TiddlyWiki User Archetypes: Who Uses It and What They Need to Know

[tomzheng]

TiddlyWiki User Archetypes: Who Uses It and What They Need to Know

What subsets of functionality can TiddlyWiki be split into?

SuperMemo has different user interfaces for different users, which can be switched.

This article was done in collaboration with DeepSeek

Edited May 2025

Casual Note-Takers

“I just want to jot down ideas and find them later.”

Goals: Simple note organization, basic search, portability.

Knowledge Involved:

Create and save documents.

Basic wiki markup (headings, links, lists)

Use tags to organize notes

Enable backlinks to see connections between notes

Markdown Users

Install the markdown plugin.

Setting the document type to markdown

Setting up backlinks for wiki links

Install relink/markdown plugin

Learn the nodejs version of tiddlywiki or use tiddlywiki-app

Plugin Users

“I want to extend TiddlyWiki without coding.”

Goals: Enhanced functionality via plugins.

Knowledge Involved:

Install some plugins you need. TiddlyMap(graphically display relationships between documents), Locator(organize notes in fields), Shiraz(lists and tables).

Knowledge Managers

“I need a structured system for projects or research.”

Goals: Backlinks, queries, and cross-referencing.

Knowledge Involved:

Basic document queries

Learn filters to search and sort notes

Use the List Widget to display filtered results.

Advanced document creation, modification, viewing, and querying

Learning the button widget

Learning about input widgets

Learning about the action widget

Automation

Use Macros to reuse code snippets

Customizers

“I want my wiki to look and behave uniquely.”

Goals: Tailored themes, layouts, or interactions.

Knowledge Involved:

Learn basic CSS to tweak themes

Modify templates

Other related customization knowledge

Educators & Technical Writers

“I need tutorials, documentation, or interactive guides.”

Goals: Create embedded tutorials or interactive content.

Knowledge Involved:

Transclusion ({{ }}) for reusable content.

Advanced macros.

Custom widgets for quizzes/forms.

Develop small interactive programs following tutorials

Developers

Learn more widgets

Learn to write modules

Learning plugin development

Learning basic data structures, architecture of tiddlywiki

Final remarks

Users of tiddlywiki have a high probability of eventually learning all the points step by step. This is because TiddlyWiki users are basically deep software enthusiasts.

What other user groups do you have in mind that can be categorized into different knowledge radii?

Related links

@tomzheng

The focus of my statement is the third sentence, I would like to have a simple subset of TiddlyWiki. Only by simplifying TiddlyWiki can it become a standard and have third party implementations.

• I want the filter to have only simple field-based data query functions. I don’t want it to have other operations like arithmetic.
• I want the number of widgets to be reduced, I only want them to be limited to read/write/delete querying of data and saving of files.

[jacng]

I love this ! There is an evaluation process we go thru before we even decide to use Tiddlywiki :

Evaluation

• Learning the features and capablities of TW and compare against the competitors
• Deciding to use Tiddlywiki despite an inevitably inadequate understanding of Tiddlywiki, both underestimating and overestimating it at the same time
• Evaluate the many saving options of Tiddlywiki to settle on one approach, and not giving up in confusion
• Cycled thru the evaluation steps above every few years, until you finally make the commitment to just try it out this one time

Took years for me to get thru the evaluation process

[nemo]

by the categories and descriptions listed… I feel like the info I want to put in it and how I organise it, are somewhere between casual notetaker, and knowledge manager, and the way I manage TW as a piece of software is mildly “plugin users” and heavily nodejs, which you’ve got under ‘markdown’ for some reason.

I think there isn’t a linear path here, but it’s a 2D (or more?) grid.

On one axis, you’ve got the “how organised/structured do I want the data?” (ranging from casual/slapdash through to highly structured/planned), and on a different axis you’ve got “how do I manage/configure the TW application”, ranging from “out of the box is fine” to “some plugins/coding as needed” through to “I will customise everything!”

Perhaps hosting style is a third axis, with discrete points of single-file / nodejs / tiddlyhost (and in the future, MWS?)

[tomzheng]

Each part has a progression from beginner to advanced. For example, filters, and development.

@nemo

which you’ve got under ‘markdown’ for some reason.

Markdown users coming from Obsidian are accustomed to editing documents in the file system. Node.js is based on the file system.

[nemo]

@tomzheng

Markdown users coming from Obsidian are accustomed to editing documents in the file system

I sure hope ex-Obsidian users are aware that editing files while node TW is running risks losing data (TW doesn’t see the edits, and a later in-TW edit of the same data will override the made-on-filesystem edit).

@tomzheng

Node.js is based on the file system.

Yes, that’s the original reason why I started using node based TW, and while I use markdown when suits, in general I default to wikitext. I’ve never used obsidian in my life, so it seems odd to me to assume markdown users are from Obsidian, or that markdown defaulters will use node.

[tomzheng]

@nemo

I sure hope ex-Obsidian users are aware that editing files while node TW is running risks losing data (TW doesn’t see the edits, and a later in-TW edit of the same data will override the made-on-filesystem edit).

Start node.js only when you need to edit in TiddlyWiki. Stop node.js immediately after editing. Only edit the file system when node.js is stopped. This way, you can avoid the issue of data loss that you mentioned. The TiddlyWiki app, as an Electron software, also follows the same approach.

Additionally, I remember that TiddlyWikiWeb has a feature to re-read from the file system. Each time after editing from the file system, remember to perform the operation to re-read from the file system.

@nemo

so it seems odd to me to assume markdown users are from Obsidian, or that markdown defaulters will use node.

Markdown is a more open format. By sticking to Markdown, you can exit the TiddlyWiki ecosystem at any time. You can take over editing tasks with other desktop and mobile applications.

[nemo]

@tomzheng

Start node.js only when you need to edit in TiddlyWiki. Stop node.js immediately after editing.

I guess I never considered using it that way. To me part of the appeal and point of node is that it’s a service, and always available. Mine always runs, and is then loaded in a browser tab (in fact multiple, because devices).

It’d be interesting to poll node users and see if the usage pattern is skewed towards “always running” or “only run as needed”

The “detect filesystem changes while it’s running” is something I recall reading that Bob can do, and looking into that is on my todo (along with MWS), but hasn’t happened yet.

@tomzheng

Markdown is a more open format. By sticking to Markdown, you can exit the TiddlyWiki ecosystem at any time. You can take over editing tasks with other desktop and mobile applications.

Absolutely. And that’s a good thing. I’m in the process of importing a lot of personal notes into TW5, and some of them are Markdown and makes it much nicer to import. All I’m saying above is that I don’t see this as being linked to Obsidian specifically (or even necessarily to node)