Wiki software

Do you guys use a Wiki for personal information? What software do you use? How do you have it set up for work/studies? I've become interested in hoarding knowledge and scraps of information, but I can't help but feel like I could up my game with a little advice. is there any cool FOSS wiki softwareout there? how do you collect your information?

>>53750 Zim, funnily enough. For a while I used WikidPad but the constant WikiWord micro-management got on my nerves, and I was on my Linux-native alternative hunt at that time anyway. Tried TiddlyWiki, didn't like it, too fancy. Gnote is good too, no python either.

>>53750 Why not build your own? At this point, I come to the conclusion that the best software is the one I wrote myself, not because it's perfect(it will never be, anyway) but because it has exactly what I need.

I just use plain old text files in a format somewhat similar to how I organize my notes on pencil and paper.

>>53750 Org-roam. Let you do everything every other wiki software can do.

>>53750 If you like vim you could try vimwiki, I made it into scratchpad so it can be easily accessed anytime

I used to use Zim until 0.74 completely ruined the user interface. Now I just use text files. Wikis are bloat. GUI is bloat.

I've used both Org-mode and Zim for quite a while and found them to be a bit of an overkill for my data. So I switched to just writing markdown documents in vim and storing them in a repository. You might want to try this in a repository with web interface (f.e. gitea), that'd also help you with pictures if you're into that.

Org and Org-Roam have been mentioned in this thread already. I have little else to say.

I want a wysiwig note software. I can't stand micro-managing batshit horrid reddit markup in my text editor, it's unusable, there are no jumplinks, no transclusions, no annotations, ho side-by side comparisons, no media files, what the frag. My damn Casio calculator has better WYSIWIG than fuarrrking LaTeX, any niger can see a formula on paper and copy it on a blackboard 1:1, but eh you gotta know this intricate markup from 1970's video terminal software to write simple equation on computer screen right. FUARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHH, why all you had to do to write a hypertext document in 2000, is to open a wysiwyg editor and fuarrrking write soykaf like it's supposed to look on screen without thinking about any of bullshit, and now NUH-UH DUDE THAT NOT COOL USE VIM LIKE TRUE NECKB- I MEAN L33T KEYBOARD JOCKEYS DO.

>>53774 Just buy a tablet and look up stylus note taking software, sperg.

>>53750 Personally, I just use org-mode or a physical notebook for notes. I used to use markdown. If I rewrote my notes, I would probably use LaTeX.

>>53750 I used Zim for a very long time, but it was crashing on me too often with large sets. Along came Obsidian and I have never been more satisfied. I also take physical notes using pen and paper, which I then convert into digital. I keep Vim for quick notes and to-do apart from scripting work. Obsidian just allows me to organize thing's that I will need long term.

You can't read zim files on the CLI or on android, afaik, so that's a deal breaker for me. Otherwise it'd be good for keeping offline local copies of websites and whatnot, but for personal notes I just use text files. I'm planning on using org mode because it seems to be the one-thousand-and-thirty-seven h4x0r way to do it, and I'm sure you can export those into zim files and md files and html and pdf and whatever else. But of course that's the software I use to digitise, organise and back up my pen-and-paper notes. I don't take digital notes directly because the industrial society About latex, it's made for laying out pdfs, not for taking notes on the fly.

>>53806 >About latex, it's made for laying out pdfs, not for taking notes on the fly. https://karthinks.com/software/latex-input-for-impatient-scholars/ Still latex for note doesn't feel right. I take notes by representing the information very visually, not word salad. Pen and paper is best for this but I still would love to have the ability to store, sort and search my notes and computer does a very good job at those.

>>53806 >>53821 > LaTeX LaTeX is good for rewriting your notes, otherwise org-mode and markdown are better. But using pen and paper is the best for a number of reasons (including that it improves your learning/memory)

>>53821 Lmao wtf, do you nerds unironically do this soykaf in 2021? Wolfram Mathematica was more usable in 1990 than this pooinloo soykaf.

>>53830 If you don't want to typeset it yourself use one of the dozens of WYSIWYG editors that will write LaTeX for you.

>>53830 >do you nerds unironically do this soykaf in 2021? They and every mathematician and physicist in the world.

