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I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

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Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#211

Post by mixmastamyk »

GuiA wrote: post #195
mixmastamyk wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll agree, however even rude critiques can often be useful if you can disengage your emotion chip.

Critiquing is a skill. The onus is as much on the critiquer to formulate their critique in a constructive, actionable way as it is on the critiquee to take the critique in stride. That said, good crit skills are very hard to develop, and environments where effective critique sessions can be carried out very hard to build (because it’s fundamentally about trust). And it’s skill that is just not taught in engineering;…

Sure. However, to get feedback for a new project you probably need all you can get. Getting any at all can be surprisingly difficult.

Therefore one rarely can throw out the negative comments. Perhaps copy them to a file of notes and edit them to their core essence to minimize the sting.

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#212

Post by dang »

program_whiz wrote: post #106

Basically all the comments here are just critiques. My 2 cents: excellent work, its extremely hard to stick with something for 3 years, especially with people's constant criticism and worries it isn't "big enough". The attitude of the developer seems quite wise and seasoned. Hearing things like "I'm making tools I use" and "I'd rather be small and opinionated" or "I'll take paying customers over droves of free users"…

> Basically all the comments here are just critiques.

That's not how the thread looks now at all. The contrarian dynamic strikes again? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#213

Post by jammygit »

TheGrumpyBrit wrote: post #50

It looks good, and I like your pricing model more than the Standard Notes one (I don't want to drop $149 at once on a web app, but the 75% discount for doing so makes the monthly price seem way too expensive). Two things that stop me pulling the trigger: 1. I need a web app. I want to be able to call up my notes from a computer, anywhere, without installing anything. 2. A 60 day trial seems like the wrong way to test…

To chime in, I like standard notes a lot and I found their pricing was reasonable enough

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#214

Post by innot »

rcdwealth wrote: post #172
TheGrumpyBrit wrote: post #50

It looks good, and I like your pricing model more than the Standard Notes one (I don't want to drop $149 at once on a web app, but the 75% discount for doing so makes the monthly price seem way too expensive). Two things that stop me pulling the trigger: 1. I need a web app. I want to be able to call up my notes from a computer, anywhere, without installing anything. 2. A 60 day trial seems like the wrong way to test…

So you are likely to PAY to GIVE your data AWAY... Mamma mia! Why not pay US $5 to Digital Ocean and run your own NextCloud and you have all the notes in your own server. Encrypted.

And now you pay to give that data to Digital Ocean.

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#215

Post by GuiA »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #211
GuiA wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Critiquing is a skill. The onus is as much on the critiquer to formulate their critique in a constructive, actionable way as it is on the critiquee to take the critique in stride. That said, good crit skills are very hard to develop, and environments where effective critique sessions can be carried out very hard to build (because it’s fundamentally about trust). And it’s skill that is just not taught in engineering;…

Sure. However, to get feedback for a new project you probably need all you can get. Getting any at all can be surprisingly difficult. Therefore one rarely can throw out the negative comments. Perhaps copy them to a file of notes and edit them to their core essence to minimize the sting.

Feedback from total strangers is overrated. You have no clue where their feedback comes from (are they a prospective user? Some grumpy programmer who just wants to rant about your choice of framework? A product designer used to operating in a certain environment that just doesn’t apply to you? etc). Separating the wheat from the chaff from anonymous posters is tricky business.

Thinking of it as good feedback vs bad feedback based on the feedback itself is also not the right way to go in my experience. Good feedback is anything that observes the way a particular problem was solved, and proposes an alternative way of solving it, or reframes the problem altogether (identifying a problem that was not solved can be valuable too, although the line is blurrier). Bad feedback tends to be, well, anything that is not that.

But hey in the end, whatever works for you.

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#216

Post by thinkmassive »

zrobotics wrote: post #88
craftzdog wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author here. > A much smaller (5-10MB) quota with no time limit That's interesting and I basically agree with your opinion. You will be more comfortable to try it. But I suspect that many free riders will come eat the server resources. This is not a startup. I would rather like to be small.

Another point is that 10mb is a lot of text, especially for users like me who use these types of note-taking apps as todo lists. For persistent notes I already have directory I store locally w/ cloud backup, but a webapp would be nice for my running todo list. That will hopefully never top 10mb,so a free user like me would really eat into hosting costs. Perhaps a solution to people like the OP who are concerned about…

On the other hand 10mb is not a lot of images. If I'm using a paid mobile app for note-taking, I probably want to be able to quickly snap a photo and maybe write a few bullet points or sentences.

According to https://inkdrop.app/pricing the free plan includes 1 GB storage, and the basic plan ($5/mo) includes 10 GB storage.

I agree with sibling comments that a limit based on number of notes would be preferable to losing access after a specified time. Maybe adjust the free tier storage allocation down, or limit the number of images/attachments.

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#217

Post by Legogris »

laurent123456 wrote: post #26
Legogris wrote: post #14

I would love, love, love if I could self-host this and would happily pay a fee if it meant I got the source for the backend and could do that. Product looks great, but I will hold off until I find such an option. I have been looking for years for a viable self-hosted Evernote/OneNote replacement I can sync between devices. Takuya; You can differentiate from your competitors on business model!

If I may make a suggestion: I develop Joplin [0] a similar note-taking app, and it can sync with Nextcloud or WebDAV (some have made it works with the Nginx WebDAV module for instance), allowing you to control all your data. It may or may not have all the features of Takuya's app though. [0] https://joplinapp.org

Wow, I have completely missed this one - thank you, will definitely try it out!

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#218

Post by jamesgeck0 »

dangus wrote: post #200
jamesgeck0 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Markdown generates extremely basic HTML. Browsers twenty years old render Markdown output satisfactorily. This sort of application is the ideal place to use a webview provided by the host operating system.

Anyone can be an armchair quarterback, but this solo developer has made seemingly a great product that people really like. I don't think it matters very much what underlying frameworks are being used, especially to the end user. If it's so easy to implement this natively on five platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android), please send us your link to your native cloud-syncing markdown note taking app, I'd reall…

> I don't think it matters very much what underlying frameworks are being used, especially to the end user.

Every Electron text editing app I've used has noticeable input latency and hitching compared to native on my system.

> If it's so easy...

It's practically part of the human experience to have opinions about technology you haven't personally developed. The author can build their software however they want. I just won't use it.

Re: I've been building a Markdown note-taking app for 3 years

#219

Post by brandonsturgeon »

craftzdog wrote: post #94
badfrog wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, all the time. I can't install software at work, so a web app would be the only to access my stuff during the work day. I also have a shared computer in my living room that I don't install personal apps or log into personal accounts on. Web apps let me quickly access something there when I need to and log out easily.

The author here. You are right. I basically build my apps for myself who always use the same computers. I understand there are various people with various needs - but I would like to focus on pleasing people who are similar to me. I believe this is important to provide a good service. I don't feel like making apps like Microsoft Office with tons of features to please everyone.

The platform you develop on isn't a feature. It's a platform - and without a doubt, a web app is the most ubiquitous kind of app that can serve anyone on practically any internet-connected device.

Internet-connected is the key term here, though. If your target audience are internet-less note takers, then a desktop app is the correct choice.

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