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Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

obsidian.md

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Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#371

I installed Obsidian and did some initial testing, but two things completely threw me off: 1) Basic synchronization is a paid feature and you cannot (or at least could not) set up a private synchronization server. 2) Synchronization depends on the cloud. I simply cannot trust all important information of my life going to an unspecified location in the cloud for synchronization, even if it promises end-to-end encrypti…

Obsidian is just a folder of plain text files on your computer so you can use pretty much any sync service (iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc) — you can even use Git if you want to completely control sync and version control.

Also for web clipper check out this bookmarklet I made: https://stephanango.com/obsidian-web-clipper

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#372
post #364
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait I can synchronize with nextcloud just fine. It's just a folder on my drive after all. That said, it's janky on mobile.

That's an understatement. The mobile app is... frankly, kind of a garbage can of usability issues imo, but I love the desktop app, it's pretty great. But until they fix the mobile app I just can't use it. I'd like to see the mobile app bridge the gap between typical mobile note taking apps and the desktop Obsidian app. Make it easy to create a new note like you would in any other note app, save it where it makes sens…

Did you try the 1.0 version of mobile app? It's much improved compared to past versions. What are the issues you are running into?

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#373
Am I mistaken or are all the note taking systems optimized for isolated usage? Some allow some form of communication by publishing notes but the last time I checked, there was no public pool of notes that were open for discovery.

I would love to have a system where my notes are automatically linked with notes from other users who have the same ideas or goals.

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#374
post #90

Congratulations, and also: holy fucking shit!! no app has changed my day-to-day life to this degree in many, many years. I use Obsidian every morning on my roof deck for my journal (automated with the plugin, of course) and then at my desk all day long for my daily WTF blah blah info-capturing tool. Sure I wish it had more features (persist collapsed/expanded state, even in a best-effort, might-not-last-forever kind…

What plugin do you use for automatic journaling?

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#377
post #167

A few tips for those new to Obsidian: - Don't rush to install a bunch of plugins. Start with the defaults, learn Obisidian and add only what you need. It is easy for some to spend more time tweaking Obsidian than actually using it. - If you're a macOS user, check out the Minimal theme, which will make Obsidian feel more native. -> https://minimal.guide/Home - When you are ready for plugins, you may want Omnisearch[1]…

Great recommendations! I definitely agree with running the app without too many plugins at first, especially if you're new to using wikilinks. I wrote Minimal theme. BTW, I led the redesign of Obsidian 1.0 so I brought a lot of those ideas into the core app. We've also made a big push around using more native components. I'm still improving Minimal, but hopefully the "out of the box" experience feels a lot more nativ…

Awesome work my friend!

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#378

Between Obsidian, Roam, Amplenote, and Reflect it has certainly been a golden age for note taking over the last few years. It's hard to remember that it was only 5 years ago that second generation note apps like Evernote, Notion and Bear were the only viable options unless you wanted a 1st gen app like OneNote or Workflowy. What might be most interesting about the new set of fast moving note apps is that all seem to…

My issue is that it feels like none of these tools do anything significantly new, and are all so obsessed with wonky features like node-graph views and backlinks that are only useful to a niche audience of obsessive note-takers who in many cases seem to care more about playing with their notes than actually using or sharing them.

That's why I'm working on creating https://visible.page because I want a tool that isn't just for markdown organizational obsessives, but rather for organizing and visualizing ALL kinds of information the way regular people do. None of these tools handle things like dates, locations, numbers, and other data of various types well. With Visible if you add a date or a location to some content, that content is now accessible on a calendar and a map side by side with all the associated text and media you added to it as well. No worrying about what table column it goes into or what metadata row or plugin you need to render it well. Just add the location, and add a map view, boom done. Want more than one date associated with some content? Just add it, you don't have to figure out to add another "Date type" metadata section the way you do in Notion for example.

It is not offline first. It is not file based. It is not catered to the needs you see so often here on Hacker News but don't actually hear when talking to regular people who just want to plan a trip together or keep track of an apartment/house hunt without spreading information across a half-dozen tools.

Does no one else get frustrated that even Google can't show you a map of your week's upcoming event locations? That when you are doing research online you have to tediously copy and paste each address one-by-one into Google Maps and then copy an embed link for that into another tool, and even then the addresses are isolated with no relevant information like photos or notes attachable to them?

We have so many amazing internet powers that are simply unavailable in any of these note taking tools. I'm sorry but markdown and backlinks are boring. I want to see my information the way it was meant to be seen and in a way that my parents can understand it as well.

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#379
The app experience is totally ruined now. It's insanity for me to see 1Password 7 to 8 transition level of nonsense again.

Block-quotes are no longer quotes, just text with a strip of light on the left with no option to make it more obvious.

File name is now H1 header at the top of the file with no option to hide it.

Performance sucks so much, and that is on an eight-core x64 mobile CPU running Windows 10 Pro. Everything is sluggish 15fps mess. Shame.

Markdown links are ruined too. The previous UI was light years ahead, using different colors for the text and the link. Now the color is the same.

Most extensions don't care and don't render properly. Fckn great, man.

The tabs are by far the only good thing in the update. Everything else is a downgrade.

Re: Obsidian 1.0 – Personal knowledge base app

#380
post #210
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still waiting on one of these upstarts to implement the most essential features of the "first gen" apps, like inking/handwriting.

Try the "Excalidraw" Plugin for Obsidian.

I think the Excalidraw plugin solves a different problem. It’s great for creating diagrams, especially with a keyboard+mouse. What I’m looking for, though, is something like Apple Notes on iPad, where you can seamlessly write in your notes with your Apple Pencil. The Excalidraw plugin adds a lot of friction and complexity if all you want to do is write.
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