A question for the house...well, maybe more than one

[ksmith]

What sort of reader/program do you use to read LJ?

Can you use it to read/post to Friends' journals as well as your own?

Is it buggy--what's your worst disaster story concerning your reader?

Is it Mac-specific, or does it bat both ways?

Any other comments appreciated. FYI, I currently use iJournal on my iBook and xJournal on my iMac. I learned the hard way last night that if you are not logged on when you write a post on iJournal, that post will vanish when you do log on. iJournal does have a way to save posts, but it's in the menu and frankly, I didn't realize that the mere fact of logging on could wipe out work. Maybe that's the way it is--if so, tell me.

Thanks.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I use Firefox, just a straight web browser, also available for Mac AFAIK. Obviously, it allows posting and will remember login information.

No particular disasters, but I have a hard time making some of the posting options work, like cut tags and including LJ usernames. It also loses work if I move from plain posting to advanced options (HTML) for that purpose.

That may be operator failure.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I use Semagic on a PC for posting to my journal, and Mozilla for reading and replying to my friendslist. Semagic is set up to log in automatically (separately from Mozilla). It seems to work well and reliably. Also, since I leave Semagic open all the time, if I need to drop HTML into a reply, I just compose that line in the Semagic pane and let it do the hard work of the actual HTML and cut and paste it into the reply. Saving drafts and posts is pretty straightforward.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

I just use Firefox instead of a standalone client. I'd rather not use more pieces of software when I have one that I know how to use very well indeed :). To handle things like cut tags, user tags and other LJ specific tags, you can check the FAQ (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=75) and see how to type it up as HTML. The simple post form allows you to enter regular HTML tags if you know how to use them, so it's pretty much foolproof for an antique webuser like me.

[jacardie.livejournal.com]

I mostly use Safari, but I used to use iJournal to post to my own journal.

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I just type my entry in MS WORD, copy it, then go out to LJ via my Internet Explorer, log in to LJ and paste it. I've never had a problem. I receive comments via e-mail and USUALLY can answer them right then and there, too, though that failed once. I use only the free service.

[nlbarber]

I've got both iJournal and Xjournal on my Macs. I had moved to mostly using iJournal, but then tags came out and iJournal doesn't support them yet. So it was back to Xjournal.

I confess that I haven't figured out the details of local storage of posts, other than knowing that I can save a local copy of post (or a draft) and get back to it for further editing in either program. Both programs have annoyances--I'd like to be able to edit in the HTML preview window, for instance--but I really don't see a great deal of difference between the two. Seems like I did try a third program early on, but I discarded it quickly for some reason that now escapes me.