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Original credited author: Hraness

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

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obsidian: coverage

what the discourse made of obsidian — the darling phase, the canonization, and the critiques.

coverage

2020-05-27 — show hn: obsidian (hacker news, erica xu) — positive. 'a knowledge base that works on local markdown files' — local-first, plain text, linking like an ide. the launch pitch and the whole product thesis in one sentence, while roam was still hot. traction: ~1,087 points, 477 comments — the third-biggest obsidian thread ever.
2020-08-23 — the perfect note-taking app (youtube, ali abdaal) — positive. the perfect note-taking app taxonomy — obsidian named before the fandom formed. abdaal later publicly preferred apple notes, which makes the early endorsement more honest. traction: 797k views.
2020-09-15 — obsidian for beginners: start here (youtube — linking your thinking, nick milo) — positive. 'obsidian for beginners: start here' — the video that onboarded a generation of users and founded the linking your thinking media operation. traction: 2.41m views — the single most important onboarding artifact.
2021 — why i chose obsidian over roam (fork my brain, nicole van der hoeven) — positive. a roam 'believer' plan buyer and small investor defects publicly — notable for who was writing, not just what.
2021 — how to switch from roam research to obsidian (ness labs, anne-laure le cunff) — positive. the influential migration how-to — roam lock-in as the cautionary contrast that made local markdown feel like freedom.
2021-07-12 — show hn: obsidian for mobile (hacker news, erica xu) — positive. the mobile launch thread — enthusiasm for the app, sustained grumbling about ios sync workarounds and the license. the first big mobile moment. traction: 760 points, 318 comments; #1 product of the day on product hunt.
2021-12-22 — the rise of second-brain apps (the cut / new york magazine, sophie haigney) — mixed. 'i saw the best minds of my generation being uploaded onto second-brain apps' — the first big mainstream-culture piece to name the category, bemused and generous at once. traction: tiago forte wrote a case study about the piece itself.
2022-10-13 — obsidian 1.0 (hacker news) — positive. the 1.0 thread — the community's proof-of-arrival moment, full of users recounting migrations. traction: ~1,329 points, 565 comments.
2022-12-20 — show hn: obsidian canvas (hacker news) — positive. canvas's launch thread — the spatial-canvas feature landed as the most-loved obsidian moment on hn ever. traction: 1,380 points, 387 comments — the highest-scoring obsidian submission identified.
2023-10 — inside the cult of obsidian, the note-taking app with a rabid fan base (fast company, jared newman) — positive. 'the cult of obsidian' — the profile that canonized the community reading. kepano responded 'proudly not a cult,' which only fed the framing. traction: techmeme carry; wonder tools explainer fed it.
2022-08-04 — obsidian review (techradar, stefan ionescu) — positive. 'sophisticated features… a stellar user interface' — the trade-press review, priced against the old grid.
2024 — how to use obsidian for writing and productivity (wired, justin pot) — positive. 'this application has slowly gone from being a weird app i didn't understand to one i can't imagine functioning without.' wired's practical guide doubled as a conversion story.
2025-12-07 — obsidian review (pcmag, justin pot) — positive. 4.0/excellent, 'best for power users' — with the cons that define the product: 'difficult to get started with. no collaboration features.'
2024-04-24 — obsidian: the king of learning tools (youtube, odysseas) — positive. the single biggest obsidian video — a full guide and setup from the study-tube end of youtube. traction: 3.26m views.
2024-01-17 — why i like obsidian (ddanieltan.com, daniel tan) — positive. 'the backstage manager of my life' — the love letter whose 368-comment hn thread doubled as a meta-discussion of pkm habits. traction: 293 points, 368 comments on hn.
