Obsidian Appreciation Thread - Let's show some love to the team - Thank you

Hey everyone!

In the midst of our note-taking frenzy (and other geeky things we do with Obsidian), I thought it’d be nice to take a moment to reflect on our experiences with the app and show Erica and Shida some much deserved love and appreciation for making the tool that has clearly improved so many of our lives! I’ll start. :slight_smile:


For me, it all started when I first discovered Dynalist way back in 2017.

Having hit a roadblock with Workflowy’s item-cap and limited features, I immediately fell in love when I started using Dynalist. The free version was already significantly better than Workflowy (at the time), let alone its paid features that totally rocked my socks off. (To this day Dynalist is still a rock-solid tool compared to a lot of existing alternatives.)

But what really connected me to this app, wasn’t the app itself. It was the people behind it, both the creators Erica and Shida, and the community around it.

When I realized this amazing tool was built by two fresh graduates like myself, my jaws dropped to the floor in admiration. Their synergy somehow made this front-end/back-end dream-team that gave us all these amazingly useful features that still blow my mind to this day.

Not only that, they were real people that answered our questions and took in our suggestions (and criticisms) and did their best to improve our user experience. Real people that, in turn, inspired a small but vibrant community that shared their knowledge and their goodwill with everyone.

Eventually, this success led the way to the next piece of magical software, Obsidian. Having experimented with Dynalist, they upped their own game to build something with even more mind-blowing wizardry, and this time, with the introduction of plugins, the outpour of ingenuity and enthusiasm from the community would make this app [[insert another magical adjective]]. The rest is history.


Erica and Shida, thank you both so much for all that you’ve done. The apps you’ve built, the communities you’ve inspired, and the lives you’ve improved and enriched.

I’m excited to see how it all evolves from here and what you have up your sleeves. But we must remember that you’re both full-grown adults now, with a totally new world of responsibilities (Erica is a MOM!!).

You’ve already left an amazing legacy (not an overstatement). So don’t push yourselves too hard, take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Adulthood is hard, and your personal lives take top priority.

And don’t forget, your community’s got your back.

:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

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Thank you Erica and Shida for this excellent app! Having such a good text tool makes my life better every day.

:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

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Chiming in here, my life has literally changed since I’ve discovered Obsidian and the great community around it. You did so much for facilitating the interlinked-PKM movement to grow that big, and we are still in the early days. And the speed of development is truly phenomenal; I don’t know much about coding but I can hardly believe how active you are on Discord and at the same time cranking out one release after the other. Congratulations to this success, and I wish you even more of it. Keep up the amazing work, and I’m agreeing with @samhuang748 , don’t forget to take care of yourselves along the way too. :purple_heart: :four_leaf_clover:

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Obsidian has changed my life.

I get overwhelmed easily by trying to get things done and thinking about how many steps each project takes. The completely moddable form of obsidian, and the fact that it’s backed up and available on my devices means that I am able to sit down when I’m coherent, take notes on something and have it available. Later, I can build out a real plan, link steps, and such, and then boom, complete projects.

Another way it’s changed my life is because I now keep a digital “bullet journal.” I was trying to do it in evernote, but evernote wasn’t set up for it. I don’t feel the need to fill in every space, but I can write down what happened, important thoughts, or just deep / crazy thoughts, then link them back to other ideas. I also can keep track of health and mood that way, tracking things to see how life affects mood and vice versa. Best of all, with Dataview and other awesome plugins, I have lists of things I’m thankful for, etc.

This is such an amazing tool, and you two are amazing people. You’ve let us all play in your sandbox – heck, went out and bought sand and toys and everything for us – and instead of shutting down ideas outright, you have welcomed growth and change, and I’m amazed to see what it’s becoming.

Thank you so much.

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Ditto. Obsidian has significant changed my life. It’s making my research project possible. THANK YOU!! :heart::heart:

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Well I don’t know about life changing :grinning: but it has upped my productivity tremendously and a much better :elephant: than I had before! The flexing to design AND ACTUALLY USE a custom Schedule -Diary - System inside the PKM is … ok near life changing. :joy:

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Yes - my project would also not have been possible without Obsidian.

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I couldn’t believe Obsidian was real… or free… every time I open it I’m just amazed. Thanks so much!

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@Licat @Silver, every day I appreciate your work. Enjoy the blessing of parenthood. :two_hearts:

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Absolutely agree with everyone above. I’ve been a markdown user and writer ever since markdown has existed and gone through many, many note taking and writing apps. Obsidian has stuck and become more central to my work and play than any other app. Huge appreciation to @Licat and @Silver.

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How many, many notes-and-knowledge apps I have worked with or at least tried! Most had their good points, but all were ultimately frustrating. Some were hard to learn, forcing me to think like the developers. Some were designed to do things I didn’t care about – so I felt I was shoehorning and work-arounding to do what I wanted. Some just would not do what seemed obviously necessary (was it just me? I’d wonder).

Then along comes Obsidian. Leaves me focused on what I am doing and not feeling that I am anxiously tending to a complicated mechanism or sitting on a mounting heap of (virtual) paper. Easy to learn. Easy to customize. Makes it easy to reconsider and reorganize. Simple on the surface but rich in features that I can learn when I need them (after I learn that I need them).

You guys made all the right decisions about basic principles. Result: Many things that were frustrating about my research-and-writing life are now easier, faster and more enjoyable.

So: Thank you, Erica and Shida. Your work is very much appreciated!

