Hey Neil.
I think it is exactly the right place to discuss the hangout. Also, I
can relate to what you say, putting people in silos might put them off
of developing further and you are
right that people should always be aware of the possibilities they have
and how they get there (you will never use excel to plot diagrams and
approx. function, when all you are told about excel is that you can use
it for static tables of numbers) (similiarly: I did not advance in vim,
because they told me that I can write text with it)
(Note: here comes what I think about the discussion)
However, I also think that the discussion missed parts of the problem. I
don't think TW has the problem that users find it hard or overwhelming
to get into TW, because people aren't stupid, they are smart, and
everyone can be a total pro at TW in a couple of days (and by that i
also mean filters/widgets and all the nice stuff), if they know what
their goal is.
I think the problem is that TiddlyWiki has no use cases. People simply
don't know what to use TW for, because it isn't good at anything else
other than itself.
And part of the reason might be: It is to complex to be used for simple
note-taking (and therefore not optimized), yet it is too restricted to
be used for more (like Evernote).
Let me expand on that. For me, I feel like TiddlyWiki is a bubble. It is
essentially isolated from the rest of the world and the people who enter
the bubble see how nice and powerful TW is and imagine all the wonderful
ways it can be used. But it is hard to actually use TW in practice.
To give an example of what I mean:
- TW is used for presenting structured information to others, but
wordpress and other cms software/apps are much more successful at that.
- TW is used for documenting things, however, you have to put in a lot
of work to get a system that works good. (Thats why sysadmins use it)
- TW is used to archive information, but only good at doing so with
textual information.
- Traditional wikis are used to collaboratively work on information, yet
TW isn't good at that.
So it seems its not "TiddlyWiki - use me for wiki stuff" but rather
"TiddlyWiki - Find out what to use it for, then find out how to make it
do that".
Here is a little experiment I did: Search for "Why is Evernote great?"
on Google and read through the lifehacker articles and whatnot, but
replace the word 'Evernote' with 'TiddlyWiki' in your head. You will
notice that not one of them talks about TiddlyWiki and that not because
they originally talk about Evernote, but its because not one of them
says: "I like Evernote because it is good at note-taking,
linking/tagging information and writing/editing".
They all say: "I like Evernote because it is well connected with the world".
/Andreas
P.S.: In fact there are quite a few articles with sentences like: "I
prefer a simpler, more streamlined note taking app over Evernote."
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