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Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

standardnotes.org

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Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#121

Post by mkl »

thecodrr wrote: post #96
mkl wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they download the encryption key (unprotected so no password needed) as a file, and they keep the file safe? That's the kind of thing I've been thinking about for an idea of mine. What did those 10 users ask about? How to use the encryption key file?

No, what the recovery key actually was because it asked for it in the recovery UI.

I see. Were they able to restore access once you explained? Or had they not saved it somewhere safe? I'm trying to understand the communication requirements around such a feature.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#123

Post by thecodrr »

TylerE wrote: post #106
mkl wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they download the encryption key (unprotected so no password needed) as a file, and they keep the file safe? That's the kind of thing I've been thinking about for an idea of mine. What did those 10 users ask about? How to use the encryption key file?

The problem with that sort of thing is that you now have one of two situations 1. Either the key is only as secure as what ever random online service you have it backed up on (in which case, it might as well be stored at SN and save the user all kinds of headaches) 2. The key isn't backed up, and this won't be realized until the worst possible time.

1. That is up to the user. They can save it wherever they like: a secure online storage, a USB, a piece of paper...

2. True but there are a couple of things you can do: i) regularly remind the user via email and in-app notification to backup their recovery key. ii) force the user to download/copy the recovery key on login/signup.

By force, I really do mean force. Don't let the user use the app until they click the download recovery key button.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#124

Post by Shacklz »

thecodrr wrote: post #80

Standard Notes is a phenomenal note taking app and one of the first to bring encryption in note taking. They take security very seriously and have multiple third party audits. With that said, the bad outweigh the good. I don't mean to be a pessimist here (SN is inspirational) but: 1. Their free plan is extremely lacking. You can't even try out many of their editors. 2. Their pro plan mostly only offers editors. I am…

> 7. Their pricing seems absurd.

I actually really like their pricing model. You can buy years in advance, and they occasionally offer steep discounts (I think I bought two decades in advance around new year?). In a time where more and more services offer me no other way than some crappy monthly subscription that I cannot pay in advance and without auto-renewal, this is really much appreciated.

That being said, a lot of your points seem valid - I've started using SN quite some time ago and haven't really noticed any new features since (except for some editor-improvements). Organization is indeed something that probably could use some love, the tags do suffice for me personally (especially with that one extension that lets you create folders with tags), but barely. While I appreciate their stability with regards to UX (it looks/feels the same since forever), the features you mentioned (collapsing, rightclick-menu) would not hurt.

Their 'lack of new features' however is, as far as I understood, somewhat intentional - back when I bought it I've read somewhere on the page that they explicitly have the philosophy to also say 'No' to new features if they think it threatens their guarantee of long-term stability/support. Which I think is a very admirable stance these days where short-term-KPIs seem to dominate entire industries.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#125

Post by thecodrr »

mkl wrote: post #121
thecodrr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what the recovery key actually was because it asked for it in the recovery UI.

I see. Were they able to restore access once you explained? Or had they not saved it somewhere safe? I'm trying to understand the communication requirements around such a feature.

For most of them it seemed unnecessary; people don't realize the meaning of client-side encryption. I try to keep explanations very short and to the point.

> had they not saved it somewhere safe?

I had to delete 2 user accounts because they hadn't saved the key at all. All others had saved and were able to recover access. However, most didn't even realize they had saved it until I asked them to check their phone storage. A normal user would do anything to get past dialogs and popups, including clicking on random buttons.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#126

Post by mastazi »

is there an issue with my browser, or there are zero screenshots on that page? Anyone has a screenshot? I'm a bit of a visual person and I need to see stuff, just reading features lists won't do it for me...

Edit: under the "extensions" page, if you scroll down a bit, you will eventually find some screenshots.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#127

Post by ttiurani »

yarcob wrote: post #119

I'm always curious who is behind a company. How many people work there, how it is funded, where they are based, type of corporation, etc. These things make a big difference. Eg I typically trust a non profit that's been around for a couple of years more than a venture funded startup that just launched. This company doesn't even state where they are based or what the name of the company is on the website. They have a…

Company information can in fact be found on the website, but I hate it that they use a .org website when they're clearly just yet another startup.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#128

Post by Sebguer »

yarcob wrote: post #119

I'm always curious who is behind a company. How many people work there, how it is funded, where they are based, type of corporation, etc. These things make a big difference. Eg I typically trust a non profit that's been around for a couple of years more than a venture funded startup that just launched. This company doesn't even state where they are based or what the name of the company is on the website. They have a…

Their twitter is from 2016.

Their linked blog has posts going back to 2017.

Their FAQ covers their core dependencies: https://standardnotes.org/help/52/what-services-does-standar...

What your options are if they go out of business: https://standardnotes.org/help/4/what-happens-to-my-data-if-...

Where they are based, where their servers are, and why they've made the choices they have: https://standardnotes.org/help/39/what-country-is-standard-n...

They also list an office address, a slack you can join, and several email addresses for outreach at the bottom of their FAQ: https://standardnotes.org/help

I don't think it's their transparency that's the problem.

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#129

Post by Sebguer »

ttiurani wrote: post #127
yarcob wrote: post #119

I'm always curious who is behind a company. How many people work there, how it is funded, where they are based, type of corporation, etc. These things make a big difference. Eg I typically trust a non profit that's been around for a couple of years more than a venture funded startup that just launched. This company doesn't even state where they are based or what the name of the company is on the website. They have a…

Company information can in fact be found on the website, but I hate it that they use a .org website when they're clearly just yet another startup.

What does this mean?

Their app is open source: https://github.com/standardnotes/web

The first release was in 2017? I don't see any sign of them having taken any funding?

Re: Standard Notes is a safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work

#130

Post by TylerE »

mkl wrote: post #116
TylerE wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that sort of thing is that you now have one of two situations 1. Either the key is only as secure as what ever random online service you have it backed up on (in which case, it might as well be stored at SN and save the user all kinds of headaches) 2. The key isn't backed up, and this won't be realized until the worst possible time.

Well, putting a couple of USB drives in a sock drawer, garden shed, etc. is pretty secure. Point 2 is the tricky one, as communicating that necessity seems challenging.

Unless your house burns down, or you get flooded out, etc.
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