2024 — how i use obsidian (calv.info, calvin french-owen) — positive. the segment co-founder's workflow — 'the primary goal of the tool should be eliciting thought… 99% of the time i never re-visit my notes, and that is fine.'
2024-02-24 — karpathy's obsidian endorsement (x, andrej karpathy) — positive. 'the file is the source of truth, not the application' — karpathy endorses the philosophy, not the note-taking. the endorsement obsidian quotes forever. traction: the most-repeated single endorsement obsidian has.
2024 — i've turned into a tech hippie (fast company, jared newman) — positive. obsidian as refuge from venture-backed apps — 'a small team that hasn't raised any venture capital' pitched as the feature.
2025-08-18 — obsidian bases (hacker news) — mixed. the bases launch thread — 'notion killer' versus 'scope creep' fought to a draw across 255 comments. traction: 695 points, 255 comments.
2025-08-18 — how the head of obsidian went from superfan to ceo (the verge / decoder, casey newton) — positive. the superfan-to-ceo decoder interview — the fullest mainstream account of obsidian's philosophy and business.
2026-04-02 — llm knowledge bases (x, andrej karpathy) — positive. obsidian cast as the ide/frontend for an llm-compiled markdown wiki — web clipper for ingest, agents for the gardening. the agent-era reframing at maximum reach. traction: 1.2m+ views per analytics drift.
2022-01-31 — notes against note-taking systems (sashachapin.substack.com, sasha chapin) — critical. the canonical anti-pkm essay — 'getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic way to avoid creating things.' never names obsidian; defined the counter-genre anyway. traction: spawned a public rebuttal genre.
2023-02-03 — a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten (chrisaldrich.wordpress.com, chris aldrich) — critical. 'a cargo cult of zettelkasten aspirants… may eventually give up, sometimes in shame' — the practioner's warning that the tooling outruns the practice.
2023-01-22 — pkm in retrospect (pkm weekly, curtis mchale) — mixed. 'roam is out of the picture… people were always dreaming about a tool that did the work' — the pkm weekly postmortem on the whole wave.
2023-08-25 — why note-taking apps don't make us smarter (the verge, david pierce) — mixed. 'the original promise of roam — that it would improve my thinking — fizzled completely' and 'obsidian's brutalist design wore on me' — the verge's own pkm exhaustion piece.
2023 — stop procrastinating with note-taking apps (youtube, sam matla) — critical. 'stop procrastinating with note-taking apps' — the video-form version of the productivity-porn critique, aimed at the whole category obsidian leads. traction: 533k views.
2025 — over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap (buildfirstbrain.com, buildfirstbrain) — critical. 'a polished form of procrastination, productivity porn, where optimizing the system substitutes for the hard work' — the obsidian-named version of the chapin argument.
2025-10-23 — be careful with obsidian (phong.bearblog.dev, hữu phong) — critical. the security critique in one post — closed-source, no sandbox, plugins 'reviewed only once and not re-audited on updates,' unsigned dmg. hn split between 'relatively trustworthy' and demands for sandboxing. traction: 127 points, 150 comments on hn.
2025 — a plain folder of markdown files beat notion, obsidian, and apple notes (xda, mahnoor faisal) — mixed. 'it's beloved by the open-source community despite not being open-source' — the contradiction stated plainly, as a compliment and an accusation at once.
2025-08-27 — obsidian disabling community plugins (obsidian forum, obsidian forum) — critical. the team remotely deprecated two plugin versions over a bug-report flood — 'does this really justify interacting with a user's personal plugin config?' the local-first promise meets a remote kill switch.
2025-07-05 — security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval (obsidian forum, obsidian forum) — mixed. the ai-generated plugin flood hits the human review queue — a ~300-pr backlog and the governance debate that produced the 2026 automated reviews.
