4 ms·

For anyone who thinks infinitely nested lists sounds like a good way to organize things, but would prefer an online, less editor-centric (but still keyboard fri

by m12k 9y ago

For anyone who thinks infinitely nested lists sounds like a good way to organize things, but would prefer an online, less editor-centric (but still keyboard friendly) tool, I recommend workflowy.com (or their more recent competitor dynalist.io who add more rich content support if that is your thing). I've been using Workflowy for years to organize my work, both for tasks and for mental maps and note-taking. I've found that it maps extremely well to the recursive nature of my mental map of an application and it subcomponents, tasks and subtasks, and so on. And overall I find that collapsible nested lists have all the benefits of a classic 'mind map' but without the constraints and 'easier to read than edit' nature of a bubble visualization.

NickBusey 9y ago
Just thought I'd mention my open source Workflowy clone, https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes It's definitely not done yet, but I've been using it as an effective replacement for Workflowy for almost a year now.
- jsilence 9y ago
  org-mode support would be awesome!
  - NickBusey 9y ago
    I have definitely considered this, not exactly sure what it would entail as I never really got into org-mode, started using Workflowy and then BulletNotes instead. Do you mean just importing an org-mode file? Or an actual integration?
    - jsilence 9y ago
      I meant org-mode or a subset thereof as a supported working file format.
walkingolof 9y ago
For me the whole point of org-mode is that the stuff in it is to valuable to trust with a vendor that stores it in a proprietary format that cant be extracted in a meaningful way if the service/company folds.
- NickBusey 9y ago
  So one more note here, my open source Workflowy clone backs up all your data to a .txt file in your Dropbox every night. If my hosted service goes away, you can just run it locally, import the .txt file, and you're good to go. https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes A large part of the reason I made it was for exactly the scenario you described. I run my entire life out of it and wasn't comfortable relying on one company for it.
  - walkingolof 9y ago
    Can it be made to run locally on your machine ?
    - NickBusey 9y ago
      Absolutely. It's one `npm start` away.
      - TeMPOraL 9y ago
        Awesome! Starring it for this very reason (I'll probably run an instance for personal / family use, after I finish setting up the home server). I'm a big supporter of every web tool that you can self-host.
        NickBusey 9y ago
        Great to hear! As far as I know no one besides myself has spun it up, so I'd love to hear how it goes!
aleksei 9y ago
This is OT, but workflowy has a really bad website. No information at all as to what it is, just a sign up page. How did you find out about it?
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Honestly, I'm kind of surprised they still exist, given the half-life of random web startups being ~3 years. Personally, I've seen them (and used for a while) back around... 2011? Don't remember what their page looked like back then, but it was quite easy to figure out.
  - justkez 9y ago
    There was a recent Indie Hackers podcast with one of the WorkFlowy founders (https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/037-jesse-patel-of-workflowy https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/037-jesse-patel-of-work...) where he admits marketing/user acquisition is most definitely one of his growth areas - quite a good listen.
spraak 9y ago
Dynalist.io is a related/similar app and really awesome.
- habitue 9y ago
  Seconded, Dynalist is like workflowy if they continued to improve the application. Totally worth moving to since workflowy is on life support
darrenf 9y ago
I'll chime in with a thumbs up for checkvist.com (no affiliation, happy user). I discovered workflowy.com first but moved across as I was seduced by "try without registration", the export options - text, markdown, OPML - and the keyboard shortcuts.
criddell 9y ago
I love Workflowy. The Broadband Mechanics guys had an excellent web-based outliner. It disappeared and I've always wondered if Workflowy was built from that.
mncharity 9y ago
> For anyone who thinks infinitely nested lists sounds like a good way to organize things [...] I recommend And for anyone who thinks hierarchies are an "OMG, you're joking, right?!?" inadequate way to organize thinking... :) ... any recommendations for an Org-ish app with good support for non-hierarchical full graphs, with flexible link and node types? Writing one is on my todo list, for project management of long-term opportunistic projects, in VR, but in the meantime...
- brians 9y ago
  I would look at org-brain: https://github.com/Kungsgeten/org-brain https://github.com/Kungsgeten/org-brain I think this is also what Emacs-Muse is supposed to do, but I have never understood that program.
  - mncharity 9y ago
    > Emacs-Muse[?] Looks more like a publishing (markdown/pandoc) solution. Abandoned 2010 as folks moved to Org. > org-brain [inspired by TheBrain.com] Hierarchy plus one additional link type. Org-mode integration. "One node and neighbors" presentation. I'm struck again by how much code is about to be rewritten for VR/AR. If anyone has a programming language they wish to mainstream, here comes an opportunity to ride a selective sweep. :)

by m12k 9y ago

NickBusey 9y ago

Just thought I'd mention my open source Workflowy clone, https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes It's definitely not done yet, but I've been using it as an effective replacement for Workflowy for almost a year now.

