I came across a surprising situation concerning TiddlyWiki and thought it might provide an worthy discussion topic.
The main tiddlywiki.com currently highlights the idea of TW being a fully conceived application. Though in concept it is it misses an opportunity to show that this is not a normal application like people expect. For me the biggest win for TW is that it is in essence only HTML in a browser. By comparison to something like Obsidian which is a focused as a desktop application with optional cloud support.
This distinction is important to me because of the job that I have. Like many who might work or be in an environment that has tight restrictions on what a computer can do it is important to manage the nuances of how a piece of technology is implemented.
For example I work in an industry that requires installed applications to be vetted. If I needed a note taking app like Obsidian I need to ask permission to install it. This approval process is on a per application basis. However because of TW unique implementation being that of a web page it does not need that same kind of scrutiny as a compiled application would. It is just a document on the machine. — or in my case a set of files served by a local bound node.js instance. Being so contained locally is a big win for such an environment.
But to those unfamiliar with TW and how it works it is not apparent that is the case. When I mention “I use TiddlyWiki” and link to the main page they understandably think it is an application that needs approval. The main page focuses on the tools external to TW such as the desktop application or Tiddlyhost and you have to dig very deep to find that under the hood it is only an HTML file.
I suspect that the vast majority of visitors to the site (potential users) need such a focus on simple application installs because we have entire generations who have been taught “apps, apps, apps.” The idea that things could be different is lost to those old generations who had to do things by hand.
I’m curious if the Quick Start section could have a top level HTML focused option instead of discovering that two levels under the “Explore” button. As even the Getting Started section it is not very apparent that the HTML implementation is the backbone to the TW system.
Having to try to explain all this every time I post an elevator pitch/link to tiddlywiki.com is quite demotivating sometimes.
I think it would be a good idea. How would we present that?
Here’s a first pass, as an addition to HelloThere:
TiddlyWiki lets you choose where to keep your data, guaranteeing that in the decades to come you will still be able to use the notes you take today.
Tiddlywiki stores its data and runtime in a single HTML file, requiring no installs, no external dependencies, nothing but a web browser.
TiddlyWiki is infinitely customisable and extensible with many plugins that add new features
TiddlyWiki is the product of a collective of developers, part of an extensive community of users
(Minor note: If we’re in there updating this, my internal copy editor hopes that we can decide if these bullets should end in full stops. Right now the first one does; the other two don’t.)
I used TiddlyWiki twice before when my job required much more knowledge work for exactly this reason. Even now I still use TiddlyHost since it is not blocked by web filtering. It’s a strong advantage.
I agree it’s a key selling point and it’s what ultimately made me choose TiddlyWiki. I’ve written previously on how I see it as an essential feature that must be retained in the future, even if contributors and commercial users favour nodejs.
Indeed, that’s why we need out-of-the-box software like TIDGIT. Inside there are configured TiddlyWiki files with a large number of plug-ins installed to help newcomers get started with TiddlyWiki quickly. later on newcomers can delete or modify many of the plug-ins once they are familiar with them. As well as a configured GITHUB synchronisation scheme. Just need to use github desktop, and register a github account, you can automatically synchronise the data to Github, very convenient.
At present, TIDGIT has no English introduction article, if the experience is better can write some articles recommended to more people.