2022 — obsidian publish feels like it should not cost $198 a year (linkedin, bob doto) — critical. 'obsidian publish feels like it's still in development and therefore should not cost $198 a year' — the canonical pricing gripe, still cited in alternatives posts four years later. traction: obsidian cut publish pricing in april 2023.
2024 — obsidian vs. notion: which is best? (zapier, zapier) — mixed. 'both are for power users, but notion is more user friendly' — the usability-versus-power framing that defined the mainstream comparison for years.
2022-10-15 — logseq: privacy-first platform for knowledge management (hacker news) — mixed. the open-source rival's big hn thread — 276 points and a comment section that was really about obsidian. traction: 276 points.
2022-07-27 — after obsidian and logseq, i give dendron a try (hacker news) — mixed. the era-typical three-way shootout — obsidian, logseq, dendron — before the field thinned. traction: 129 points, 159 comments.
2023-02 — dendron development stopped? (github, dendron) — mixed. 'we were ultimately not able to find product market fit for a venture backed business' — the vc-funded competitor's end-of-life note became the cautionary exhibit in every obsidian business-model debate.
2025-09 — trying logseq (blog.tombert.com, tombert) — mixed. 'the one complaint i have with obsidian is that it is not open source… i actually pay for the professional license to support the project' — the logseq trial that ends back at obsidian.
2026-05-26 — why i left logseq for obsidian after 2+ years (0x5.uk, tim abell) — positive. the reverse migration — calls obsidian 'closed-source freeware' and still switches from logseq for reliability. the comparison genre's most honest entry.
2026-05-18 — show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian (hacker news) — mixed. an open-source obsidian clone launches at 730 points — out-scoring most obsidian announcements and functioning as a referendum on the closed core. traction: 730 points — more than bases, the cli, or headless sync.
2025 — i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did (xda, xda) — critical. 'the lack of an integrated ai' as the dealbreaker — the first big departure framed as an ai story, not a notes story.
2025 — i stopped using obsidian after finding this self-hosted notes app (xda, xda) — critical. 'i had just built a high-maintenance hobby… i hadn't produced a single original thought' — the departure as confession.
2025-05-05 — ditching obsidian and building my own (amberwilliams.io, amber williams) — critical. 'i was surprised at this fee because i thought obsidian was open-source… almost $1,000 if i planned to use obsidian for a decade' — the biggest leaving-obsidian thread ever. traction: 471 points, 559 comments — the largest departure thread identified.
2024-10-18 — i ditched obsidian for this note app and i'm never going back! (youtube, shu omi) — critical. 'i found myself spending so much time constantly tweaking my setup and installing hundreds of plugins' — the highest-reach departure video. traction: 603k views.
2023-09-08 — why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review (youtube, shu omi) — mixed. the video that framed the capacities exodus narrative — obsidian's first credible 'people are leaving' story. traction: 446k views.
2026-04 — claude just killed the note-taking app. here is proof. (youtube, icor with tom) — critical. 'claude just killed the note-taking app' — the agent-era departure genre: if the ai does the synthesis, the vault is just storage. traction: 473k views — against isenberg's 455k-view pro-vault video in the same season.
2026-07-17 — rebooting my note-taking (darcynorman.net, d'arcy norman) — critical. 'even that had turned into something of a cargo cult… thousands of notes that i never referred to… i just deleted all of those' — the quiet reboot departure.
2025 — how i organized my life using only apple notes (youtube, zach highley) — mixed. the apple-notes counter-current — the biggest 'you don't need obsidian' video of the era. traction: 681k views.

