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This was what made me convert from bookmarking to clipping pages into Evernote around 6-7 years ago. I realized I had this huge archive of reference bookmarks

• charlesdaniels 7y ago
  Shout out to https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/ I was an Evernote user when I was on macOS. When I switched to Linux, a proper web clipper was something I really missed. I'm now on Joplin and it does everything I used to use Evernote for and then some. It even has vim bindings now! As far as longevity goes, I think they got their archive / backup format right - it's just a tarball with markdown in it.
  • dragonsh 7y ago
    No need of proprietary code and apps why not build it into browsers. I have seen Firefox and Chrome can download web pages. So it will be nicer if they can download the bookmarked pages and store in a local html, css, image folder. I think it's pretty easy to achieve. Also people need to move away from those esoteric reactjs, angular, vuejs and plethora of CMS as API or static site generators relying on some js framework which won't last even 2-3 years. Use a static site generator which can generate a plain html, like static site generators built on pandoc, python docutils or similar. Personally I like restructuredText as the preferred format for content as its a complete specification and plain text. So the only thing in this article I will change is that content can also be in rst format and then generate html from it. Markdown is not a specification as each site implements their own markdown directives unlike restructuredtext specification and most of the parsers and tooling are little different from each other.
    • celeritascelery 7y ago
      Joplin is open source.
    • dbtx 7y ago
      > Markdown is not a specification Not by that name... https://commonmark.org/ https://commonmark.org/
      • dragonsh 7y ago
        It is stil not a specification like restructuredText[1]. Also wikiMarkup (which really started this markdown) is different from GitHub markdown, which is different from other markdown editors. Also many sites use their own markdown versions. If you are in restructuredText world there is one specification and all implementation adhere to it, be it pandoc, sphinx, pelican, nikola. The beauty of it is that it has extension mechanisms which provides enough room for each tool to develop it. But markup can be parsed by any tool. [1] https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtex...
        • m463 7y ago
          I don't know why markdown is so popular other than maybe "it was easy to get running" or "works for me". It's better than "designed by a committee" standards, but it lacks elegance or maybe craftsmanship.
          • setr 7y ago
            Because its inherently appealing, close to what you wanted intuitively, and if you're only dealing with a single implementation of it, works fairly well. You don't really get bit by its lack of a standard and extensibility until after you've bought in. It's essentially designed by the opposite of a committee -- rather than including everything but the kitchen-sink, it contains support for almost no usecases except the one. Which is very appealing, when you only have the one usecase.
  • m-p-3 7y ago
    The developer behind it is doing some awesome stuff so I decided to sponsor him on GitHub.
  • q-base 7y ago
    Thanks a lot for the recommendation! I have been a little annoyed with Evernote not having an app for Ubuntu, which I recently started using quite heavily. So this looks very interesting!
• WalterBright 7y ago
  I store bookmarks (i.e. URLs) in a simple .txt file. My text editor lets me click on them to bring them up in a browser. > Only downside is I'm dependent on Evernote No special software nor database required.
  • tempestn 7y ago
    What benefit does that provide compared to regular browser bookmarks? It doesn't seem to address either of the issues I mentioned.
    • WalterBright 7y ago
      1. it's independent of the browser 2. it works with any browser 3. I can move it to any machine and use it 4. It is not transmitted to the browser vendor 5. Being a text file, it is under my control 6. I can back it up 7. I don't need some database manager to access it 8. I can add notes and anything else to the file 9. It's stupid simple
      • duckmysick 7y ago
        What happens when the website itself becomes unavailable?
        • larrywright 7y ago
          For me, this is the problem that Evernote solves - it saves the entire content of the page, images, text, and clickable links.
        • WalterBright 7y ago
          The link stops working.
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
• Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
  >if I even remembered I'd bookmarked something in the first place I had recently participated in a discussion on the problem of forgetting bookmarks[1]. Copying my workflow from there, 1. If the entire content should be easily viewed, then store via pocket extension. 2. If a partial content should be easily viewed i.e. some snippet with link to entire source, then store in notes (Apple). 3. If the content seem useful in the future, but it is okay to forget it; then I store it in the browser bookmarks. But, my workflow doesn't address the problem raised by Mr. Jeff Huang; if Pocket app or notes disappear so goes my archives. I think self hosted archive as mentioned by the parent is the way to go, but I don't think it's a seamless solution to a common web browser user. [1]https://needgap.com/problems/57-i-forget-my-web-bookmarks-quite-often.-internet-organizing https://needgap.com/problems/57-i-forget-my-web-bookmarks-qu...
