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Comment by wanderingmind | Hacker News Reader

For those that want to crosslink anything and everything I suggest Logseq[1]. Its journal and graph view are fantastic. And it has many useful plugins. I use it along with git-sync [2] and syncthing [3] now I can sync the notes across my work, personal desktops and my mobile.

[1] http://logseq.com/

[2] https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync

[3] https://syncthing.net/

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I looked at logseq as an alternative to joplin but there were too many little flags that suggested to me that privacy and being free might not be forever. I don't have a problem with paying for software, but I don't like getting embedded in it when I don't know what the cost will be. Privacy wise, statements like "The aim of Logseq is to establish a better environment for both learning and collaboration, enabling us to form a network that connects our ideas and enhances the collective knowledge of humanity." worry me. I don't want my ideas connected with humanity and I certainly don't want my notes used to train someones LLM. Maybe this is an unfair reading, as they do claim to be privacy focused, but I am worried that they will discover far to many interesting and fun things to do with user data and I just don't really like where that sounds like its headed. If Joplin could do better sharing (with eg a colleague or spouse) on mobile and better separation of work/private notes (like different storage locations) it would be just about perfect for me for a note taking app, but then my needs are pretty simple.

> I looked at logseq as an alternative to joplin but there were too many little flags that suggested to me that privacy and being free might not be forever.

Exactly my thoughts when I looked at it a few weeks ago (minus the privacy angle that I didn't feel).

I also bounced off the slew of influencer-type blog posts and videos that promise you that Logseq will change your {life, studies, PhD, work} forever when all I saw in those videos were very, very simple outlines. The whole community (including the subreddit) seems very... promotional.

> better separation of work/private notes (like different storage locations)

FYI, as of last year, Joplin supports profiles on both Desktop and Android that are exactly that. Though you do have to restart the app to toggle between the two.

Release notes: https://joplinapp.org/news/20220606-release-2-8/

Open issue for multiple instances ala Firefox: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/591

Thanks! I'll start using this for sure. Shame that it may not be integrated any time soon, but this separation looks basically good enough.

Thank you for the info. Since, I use my own local data and don't store anything on their cloud, I didn't read their cloud storage plan. I hope how they will not be able to train LLMs or connect with other data sources if the data is not stored on their cloud. One lesson I learned os that if you use any cloud storage, they can always update the ToS and EULA at anytime to break through privacy

Just try it out before interpreting their vision (which I totally ignored up until now). It is simply a nice system based on your local markdown files, allowing to easily cross-link notes. It is opinionated but I like that. It follows the bullet journaling approach and has a rudimentary integrated todo system.

I have personally tried many alternatives (obsidian among them) but nothing comes close to what logseq offers _to me_, despite its few shortcomings (it's not a lightning fast implementation, it bugs sometimes).

Hope it helps.

Same. I've tried a dozen different notes options and logseq is the one that has stuck the longest. After screen sharing it at work a little there are now 10 more people using it daily for notes and talking about how it's what they've always been looking for.

Why would you want to try it before interpreting their vision? That's how you trap your data in an app before it turns to garbage.

It uses plaintext markdown files, so I don't think it's too big of an issue.

Just don't sync to the cloud. Use syncthing and any privacy concerns are solved. That's what I do. Works great syncing between my 3 devices

The code is open source... Go read it... If you can't, ask a friend who can or trust the community to have did it for you. The privacy is the statement number one of why people choose logseq, there is a reason...

I don't have a problem with how its written now, their statements on privacy seem to conflict with other statements they make about the future of the product. They seem very ambitious in way that a simple note taking app will not satisfy.

I jumped from Joplin to Logseq too.

Before it was Boostnote.

Probably the reason was both Boostnote and Joplin seems to have stopped developing the application and shifted focus to monetization.

Also I personally prefer the (much) more technical way that Logseq work. It is not a markdown editor, but a knowledge base that stores its data as plaintext files in a markdown-like format.

One question: do you have pointers to a good way to setup git sync and syncthing? I pay enough to LogSeq to have free sync but I prefer to self host and also the current sync model is somewhat flaky.

I have a private git repo in Github which is the folder that Logseq uses. I have a cron job to runs script for git-sync on all machines on reboot. I also have syncthing running on my personal desktop that shares this git repo with my android phone. It runs smooth as long as you don't do simultaneous edits from multiple machines.This will break the git-sync and you will have to do merge conflicts of that happens.

I don't know about Boostnote but Joplin is still actively developed. Just check the changelogs, and all that is open source:

https://joplinapp.org/changelog/

https://joplinapp.org/changelog_android/

Ok, I only open the app sometimes to see if there is an update available and I can't remember last time I saw one.

Until you deploy the web or electron apps and realize it beacons out to the internet.

Do you have any idea on how can I import Joplin md's into Logseq?

A huge fan of Logseq here. I can’t imagine my workflow without it anymore. However, I still can’t have it on mobile because of sync. iCloud is awful, Syncthing doesn’t support mobile.

Does syncthing not support iphone? Because on android it works flawlessly.

my understanding is that syncthing doesn't work properly on iOS, because Apple doesn't allow background processes. So you have to manually sync all the time. I'd imagine you'd get into some merge conflicts if you forget to manually sync and start editing notes.

That's why ios apps generally either use their own sync, or use iCloud. As someone that has a mix of devices (iOS, Linux desktop, macbook for work), this leave me with very few cross-platform options.

It works well enough. I've never had a problem.

This background process issue may prevent optimal operation, but I've never seen a file not being synced quickly in practice.

Just get Möbius Sync (https://www.mobiussync.com/) and don't overthink it.

Ok. You've convinced me. I'll give it a try :)

I don’t think that works on iOS. If I recall correctly the mobius app can’t get access to logseq’s directories.

Have look at Möbius Sync. It is a third party app that wraps and makes SyncThing available on iOS & iPadOS. https://www.mobiussync.com/

> Syncthing doesn’t support mobile.

Just checking ... yes, I have Syncthing running on Android.

I have it synced to mobile using syncthing no issues. Has been working great with very few hiccups for months

This app works great on Android: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.nutomic.syncthingandroi...

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