I have used Obsidian for many years at this point, and have always thought it to be brilliant, but I have also always felt I had to use Notion along side it. I don’t use code all the time and even when the dataview plugin came out, I could never remember how to make a table without researching it all over again. Notion lets me build databases so quickly. But Bases! This is a feature that truly can allow me to come back to Obsidian in a comprehensive way. So I have been working to develop user strategy. Fortunately I found Steph Ango’s blog post about his vault strategy, downloaded his vault files, and have spent a lot of time investigating them, modifying some of them, etc. I have some questions. I realize it could be indulgent to ask them here, and if so just ignore me, but I also think it might be helpful to others.
I have addressed my questions to Steph, linguistically, but it’s really addressed to anybody else who has worked with his vault system and files and might offer insights.
Evergreen Category—Is it right that you would apply the Evergreen Template as a modular add-on template to another note that he feels has Evergreen status? The template only has a created field and a tag field prefilled with an evergreen tag. Or would you often use this template alone and the note would only have the category “Evergreen”?
People Template vs Contact Template—At first I wondered why both. But I think this is part of your modular approach to templating where you can apply People as a base layer and apply Contact if you want to add more contact fields.
Why no field to link to a Daily Note?—I understand the idea behind creating a Daily Note only when you have another note to relate to it. But then I wonder why you don’t put a field in say your Meeting Template, or Podcast Episode Template, where you would link to the daily note. I guess you find it easier to put that link in the body of the note when it comes up?
Food Template—I’m curious what you use this for. It’s pre-filled with the category “Food” and has fields for maker, rating, price, last, and created. Would this typically be an ingredient you would link to from a recipe?
What is your basic template if you are creating something on the fly?
Meeting Type Template—I still don’t fully understand this template. It adds a tag field with “meetings/type” and a view of your meetings Base that filters for “list(type).contains(this)”. Do you make a note with this template that is literally a meeting type, like “Zoom” then link to it from the “type” field in your meeting note? If so, then why not just create the meeting type note from within the “type” field? Is it right to assume it’s so you can automate adding a base view to the note for the meeting type so you can go to it to see a list of all the meetings of this type (all your zoom meetings, etc.).
Meetings List Template—At first I couldn’t understand the purpose of this template, but I think it’s another modular template piece you can add to Person’s note that will insert a Base view of your meetings filtered by the person.
People Template—I’m curious why you don’t have fields for title, date met, and street addresses. I guess you add that in the body of the note if you need it?
General Rationale for defining and linking/nesting places—I’d love to have a deeper understanding of your structure for categorizing, labeling, organizing, and nesting places. I have a few specific questions below, but also would love to have know more about the macro system.
Place Template—I get confused by how you have “Places” as a main category of note, but then use “loc” as a field in various notes. I’m sure there’s a logic, but I’m still trying to understand it.
Your “Place Type Template” Template—How do you use this template? I assumed at first it would be applied to a “place type” when you add one to the “type” field on a “place” note. But the template inserts a map view using the map plugin and there doesn’t seem to be any place to add a geotag for a place. The filter of the places base uses the code “list(type).contains(this)”. Is the map meant to locate all the examples of the place type (say “Town”) on a map? Or is this template meant to be a modular element applied on top of a “Place Template” on a Place note? I tried that too, but the heading that is inserted is “Places” so that doesn’t relate to a single place. Plus there still is no field for a geotag that could locate anything on a map.
Why no “Song” category and template—It seems, with your “Musician” and “Album” categories that you’d sometimes categorize an important song. But maybe that’s just too granular.
Topics vs Genres—You use a “topics” field and a “genre” field it seems almost interchangeably. Since you like using as few fields as possible, I assumed you would simplify here. But I can definitely see how those could be two distinct groups. I’ll know for myself more as I apply them to more notes.
Uses of Tags in General—I’m confused by your strategy for when you use tags in a tag field, or tags in a list field to label something vs when you link to notes. You seem to use tags only occasionally. There’s obviously an important workflow around this, but I’m still working out the logic. Your “Meeting Type Template” adds a tag field pre-filled with “meetings/type”.
How to categorize notes about thoughts, etc.—I made a note about how the cityscapes in William Eggleston’s photos, from a show I saw the other day, reminded me of the streets of my childhood. I’m not sure what category I would give such a note. It’s not a clipping or reference, because it’s my thought about something by somebody else. Is it “Evergreen”? I’m drawn to make a “Thoughts” category, but I know your system covers thoughts and would love to know better.