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Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

obsidian.md

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Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#301

Post by groby_b »

kazinator wrote: post #209
groby_b wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closer: "I am incapable of reasoning, except in broad generalities". Having an open and simple file format that is easily imported/exported is all many of us want from software. We are actually perfectly OK with paying people for work. Separating data freedom from access to source code is a perfectly meaningful thing to do, even if you personally don't like it.

I assure you that I'm personally good with the separation, which makes sense. I made a remark about a remark, and nothing more. Speaking of personal, I don't mind attacks; do go on. Well, not that I want to encourage it here, where it is not allowed, but you can PM them to me, if you have more.

So did I. Not sure why you think I care about you.

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#303

Post by cratermoon »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #131
throwaway984393 wrote: post #129

Quoted post unavailable.

I’m slightly relieved reading this. I see markdown everywhere, I can’t stand it, and I wonder why people are so crazy about it. It’s nice to know I’m not alone. Unfortunately I don’t think markdown is going anywhere. I think I see it far more than ever and there’s no sign of it slowing down.

> I can’t stand it, and I wonder why people are so crazy about it.

I wonder why people can't stand it. It's raw material that can be easily be transformed into a plethora of formats, both open and propriety. See e.g. https://pandoc.org/

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#304

Post by Havoc »

rodneyzeng wrote: post #254
drodil wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just get the git plugin and create private repo somewhere. Problem solved

you can do this in obsidian mobile app?

Think parent is talking about desktop. On iOS working copy works to sync against git but it’s a little manual

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#305

Post by cratermoon »

bitwize wrote: post #168
throwaway984393 wrote: post #129

Quoted post unavailable.

Indeed. Programmers need to learn that Microsoft Word exists, and there are reasons why their nontechnical peers use it over Notepad.

I'm a programmer, I know Word exists. If someone wants me to produce a Word document, I can take all my content that's in markdown and generate a .docx file. I can also generate dozens of other formats, all from the same raw material https://pandoc.org/demos.html

I haven't yet seen a tool that can take a Word document and transform it as neatly and automatically into many other formats, although it's gotten much better since things like Open Document Format compelled Microsoft to ditch the all-binary .doc format and move to the mixed XML/binary format used now.

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#306

Post by throwaway984393 »

vegai_ wrote: post #151
throwaway984393 wrote: post #129

Quoted post unavailable.

>In fact, the whole programmer's fetish with writing everything with a plain terminal text editor needs to die. Markdown, YAML, JSON, INI files. It's the year 2021 for christ's sake, and we're composing documents with tools designed for green CRTs! Alternative take for this same sentiment: It's the year 2021, why has nobody figured out better ways to present knowledge than simple text files?

There are better ways [1] [2], there's just no paying customers. You can express knowledge using a Semantic Web Stack[3], encode data in N-Triple/JSON-LD/RDF/XML and query it with SPARQL or Turtle. Wikidata[4] is an example of this.

But (afaik) nobody's selling a product that builds and queries a large semantic knowledge base for consumers. Some industries have Semantic Web-based solutions (i'm not aware of commercial ones but I assume they exist), but nobody has yet explained to the consumer why or how they should build ontologies or keep data in triples. The terminology itself is probably a barrier to market, and all the interfaces are (imo) clunky.

If I were to build a consumer product, I would hide all the technical jibberish and make a slick UI that walks the user through linking semantic data, leaning heavily on Wikidata to fill in gaps. Gameify it so that people can compete for points to link more data, add a subscription fee, add social components: poof! Billion dollar personal-knowledge-base app to replace Evernote. Value add/tagline: "Know yourself better." (inb4 selling the free version's users' anonymized data to advertisers...)

[1] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Lexeme:L302468 [2] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q90889591 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web_Stack [4] https://medium.com/@swaapniil/a-guide-to-using-sparql-querie...

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#308

Post by jiggunjer »

taigi100 wrote: post #249

I often see people in this community being fans of note taking apps. Yet, I never really found why it's useful, maybe someone can enlighten me on that :D 1. For tech articles / knowledge databases -> tech seems to change so fast that research done 3-4 months ago is mostly useless (except for a few more high level areas) 2. For recording / knowledge database purposes -> i never seem to go back to them tho, googling (o…

Apart from the transfer aspect I identify two other reasons for taking notes:

The act of note taking itself may help structure and focus thoughts, regardless of intent to review or transfer the note.

It may also be cathartic. It gives peace of mind to know I own the detailed information on X, just in case. Or perhaps making a pretty list about something random lets me take my mind of work for a few minutes.

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#309

Post by da5is »

rodneyzeng wrote: post #253
DavideNL wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can sync the folder (=vault) with any tool you prefer… including git.

yes but this is not feasible on obsidian mobile app, right?

I did it just fine for the cost of the license of Working Copy syncing to a iCloud folder. But the Obsidian license still made me end up going over to LogSeq, which works better for my mental model.

Re: Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown files

#310

Post by bigdang »

wbharding wrote: post #297

While Roam has become something of a dumpster fire with its unprompted Reddit megaban, losing its whole dev team, etc, they do deserve partial credit for awakening the world to the possibility that there is much out there worth exploring beyond Evernote and Notion. There are now so many promising tools (most based on backlinking, as Roam popularized) that we have a site https://noteapps.info dedicated to chronicling…

They lost their whole dev team? Can you share a link?
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