  • iudqnolq 7y ago
    My solution for a small subset of the forgetting problem: I frequently see something and want to try it out the next time I want to do something else. So I emulate User Agent strings and append lots of "like [common thing I search for a lot]" to the bookmark. When I start typing into the search bar for those other things I'll be reminded of the bookmark. For example, since file.io is semi-deprecated I decided to try out 0x0.st . But I kept forgetting when I actually needed to transfer a file, so I made a bookmark titled "0x0.st Like file io". As a side note, I have a similar bash function called mean2use that I use to define aliases that wrap a command and ask me if I'd like to do it another way instead or if I'm sure I want to use the command. I've found this is a nice way to retrain my habits.
    • Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
      That was useful, can you add this to the original needgap thread I linked? Disclaimer: needgap is a problem validation platform I built.
• pqs 7y ago
  I'm glad you mention Evernote. I also use it for this, and also for many other purposes. It is true that it is propietary software but it is worth mentioning that all the content can be exported as an .enex file, which is xml. So, the data can be easily exported.
  • jmiserez 7y ago
    >easily exported Have you actually looked at such an xml: https://gist.github.com/evernotegists/6116886 https://gist.github.com/evernotegists/6116886 Exported sure, it's all there. But importing that into your new favorite notes application is not going to be trivial, especially not for regular users. That's why I've decided to stick mostly to regular files in a filesystem.
    • WaltPurvis 7y ago
      Presumably "regular users" will not be individually writing XML parsing code to convert the notes. The developers of their "new favorite notes application" will do it (and if they can't be bothered, maybe it shouldn't be your "new favorite notes application"). Joplin, for example, can import notes exported from Evernote. It's just a menu option that even regular users should have no trouble employing.
• unicornporn 7y ago
  https://archivebox.io/ https://archivebox.io/ You bookmark in Pinboard or Delicious and ArchiveBox saves the page. Handy.
• erikbye 7y ago
  > Only downside is I'm dependent on Evernote, but hopefully it manages to stick around in some form for a good while, and if it ever doesn't, I expect I'll be able to migrate to something similar. I have used Evernote and OneNote, but have finally, after a long interim period, resorted to using only markdown. I have a "Notes" root folder and organize section groups and sections in subfolders. VSCode (or Emacs), with some tweaks, shortcuts, and extensions, provides a good-enough markdown editing experience. Like an extension that allows you to paste in images, storing it in a resources folder in the note's current location (yes, I see small problems with this down the road when re-organizing, but nothing that can't be handled). For Firefox, I use the markdown-clipper extension the few times I would like to copy a whole article, it works well enough. Or I copy/paste what I need; mostly, I take my own summarized notes. For syncing, I use Nextcloud, which also makes the notes available both for reading and editing on Android and iOS (I use both). Up until very recently, I used Joplin, which also uses markdown, but there were two things I could not live with: it does not store the markdown files with a readable filename, e.g., its title, and being tied to a specific editor. If you are mostly clipping and not writing your own notes, I can imagine my setup won't work well, or be very efficient. I want to use a format that has longevity, and storing in a format that I cannot grep is out of the question.
  • sharps1 7y ago
    Thanks for pointing out markdown-clipper! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/markdown-clipper/?src=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/markdown-clip...
• tuxracer 7y ago
  Is there a good end-to-end encrypted alternative to Evernote?
• petra 7y ago
  I find Evernote's search isn't that good, at least in the free version. Often trying to remember keywords and using Google is faster. I know about DevonThink, i read good recommendations. But it's IOS/Mac only. Any Evernote alternative for Win/Android with great search ?
  • strig 7y ago
    Another commenter suggested https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/, it has a nice search feature and has apps for most platforms.
• mcnichol 7y ago
  You just opened up a world for me I hadn't thought about! So simple! Thank you!
  • tempestn 7y ago
    You're welcome! If you're interested in getting into GTD in Evernote (which I highly recommend), I wrote a blog post a while back about my setup: https://www.tempestblog.com/2017/08/16/how-i-stay-organized-and-remember-everything-with-no-stress/ https://www.tempestblog.com/2017/08/16/how-i-stay-organized-...
    • BlackEspresso 7y ago
      Nice article but http://www.thesecretweapon.org/ http://www.thesecretweapon.org/ isnt reachable anymore. The Page didnt Last...
      • tempestn 7y ago
        Oh the irony. I'll update my link to an archive post or reproduce the important parts. Thanks for pointing that out! Edit: doesn't appear to be down, they're just using a self-signed cert.
        • BlackEspresso 7y ago
          hmm, your right. i tried "continue with insecure certificate" yesterday but maxbe i was to impatient
• fnord77 7y ago
  first I heard of web clipping. Looks like OneNote has web-clipper extensions, too. This is so great.