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Getting started

Forestorers is a private journal for foreskin restoration. It runs entirely in your browser, works offline, and needs no account. Nothing is uploaded to a server. This guide walks you through your first week: making an entry, timing a session, tracking photos, reading your progress, and, if you want it, connecting with a buddy. Use as much of it as you want.

There's no sign-up and no password to forget. Your journal lives on your device. That also means you're responsible for keeping a backup, which we cover at the end.

What this tool is, in one minute

Step 1: Your first journal entry

Open the app and go to Journal, then add a new entry. An entry is a snapshot of where you are on a given date. The two things worth setting on day one are the date and your Coverage Index.

The Coverage Index (CI) is a simple 0 to 10 scale for how much of the glans your skin covers, from fully exposed to fully covered with overhang. It's the number that moves as you restore, so it's the one to watch. If you're not sure which number fits you, the Coverage Index guide shows each level with a description.

Everything else on the entry is optional and can be filled in whenever it's useful to you:

Save it, and you have your baseline. Don't worry about filling everything in. You just want a starting point.

Step 2: Time a session from the dashboard

The Dashboard has a timer for tugging and one for retaining. Tap start when you begin a session and stop when you finish, and the app keeps a running record of your time under tension. Retaining, keeping the skin forward between tugging sessions, is tracked separately because it also counts toward progress. If you want the reasoning behind time under tension, the science page explains why hours matter more than force.

You don't have to use the timers to benefit from the journal. Some people prefer to log a rough daily total on the entry instead. Both work.

Step 3: Track photos privately

You won't notice changes day to day, but photos months apart show it. You can attach photos to a journal entry, or build up a Gallery of them over time. Photos never leave your device unless you deliberately share one with a connected buddy.

The app helps keep them consistent:

Step 4: Watch your progress

Once you have a few entries, check out these two pages:

Day to day you won't see much. Over a few months the chart will.

Step 5 (optional): Community features

Everything above works alone. If you want company, you can connect with a buddy for encouragement and to compare notes. You don't need this part.

Two settings matter for sharing photos with a buddy: turn on photo viewing for that buddy in their permissions, and, if you've set up at-rest encryption, your buddy needs it on too before your photos will send to them. This protects your photos from sitting unencrypted on someone else's device.

Step 6: Keep your data safe

Your journal lives on your device and not on a server. If your browser data gets wiped, so does your journal. Make backups:

You can also delete everything from the device in one action whenever you want.

Install it as an app

You can install Forestorers as an app straight from your browser, on any device. There's no app store and no separate program to download: it runs in its own window, works offline, and gets its own icon. On iPhone and iPad it also stops Safari from clearing your journal after about a week of not visiting, so installing there is strongly recommended.

This installed app opens instantly, works offline, and syncs with your buddies and other devices whenever it's open.

Reading the status lights

A few small indicators in the bar at the top of the app tell you what it's doing at a glance.

The dots at the top

The little pill of three dots in the top bar is your status and notification centre; tap it to open your notifications. Left to right the dots are your devices, your notifications, and your buddy network. The colours mean:

The small number badges are counts. An orange number on the buddies button is unread chat messages; a blue number is how many buddies or devices are online. The Chats tab carries the same unread count.

Where to go next

This page is educational, not medical advice. Restoration is a slow personal project and results vary. For pain, injury, or any medical concern, see a qualified healthcare professional.