Why Recommend New Users to Use the Pre-configured TiddlyWiki Version Instead of the Blank TiddlyWiki Version
This is a controversial topic, but I think it’s worth discussing separately. When I first started learning TiddlyWiki, I didn’t use the blank version. When I found that the blank version only had a language plugin and the core, with nothing else, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. A few months later, I discovered that linonetwo had developed a software that included a pre-configured TiddlyWiki, and that’s when I truly entered the world of TiddlyWiki.
At the beginning, I was not familiar with many plugins. However, the Chinese community had a friendly atmosphere at that time, so I always asked various questions. For example, why a filter was written this way instead of that way, why a plugin had such a function, and how to modify the plugin’s content to achieve my desired functionality. Linonetwo and other community members often answered my questions, which allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of these plugins.
I’d like to point out that TiddlyWiki is a completely offline product with very rich features. So, I’m not worried that plugins will damage my notes or leak my data. At least, I haven’t found such issues so far. Of course, there are indeed cases of conflicts between plugins, which we’ll discuss later. There’s no need to worry when using the pre-configured TiddlyWiki in TIDGI because linonetwo is also using it. Every time TIDGI is updated, he will update this wiki template. If there are plugin conflicts, he will fix them in a timely manner. Of course, you may not be satisfied with linonetwo’s configuration of TiddlyWiki, and that’s great. Because you can further modify his configuration and build the pre-configured TiddlyWiki into the one you want. This is exactly what makes TiddlyWiki so appealing. Everyone can have their own unique TiddlyWiki. But how to start? I think starting with linonetwo’s pre-configured TiddlyWiki or anyone else’s pre-configured TiddlyWiki is much better than starting with the blank version.
Next, I’ll mention some plugins to further prove why new users should start with a provided template rather than the blank version. First, they need to install the CPL plugin or other plugin sources; otherwise, they can only access official plugins and won’t be able to get other plugins. Here, I recommend CPL because this plugin source has collected and is still collecting most of the TiddlyWiki plugins in the world. It’s very convenient to download, install, and update plugins. I remember that before CPL, I had to track whether a plugin was updated by myself and then drag the updated plugin into my wiki. When I had several plugins to update, I had to open several websites for the updates. This really annoyed me. So, I recommend that any new user use CPL to manage their plugins.
Secondly, apart from CPL, there are some plugins that I think every TiddlyWiki should install. For example, $:/plugins/flibbles/relink. Without this plugin and its series of plugins, updating links would be very troublesome. Another example is $:/plugins/kookma/commander. Without this plugin, batch modification would become extremely difficult. And $:/plugins/oeyoews/tiddlywiki-codemirror-6, which I think is the best editor plugin for TiddlyWiki at present. Imagine a new user encountering these excellent plugins when they first start using TiddlyWiki. Wouldn’t they be more interested in learning about TiddlyWiki? If they are given a blank version, they won’t discover anything. They don’t know that there are these excellent plugins outside the TiddlyWiki forum and Google. (Moreover, more often than not, new users are less likely to actively search for TiddlyWiki-related content after they start using it.) TiddlyWiki is different from Obsidian. Almost every excellent plugin in Obsidian has very detailed documentation and introduction videos. Even in the Chinese community, many people spontaneously promote Obsidian, not to mention the commercial promotions.
No one will deny that TiddlyWiki has rich features. But before getting into wikitext and widgets, shouldn’t users first use TiddlyWiki to write down some notes and then start their TiddlyWiki journey? And I think the plugins of TiddlyWiki and the functions of TiddlyWiki itself are not in conflict. Take an example I recently implemented. I used the $:/plugins/oeyoews/neotw-homepage plugin and modified its default configuration. Then I learned some of TiddlyWiki’s own functions and finally combined them to achieve the functionality I wanted. When no entries are opened, page buttons are displayed. This is a feature that most note-taking software currently has, but TiddlyWiki always seems to be lacking something.
I don’t deny that some plugin functions are very simple, so simple that experienced users can implement them just by writing wikitext. But new users know nothing. Even users with higher education and a computer science background may not be able to quickly accept wikitext. When they face the blank version, it’s like facing a vast and undeveloped land. If they have to start from scratch for everything, they will definitely choose easier-to-use tools like Obsidian or Notion.
Some people may wonder why we need new users. TiddlyWiki has been around for twenty years, and the number of new users joining has always been small. Moreover, TiddlyWiki itself has a high learning curve.
I don’t agree with this view. The reason is simple. We all hope that TiddlyWiki can exist actively. This requires continuously attracting new users to join. When new users join, they will put forward new requirements, new solutions, and new promotion methods. The simplest way is to recommend TiddlyWiki to their friends and classmates to further expand the popularity of TiddlyWiki. The more outstanding ones can write some promotional articles, record some promotional videos, and even write plugin introductions and complete tutorial articles. These are all the benefits that new users can bring to us. And the most important thing we need to do is to keep the new users. The market for note-taking software is not large. Notion and Obsidian have attracted many users, and in China, many new users are attracted to SiYuan Note. Whether it’s open-source or commercial software, newly launched software always attracts new users. Newly launched software often has various fancy features. Once new users are attracted, they may stay there.
Let me take SiYuan Note as an example. SiYuan Note is a combination of open-source and commercial. The local offline editor function is open-source and free, and the commercial part is cloud synchronization. But you can also choose other synchronization methods. SiYuan Note has developed very rapidly. After several major version iterations, it is now stable. Many of its plugins have both Chinese and English introductions. Most of the developers of these plugins are Chinese. But I want to point out that many of them are not professional developers. Some of them had never even touched HTML, CSS, or JS before developing plugins. These are the new users we need. If we also have many new users who don’t know much about front-end knowledge, and after they start using TiddlyWiki, they learn these knowledge and use it to transform TiddlyWiki, and then further spread their solutions, wouldn’t it make TiddlyWiki more prosperous? In the era of AI prevalence, new users can completely become plugin developers because they only need to use basic HTML, CSS, and JS.
If we need new users to develop the TiddlyWiki community, we first need to keep them. And to keep the new users, we need to look at TiddlyWiki from their perspective. I’ve recommended TiddlyWiki to many friends, but most of them switched to Obsidian even after they learned how to use TiddlyWiki. They think TiddlyWiki is too complicated and that Obsidian is better. Since Obsidian is closed-source, they only need to combine its plugins and just ensure there are no conflicts between plugins. They don’t need to write code themselves. In TiddlyWiki, they think they need to write code like wikitext, which is too troublesome. New users can also do the same in the early stage of using TiddlyWiki. They can use the pre-configured version and then delete some plugins or install some other plugins to achieve their goals. It’s not too late to deeply understand TiddlyWiki’s wikitext functions when they can accept TiddlyWiki. If they are exposed to the blank version right from the start, I believe that apart from top experts, no new user will be willing to accept such a difficult challenge.
Finally, I still recommend TIDGI to new users or my friends instead of the blank TiddlyWiki version. TIDGI is open-source and free. It contains a pre-configured TiddlyWiki template and also has the function of automatically synchronizing to GitHub. If you want, you can make your GitHub repository public and publish it as an online website to build your own blog. That’s how I built my blog. You just need to install TIDGI, then create a new TiddlyWiki, select the local folder path, and you can start your TiddlyWiki journey.
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How much smaller of a file could we have if this was split into a plugin? Going even further, note that some people are so passionate about a minimalistic approach that they have their own “editions” where the selling point is less features - like