SSL Comes To DearDiary.Net – And Other Changes

SSL has been a requirement for Google optimization when it comes to searches for probably nearly a year now. Sites that don’t support SSL (secure) connections won’t get the little padlock in the corner and a penalised in search results. Also, it’s not good because your login details are sent in the clear across the internet. This is a particular problem if you’re using the site from an internet cafe since anyone can potentially intercept your communications.

But now DearDiary.Net supports – and indeed enforces, SSL connections. So you should see the little padlock in the address bar of your browser. It should also help boost your position in the search engines if you’ve written anything that other people might look for. And it provides better security for you while using the site.

The migration engine is now in place and functional. So far only 1 person has migrated their diary though at the time of writing… The old site will be unreliable going forward and all development will take place on this site.

Patreon integration has gone well. There’s some residual issues behind the scenes that I need to fix up but it’s working as intended from a front end perspective. It also ties directly into the ‘Plus’ system previously used, so an active Patreon patronage will enable the additional plugins and themes available only to Supporters.

Some changes have been made to the main site – notably a new theme has been installed which is much cleaner and significantly more mobile friendly. The login bar at the top of the screen has been made more mobile friendly too. I’ve also added a ‘Sign Up’ button to the login bar at the top, so new members who aren’t yet registered with us can join easily from any diary. Some themes may not support the login bar globally – please let me know if your theme doesn’t support the login bar.

I’ve also added a global footer to every page. This is to provide people with a reminder, which the old site had since it’s inception 20 years ago, that all content on individual user’s diaries is copyrighted and the responsibility of the individual diarist. DearDiary.Net does not hold copyright on your content – although part of the agreement of using the site does require you to allow us to show it if it’s on a public diary. This footer re-iterates that just to remind readers that they can’t just use your content without permission.

The default DearDiary theme has changed for new users to be the WPAstra theme. This theme is very flexible straight out of the box, and works well on mobiles as well as desktop. It’s very quick to load and supports the various additional Gutenberg blocks that have also been added for everyone.

There’s lots of new stuff to play with in the Control Panel and with adding new entries. I’ll do a tutorial post shortly to show new people who to use the system. It’s not hard but there’s lots of options you can play with that perhaps you didn’t know about!

Welcome to the new DearDiary.Net – let’s return it to the former glory that it used to be – before the advent of Facebook and social media – DearDiary.Net is one of the original social platforms before it became cool!

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