
Narrato – a personal journal you won’t give up on - ramykhuffash
http://blog.narrato.co/post/55875973167/launch
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ultimoo
"We decided to charge upfront for Narrato Journal because we wanted to make it
clear that we have a business model that doesn’t involve advertising or
selling your data. You own all of your data and you have full control over
it."

I like this. I wonder if they also include an option to export all data in a
static HTML page with photos and videos in a directory sitting beside it. I'd
love to have something like this.

I stopped sharing and posting on fb a few years ago, but still have a ton of
valuable 'content' (photos and the comments on them). I'd use Narrato to
purely 'download' and manage my data from fb in such a way that I own and
control the data.

Overall, looks very promising. Best of luck folks!

~~~
raamdev
Export options were my first thought too. The bottom of their website [1]
says, "Your data is yours and you have full conrol over it, so you can export
or delete it at any time." I'm curious what that actually means though...
_how_ can I export it, and to _what_ formats?

[1]: [https://www.narrato.co/](https://www.narrato.co/)

~~~
markbao
JSON, through the web interface. I'm a journaling geek, so I signed up to try
Narrato. After you confirm your email address, it takes you to their online
account manager, which has an export button. The export looks like a JSON
file, plus a directory all of the images that you've uploaded to the app.

~~~
OGC
That sounds like a terrible option for the average person.

~~~
hippee-lee
Can you describe a good export experience for the average person? Google
takeout service is pretty similar (I think, I have not actually in-archived my
files to inspect them).

I am genuinely curious because I use my wife as the average person when it
comes to technology and she has absoluy no interest in exporting her stuff
from Google. I do it because I have grand ideas of a personalized data store
with search tha I can just dump stuff into so my grand children's
grandchildren can search for stuff and discover their history through our
data.

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300bps
_According to “Zuckerberg’s Law, " the amount of information we share online
doubles each year._

I stopped reading here and had to talk myself down from burning my computer,
burying the ashes and salting the earth around it.

~~~
DrJ
I think Zuckerberg's Law actually meant to say is the amount of information
facebook collects from users doubles each year.

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taude
I really like the premise of this....building the journal from existing web
services I use. However, I'm not sure I'd do the aggregation and additional
typing on a mobile device. This is the type of thing I'd do on my
laptop/desktop, likely much more efficiently. Capturing the initial ideas
through Instagram or Twitter is great for my mobile device, but when it comes
down to flushing out that inspiration into some private thoughts....I'd prefer
using my laptop with a keyboard.

Also, any journaling app that stores my thoughts in the cloud is a non-starter
for me.

One thing that would be cool, though, is some form of way to generate a PDF
for printing (or something). To me it's not really a journal, until I can get
it out of the digital medium.

BTW, our household has tried many of the different mobile journaling apps, and
we've always gone back to a combination of typing in regular text editors,
printing photo books from Instagram, and the age-old technique of hard-writing
with a pen and notebook.

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emhart
Obligatory will it come to android question? I've longed for a journal that
will keep my interest and attention. Loved Oh Life...for the few months I used
it, have tried many things, would be on this in a heartbeat if it hits my
preferred platform.

~~~
michaelmior
I will admit that I've stopped using it, but I really enjoyed
[http://penzu.com/](http://penzu.com/)

~~~
emhart
Thanks for both the recommendation and admission. I'll very happily give it a
try.

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Karunamon
Very nice, but wouldn't fit my use case since my concept of a journal is long-
form text.

For that, I'd recommend something like 750 Words [1]. Journalling with stat
tracking, achievements, reminders, etc.

[1] [http://750words.com/](http://750words.com/)

