About

lineadaydiary.netlify.app is designed to be a simple journalling tool with a clean interface, so that you can focus on what you want to write.
Input is limited to 250 characters to help prevent it becoming onerous to maintain.

Why, and how it's free

The aim is to keep lineadaydiary.netlify.app free, and open-source forever.
This is important due to the potential mental health benefits of journalling[1-5].
I don't generate any income from this site.
Running it is only possible thanks to some amazing services which offer free infrastructure (feel free to go and thank them on twitter if you like).

If user numbers increase it may become impossible to keep running the site on 'free-tiers' of these services.
In the event that this does have to be moved on to paid infrastructure some time in the future I will have to find some means to generate income to cover the costs.
I don't have the answers right now to how that would work, but below is a list of options, in my current order of preference:

  1. Voluntary donations / charity funding
  2. Paid extras
  3. Advertising
  4. Subscriptions

The one thing that I can guarantee is that your personal data is yours.
It will never be shared without your permission. Not for targeted advertising. Not for money.

The technical stuff

lineadaydiary.netlify.app is an open-source project. This means you can influence the direction it goes in. To file an issue, or request a feature, please use the GitHub issue tracker.

You can review, and request changes to the code at https://github.com/nickheal/lineadaydiary.com. Please read the contribution guide before submitting a pull-request.

The roadmap

As this project is guided by you I don't have a set roadmap I'm following currently.
Some possible paths are listed below:

  • Add self-service account recovery (reset password link).
  • Add SSO. This would allow you to sign-up/sign-in with accounts you already have with other providers (eg. Facebook, Google, etc.)
  • Add open-source internationalisation. This would let volunteers contribute local language translations for elements of the UI.
  • PWA functionality. This means you can install the website on your phone—like an app—and use some of the features offline.

References

  1. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/journal-to-self-love/
  2. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philip_Ullrich/publication/11212874_Journaling_about_stressful_events_Effects_of_cognitive_processing_and_emotional_expression/links/0fcfd5090027dd0d0a000000.pdf
  3. https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/
  4. https://www.self.com/story/how-to-start-a-journaling-practice
  5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0260691718303113
© 2025 Nicholas S. Heal.