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Discussion of Roam-like Knowledge Managers
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Posted by satis
Apr 14, 2020 at 06:04 PM
I came across a post related this topic, on top note-taking apps.
https://collegeinfogeek.com/best-note-taking-apps/
I read in a thread, from Obsidian’s Erica, I believe, that Obsidian was influenced by Notable.
She also started an interesting discussion on Reddit about Obsidian in which she honestly compared it to other apps, including the ‘more polish[ed]’ Roam Research:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/fuegtl/obsidian_take_great_notes_in_markdown_and_let/
Posted by Marcos D.
Apr 14, 2020 at 06:13 PM
It seems that Roam pricing is now defined as USD15/month, USD7.50/month academics. Too expensive for me.
https://twitter.com/RoamResearch/status/1250107036970315779?s=20
Posted by Marcos D.
Apr 14, 2020 at 06:15 PM
Looks like IA Writer for me.
Luhmann wrote:
My big disappointment with Obsidian is that, despite being by one of the
>Dynalist developers, it is not an outlining app. It is based on
>plaintext markdown files. I hope that this can be somewhat mitigated by
>implementing some of the features of the app FoldingText which tried to
>make markdown files behave more like an outliner, but it seems like a
>low priority for the developers. I think that being an outliner at heart
>is one of the great features of Roam, which gives it a lot of
>granularity in terms of being able to link (and embed) not just to
>documents but specific nodes in documents. Obsidian seems to plan to
>replicate some of this functionality using Markdown headers, but only
>time will tell if this is as functional as Roam.
>
>On the other hand, the fact that Obsidian is based on Markdown files
>means that your documents can exist in an external folder, sync via
>Dropbox (or similar), and be edited and accessed by other apps.
Posted by Dr Andus
Apr 14, 2020 at 08:46 PM
We might add that ConnectedText is the most “Roam-like knowledge manager,” or more precisely, Roam is the most ConnectedText-like knowledge manager.” ;-)
Take e.g. Manfred Kuehn’s approach to task management with CT’s date topics. This could be almost perfectly reconstructed in Roam:
https://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-keep-journal-in-connectedtext.html
For now that’s the only way I’m willing to use Roam, i.e. as a task manager, and not as a Zettelkasten solution, as I can’t see myself doing daily manual backups (considering that Roam does not yet have an automatic backup solution like WorkFlowy or Dynalist have - that’s my biggest gripe for now).
I also wouldn’t mind more reassurance about security, some sort of encryption of the data, but without slowing the app down too much, if such a thing is possible.
Other then that, I love using Roam for that single purpose of todo management.
Posted by washere
Apr 15, 2020 at 07:29 AM
Some markdown apps DO have tree type outline levels display, via Headings levels.
Some have it via CSS theme code like Typora:
https://support.typora.io/Auto-Numbering/
Others have it built in, iA Writer (cheap lifetime license, I don’t but anything subscription based, increasingly like many subs-cutters) recent Contents Block Display in second column:
https://ia.net/writer/support/general/content-blocks
I’ll post a shot of iA with many levels in an example markdown-it file from my laptop (on the phone now) later, showing many tree levels in the tree column, like a traditional outliner.
Another, totally free, with features like iA (dark mode etc) and even more, is QOwnNotes which is updated almost weekly. It’s Navigation Panel also shows headings level like a traditional outliner tree levels.
http://www.webupd8.org/2016/09/qownnotes-is-note-taking-and-todo-list.html
You can sync both to a free secure private account on Dropbox. Which is better and more private than any snooping developers hard disk rack in his basement, and even safer than free google drive or MS One Drive accounts when their analytics.
Dropbox is more privacy focused. Still ggl/MS are safer, one’s lost alongside billions of other free could accounts and they are policed by themselves. Than at the hands of some guy with a few thousand subscribers who can snoop at will and sell rights to whoever when going belly up.
iA let’s you add Dropbox as a folder area to the first column as a working space, just like your local disk work folder. QOwnNotes sync options are there too, Dropbox or even your own cloud (ownCloud or NextCloud). Of course there is also Joplin which syncs too.
Finally, there are many Wiki systems which are either file based or database based plus: are also markdown based. Most are free.