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Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

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Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#241

Post by WorldMaker »

unqueued wrote: post #218
jhvkjhk wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obsidian looks great! And I think it will be greater if I can write `[](another_markdown)` as internal links too, it will be easier to generate HTML files to host, using Hugo or something. If people save all markdown files in one folder then it's the same word count as [[another_markdown]].

I would just like to point out John Gruber disavowed the []() syntax on Twitter. He even said he would like to accept reverse brackets, since it's such a common problem. I have been using personal wikis for about a decade, and 99% of the time I make an internal link, I want the caption to be the same as the page name. I wish that the Markdown standard would just specify to render [[Page]] as [Page](Page).

To be fair, John Gruber has disavowed a lot of modern Markdown features and syntaces, so it's not exactly an authority statement anymore for today's Markdown. It's why CommonMark exists.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#242

Post by Xophmeister »

ericax wrote: post #233
hkh28 wrote: post #225

As several people have pointed out, both the "Personal" and "Catalyst" licenses are intended for personal use only, making this quite an expensive product should I want to use it for work as well. But in the full license text, there seems to be an even more problematic phrasing: > The use of OBSIDIAN for the exercise of your own trade or profession (...) does not qualify as personal use. I would interpret this to mea…

Hi there! Sorry it's our first time doing a license like this. If I understand correctly, licenses are usually written more strictly for legal purposes, but in my opinion your use case sounds like it should belong to personal use. If anyone has pointers for us to make the license text more clear, please let me know!

Licenses are written by people versed in the appropriate laws. That’s why they come across as “more strict”, for precision’s sake. However, one should be very careful about trying to emulate legal precision just by virtue of stricter language.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#243

Post by slightwinder »

jtbayly wrote: post #186
ericax wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're working on WYSIWYG but it's not an easy problem. Eventually we want editing to feel comfortable to everyone! :)

That's good news for me, but apparently a lot of people don't feel the need for it. I'm still confused why. In general, are people switching modes or doing side-by-side or what?

Writting and browsing are often different mental modes. You are not always working with your notes, but mostly reading them. Thus have a plain edit-mode used 10% the time, and a rich viewing-mode for the remaining 90% of the usage-time is good enough for many people.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#244

Post by fao_ »

Waterluvian wrote: post #238
fao_ wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you're in a software job, sure. But in total for a year, it's almost 1 month worth of rent in the city that's close to me.

Rent is $50 a month?

whups! corrected

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#245

Post by heavyset_go »

loughnane wrote: post #36

I will never again build any kind of workflow for my knowledge on top of anything that isn’t open source. 5y is a long time and 10y is an eternity for these sorts of products but its just a fraction of my working life. My own personal setup is a bunch of markdown files and it’s great, so I like that approach, but I’m very cautious about investing time for something so important in a product i don’t control.

> I will never again build any kind of workflow for my knowledge on top of anything that isn’t open source.

100% this. The peace of mind I get knowing that all of my data is under my control is worth it, after scrambling to archive content from failed or pivoting services, removing my data from businesses that try to exploit it or trying to migrate my data from one old app to a different newer app.

There are many different open-source and self-hosted wikis, note taking apps and mind-mapping tools. Some of them are listed here[1], just Ctrl-F for "wiki", "notes" and "knowledge"

[1] https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#246

Post by deltron3030 »

wazanator wrote: post #165
deltron3030 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about CMS usecases like blogging? Where you'd write locally and maybe define some notes or a folder for static site generation, maybe triggering rebuilds from within Obsidian?

Why not just use Jekyll or Hugo at that point?

Idea was to use that feature with Jekyll or Hugo.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#247

Post by deltron3030 »

ericax wrote: post #88
deltron3030 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about CMS usecases like blogging? Where you'd write locally and maybe define some notes or a folder for static site generation, maybe triggering rebuilds from within Obsidian?

We designed the "Publish" add-on service for that purpose (not yet available): https://obsidian.md/pricing We still want to give you the option to export internal links to standard [Markdown](link) links so that static site generators or sites like GitBooks can understand them out of the box.

Good to know, thx.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#248

Post by KingMachiavelli »

Seems like a more polished version of the Zettelkasten-based system "Neuron". [1]

I suppose there are benefits having a dedicated editor and viewer but I kind of like the simplicity of Neuron. Although I will admit that install it can be a pain since it depends on having the Nix package manager setup.

[1] https://neuron.zettel.page/

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#249

Post by euler_angles »

ericax wrote: post #119
Veen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite an odd choice. It makes sense to tier based on features, but tiers based on how or when people use an app is bizarre. Am I supposed to monitor myself so I don't read a note in Obsidian while I'm doing commercial writing work? (Also, their license page could do with some proofreading)

The idea is that if you're creating value with Obsidian, your employer should expense that, ideally it shouldn't impact you financially. If you're working for a non-profit for example, it's all free. > (Also, their license page could do with some proofreading) Interested to hear more! We did a few rounds of proofreading, did you find any typos?

I can't even get my employer to expense texts that are necessary references for my job. They're not going to pay for my subscription for your app. I don't think your fee is unreasonable. But there are probably a lot of people with employers similar to mine.
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