Remembering and sharing · Chapter 16

The family question

Every day nexdiary asks everybody who takes part the same small question, such as “What made you laugh today?” or “What colour was your day?”. The questions are light and for every age. You see the others' answers only once you have answered yourself. So everybody writes what comes to them, and in the evening there is something to talk about.

Taking part

The family question is off out of the box, and each person decides for themselves. Whoever does not take part sees no question, no answers and no names.

1. Open your account

   Through the round account button to “My account”, then the tab “Writing”.

2. The card “Family question”

   It says “One question a day for the whole family, for every age.” Switch on “Take part in the family question”.

There is a shorter way too. As soon as somebody else on your server takes part, a quiet note appears once on “Today”: “There is a family question here: every day one question for everybody who takes part.” “Take part” puts you in, “Do not show again” puts the note away for good.

Answering

1. The card on “Today”

   Below the question of the day sits the card “Family question”, with the question and the pictures of the people taking part. Underneath it says who has answered already, such as “Paul has answered already. You see the answers as soon as you answer yourself.”

2. Write

   Type your answer into the field “Your answer”, up to 500 characters. Below it is a fair warning: “Your answer cannot be changed afterwards.”

3. “Answer”

   Now the others' answers open up, one below the other like messages. Whoever is still missing is named underneath, such as “Mia has not answered yet.” Whoever answers later joins the same card.

Today

Your answer is final. You can neither change nor take it back, because you have read the others' since. It is also in your notes of the day, together with the question (“Your answer is in your notes as well.”). That note is yours like any other: you may change or delete it, and in the evening it can flow into your page. The answer in the family question stays as you gave it.

Answering is for the day itself only. A missed question cannot be caught up on.

Reading it again later

When you open an earlier day in your journal, it shows “Family question of this day” with all the answers. That holds only if you answered on that day yourself. Whoever did not answer back then does not even see that there were answers. The operator has no way to the answers, not through the settings either.

When a new question comes

The family question has one date for everybody: the calendar day in your server's time zone. That is the variable TZ in the Compose file, Europe/Berlin in the example. So the new question comes at midnight server time, even for someone who is travelling in another time zone. nexdiary brings 64 questions and takes the next one each day, in a fixed, mixed order.

Leaving

If you switch “Take part in the family question” off again, you take your answers with you: nobody sees them any more. What of them is in your notes stays with you. If you join again on the same day, it counts from tomorrow, and nexdiary says “You take part again from tomorrow.” That way nobody answers the same question twice.