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Thanks a lot guys @Licat @Silver for making this app! You have my respect and love! :heart: :smile:

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In my case, I appreciate Obsidian, especially with regard to price. Because Obsidian has a low threshold so I was able to start Obsidian with my friend. I think the pricing model of Obsidian is very bold and adventurous, and I think the two developers are the same. I am truly cheering :mega: for both of them.

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My journey in note-taking took me from Evernote, to Notion, to Bear, to Foam, back to Bear, and then to Obsidian, and just in time to start my degree.
What’s different about Obsidian for me in this journey is that I no longer find myself interrupting work to go search for something that might work better.
Love it, very appreciative. Hoping to upskill enough to contribute to the community.

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@Licat & @Silver - you’re the best. The dedication to the app and the community has been incredible. I’ll never forget receiving a handwritten card, mailed from Canada to The Netherlands, thanking me for something I had posted to the forum. What other app developers have that level of commitment – and appreciative generosity?!?
I can imagine that it’s been stressful and overwhelming for you, at times, to ride this tiger of an app+community that you’ve unleashed. I’m so personally grateful for all you’ve done, and the spirit with which you’ve done it. So, thank you. (And thanks to @samhuang748 for starting this thread!)

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Where can I start?

I am an academic in the field of History, and I got involved in software studies during my postgraduate period in History of Science and Digital Humanities. After 7 years of researching historical archives, looking for solutions that could help me express new methodologies for scientific writing, having discovered Gource, Gephy and Cytoscape along the way, I came across Obsidian as a new way of writing and creating relationships between named entities.

I cannot forget the community responsible for collaboratively developing the advances implemented in Obsidian. Thanks to all of you, I was able to complete a journey that resulted in a doctoral thesis, having Obsidian as a mediating object of languages.

And this is absolutely incredible. With the title of Digital Humanities: a theoretical-methodological emergence in the Representation and Discovery of Knowledge for the History of Sciences in Brazil, the use of Obsidian can offer new ways of writing sciences and help to illuminate old, and even new, unforeseen narratives in historical archives.

The potential of open source software such as Obsidian makes it possible to be integrated with other tools necessary for transdisciplinary research, involving the reinterpretation of historical archives with digitization, the development of literary scripts, notes for academic studies and, as always, the production of broad and interconnected knowledge. Therefore, my most sincere thanks to the developers of Obsidian and the community that have been creating solutions for the wide use of this tool.

A big hug from a fellow Brazilian, historian and scientist, enthusiast, admirer and supporter of Obsidian.

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Dear @samhuang748 , what an amazing idea! Thanks!

Let’s go with my short history with Obsidian MD:

In April 2021 my life changed completely: I was designed by my government to an official mission on another country (even another continent), to work in a different area and in a different language. I had three months to prepare for moving with family 10,000 miles away from home. And that would be my first opportunity living abroad.

So I decided I need to upgrade my note taking method, because I would need to learn a lot and learn really fast. I tested Evernote (I already knew it), Google Keep, Joplin, OneNote and some open source solutions I found. And of course Obsidian, which was a love at the first sight. And it has been since then.

I use more than 30 plugins here (I’m also a software developer, so I loved Obsidian’s extensibility) and my new colleagues here are getting more and more amazed with all the possibilities Obsidian opens to many areas, not only note taking.

I can’t thank the developers and the community enough!

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Erica and Shida what you guys have built is pure genius! I have used DOZENS of PKMs over the years, and written several (mostly for myself) one that grew to 40K lines.

I think Obsidian will be the last one I ever use… It has the right core features, and it is open enough. And it is just brilliant! It shouldn’t be that hard to get a general purpose PKM right. Except it IS hard!! Look at how many broken ones have come before…

Please do find ways to earn enough money from Obsidian to offload the parts of this job you don’t love, so you can focus on your little ones (both your biological one, and your digital one too :slight_smile: )

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Just wanted to take a second to say thanks for making the best note-taking tool! I’ve tried Notion, Foam, Simplenote, etc. and Obsidian is the only one I’ve stuck with. I really appreciate the cross-platform support, Vim support and the community plugins.

I’m sure you don’t hear it enough so just wanted to say thanks for making a wonderful tool :pray: :raised_hands:

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I have tried a different number of note taking applications, ZimWiki, Joplin, WikidPad, wikionastick, you name it. But I finally found the one I love the best. Why do I love Obsidian the best? Let me count the ways!

  1. It starts quickly. I am not patient. For the same amount of material, Joplin would sometimes take a while to start or open blank, even if you are not syncing anything.
  2. The search is great, it clearly highlights the matches across all notes and inside them. Some of the others need help here. I mean you are going to have lots of notes, being able to search and do so well, is crucial, and Obsidian really shines here.
  3. The interface is minimalist yet has everything you need. Mind you, I would not mind a button bar to make something bold or underline or a heading. Maybe there is a way to do that.
  4. The editing window and display version are nicely integrated, you do not find yourself constantly in the editing window while really wanting to see the search highlights which only works in one window, or something like that. One note window that works nicely, whether editing or reading.
  5. It has a plugin for encryption, not that I am using, but I want that possibility.
  6. It has a sync option, not that I am using it, but I might some day.
  7. I love the standard .md file format, you can back up, copy, move files to a different wiki etc.

The only nice to haves would be:

  1. A button bar in the note window to make something bold or underline.
  2. In the notes list on the left, maybe a different background, or less faded font colour? Maybe a little more colour overall, maybe, not sure exactly what.

But f any developers read this, this is an awesome tool, awesome!!!
THANK YOU!

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