Suggestion Box

Further down the ability to add journal entries between existing entries in order to maintain continuity was suggested. I have a similar suggestion, but perhaps it would be easier to implement.

Firstly, I would like to ask for the option to choose a date when posting a journal entry. Either by typing one in, or selecting a date from a dropdown menu. Perhaps the day and month could be dropdowns but the year could be typed in for those of us who would like to post older journal entries from, say, the 1990s, 1980s, or even earlier.

When posted, the journal entry would show up with that older date on it, the date given by the author...but the site itself would maintain a record of when the entry was actually posted. (Doesn't it do this already? I thought it did, but I'm not sure.) I assume the ability to date your own entries hasn't been implemented yet because it could cause user conflict, for example if somebody claimed something was posted on a certain date, then the author of the incriminating material changed the date on it, etc. If a record of the actual posting date is maintained by the site then such arguments can be minimized. A time stamp, or something. Even if the time stamp involved a little notice of the REAL posting date and time at the very bottom of the entry itself, that would be fine, just as long as the user themselves could choose the date that would display at the top of the entry and on the main entries page.

Choosing the date should not affect the journal showing up in the journal listings--those would still go by ACTUAL posting date--and it should not affect the order of the entries posted. For example say I post an entry dated today, 6/17/03. Then I post a later entry dated from a few years ago, 6/17/00. The 2000 entry would still show up AFTER the 2003 entry.

This is what else I want to suggest. A new sorting option to allow readers to sort entries by the date the AUTHOR put on the entries, rather than by actual posting date (which is currently Newest and Oldest). Or perhaps give the author of the journal themselves the ability to set the default sorting of the entries in this manner so people stopping by can see the journal in the order the author meant it to be read. This would allow entries with an earlier given date but a later posting date to appear before those with a later given date but an earlier posting date.

If that's too confusing, liken it to our current ability to sort items in our ports by assigning them numbers--even if one item was created after another, we can have it appear at the bottom of the listing, and older items can appear at the top rather than at the bottom...we can sort them in whatever order we want by assigning them numbers.

I ask for a similar yet simplified function for journal entries--just let us input our own dates (if we so wish--don't make it mandatory--have it post the actual date if we don't type one in)--and let us sort our entries by the input dates instead of just by the actual posting dates.

For authors of novel journals who need to fill in additional, between-chapter entries, inputting certain dates on the entries and then sorting them accordingly should help solve this problem, too.