>>53806 >You can't read zim files on the CLI or on android, afaik, so that's a deal breaker for me. Otherwise it'd be good for keeping offline local copies of websites and whatnot, but for personal notes I just use text files >Pages are stored in a folder structure, like in an outliner, and can have attachments. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a nonexistent page. All data is stored in plain text files with wiki formatting. Various plugins provide additional functionality, like a task list manager, an equation editor, a tray icon, and support for version control. You might just give it a try anon. Other good options were brought up here, but for plain ole note taking and personal knowledge base I havent used anything that beats out zimwiki. I keep my own man pages for common software and complicated scripts and commands in the notes. Whenever I deploy something new I keep a log of every command I had to execute and a link to the respective archive.is page. Before zimwiki I just used folders and text documents, zimwiki keeps my structure but allows all the fancy markdown shortcuts and makes browsing/searching the notes a ton easier.

Org-mode plus org-roam. Org-roam allows me to quickly create and link my "wiki-pages" (they are just org-files). It really shines with Helm or any other minibuffer completion package for Emacs.

There are a lot of FOSS personal wiki/wikilike programs out there: TiddlyWiki, MediaWiki (you can selfhost it), Zettlr, Athens Research, Weewiki, Foam, Dendron, Logseq, Org-mode with Org-roam... I personally prefer the ones that are more Memex-like, with backlinks, transclusions and other shiny "look how networked I am" gadgets. I use Logseq - it's pretty similar to Roam Research, but FOSS, with awesome and proactive devs and in my opinion a bright future ahead. It still lacks a few functionalities and a thriving plugin biosphere when compared to Obsidian and Roam (non-FOSS alternatives) though. It can use Markdown or Org as its file format, so if someday I get tired of it, I can move my notes to other apps anyway. >>53774 There are a lot of FOSS WYSIWIG notetaking apps out there. Some even use LaTeX as their backend. Most of the programs I've mentioned above are also WYSIWIG, though they're more complex than a basic notepad and may not suit your needs.

>markdown When will this reddit cancer die already? It's unusable if you have anything more to write than a r*ddit post. >org-mode Looks like something straight outta Engelbart's demo. Can't believe nothing better has been made for last 50+ years. >Join our dickscord Into le garbage compactor it goes

>>53956 Org-mode was only one of the many other programs mentioned in the thread. Markdown is quite useful and usable, and it is used in many places as an easily readable and translatable formatting/"format". It obviously isn't restricted to "Reddit posts".

I take notes like this. What wiki software do I use?

>>53987 Any Roam-like with good math LaTeX support would do: Roam Research, Obsidian, Logseq, Zettlr, etc. I'd say either Roam Research if you're willing to pay, or Obsidian if not. Both have a thriving plugin biosphere; that'd be helpful for this more "messy" style of notetaking of yours.

>>53750 I can't find any wiki software that can export to a nice format, keeps dates, and can add photos.

>>54005 Org-mode can export to html, pdf, odt, txt, and a number of other formats via additional packages. It can display images and latex formulas. It's not good at linking related nodes of your knowledge graph, and can't track backlinks. But there is Org-roam, an extension to Org-mode that adds this functionality.

Emacs can be extend with anything. But I advice to go for a bare Emacs once you are ready because Doom Emacs or Spacemacs are complicated to tweak. LaTex can display on the same window you write, you can add pictures, you can make live coding in sections, org-mode has spreadsheets in their tables, you can export to pictures, PDF, etc, and pandoc can convert org files. Org-roam is not the only with knowledge graphs and backlinks, plenty of more tools you can use.

>>54615 >Emacs can be extend with anything. True. You can even read PDFs documents in Emacs (using the built-in functionality or the package pdf-tools) and link their pages to your wiki pages, or annotate them in place. >Org-roam is not the only with knowledge graphs and backlinks, plenty of more tools you can use. Please tell us more about the alterantives.

>>54623 >Please tell us more about the alternatives. https://github.com/brettkromkamp/awesome-knowledge-management#platforms-applications-and-tools (I'm not >>54615)

>>53750 I was surfing interwebz the other day and found old wiki for Wakaba imageboard script. https://wakaba.c3.cx/docs/docs.html What surprised me is how it has a feature I have not seen on any other web wiki but long wished for to find: paragraph date stamps. Not only popular garbage named mediawiki puts last edit date deep in bottom in grayed out font obscured from reader, most casually edited wikis suffer from temporal relativity of info published in them. Seeing when particular paragraph was edited (preferably with a jumplink to corresponding diff) immediately solves this problem.

