Yeah I was thinking about why I have nodes as empty pages and frankly have OCD about it and now realize this is something missing. The proper backlinks on that page to all the linked content of that node. Otherwise it becomes a ghost node.
2 Likes
Sorry, I’m not following you here—could you explain more if you get the chance?
I very much agree with Caketray’s suggestion, in my use of the process, the citation content display is incomplete and only part of the content has caused me a lot of trouble, I think once the implementation of this feature, will bring a great improvement to the obsidian user experience!
2 Likes
I guess you could call me a “Roam refugee”, although I’m not migrating for economic reasons; the appeal of Obsidian is that it’s local-first and based on text files.
I agree that Obsidian shouldn’t try to imitate Roam in every respect. Do your own thing, and let people decide.
However:
1. The backlinks feature is not a minor detail, it’s what puts Obsidian in the same category as Roam.
I wouldn’t be trying this out if it didn’t advertise backlinks as a capability. There are lots of markdown editors out there, lots of wikis and outliners, lots of options for note-taking. Backlinks, the fundamental shift in thinking & workflows that they enable, are the very reason everyone is going gaga over Roam.
2. Obsidian’s current backlink implementation misses the boat entirely.
Roam’s fully-transcluded backlinks make it unnecessary to worry about where a new note “belongs”, because it’ll just magically show up everywhere it’s supposed to; and crucially, wherever it shows up, it’s fully editable, supports folding/unfolding, and everything else that you can do with the original; because I’m not looking at search results, I’m looking at the note itself.
Note:
This is said with love!! I want Obsidian to succeed, and I’d love nothing more than to be able to switch over.
16 Likes
I think most people will agree with what you’re celebrating here.
The trick is the trade offs with plain text: some of these features might cost functionality e.g., in other plaintext editors. So the question is, what are we willing to sacrifice in order to get the kind of functionality you’re hoping for?
I think there’s a bit of a paradox here. It’s tough to resolve!
3 Likes
While Obsidian cannot perfectly replicate Roam in these particular aspects (and I know that nobody is arguing for this), I do think that Obsidian can provide a very effective solution to this without it being complex to develop.
Essentially, the backlink pane does not need to be that big. It should be 1/4 of the size. 3/4 of the size should be the actual note that you select so that you see the entire context. B/c all of your files are stored locally, the selection appears instantaneously with full context.
- So the 1/4 of the size (the current backlink pane that has the list of your links) is just there for you to see a list. And yes, you don’t get much context.
- But the 3/4 of the size populates/updates automatically based on which backlink you select. This area shows you the full note, full context, etc.
- The key is that the 1/4 of the sized pane (that has all of your listed links) should NOT be updated. It should be tethered to the main note that you are viewing. Currently, it gets updated if you select a link that is of another note.
For more details, check out the bug and feature request below. The bug was fixed, but this requires manual steps and the UI is not nearly as seamless as it is in Obsidian. The feature request actually brings it much closer to the point where I wouldn’t miss Roam for this particular aspect.
3 Likes
Honestly, I would prefer to have backlinks appear only as titles, and like text links, mousing over them would open a preview of the note. I love this about text links in Obsidian and it would be a much more consistent way of structuring things within the app.
3 Likes
This is a neat idea. Mind making a feature request for this specifically?
I can start one!
1 Like
I also would looooove this feature. I was curious if it was planned to be on the roadmap yet or is still in the discussion phase?
3 Likes
The idea of more context in backlinks (i.e. fully transcoding backlinks) is very powerful and I hope Obsidian pursues it or a plugin be developed that can make it happen.
Is it possible to have a plugin append / transclude “more context backlinks” under Headline 1 (#) sections to every note in Obsidian.
The two sections can be
- linked mentions
- unlinked mentions
and can link to those other documents similar to the current backlink panel.
And this can be done at defined intervals or triggered when a new link is created. And those opting for this plugin can be made aware that their text notes may get modified each time this processing takes place.
Just discovered Obsidian and Roam. The idea of having offline markdown files is just so powerful. Thank you to the developers for developing it and in advance to the plugin developer who may develop this feature :).
2 Likes
This is exactly the power of Roam research: getting the entire context of backlinks. This enables you to truly move between pages and follow the train of thoughts.
Please add this to obsidian as it would make is so much more powerfull.
2 Likes
From the v0.9.4 release notes:
Backlinks! Turn it on to add the new backlink section at the end of each page.
Can we have this for regular notes as well?
Example: {{backlinks}}
7 Likes
Or more generally, you can embed backlinks section, like ![[tag#backlinks]].
My use case for this is that I use “tag files” rather than #tag, so it would be great that backlinks become the content of a tag file. It would be even better if you can embed a file’s backlinks section in other files, such as a “index page” for all tags.
That would be awesome!
Yes, I would also like this. I would like to place “[[ ]]” around concepts and then not go populate the concept’s note, but have the note autogenerated via the backlinks.
i.e. In note A I have a link like [[concept 1]], and the “concept 1” note is auto-created and empty. In note B I have a link for [[concept 1]] too. I’d like to have an option so that when I go to the “concept 1” note the two backlinks (with a bit of context) to note A and B show up in the body of the “concept 1” note.
1 Like
@Alex2357 you don’t need to create the note for that to happen though. If/when you go check concept1, the file will be created and you’ll be able to see the backlinks from noteA and noteB.
At least as I understand it (but maybe I’m missing something), yes I can see the backlinks in the sidebar panel thing, but not in the rendered “concept 1” note itself.
The functionality is there with some extra clicking like you’re (@argentum) is saying, I’m basically just asking if we can render that backlinks sidebar panel (or something like it) right in the note, with a template maybe like @zettx was suggesting
(I’m writing this response without having read this merged thread yet to see what it’s about, I’ll flip through it.)
1 Like
I copy some obsdn help info to Roam to compare what are the different.
bcz I don’t want use my own info to show public.
I found 2 important points.
1
In Roam
display all backlink info , without switch page to check it.
but in obsdn
display a piece of backlink info, have to switch page to check it.
2
In Roam
Allow edit backlink info , without switch page .
but in obsdn
Can’t edit backlink info, have to switch page.
13 Likes