jsilence 9y ago
org-mode support would be awesome!
- NickBusey 9y ago
  I have definitely considered this, not exactly sure what it would entail as I never really got into org-mode, started using Workflowy and then BulletNotes instead. Do you mean just importing an org-mode file? Or an actual integration?
  - jsilence 9y ago
    I meant org-mode or a subset thereof as a supported working file format.

walkingolof 9y ago

For me the whole point of org-mode is that the stuff in it is to valuable to trust with a vendor that stores it in a proprietary format that cant be extracted in a meaningful way if the service/company folds.

NickBusey 9y ago
So one more note here, my open source Workflowy clone backs up all your data to a .txt file in your Dropbox every night. If my hosted service goes away, you can just run it locally, import the .txt file, and you're good to go. https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes https://github.com/NickBusey/BulletNotes A large part of the reason I made it was for exactly the scenario you described. I run my entire life out of it and wasn't comfortable relying on one company for it.
- walkingolof 9y ago
  Can it be made to run locally on your machine ?
  - NickBusey 9y ago
    Absolutely. It's one `npm start` away.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Awesome! Starring it for this very reason (I'll probably run an instance for personal / family use, after I finish setting up the home server). I'm a big supporter of every web tool that you can self-host.
      - NickBusey 9y ago
        Great to hear! As far as I know no one besides myself has spun it up, so I'd love to hear how it goes!

aleksei 9y ago

This is OT, but workflowy has a really bad website. No information at all as to what it is, just a sign up page. How did you find out about it?

TeMPOraL 9y ago
Honestly, I'm kind of surprised they still exist, given the half-life of random web startups being ~3 years. Personally, I've seen them (and used for a while) back around... 2011? Don't remember what their page looked like back then, but it was quite easy to figure out.
- justkez 9y ago
  There was a recent Indie Hackers podcast with one of the WorkFlowy founders (https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/037-jesse-patel-of-workflowy https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/037-jesse-patel-of-work...) where he admits marketing/user acquisition is most definitely one of his growth areas - quite a good listen.

spraak 9y ago

Dynalist.io is a related/similar app and really awesome.

habitue 9y ago
Seconded, Dynalist is like workflowy if they continued to improve the application. Totally worth moving to since workflowy is on life support

darrenf 9y ago

I'll chime in with a thumbs up for checkvist.com (no affiliation, happy user). I discovered workflowy.com first but moved across as I was seduced by "try without registration", the export options - text, markdown, OPML - and the keyboard shortcuts.

criddell 9y ago

I love Workflowy. The Broadband Mechanics guys had an excellent web-based outliner. It disappeared and I've always wondered if Workflowy was built from that.

mncharity 9y ago

> For anyone who thinks infinitely nested lists sounds like a good way to organize things [...] I recommend And for anyone who thinks hierarchies are an "OMG, you're joking, right?!?" inadequate way to organize thinking... :) ... any recommendations for an Org-ish app with good support for non-hierarchical full graphs, with flexible link and node types? Writing one is on my todo list, for project management of long-term opportunistic projects, in VR, but in the meantime...

brians 9y ago
I would look at org-brain: https://github.com/Kungsgeten/org-brain https://github.com/Kungsgeten/org-brain I think this is also what Emacs-Muse is supposed to do, but I have never understood that program.
- mncharity 9y ago
  > Emacs-Muse[?] Looks more like a publishing (markdown/pandoc) solution. Abandoned 2010 as folks moved to Org. > org-brain [inspired by TheBrain.com] Hierarchy plus one additional link type. Org-mode integration. "One node and neighbors" presentation. I'm struck again by how much code is about to be rewritten for VR/AR. If anyone has a programming language they wish to mainstream, here comes an opportunity to ride a selective sweep. :)