Journal FAQ

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written by Robin Luckey
sep 10 2008
 
What is a Journal?
How do I Link/Tag a Journal Entry?
What does Following do?
Why am I being warned to change my login?
What does Jabber integration do?
What does Jabber integration require?
How do I setup Jabber Integration?
What is a Journal?

The Ohloh journal is a simple way to track your development activity. Every Ohloh account owns and manages their own journal. What goes into your journal is up to you: snippets, notes, or status updates.

A journal entry can link and tag to other people or projects. The syntax is as follows:

@jason will link and tag the account 'jason'
#ohcount will link and tag the 'ohcount' project.

When a journal entry is tagged with a person, that person will see the entry in their news feed - even if they are not 'following you'. When a journal entry is tagged with a project, it will appear in that project's journal entries feed and anyone following that project will see that entry.

What does "Following" do?

You can customize what journal entries you are interested in following from your News page. By following both people and projects, you'll start seeing their ongoing activities.

Why am I being warned to change by login?

When a journal entry includes your account login, a link is created to your account. In order for this feature to work, your account login must not include any spaces, punctuation, or other special characters.

You can use the journal feature with any account, but journal messages cannot include a link to your account unless your login name meets the requirements.

What does Jabber integration do?

We realize that some people don't like using a browser to keep their journal up-to-date, or to keep up with their news. Ohloh offers these capabilities through your instant messaging client via Jabber. Once you've set it up, anything you send to Ohloh in your Instant Messaging client will become a Journal entry. Type 'help' to see all the Jabber commands.

What does Jabber integration require?

You need 2 things:

Jabber Identity: There are many free Jabber services available. Here at Ohloh, we use Google's GTalk.

Jabber Compatible Client: Your Instant Messaging client needs to support the Jabber protocol. Here's a list of compatible clients.

How do I setup Jabber Integration?

First, you must associate your Jabber ID with your Ohloh account. Next, from your Instant Messaging client, add "ohloh@jabber.ohloh.net" as a new contact.