A closer look at HelloThere

#1

HelloThere, being the first thing that meets the visitor, is presumably the best quick explanation+exemplification of what TW is and can do. For sure a very difficult text to get right.

Here’s an attempt to look at the current version of HelloThere with the eyes of a presumptive visitor:

“Welcome to TiddlyWiki…”

  • a unique non-linear notebook
    - OK, so more than anything else, it is a kind of notebook (which also the pages subtitle states).
  • capturing, organising and sharing complex information
    …that helps me to work with complex information

“Use it to…”

  • to-do list
    - OK, that’s a very clear example
  • plan an essay or novel
    …aha, some kind of “outliner”
  • organise your wedding
    - OK, I can see how a notebook+todolist+outliner can be useful for planning “one off events”
  • record every thought that crosses your brain
    - OK, back to it being a “notebook”
  • build a flexible and responsive website
    - Oh, some kind of WordPress tool. That’s a different type of thing from the previous examples.

A readers reasonable conclusion is that TW is a note-taking tool with various templates to apply to e.g todo-lists and outlines to publish them. That it is a ready-made, but somewhat “unfocused”, application.

One can argue if that is fair but, most critically, it doesn’t make the main point with TW clear, namely that TW is designed as a general purpose tool for building “any” sort of application. It is closer to a programming language than a note-taking tool or any other narrow use case.

I wish the introductory tiddler would better convey that:

  • TW out-of-the-box is, indeed, a powerful note-taking system but…
  • …that the very notes themselves become building blocks for the system itself, because they are programmable…
  • …which, in practice, means that the very user notes shape the system into a personal use case specific app.

“Programmable” may sound like something only experienced tiddlywikians do but consider that even a basic {{transclusion}} or a <<list-links>> call are really abstracted programming commands so, yes, people do get into the programming right away.

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#2

That’s a good critique, @twMat :clap:

However, I think it would be better to avoid the term programming right there at the outset. I mean, by all means tout the possibilities, but without scaring off a whole category of visitors that might run for the hills should they think “Oh, I need to be a programmer? This aint for me, then…”

But as you implied, “[f]or sure, a very difficult text to [write]”. We’ve had 20 years to get this right and we’re still not there (yet).

Perhaps: “What if I told you right now, you can modify and change this text – yes, this very text you’re reading – and that it’s so easy to do, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it? What about the title of this webpage? See that text in the top-right corner? “TiddlyWiki – a non-linear1 personal web notebook” – let’s change that right now, together… [example follows]”

And when it’s completed: “Hey! You’re a web programmer!”

The above could be written as I wrote it, give or take, or even use the Tour plugin.

[1] "non-linear" is unnecessary and should be removed. It has no place in introductory "elevator pitch" material.
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#3

Yup, thumbs up to that.

It would be nice if TiddlyWiki’s HelloThere had a blurb akin to:

Grab any of the easy-to-follow recipes for turning any TiddlyWiki into one that matches your preferences, accommodates your needs, and fulfills your requirements (find the things you need to find, track the things you need to track, list the things you need to list, manage the things you need to manage.)

Well, if we had the recipes. Then that blurb would have a link to the searchable list of recipes.

Something like that.

#4

I like it a lot! One caveat: Instead of “turning any TiddlyWiki into one that matches…”, why not the simpler “creating a TiddlyWiki that matches”? Make sure that readers know they’re in charge right from the start.

#5

Because at this stage of the big-picture, I could not care less about the details of wording that best delights the eye of the beholder? Academic lessons in grammar/vocabulary/style, that just encourages me to withdraw. I don’t cope well with what feels like cart before horse.

By all means, if you enjoy that discussion, maybe somebody else interested in that can get into a back and forth with you.

I’m only interested in ideas revolving around the challenges: how to create / organize and make accessible “recipes”.

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#6

I ended up using TiddlyWiki precisely because I was after a non-linear notebook, if that had not been in the early descriptions I encountered I wouldn’t be writing this here now.

At the time I first encountered TW I had no thoughts of extending functionality by programming so that would have been a questionable sell - also I was at one time a professional developer so I would not have been scared off by mention of programming but many would be.

This does not mean I use only the base product, I have written my own plugins and considerably enhanced my non-linear-notetaking experience.

I think its healthy to look at how TW presents itself but your suggested changes might have meant I would not have engaged with TW.

I think the notebook aspect is very important, just because it doesn’t cover the full range don’t throw it out.

If we look at the base product then what is it - forget the plugins for a moment - what is the base product?

I would suggest the base product enables us to store or reference information in the form of text, images and other media in discrete packages that can be viewed on something called a Storyriver and these discrete packages can cross reference each other by internet style linking and be interrogated or accessed by other methods like searches or tags.

So perhaps the base product without plugins is precisely a non-linear notetaking app - I say “notetaking” because the information doesn’t find its way into a tiddler by itself in the base product.

Sure when you add plugins TW becomes something else but don’t neglect or devalue the wishes of those who came to the product because of it’s roots.

“That it is a ready-made, but somewhat “unfocused”, application.” - that kind of depends on what you have on your mind when you search around and first find TiddlyWiki - if you have my needs then the base product was very much a focused application, when I first found TW I knew in a very short time it was exactly what I was looking for.

“…that the very notes themselves become building blocks for the system itself, because they are programmable…” - that will scare a lot of non-tech people off !

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