So you will also need to take into consideration that this is a problem that will consistently get better over time. You can not expect the world to change overnight, and as a library worker I can tell you that you can not count on anyone to pay attention to more than they care about. If they are not concerned with their work getting plagiarized I guarantee that they will not pay attention to anyone who does care about their work. Do not get me wrong, I do agree that plagiarizing is very bad, but I am also a firm believer that if they know better, karma will get them in the end.
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  jeremy

  8 months ago

  hey, i don't know what the hell you're talking about but i've been a part of a the opendiary community for 6 years and i've never plagiarised ANYTHING. the website's been hacked into on multiple occasions, WORK OF MINE HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM ME THAT THEY COULD NOT RECOVER. and now this attack?! yeah, i'm sure there are some people on it that plaigarize but i'm not one of them, and there's no way anyone could ever pull off being me.
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