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Open Diary

Open Diary
Open Diary logo
Type of site
Blog Social Network
OwnerBlather, Inc.
Created byBruce Ableson
URLwww.opendiary.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedOctober 20, 1998 (1998-10-20)
Current statusre-launched in 2018

Open Diary (often abbreviated as "OD") is an online diary community, an early example of social networking software. It was founded on October 20, 1998. Open Diary went offline on February 7, 2014,[1] but was re-launched on January 26, 2018. The site was owned and operated by Bruce Ableson and Susan Ableson, known on the Open Diary website by the title of their diaries, The DiaryMaster and The DiaryMistress.[2][3] Ableson has described Open Diary as "the first web site that brought online diary writers together into a community."[4]

Open Diary has hosted more than five million diaries since it was founded,[5] and was home to over half a million diaries. As of October 2008, there were over 561,000 diaries on OpenDiary.com,[6] including diaries from 77 different countries and all 7 continents.[7] The site innovated some key features that later became central to the architecture of other social networking and blogging sites, including reader comments and friends-only privacy.

  1. ^ Seminario, Maria (1998-12-01). "Open Diary takes off". ZDNet.
  2. ^ Bruce Ableson's Open Diary page
  3. ^ Berman, A.S. (2000-09-07). "Open Diary lets people anonymously bare their souls". USA Today. pp. 03.D.
  4. ^ Loughnane, E. (2005-03-18). Net Success Interviews. Lulu.com. ISBN 1-4116-2698-2.
  5. ^ "Journaling a tool for writers".
  6. ^ Open Diary main page counter
  7. ^ Open Diary geographic index