![](https://i.postimg.cc/vTHT0KYt/mickey.png)
@ Tekkadan, L̷̖̪̪͕̟̬̫̤̜͖͔̼̓́͊͑͘͠͝Ơ̸̡̢̧̗̦̠̳̦̥̥̓̇̈͆͑̑̾̂̉̓̉̕͘͝͝͠R̷̯̤̝͍̜̺̻͈̅̉̂̊̇̊̈́̌̈́̏͠͝͝D̷̝͌̊̂́̾̈́̐̾̒͘͘͠ of Capitulation 🌊
2025-01-20 22:30:01
For starters, anyone who is interested in curating and managing "notes, lists, bookmarks, kind-1 events, or other stuff" should watch this video:
https://youtu.be/XRpHIa-2XCE
Now, assuming you have watched it, I will proceed assuming you are aware of many of the applications that exist for a very similar purpose. I'll break them down further, following a similar trajectory in order of how I came across them, and a bit about my own path on this journey.
We'll start way back in the early 2000s, before Bitcoin existed. We had https://zim-wiki.org/
It is tried and true, and to this day stands to present an option for people looking for a very simple solution to a potentially complex problem. Zim-Wiki works. But it is limited.
Let's step into the realm of proprietary. Obsidian, Joplin, and LogSeq. The first two are entirely cloud-operative applications, with more of a focus on the true benefit of being a paid service. I will assume anyone reading this is capable of exploring the marketing of these applications, or trying their freemium product, to get a feeling for what they are capable of.
I bring up Obsidian because it is very crucial to understand the market placement of publication. We know social media handles the 'hosting' problem of publishing notes "and other stuff" by harvesting data and making deals with advertisers. But- what Obsidian has evolved to offer is a full service known as 'publish'. This means users can stay in the proprietary pipeline, "from thought to web." all for $8/mo.
See: https://obsidian.md/publish
THIS IS NOSTR'S PRIMARY COMPETITION. WE ARE HERE TO DISRUPT THIS MARKET, WITH NOTES AND OTHER STUFF. WITH RELAYS. WITH THE PROTOCOL.
Now, on to Joplin. I have never used this, because I opted to study the FOSS market and stayed free of any reliance on a paid solution. Many people like Joplin, and I gather the reason is because it has allowed itself to be flexible and good options that integrate with Joplin seems to provide good solutions for users who need that functionality. I see Nostr users recommending Joplin, so I felt it was worthwhile to mention as a case-study option. I myself need to investigate it more, but have found comfort in other solutions.
LogSeq - This is my "other solutions." It seems to be trapped in its proprietary web of funding and constraint. I use it because it turns my desktop into a power-house of note archival. But by using it- I AM TRAPPED TOO. This means LogSeq is by no means a working solution for Nostr users who want a long-term archival option.
But the trap is not a cage. It's merely a box. My notes can be exported to other applications with graphing and node-based information structure. Specifically, I can export these notes to:
- Text
- OPML
- HTML
- and, PNG, for whatever that is worth.
Let's try out the PNG option, just for fun. Here's an exported PNG of my "Games on Nostr" list, which has long been abandoned. I once decided to poll some CornyChat users to see what games they enjoyed- and I documented them in a LogSeq page for my own future reference. You can see it here:
https://i.postimg.cc/qMBPDTwr/image.png
This is a very simple example of how a single "page" or "list" in LogSeq can be multipurpose. It is a small list, with multiple "features" or variables at play. First, I have listed out a variety of complex games that might make sense with "multiplayer" identification that relies on our npubs or nip-05 addresses to aggregate user data. We can ALL imagine playing games like Tetris, Snake, or Catan together with our Nostr identities. But of course we are a long way from breaking into the video game market.
On a mostly irrelevant sidenote- you might notice in my example list, that I seem to be excited about a game called Dot.Hack. I discovered this small game on Itch.io and reached out to the developer on Twitter, in an attempt to purple-pill him, but moreso to inquire about his game. Unfortunately there was no response, even without mention of Nostr. Nonetheless, we pioneer on. You can try the game here: https://propuke.itch.io/planethack
So instead let's focus on the structure of "one working list." The middle section of this list is where I polled users, and simply listed out their suggestions. Of course we discussed these before I documented, so it is note a direct result of a poll, but actually a working interaction of poll results! This is crucial because it separates my list from the aggregated data, and implies its relevance/importance.
The final section of this ONE list- is the beginnings of where I conceptually connect nostr with video game functionality. You can look at this as the beginning of a new graph, which would be "Video Game Operability With Nostr".
These three sections make up one concept within my brain. It exists in other users' brains too- but of course they are not as committed to the concept as myself- the one managing the communal discussion.
With LogSeq- I can grow and expand these lists. These lists can become graphs. Those graphs can become entire catalogues of information than can be shared across the web.
I can replicate this system with bookmarks, ideas, application design, shopping lists, LLM prompting, video/music playlists, friend lists, RELAY lists, the LIST goes ON forever!
So where does that lead us? I think it leads us to kind-1 events. We don't have much in the way of "kind-1 event managers" because most developers would agree that "storing kind-1 events locally" is.. at the very least, not so important. But it could be! If only a superapp existed that could interface seamlessly with nostr, yada yada.. we've heard it all before. We aren't getting a superapp before we have microapps. Basically this means frameworking the protocol before worrying about the all-in-one solution.