>>54637 That's a comprehensive list. However, by "alternatives" I meant Emacs packages that can replace Org-roam.

I've never thought about making a wiki with little bits of information like that before, but I might just do it now. It seems really cool, and maybe I could share it with others who may find it useful once it grows a little.

>>54623 Strictly similar to org-roam are zetteldeft, zettel-mode, and zettelkasten. I use zetteldeft which can create graphs through graphviz. Zetteldeft tutorial is incredible https://github.com/efls/zd-tutorial But I also like an overview of all notes so I use org-brain and binder. Org-brain tags your notes and then you can visualize the relations, binder is more simple, is just a sidepane you manually add files in it central file to which files belong to your project. For outlines of files themselves I have boxy-headings which is a mindmap of your file, and org-sidebar as a outline sidepane. Another application I am slowly learning is hown, which searches for strings in all notes and creates bookmarks. The documentation is mostly in japanese and so is all the tutorials ans blogs written about it but google translate fixed that. Many more stuff I've been playing just this month, been using org-mode at its bare minimum before but not anymore.

>>53793 >Obsidian just allows me to organize thing's that I will need long term. This isn't FOSS and is an electron app, fuarrrk off back to soykaf land with your garbage app

>>54783 Interesting. I considered zetteldeft, because I used deft when I had less notes and it worked really nice. Another interesting Emacs package that I started to use a couple of days ago is GNU Hyperbole [0]. It works with any plain-text format. Sadly, it cannot visualize information. Its development began in 1991, which makes it one of the oldest hypertext systems that are still actively used and maintained. [0] https://www.gnu.org/software/hyperbole/

>>53762 I also use vimwiki. I have written 2 semesters worth of information + software an general knowledge so far. I quite like it. I have wanted to move to emacs for quite a while, but I don't have the time to switch just jet. Maybe next summer i'll give it a try. So far, I am loving vimwiki, the move to emacs is unrelated. For synching, I just have my notes in my dotfiles git repo which is hosted on a remote server.

>>53750 Came to my mind recently. Your average Joe uses Google Docs for collaborative document editing. Every time I see a forum thread with repetitive accumulated knowledge, there's probably a google docs link. A single spreadsheet-like table or word processor document is what usually needed for small group projects, FAQs and so on. So far there are no similar free-software alternatives for live or at least collaborative editing that are not wiki-something with UE/UX from 2003 or markdown-on-web-git-something. Only "geeks" use the latter, and mostly via GitHub or specially setup text editors and version control scripts. A regular person doesn't know what "version control" is, but he knows that when software lets you edit an article, then open it again in a week and revert changes, and see whole edit history as tree graph, this becomes acceptable for knowledge curation. Additionally, a spreadsheet document with complex formulas (a stylized purpose-built "calculator" for example) moves into computation notebook territory, which is associated with high science and programming mostly, not casual personal computer user spreadsheeting, and when translated into javascript (for cross-platform accessibility we need a universal virtual machine aka web browser) becomes is le bad according to footarian culstists, and again not as regular person-friendly since web design is done by a special trained caste these days, not regular users on their personal computers in WYSYWIG editors unlike spreadsheeting or word processing.

>>55204 u want etherpad its an open source collaborative docs editor see pad.riseup.org for a demo

>>55204 > So far there are no similar free-software alternatives for live or at least collaborative editing that are not wiki-something with UE/UX from 2003 or markdown-on-web-git-something god you people are so fuarrrking clueless, can you go back to /g/ and get off this board with your bullshit, ignorance, "repeat whatever meme influencer told me" crap. OnlyOffice exists, and its AGPL license, virtually identical interface to Micro$hit office, self hostable,with realtime collaboration just like googles crap office suite. stop being a fuarrrking moron and spreading FUD, go back to /g/ if you want this echo chamber bullshit FUD soykaf

>>53750 surprised kiwix hasn't been mentioned. its foss, and there are a bunch of different wiki selections it lets you download such as the arch wiki and so on. it even gives you the option of downloading text only or full rips. i think its a cool project even though i never use it. i too just like hoarding just in case

