I wonder if anyone here has taken a look at this app?

https://standardnotes.org/

It is described as "a standard notes app with an un-standard focus on longevity, portability, and privacy."

I notice that the author has also written an amusing rant about Evernote:

https://medium.com/@mobitar/evernote-is-what-happens-when-you-mix-vc-with-a-notes-app-8a6a9ce5a9c5#.dozzj8bx7

Have you tried this app? I don't think I would open a server account just to to check it out.

"Standard Note" sounds a bit like newspeak. It's not what I'd think of as a "standard" format -- like plain text. There are links on the site that supposedly lead to other apps using the "standard", but the links are dead.

No, I hoped that someone else had! I thought about downloading it but had the same misgivings at the last minute.

Though the developer writes eloquently, and I agree with him in theory, I am just curious how all this works out in practice.

Thanks for finding this one! Since you posted I've tried on web and PC. I like it quite a bit. I am a huge fan of local encryption and this app has a few things the other zero-knowledge notes apps lack: tags and local apps for various platforms with syncing. I haven't tried IOS yet - eager to see if I can work offline on IOS. If so, this is a keeper.

Also, as I was using it I had a bunch of questions. I tweeted them to the developer and he responded immediately each time, which is a great sign.

FYI, ios app is not really available yet - if you are an ios developer you can run it from GitHub apparently, but it's not in the app store. They say sometime in Jan 2017.

Anyone using this yet? I am impressed by this screen https://standardnotes.org/extensions/folders

I've looked at it, but to install the nice folders extension, you need a... subscription!

Aargh!

I think Notebooks does everything this app does. Plus, you don't have to pay subscription fee with Notebooks. Regular Dropbox syn: mac, pc, ipad.

Notebooks looks great but I am Android and Linux and those don't seem to be supported, so that one's out for me. The main strength of StandardNotes appears to be its encryption, which I need. Is there something better than Standardnotes that does encryption but still has simplenote-like syncing?

Not that I'm aware of for those platforms - from that point of view, you're definitely on to a winner. The subscription would probably be worth it.

As there has been discussion here recently of the subscription approach to paying for software, note that the developer of Standard Notes recently wrote a post explaining why he advocates the subscription approach:

https://journal.standardnotes.org/subscription-is-the-only-way-to-do-software-cb5474c00dc7