Resolve `Obsidian Plugin` and `plugin` usage as a brand and company

Developers: Plugin & API
1

Hi Obsidian team,

Loyal Obsidian user and developer here, thank you for an awesome core product. At this point I have a team of four that at times make progress on six Obsidian plugins we use for content development. At this point, they are professional grade and work magic.

We created the repos using {name-plugin} and in description said “An Obsidian plugin for…..”

Submitting them again to the plugin marketplace, and paying more attention to the fine details, we are hitting your restrictions on not using the words “Obsidian” and “plugin.”

[!ALERT]
Restricting plugin developers from mentioning Obsidian and plugin is both nonsense and counter-productive.
If you want to be strict about IP references, create clear guidelines that still allow the user community to discover, discuss, reference, and promote – without any additional work for you.

Having been a founder 3x and a VC investor into over 200 companies (https://mpstaton.com/) (not saying to boast, just to give credibility to my perspective)…

I remember when Facebook Pages launched in like 2007. I thought it was dumb and it had no real business features. You know what happened? Every business and newspaper and person with an idea started saying “Follow my Facebook Page.” – the entire point was brand recognition, word of mouth marketing.

GitHub doesn’t host splash pages on https://github.com instead on github.io creating a clear distinction between profile splash pages and github core.

When I can’t use the word Obsidian or plugin in the GitHub repo metadata or readme, that’s one less place linking back to you and shouting your praises. It’s frustrating for me, but it’s a lost moment of value creation for you.

So “Don’t Make Me Think” rules apply to this request if the Obsidan team reads this, my off-the-cuff recommendation is:

  • Plugin repos can have in their description, readme and docs: “Obsidian plugin, community edition” so long as the entire string is utilized, and Obsidian is a hyperlink a-href with whatever marketing text you choose.
  • Plugin repos can use the phrase “Obsidian Rocks!” but only if it links back to your website.
  • Come up with a variant of the Obsidian logo, a different color, a different sizing, a different background, does not matter, that we can use in our plugin brand assets. Put it on a brand-kit you direct developers to.
2

Where did you see that you can’t use “Obsidian” in the readme or in the docs of your plugin?

Which description are you talking about exactly?
The GitHub description of your plugin or the description field in the plugin manifesto?

3

It was in the autogenerated bot feedback. The use of “Plugin” and “Obsidian” was flagged.

The last submission I made had a banner similar to this:
Image Gin: a plugin for Obsidian to use Generative AI image generators to add images directly to your Obsidian content pages

The feedback from the bot was don’t use Obsidian, don’t use Plugin, don’t use the logo.

Image Gin: a plugin for Obsidian to use Generative AI image generators to add images directly to your Obsidian content pages

4

Those fields are displayed in the app when you browse plugins, they are just unecessary fluff there.

As for the logo, that is brandmarked and we have to make sure it’s not used in a way that could confuse users into thinking that it’s a official product.

5

Yeah, @joethei thanks for being responsive.

But this is what I am saying, you should have a variant of the icon that is open for developers to use.

Yes, no one wants to pretend they are the Obsidian team doing official Obsidian work.

But, part of the draw of building a plugin and submitting it, or just having it on GitHub, is you have a loyal community that seek Obsidian plugins.

You know how people use the Internet, they browse, they move fast, they skim, they lose attention.
Getting your IP/Platform act together and having an “ObsidianPLIN” string is acceptable, do not use our brand purple Obsidian icon, use this blueish one instead.

It’s not hard, you just have to make the choice and kind of tell your attorneys to pound sand.

Facebook let everyone use the little Facebook favicon and billions of store owners put the icon on their store: “Add us on Facebook”

You should want all plugin developers to post your brand as far and as wide as possible.

6

You can use Obsidian name and logo in your documentation to refer to Obsidian. That is fair use.

Like “add us on Facebook” is fair use, “Install XYZ plugin in Obsidian” is fair use.
What you can’t do is name your plugins “Obsidian XYZ”, or use Obsidian’s logo as part of your project logo.

I don’t think that what we are asking is that much different from the standard practice.