>>55247 Do you have an OnlyOffice server to show me some of your docs? It's so simple, even a retard can host one, right? Lain BTFOs FUD-spreading refu/g/ees with one simple trick. In reality if an average computer user can not start a "server" with one click of a big button in GUI interface and forget about it, it fails at mass adoption. Most people don't even have reliable Internet connection or always on hardware to make a "self-hosted server". Their only computer fits in a pocket, has a battery and few megabits of cellular tower bandwidth shared with 1000 other people. Why do you think corporations roll out new compression algorithm every year, because there's not enough bandwidth and QoS for everyone on airwaves, it's not optical wire laid underground. All "self-hosted" software really is aimed at enthusiasts and technicians. Renting a VPS or maintaining a NAS is not entry-level computer literacy. This is why ready-made services from Micro$oft and Google are preferred, they are as easy as using offline word processor 10-15 years ago was, no additional technician or programming skills are needed. And they are also free as in free beer, you don't even need to ask your computer nerd friend to download Office from torrent trackers anymore.

>>55260 >Do you have an OnlyOffice server to show me some of your docs? It's so simple, even a retard can host one, right? go back to /g/ you fuarrrking vermin, youre disgusting idiocy and ignorance dont belong here. it takes a full 1 hour for 1 single hobbiest to set up a few cloud scripts that can create an near infinite number of OnlyOffice instances and documents with a single click of a GUI on a website. its only self hosted FOR 1 SINGLE PERSON you fuarrrking moron, its trivial to make it a 1 click managed service for everyone else. the average person does not need to rent a server. >Most people don't even have reliable Internet connection or always on hardware to make a "self-hosted server" what the fuarrrk are you talking about? if they didnt have the bandwidth how the fuarrrk would they be able to use google docs? >Why do you think corporations roll out new compression algorithm every year, if youre referring to brotli, thats 1 algo thats been around for a while and has limited use case. you would of course know this if you werent an ignorant pi/g/ that just found out about this board yesterday

>>54844 Yeah I know about hyperbole is amazing but my post was too long and I had that and many other stuff >>54855 I always hear nice things about vimwiki but got disappointed to see is only hyperlink tools which org-mode already has. Is there something I am missing from vimwiki? >>55204 Emacs has tools for collaborative writing, just sayin Also Emacs can preview LaTeX formulas and diagrams (Tikz) and even images in the same window (first picture). There are several modes for auto-toggle of this (second picture). Also it can integrate with programming languages and CAS to do calculations (third picture). All this is one hell of a reason why I am using Emacs.

How do you structure the contents of your wiki? Do you use a hierarchy of directories or rely on hyperlinks and maintain some sort of index for each category of documents?

>>55704 A hierarchical directory structure seems natural, you only need to keep your notes under appropriate names and directories. Hyperlinks are dangerous if you rename your files often. The only method that can work with them is the zettelkasten method of prefixing a date to the file THEN adding a name as an extra, by which you can rename files and even move (if you use something like deft) as long as you keep this prefix and hyperlinks made with the date will not be killed. Hence I explained why I prefer zetteldeft.

>I am using Emacs™ >Do you use a hierarchy of directories >A hierarchical directory structure seems natural >Hyperlinks are dangerous >The only method that can work with them is the zettelkasten™ method

>>55925 Ah yes, I knew about that but Xanadu never came to fruition because it was too abstract of a concept. Even HTTP failed to some extent and maybe we should've gone the Gopher path. That said, the concept is there https://youtu.be/En_2T7KH6RA?t=194 Maybe some day soon we'll get something usable. Until then I will hack my way with Emacs and howm.

>maybe we should've gone the Gopher path These trannyverse LARPs are becoming tiresome. Don't you have a homework to do, kid?

>>55939 What are you contributing to the thread larper?

Vimwiki is really good for personal things. MediaWiki is used at work by entire IT department. Really nice to have guides written by old admins on how they setup things

https://wiki.c2.com/?WikiGettingStartedFaq >Q: So what is this Wiki thing? >A: A collection of Web pages which can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere. (Legend has it that the name Wiki was inspired by the name of the shuttle bus at the Honolulu Airport. "Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for "quick".) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki >A wiki is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience directly using a web browser.

>>55979 >"A personal wiki is wiki software that allows individual users to organize information on their desktop or mobile computing devices in a manner similar to community wikis, but without collaborative software or multiple users." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_wiki