Thanks so much for the feedback! Below are my responses.
- Is it a project management tool? If so, how do I share everything with my team? Project management tools are defined by their collaboration and workflow features.
Dlog is not meant to be shared with a team; I will look at enterprise versions later on; but for now, a Blog is public, a Dlog is private. So, the project management definition here has been relaxed to mean a journal with a reminder list(or lists) organised by goals; the timeline view allows you to track these.
- Is it a journaling tool? If so I absolutely don't want my team in the tool, and so can't use it for project management. How does it encourage me to do better journaling and build the habit?
It absolutely is a journaling tool, and so your team can never view these; I am working on a feature for you to tag whether a journal is for work; this will impact the coach responses; and could be used later on for the enterprise version (targeting this for next year at some point). In terms of encouraging you to do better journaling, when you start a New Dlog there at the top left is a toggle called “Journal Coach”, there you can get prompts on the 4-rings (i.e. the Dlog Model at the heart of the app that trains your Dlog Coach is based around the 4 main constructs, Personality, Character, Resources and Well-Being); or ask it for feedback on whatever you are journaling about.
- Is it a wellbeing tool? How well does that work if I don't put my project management in there? If I can't use it for half the stuff it's intended that I will, then it might be of limited use.
Dlog is based on the 4 constructs of Personality, Character, Resources and Well-Being. The Coach will give advice from day 1 after you have taken the baseline survey. It doesn’t matter if you do not use the project tool and just use it for journaling. Projects work in tandem with goals as well. I am keen to hear what features you’d like in the project management side or any other area you would like to see improvements in. I do recommend that you watch the youtube video (if you haven’t already) I made for Show HN in the original post. That should (I hope) explain how this works, but it is unvarnished and 15 minutes long, so I need to get a clearer explainer about the main story here.
- Is it a coaching tool? Why would I want to use an AI coach over a mentor or human coach?
The AI coach is deeply informed by the in-built SEM model; the model I developed during my PhD; based on sentiment analysis scoring of your journals (including projects, but again, it’s not required). There are many buttons available in the coach, check out the video for an example of the output, for example, it can say how to “Strengthen Relationships” (that’s the example given in the video), by looking at which important people in your life over time have impacted your well-being positively or negatively over time, and provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of this; giving advice in terms of how to improve these relationships and protect your mood and affect. Any responses you ask it the Coach will always try to improve your resources and well-being, focusing on the 4 rings and the Dlog model.
- Is the AI required? I have no idea how many tokens I'd need to use something like this? Do I need a million a day or a million a year? (When coding I tend to use ~10-50m input tokens per session, will this cost $500 per day to use?)
Unless you’ve written over 10 million words its highly unlikely that you’ll use a million tokens in one day. 1 million tokens costs 5.99. But if you dm me your email address that you’ve used to sign up with Dlog I’ll give you 1 million and a free perpetual license so you can use Dlog for free forever (excluding the tokens). I’m doing this for all Show HN readers who write me directly.
- If the AI features are optional, what is the product without it?
Without the AI, Dlog is still a useful journaling and projects too. You can actually use another website I made called dlog.site that has no AI features, meant for PC users to use; I'm not really promoting that at the moment as I'm trying to get feedback on the primary Mac OS.
- Overall my feedback is that there's a lot here, and I think the product needs a much clearer story. The copy on the site is long and rambling and needs a lot of tightening up. Personality is good, but in moderation.
The comment you replied to said that “…there's a lot here, and I think the product needs a much clearer story. The copy on the site is long and rambling and needs a lot of tightening up.”
In response, you wrote more text than I am willing to read — even though I was interested in your answer.
Fair point—my last reply was too long. Here’s the concise version:
• What it is: Personal journaling + goals; not a team PM tool (no sharing yet).
• Habit & wellbeing: Baseline + weekly model → small, specific nudges. Projects are optional.
• Coach: Optional AI that summarizes your patterns; complements (doesn’t replace) a human mentor.
