...dude, that's not metagaming. that's having characters find information freely accessible to anyone as long as they go back through the journals. metagaming would be using information only available OOCly.

without past entries being available people wouldn't be able to access the guide without past entries being available until it was reposted which happens maybe three times a year tops. it'd be a lot harder for characters to get involved in the main plot since it'd limit them to just the info they get from new posts, when there's a lot you can only get from older posts. heck, if they're dropped off away from the village when they intro, they'd have squat to guide them until someone posts something new or they do an accidental entry because their journals would be completely empty!

i'm not seeing how this in any way counts as a bad idea. it makes it easier to get settled in and get involved in the game, and it's not metagaming if anyone can read the old entries.