5 ms·

This is amazing. I like Roam Research but I refuse to give full control of something so important to any third party. At this point we have all experienced what

This is amazing. I like Roam Research but I refuse to give full control of something so important to any third party. At this point we have all experienced what it is like to give the control over your digital life to FAANG-like entities with priorities other than their own users well-being. We can and should ask for better. If it will be my second brain (please note how important this sounds), what I want is to be able to be in full control of the data I generated with it. I'd happily pay for an Open Source SaaS service from which I can download my data and use it in my own computer/server if I wish to do so, much like Sentry or Strapi. Edit: Clarity, grammar and spelling

Graziano_M 6y ago
Roam has plans for offline-only storage.
- lrae 6y ago
  Is that out of beta and working now? Also is it still only available in the $500 (?) dollar plan or what ever it was?
  - Graziano_M 6y ago
    Nope and yes! I am just pointing out that closed source doesn't necessarily mean 'not in control of your data'.
    - lrae 6y ago
      True. And too bad, would give it a try again otherwise.
dageshi 6y ago
You can export everything from roam in json or markup... does that basically not suffice?
- randomchars 6y ago
  Have you actually looked at what's exported? You need to do a lot of parsing, and modifying before that content is usable...
  - Grustaf 6y ago
    Someone could write a viewer, or converter for this format? Should be simpler than writing a new creation app.
    - randomchars 6y ago
      You could, but why? I wrote a small package to automate my backups, and transform the content into something readable for myself. It's far from feature complete, even for my simple personal use. But if you're doing a complete read-only copy of roam, why not go all the way and make it editable, and compete with them instead?
      - Grustaf 6y ago
        If, like OP, you are concerned about the closed nature of Roam, you could make that converter instead of a replacement for Roam. You could say openness is “a feature, not a product”, and it’s a feature that could be retrofitted.
        randomchars 6y ago
        You could, yeah. You could put in a lot of work, just for read-only feature parity. Or you could work some more, and have a competing product. You seem adamant, that the former is a better path, but I don't quite see why would you do all that work for naught. (Roam already broke my backup script 2 times, and there are better uses of my time than interfacing with a proprietary product, if there are better alternatives.)
        Grustaf 6y ago

Graziano_M 6y ago

Roam has plans for offline-only storage.

lrae 6y ago
Is that out of beta and working now? Also is it still only available in the $500 (?) dollar plan or what ever it was?
- Graziano_M 6y ago
  Nope and yes! I am just pointing out that closed source doesn't necessarily mean 'not in control of your data'.
  - lrae 6y ago
    True. And too bad, would give it a try again otherwise.

dageshi 6y ago

You can export everything from roam in json or markup... does that basically not suffice?

randomchars 6y ago
Have you actually looked at what's exported? You need to do a lot of parsing, and modifying before that content is usable...
- Grustaf 6y ago
  Someone could write a viewer, or converter for this format? Should be simpler than writing a new creation app.
  - randomchars 6y ago
    You could, but why? I wrote a small package to automate my backups, and transform the content into something readable for myself. It's far from feature complete, even for my simple personal use. But if you're doing a complete read-only copy of roam, why not go all the way and make it editable, and compete with them instead?
    - Grustaf 6y ago
      If, like OP, you are concerned about the closed nature of Roam, you could make that converter instead of a replacement for Roam. You could say openness is “a feature, not a product”, and it’s a feature that could be retrofitted.
      - randomchars 6y ago
        You could, yeah. You could put in a lot of work, just for read-only feature parity. Or you could work some more, and have a competing product. You seem adamant, that the former is a better path, but I don't quite see why would you do all that work for naught. (Roam already broke my backup script 2 times, and there are better uses of my time than interfacing with a proprietary product, if there are better alternatives.)
        Grustaf 6y ago