• Privacy & cost: Journals stay on-device; by default no raw text leaves the Mac. AI is per-prompt/opt-in; typical use is modest. (HN readers can DM/email for a perpetual license + tokens to test.)
• Action: I’m tightening the site copy and adding a clear “why” explainer.
Noted. Actually mods wrote me about this, apologies, I won’t use AI in comments here. Dlog is a private journaling app with optional goals and project lists. it’s not a team PM tool. The coach is optional and journals stay on the Mac by default. Concrete product feedback is welcome. I’m tightening the site copy and will keep replies brief, but in some cases provide links for longer. To keep both people who prefer brevity and depth happy. Take care. Johan.
- Is it a project management tool? If so, how do I share everything with my team? Project management tools are defined by their collaboration and workflow features.
Dlog is not meant to be shared with a team; I will look at enterprise versions later on; but for now, a Blog is public, a Dlog is private. So, the project management definition here has been relaxed to mean a journal with a reminder list(or lists) organised by goals; the timeline view allows you to track these.
- Is it a journaling tool? If so I absolutely don't want my team in the tool, and so can't use it for project management. How does it encourage me to do better journaling and build the habit?
It absolutely is a journaling tool, and so your team can never view these; I am working on a feature for you to tag whether a journal is for work; this will impact the coach responses; and could be used later on for the enterprise version (targeting this for next year at some point). In terms of encouraging you to do better journaling, when you start a New Dlog there at the top left is a toggle called “Journal Coach”, there you can get prompts on the 4-rings (i.e. the Dlog Model at the heart of the app that trains your Dlog Coach is based around the 4 main constructs, Personality, Character, Resources and Well-Being); or ask it for feedback on whatever you are journaling about.
- Is it a wellbeing tool? How well does that work if I don't put my project management in there? If I can't use it for half the stuff it's intended that I will, then it might be of limited use.
Dlog is based on the 4 constructs of Personality, Character, Resources and Well-Being. The Coach will give advice from day 1 after you have taken the baseline survey. It doesn’t matter if you do not use the project tool and just use it for journaling. Projects work in tandem with goals as well. I am keen to hear what features you’d like in the project management side or any other area you would like to see improvements in. I do recommend that you watch the youtube video (if you haven’t already) I made for Show HN in the original post. That should (I hope) explain how this works, but it is unvarnished and 15 minutes long, so I need to get a clearer explainer about the main story here.
- Is it a coaching tool? Why would I want to use an AI coach over a mentor or human coach?
The AI coach is deeply informed by the in-built SEM model; the model I developed during my PhD; based on sentiment analysis scoring of your journals (including projects, but again, it’s not required). There are many buttons available in the coach, check out the video for an example of the output, for example, it can say how to “Strengthen Relationships” (that’s the example given in the video), by looking at which important people in your life over time have impacted your well-being positively or negatively over time, and provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of this; giving advice in terms of how to improve these relationships and protect your mood and affect. Any responses you ask it the Coach will always try to improve your resources and well-being, focusing on the 4 rings and the Dlog model.
- Is the AI required? I have no idea how many tokens I'd need to use something like this? Do I need a million a day or a million a year? (When coding I tend to use ~10-50m input tokens per session, will this cost $500 per day to use?)
Unless you’ve written over 10 million words its highly unlikely that you’ll use a million tokens in one day. 1 million tokens costs 5.99. But if you dm me your email address that you’ve used to sign up with Dlog I’ll give you 1 million and a free perpetual license so you can use Dlog for free forever (excluding the tokens). I’m doing this for all Show HN readers who write me directly.
- If the AI features are optional, what is the product without it? Without the AI, Dlog is still a useful journaling and projects too. You can actually use another website I made called dlog.site that has no AI features, meant for PC users to use; I'm not really promoting that at the moment as I'm trying to get feedback on the primary Mac OS.
- Overall my feedback is that there's a lot here, and I think the product needs a much clearer story. The copy on the site is long and rambling and needs a lot of tightening up. Personality is good, but in moderation.
Agreed. Working on it!
Again, many thanks for the very useful feedback.
Dr J.