controversies

2020– — closed source, open files: a data-ownership philosophy shipped as a closed-source app. silver's august 2020 forum answer gave the four-point rationale — small team, plugin freedom over sandboxing, and file-format openness as the real lock-in defense — and the argument has never fully closed. reaction: recurring: a popular open-sourcing megathread was auto-hidden by flags in 2022 and restored by staff; an open-source clone's 2026 launch out-scored every obsidian announcement; kepano's hn line — 'file over app is more important than open source' — is the company's settled answer. (sources: open sourcing of obsidian, my (largely popular) open source thread was hidden, show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian, 100% user-supported, obsidian isn't actually open source — here's the markdown editor that is)
2020– — plugin power without a sandbox: community plugins run with full system access and no sandbox — licat called a secure sandbox 'absolutely' impossible without crippling the api. reviewers saw submissions once at entry; updates were not re-audited until the 2026 automated reviews. reaction: the trust model held socially for years, then met its stress tests: the phantompulse rat campaign in 2026 and the vibe-coded submission flood that forced automated per-version review. (sources: licat posts, less is safer: reducing the risk of supply chain attacks, security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval into community plugins, the future of obsidian plugins)
2021–2023 — the pricing stack: the early service pricing read as premium: publish at $16–20/month per site, sync at $8–10/month, a required $50/user/year commercial license. the doto post made the publish gripe canonical. reaction: the company cut rather than defended: publish repriced to $96/year in april 2023, a $4 sync standard tier arrived in 2024, and the commercial license went optional in 2025. (sources: obsidian publish feels like it's still in development and therefore should not cost $198 a year, obsidian publish standard price, obsidian publish now offers more for less, new sync standard plan, obsidian is now free for work)
2026-06 — the sync price hike: the june 2026 sync repricing — ~35% annual increase, the 1 gb tier eliminated, no grandfathering — produced the loudest backlash of the service era. reaction: forum and reddit threads accumulated; the fullest write-up (remio.ai) carries ai-embellished statistics, so the backlash is real but its sharpest numbers are unverified. (sources: obsidian's sync pricing hike triggers community backlash, obsidian sync storage options)
2021– — ios and icloud: ios friction is the product's oldest wound: icloud-synced vaults hang on 'loading workspace,' and advanced data protection took app load from ~5s to ~45s in user reports. reaction: years of forum threads with workspace-mobile.json surgery as the fix; obsidian's own sync is the sanctioned answer, which reads to critics as the friction monetizing itself. (sources: ios app extremely slow to load, ios & icloud slow to start, obsidian ios performance hit after enabling icloud advanced data protection?, ios and icloud: stuck on loading workspace)
2025-08 — bases and the scope question: bases turned notes into a database — and split the room. 'notion killer' reads alongside 'scope creep': whether a notes app should want to be a database is the vision question of the kepano era. reaction: 695-point hn thread fought to a draw; even favorable coverage called kepano's framing 'a bit too flowery.' the counter-argument: properties shipped in 2023 and the community's dataview had asked for this for years. (sources: obsidian bases, obsidian bases: transforming notes into dynamic data, after using obsidian bases, i can't see myself going back to notion, obsidian's new bases feature is finally replacing notion in my workflow)
2022– — productivity porn: the productivity-porn critique — the system as procrastination. chapin's essay named the genre, the obsidian trap post named the product, and the departure videos keep finding the same confession: the vault became the hobby. reaction: obsidian's own community absorbed the critique — calv.info's 'i never re-visit my notes, and that is fine' is the genre's best in-house rebuttal. (sources: notes against note-taking systems, over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap, stop procrastinating with note-taking apps like obsidian, roam, logseq, how i use obsidian, a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten)
2025–2026 — the plugin review queue: the plugin queue as a governance problem: one human reviewer, a ~300-pr backlog, a flood of vibe-coded submissions, and a community divided between open gates and curation. reaction: the 2026 directory relaunch answered it — automated per-version security review and a developer dashboard, and the 2,300-submission backlog cleared. (sources: security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval into community plugins, the future of obsidian plugins, johannes theiner)
2026-04 — phantompulse: phantompulse — a remote-access trojan delivered through a social-engineered shared vault: shell commands and a hider plugin, blockchain c2. a weaponization of the trust model, not a code vulnerability. reaction: 366-point hn thread split between 'this is social engineering, not obsidian's bug' and 'the trust model made this possible.' the company had shipped 'less is safer' supply-chain guidance months earlier. (sources: obsidian plugin abuse delivers phantompulse rat, obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan, phantompulse: blockchain c2 rat via obsidian plugin abuse, less is safer: reducing the risk of supply chain attacks)
2020– — no real-time collaboration: no real-time collaboration — the feature every comparison review lists as a con. sync merges files; it does not put two cursors in one note. reaction: pcmag lists it as the standing con; the local-first answer is that single-writer files are the price of ownership. the open question is whether agents change the math — a machine gardener does not need a second cursor. (sources: obsidian review, obsidian vs. notion: which is best?, sync headless docs)

