I used Roam quite a bit in its earlier days, but have gotten away from in in favor of Obsidian and Logseq. But Roam's display of linked items is so appealing (especially compared with Obsidian , which is been my main tool) that I have been looking at it again quite wistfully. I'd be very interested in others' views on the current state of Roam, and whether it has been keeping up with the development and enhancement of its primary alternatives -- that has not been my impression. Thanks.

You can see the changelog here:

https://roamresearch.com/#/app/help/page/Ec97klr7x

Development has indeed been slow, and certainly slower than that of Logseq and RemNote, but it still has its strengths.

Apparently Roam is still in development, but they've seemingly lost interest in actively promoting from a product perspective. Their last post on Twitter relating to anything other than sale pricing was back in September.

Also, third-party plugin development seems moribund. There are only two things on the Roam Depot with more than 9000 downloads, one of which hasn't been updated in almost a year.

The Roam subreddit sometimes goes two weeks without any new user posts.

Chris Thompson wrote:

The Roam subreddit sometimes goes two weeks without any new user posts.

Most of the activity occurs on Slack, where there are typically several messages a day, with developers also participating. A major recent development has been the significant improvement of the mobile app, currently in beta and available only to users on their 5-year "Believer" plan.

https://join.slack.com/t/roamresearch/shared_invite/zt-2f5c6z9z6-gbZaw74VhSG6MwSwOHl0bg

-Alex

Thanks! I didn't even know there was a Slack (and I'm a paying customer, although I've stopped actively using it). I'm somewhat skeptical they'll be around in five years.

--Chris

avernet wrote:

Chris Thompson wrote:
>The Roam subreddit sometimes goes two weeks without any new user posts.


Most of the activity occurs on Slack, where there are typically several
messages a day, with developers also participating. A major recent
development has been the significant improvement of the mobile app,
currently in beta and available only to users on their 5-year "Believer"
plan.

https://join.slack.com/t/roamresearch/shared_invite/zt-2f5c6z9z6-gbZaw74VhSG6MwSwOHl0bg

-Alex

Obsidian just introduced a $48/yr Standard plan at half the price of its old (now "Plus") plan that has some limitations (only one synced vault, 5Mb max file size, 1Gb total storage, one month history instead of one year) but that ought to be sufficient for 90% of users.

https://obsidian.md/blog/standard-plan/

Given that most people use it (and Logseq) for free anyway, and similarly-priced apps like Reflect include AI assistance, it's quite a competitive environment for a product with a 'Believer' pricing tier and a thin-skinned CEO who curses at and blocks people on Reddit and Twitter who make public complaints about his app.

https://bit.ly/496axjV

satis wrote:

Obsidian just introduced a $48/yr Standard plan at half the price of its
old (now "Plus") plan that has some limitations (only one synced vault,
5Mb max file size, 1Gb total storage, one month history instead of one
year) but that ought to be sufficient for 90% of users.

This only applies to the Sync service not to the Obsidian commercial licence, which is $50.

You must purchase a Commercial license only if you use Obsidian for work in a company with two or more employees. This does not seem to apply to the overwhelming major of people I've seen who use the app, and those for whom it would apply would likely have their company pay that license. For most people's purposes this fee does not affect them

Not much value in being a Believer these days.

avernet wrote:

A major recent development has been the significant improvement of the mobile app,
currently in beta and available only to users on their 5-year "Believer"
plan.

The mobile beta is now open to everyone. And boy it's fast! There are some short recordings in the thread linked below, but you can also try it for yourselves.

https://twitter.com/RoamResearch/status/1771368456937676986

-Alex