#1

I was first involved about a year ago, and there was a bit of buzz and everyone seemed to be helping out. Having recently returned it seems…awful quiet. Did something happen? Migration elsewhere? The subreddit doesn’t seem particularly active.
Might just be me misinterpreting things but thought I’d ask, have a great day :slight_smile:

1 Like
#2

The internal forum stats show that the forum activity is growing. We don’t monitor Reddit much, but it’s active and growing as well.

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#3

I hope that is not true. I will say that I know exactly what you mean by lots of people helping each other. I love this place but in the past month or so have had to significantly scale back my time and visits because an intense new class. So unfortunately I wouldn’t have been able to really notice.

It does make me sad to hear that that is your sense. There may be a point where people feel less able to, as a team, help steer the ship because it has already picked up so much speed and weight. And also, things are less new and more understood. Perhaps many people who were helping more were doing so because they were also being helped. And maybe they have learned enough to slow down until things are released and official. I am just brainstorming. I highly doubt people are migrating to other things but rather laying low and enjoying what they already know. I do come on here still regularly just to get a decent update and I do still see the names of a number of the very helpful people popping up but somewhat less often. I am sure there are plenty of new ones I have yet to see.

Interested to hear other reactions.

Thanks.

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#4

How would the OP know this? Sounds fishy.

This forum seems very active to me. And one of the most helpful forums I’ve ever used. Has made me want to try to give back by helping others myself. I helped a couple people yesterday.

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#5

I agree. Fantastic forum. The only one I follow daily.

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#6

Comparing site stats with an app like Scrivener, which has been around for fifteen years and had plenty of time to build an audience, the Obsidian forum is doing mighty well. In the last seven days, Obsidian has had nearly eight times more active users than Scrivener.

And Obsidian is only in beta.

Published Site Stats as of 31 August 2021

Site Obsidian Scrivener Obsidian Scrivener
Stats Last 7 Last 7 Last 30 Last 30
Topics 157 61 698 280
Posts 1.2k 635 5.1k 2.9k
Users 375 66 1.5k 331
Active Users 2.8k 353 5.5k 1k
Likes 893 116 4.0k 994

Angel

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#7

I’m not sure how much the Scrivener stats have been affected by rejigging their forum. I’ve not logged on since they did that and I’m not sure whether I’d have to reregister.

#8

…wat?

Here is a screenshot of activity in the past 21 hours. Please share your research methodology for peer review. :blush:

obsidian_activity
obsidian_activity233×800 58.3 KB

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#9

No need to re-register if you have logged in within the last twelve months. Was just giving a comparison: showing how healthy the Obsidian forum is.

Think the forum rejig at Scrivener hasn’t had much of an impact one way or another. From the people I know who use (or formerly used) Scrivener, the main thing impacting on their use of the forum is that they no longer use the software as much as they used to, if at all. Scrivener 3 isn’t very different to Scrivener 1 in its core functionality, and other than some bug fixes and minor tweaks, Scrivener 3 hasn’t been updated at all since 2017, and the last time macOS even got a bug-fixing release was December 2020. The iOS app, which took years to release after first being announced as in development, is still very limited compared to the desktop version. And the sync process, which still needs Dropbox, is far more problematical than it should be in this day and age. And what about those folks who run Linux or Android? Scrivener has nothing to offer them.

Scrivener was the app back in the day, when pretty much everyone I knew who did any writing or editing was using it as their go-to app. Don’t know anyone at all in person who still uses it today. Only know three people online who haven’t moved on completely to Ulysses, Obsidian, etc. But I suspect it will only be a matter of time before they do (unless Scrivener gets a massive overhaul).

Angel

1 Like
#10

I have had licences since its first Windows version, and have regularly tested Scrivener but never found it suited me for productive work. OTOH there’s at least one Obsidian user who swears by Scrivener for his books - he says he’d need a much better organisational ability to even consider using Obsidian.

Personally, Obsidian doesn’t have enough features for me to use it for writing either, though my files are in Obsidian vaults so that I can use links etc when they’re helpful.

#11

You can count me as 4! I still use Scrivener every single day. (Obsidian, Notion, and Scrivener, all serve important daily use in my life, and Scrivener is the writing app I still use the most.)

I’ve written over 200,000 words in Scrivener just in 2021.

(I’m on Mac, and I believe the Mac version was more feature complete than Windows until recently.)

1 Like
#12

Count me as someone who uses Scrivener every day, too… AND I use Obsidian and Ulysses as well. They all have their uses because I spend a lot of time writing, reading etc.

Scrivener: long-form writing.
Obsidian: “thinking”/ exploratory writing. Research notes.
Ulysses: client gigs/ blog posts/ anything short. (I love that I can save a client project directly to DOCX, then send it to the client. Also that I can post directly to my blogs from Ulysses.

I’ve tried using Ulysses for long-form writing, but I’m too set in my ways with Scrivener. I use Ulysses for blog posts and short material, but I can’t see myself writing a book in it. :slight_smile:

As for Scrivener updates; the app does pretty much everything I could imagine and more. So I’m OK without the developers adding constant frivolities. Few people use Scrivener to its full potential as it is.

In short, I love Scrivener as much as I do Obsidian and Ulysses. We’re all different; we use what works for us. :slight_smile:

Happy writing to all, no matter which apps you use. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#13

I think that’s the key for a writer. Once an effective system is found, it’s most productive to stick to it, even if it’s a quill pen on a notepad in a coffee shop, or lying on a chaise longue dictating. Surveys generally find that most writers still use Word or other WPs.

I always found Scrivener, and similar programs too bitty. I understand it and am familiar with seeing the bits as a single document, but I just never took to it for long form. I use WriteMonkey (3). I can have as many bits as I want, but I can also write a book as a single markdown file. And the very sophisticated folding allows me to do many things that other programs don’t. And there’s no problem sharing the file with Obsidian and other programs. Suits me, but I’m sure it wouldn’t suit most people.

What I used to appreciate in Scrivener was the corkboard, but I’ve found that other programs have improved and surpassed it. I was quite disappointed when I looked it over recently.

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#14

a lot of discussion has moved to the discord channel.

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#15

Aha! This must be the case - is discord useful as a repository for information?

#16

Not really. Discord is for real time chat. This forum is for asynchronous discussions and easier referencing. And as suggested earlier, traffic on both the Discord and here has increased over time.

3 Likes