~~~
taude
I used to do daily pages as a way to clear my mind to get down to organized
real work. I liked the idea of 750 words, but don't trust the cloud for this
type of uninhibited flow of words. So I use various text editors. I kind of
wish there was a version of 750 words that worked offline, though.

~~~
freshhawk
I would pay for an app that did this offline but that is my biggest sticking
point as well.

This kind of thing only really works if you are completely uninhibited and I'm
not stupid enough to make that information pseudo-public, even with promises
from seemingly trustworthy people.

So I just use my org-mode setup and have to write the little reminders/stats
bits myself, which means I don't get around to it, but do have a file with all
the ideas for them marked TODO.

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Terretta
This feels similar to 2010's Momento:
[http://www.momentoapp.com](http://www.momentoapp.com)

 _" Connect Momento with popular web services to fill your diary with your
online activity. In minutes Momento can build a record of each day, using the
information and media you have shared online. A fast, effective and effortless
way to record your life."_

M.G. Siegler called it the perfect diary app:
[http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/28/momento-
app/](http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/28/momento-app/)

Also discussed on HN, Remembary, described by its author here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069209)

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joyeuse6701
I like the identification of the problem, not sure if this is a solution to it
(for me). Since it is a journal, I imagine privacy is a concern so: Where are
your servers and how do you plan on mitigating the wrong people from trying to
read customers journals?

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jessedhillon
Btw seems like the service costs $5/year. Totally reasonable, but not
mentioned until you get the app. Would also love it if I could view local temp
in Fahrenheit. Otherwise very cool approach.

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peterhajas
I'd like something like this, but I think I'd appreciate it more if all the
data lived locally / in a place that I control. I don't think I'd share
personal details in a journal on a service not under my control.

~~~
taude
Yeah, I have the same privacy issues. I don't like certain personal data like
journaling kept in the cloud.

------
feniv
I've also been working on another journal app:
[https://thyself.io](https://thyself.io) (though it's not quiet ready for
prime-time)

Like you said, building the habit is the hardest part, but this type of
introspection really has it's benefits once you get going. I've been keeping a
diary for years as just a word file in a truecrypt volume. Most of the apps I
found in this market were trying to be more of a blogging/sharing platform
rather than a private journal.

~~~
noir_lord
Like the design of thyself.io.

Looks interesting, I've been thinking about building a journal application
just for myself for a while (none of the ones I looked at ever did what I
wanted and since I'm a programmer that isn't an excuse I can really live
with).

I think for the engagement thing I'll have mine send me an SMS (Nexmo makes
this _very_ easy), Emails I silence outside of work but SMS's I _always_ check
(as that's how I know servers have gone down).

~~~
feniv
Thanks for the feedback!

I have a super-simple REST API setup for the site (documentation isn't online
yet), so if you can roll out your own service how you like and use my
endpoints for the storage/synchronized access.

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s3r3nity
I've been using Facebook with all posts set to "Only Me" privacy as my journal
-- this will probably will kill my karma, but this app seems like essentially
a Path clone that you pay for, with a Day One business model to boot.

It's nice and pretty, but it's a crowded space that I fear there isn't enough
new in this app to make headway.

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Rickasaurus
So, before I give you access to all of my social networks, where's my
guarantee you wont aggregate and sell it to someone else? I mean the sentiment
is nice, but how will we know it holds if you're acquired?

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tejaswiy
Awesome, I will try it out. I'm using a private Facebook account + Timeline to
achieve the same, but it's a total pain to maintain multiple Facebook
accounts.

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ddrager
The "Get notified for Android" link just takes me to the iTunes download page.
Would like to sign up for when it comes to Android. :)

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alokv28
Looks great! I really like the ability to pull socially shared content into
the journal.

Another journaling app I'm a fan of is Day One.

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papaver
meh.

i prefer using old school moleskin and pencil to journal with. why does
everything have to be about content aggregation? seems silly to duplicate the
data in yet another application. nothing like making time to sit down and
write ones thoughts down and exercise the brain in remembering the sequences
of the past.

~~~
kstrauser
I can't answer for everyone, but I like using my social network streams to jog
my memory. Maybe I saw something funny from the bus and tweeted it. Come sit-
down-and-write time, I'll pull up Twitter and remember that funny thing and
write out a longer description to amuse Future Me.

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codezero
Will the yet-to-be-released iPad version be a Universal app, or a separate
purchase?

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tonymillion
It'll be universal and a free upgrade to existing users.

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stcredzero
I wonder if the name is a veiled reference? (Dattebayo!)

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codezero
Is there a Mac OS X companion app for this?

~~~
ramykhuffash
Not currently, but we are expanding to other devices. Our priorities will
depend on demand, but OSX makes a lot of sense to us :-)

~~~
codezero
Thanks for letting me know. Right now I do most of my "journaling" in either
notational velocity or byword, but having something that is less rickety would
be nice :)

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gcb0
why is a press release for a paths(?) clone so high on the FP with only
10points?

