Obsidian, a note-taking app, has gained popularity due to its unique structure and user-friendly

@obsdmd, a #notetaking #app, has gained #popularity due to its unique #structure and user-friendly interface. The app, launched in beta, has one million users, and its #Discordchannel has over 110,000 members, who use it for tasks, bookmarking, and organizing their daily thoughts. #Obsidian ranks in the top 5% of #communities on #Reddit with 94,600 members.

The #app's #grassroots success is remarkable, given that it isn't especially inviting to nontechnical users. While apps like Notion put all notes in the cloud, Obsidian gives users a folder full of files and manages it. Using Obsidian also requires some familiarity with #Markdown, a text-editing language with its own unique syntax, and leans on third-party plug-ins for features that are table stakes in other note-taking tools.

@EricaXu and @ShidaLi started working on Obsidian in 2020 while quarantining during the pandemic. They developed a #plugin system that allows users to replace elements such as word count with third-party alternatives, or even bolt on new features such as #Kanban boards and freeform drawing. They turned to @Discord to distribute early betas and spark the plug-in system. The result feels like a mentorship program for aspiring #JavaScript #programmers, with developers spending time not just making sure plug-ins worked properly, but that people were learning along the way.

When Obsidian was ready to expand its team, #Xu and #Li hired from within. @StephanAngo, who #cofounded and sold the packaging startup @Lumi, was appointed #CEO, and several other plug-in developers as #engineers. The #bottomup nature of Obsidian is also reflected in the app itself. Users can view a graph that shows all the links between their notes, use the Bookmarks section to arrange notes independently of their file system, and use the recent feature called #Canvas to arrange notes on a pinboard alongside comments, images, and embedded web pages.

Obsidian's approach has made for some surprising converts, such as @JohnVoorhees, the managing editor at #MacStories, who started using Obsidian a few years ago after being drawn to its local file structure. He and #MacStories founder @FedericoViticci have written extensively about their Obsidian setups since then.

Obsidian is built on a web-based technology called #Electron, which is built on a web-based technology called #Electron. #Voorhees says it's his favorite writing tool regardless of its platform, and he and Viticci have even commissioned some bespoke #plugins for their @Macstories workflows.

Obsidian, a note-taking app, has announced its future on social media, stating that it has no plans to grow beyond a dozen employees and will never raise #venturecapital. This approach allows the company to develop new features as quickly as other apps, and to chase growth by offering paid services below cost. However, Ango believes these self-imposed limits are a way to uphold the company's values and maintain its focus on creating durable, not locked into proprietary platforms.

Obsidian's team is small and #avoids #outside investment to avoid #incentives that could lead the company astray. The app has around 1 million users, with @Notion boasting 20 million users in 2021. Even Obsidian's most dedicated users don't expect it to take on Notion and other note-taking juggernauts, as they see Obsidian as having a different audience with different values.

Despite improvements, the Obsidian community wants to make the app less intimidating. Jean-Pierre Cen started building Make.md about a year ago, an ambitious plugin that tries to smooth some of Obsidian's rough edges and adds a pop-up formatting menu for selected text. #NickMilo, who is skeptical of ambitious plugins like Make.md, wants Obsidian to continue to make the app more approachable for new users, while retaining an infinite depth that can be explored through advanced features and plugins.