So this article will step away from the deep desire for a Nostr-enabled, Rust-built, FOSS, non-commercialized FREEDOM APP, that will exist one day, we hope.
Instead, we will focus on simple attempts of the past. I encourage others to chime in with their experience.
Zim-Wiki is foundational. The user constructs pages, and can then develop them into books.
LogSeq has the right idea- but is constrained in too many ways to prove to be a working solution at this time. However, it is very much worth experimenting with, and investigating, and modelling ourselves after.
https://workflowy.com/ is next on our list. This is great for users who think LogSeq is too complex. They "just want simple notes." Get a taste with WorkFlowy. You will understand why LogSeq is powerful if you see value in WF.
I am writing this article in favor of a redesign of LogSeq to be compatible with Nostr. I have been drafting the idea since before Nostr existed- and with Nostr I truly believe it will be possible. So, I will stop to thank everyone who has made Nostr what it is today. I wouldn't be publishing this without you!
One app I need to investigate more is Zettlr. I will mention it here for others to either discuss or investigate, as it is also mentioned some in the video I opened with. https://www.zettlr.com/
On my path to finding Nostr, before its inception, was a service called Deta.Space. This was an interesting project, not entirely unique or original, but completely fresh and very beginner-friendly. DETA WAS AN AWESOME CLOUD OS. And we could still design a form of Nostr ecosystem that is managed in this way. But, what we have now is excellent, and going forward I only see "additional" or supplemental.
Along the timeline, Deta sunsetted their Space service and launched https://deta.surf/
You might notice they advertise that "This is the future of bookmarks."
I have to wonder if perhaps I got through to them that bookmarking was what their ecosystem could empower. While I have not tried Surf, it looks interested, but does not seem to address what I found most valuable about Deta.Space: https://webcrate.app/
WebCrate was an early bookmarking client for Deta.Space which was likely their most popular application. What was amazing about WebCrate was that it delivered "simple bookmarking." At one point I decided to migrate my bookmarks from other apps, like Pocket and WorkFlowy, into WebCrate.
This ended up being an awful decision, because WebCrate is no longer being developed. However, to much credit of Deta.Space, my WebCrate instance is still running and completely functional. I have since migrated what I deem important into a local LogSeq graph, so my bookmarks are safe. But, the development of WebCrate is note.
WebCrate did not provide a working directory of crates. All creates were contained within a single-level directory. Essentially there were no layers. Just collections of links. This isn't enough for any user to effectively manage their catalogue of notes. With some pressure, I did encourage the German developer to flesh out a form of tagging, which did alleviate the problem to some extent. But as we see with Surf, they have pioneered in another direction.
That brings us back to Nostr. Where can we look for the best solution? There simply isn't one yet. But, we can look at some other options for inspiration.
HedgeDoc: https://hedgedoc.org/
I am eager for someone to fork HedgeDoc and employ Nostr sign-in. This is a small step toward managing information together within the Nostr ecosystem. I will attempt this myself eventually, if no one else does, but I am prioritizing my development in this way:
1. A nostr client that allows the cataloguing and management of relays locally.
2. A LogSeq alternative with Nostr interoperability.
3. HedgeDoc + Nostr is #3 on my list, despite being the easiest option.
Check out HedgeDoc 2.0 if you have any interest in a cooperative Markdown experience on Nostr: https://docs.hedgedoc.dev/
Now, this article should catch up all of my dearest followers, and idols, to where I stand with "bookmarking, note-taking, list-making, kind-1 event management, frameworking, and so on..."
Where it leads us to, is what's possible. Let's take a look at what's possible, once we forego ALL OF THE PROPRIETARY WEB'S BEST OPTIONS:
https://denizaydemir.org/
https://denizaydemir.org/graph/how-logseq-should-build-a-world-knowledge-graph/
https://subconscious.network/
Nostr is even inspired by much of the history that has gone into information management systems. nostr:npub1jlrs53pkdfjnts29kveljul2sm0actt6n8dxrrzqcersttvcuv3qdjynqn I know looks up to Gordon Brander, just as I do. You can read his articles here: https://substack.com/@gordonbrander and they are very much worth reading! Also, I could note that the original version of Highlighter by nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft was also inspired partially by WorkFlowy.
About a year ago, I was mesmerized coming across SubText and thinking I had finally found the answer Nostr might even be looking for. But, for now I will just suggest that others read the Readme.md on the SubText Gtihub, as well as articles by Brander.
Good luck everyone. I am here to work with ANYONE who is interested in these type of solution on Nostr.
My first order of business in this space is to spearhead a community of npubs who share this goal. Everyone who is interested in note-taking or list-making or bookmarking is welcome to join. I have created an INVITE-ONLY relay for this very purpose, and anyone is welcome to reach out if they wish to be added to the whitelist. It should be freely readable in the near future, if it is not already, but for now will remain a closed-to-post community to preemptively mitigate attack or spam. Please reach out to me if you wish to join the relay. https://logstr.mycelium.social/
With this article, I hope people will investigate and explore the options available. We have lots of ground to cover, but all of the right resources and manpower to do so. Godspeed, Nostr.
#Nostr #Notes #OtherStuff #LogSec #Joplin #Obsidian