How do I control who can read my entries?

When you're composing an entry, you can select various privacy options from the "Show this entry to: " dropdown menu on the Post an Entry page.

You can choose whether to make the entry Public, Private or Access List only (if you're posting to your journal) or Public or Members Only (if you're posting to a community).

A public entry is viewable to everyone, whether or not they have a Dreamwidth account. Access List only entries are viewable only to the accounts (including OpenID accounts) you've given access to. You'll need to add a user's Dreamwidth or OpenID account to your Access List before the user can read your protected entries.

You can give yourself more control over who can read your entries by setting up access filters. If you have access filters set up, you'll have the option to post to your access filters by selecting "Custom" in the "Show this entry to:" dropdown menu. Selecting "Custom" from this menu will make checkboxes for your filters appear under the "Show this entry to:" menu. You can then select one or more filters.

If you've granted access to any OpenID accounts, you might want to periodically review the list of OpenID accounts who have access to your locked entries and make sure those accounts still belong to the people you intend to give access to. Some OpenID providers will recycle usernames or allow someone else to register the username if the original account owner deletes the account. Since OpenID identifies you by URL, it's possible this can result in someone else controlling the OpenID-equipped URL you gave access to.