sentiment eras

2020 — the roam refugee wave (positive): the show hn hit ~1,087 points while roam still owned the category; the early coverage is migration how-tos written by roam believers and investors defecting publicly. (sources: show hn: obsidian — a knowledge base that works on local markdown files, why i chose obsidian over roam, how to switch from roam research to obsidian)
2021–2022 — the community bloom (positive): mobile ships #1 on product hunt, the cut names the second-brain category, obsidian october and gems of the year institutionalize the community — the coverage is onboarding and enthusiasm. (sources: obsidian for mobile, the rise of second-brain apps: notion, obsidian, mem, obsidian october 2021)
2022–2023 — the canonization (positive): 1.0 and canvas produce the two biggest hn threads (1,329 and 1,380 points); fast company canonizes the 'cult'; kepano's ceo letter and 'file over app' give the coverage its vocabulary. (sources: obsidian 1.0, show hn: obsidian canvas, why people are obsessed with obsidian, the indie darling of note-taking apps, file over app)
2023–2024 — the skepticism shelf (mixed): the counter-genre matures: chapin's anti-pkm essay, the cargo-cult warning, shu omi's capacities video, dendron's end-of-life as the cautionary exhibit. sentiment stays net-positive with a real critical literature underneath. (sources: notes against note-taking systems, a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten, why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review, dendron development stopped?)
2025–early 2026 — the tension year (mixed): bases splits the room, the departure genre goes mass-market (notebooklm, plain folders, apple notes), 'be careful with obsidian' makes the security case, and the biggest leaving thread ever runs 559 comments. (sources: obsidian bases, i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did, be careful with obsidian, ditching obsidian and building my own)
2026 — the agent-era reframe (mixed): karpathy's 1.2m-view llm-wiki post recasts the vault as agent infrastructure; the cli and headless sync ship into it; phantompulse and the plugin-directory overhaul fight the security story in the same months. (sources: llm knowledge bases, obsidian cli, obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan, the future of obsidian plugins)

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/obsidian/coverage

Original source occurrences

the note-taking app wars · the verge · 2023-08-25 (day) · original ID: src-i-verge-2023-notetaking · david pierce
the note-taking wars field survey, including the storage-vs-thinking critique.
show hn: obsidian — a knowledge base that works on local markdown files · hacker news · 2020-05-27 (day) · original ID: src-i-show-hn-obsidian · erica xu
the launch thread — erica's 'three fundamental values' comment is the cleanest statement of the fork.
obsidian 1.0 · hacker news · 2022-10 (month) · original ID: src-i-obsidian-hn-1.0 · erica xu
the 1.0 thread — 'over 670 plugins' and the org-roam origin of the first beta users.
obsidian for mobile · product hunt · 2021-07-12 (day) · original ID: src-i-producthunt-mobile
mobile launch — #1 product of the day.
sync headless docs · obsidian · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-i-obsidian-sync-headless · obsidian
programmatic vault sync for automation and agents.
obsidian cli · obsidian · 2026 (year) · original ID: src-i-obsidian-cli · obsidian
'read, search, and write to your vault programmatically. give agentic tools the ability to interact with your vault' — verbatim positioning.
obsidian 1.9.10 changelog · obsidian · 2025-08-18 (day) · original ID: src-i-obsidian-bases · obsidian
the 1.9.10 changelog — bases shipped to all users august 18, 2025.
the future of obsidian plugins · obsidian · 2026-05-12 (day) · original ID: src-i-obsidian-future-plugins · obsidian
4,000+ plugin and theme projects, 120m downloads, a 2,300-submission review queue cleared by automation — because coding agents are now writing the plugins.
open sourcing of obsidian · obsidian forum · 2020-08-04 (day) · original ID: src-p-forum-open-source · erica xu
the four-point closed-source rationale — 'the cost to benefit ratio is very low for our small team of 2.'
licat posts · obsidian forum · 2020 (year) · original ID: src-p-forum-licat-search · shida li
the technical reply corpus — plugin sandboxing, api design, yaml debates. 'there is ABSOLUTELY NO SECURE WAY to run plugins without severely crippling the plugin api.'
file over app · stephango.com · 2023-07-01 (day) · original ID: src-file-over-app · steph ango
'in the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last.' the three-word philosophy.
obsidian ceo steph ango on productivity software and notes apps · the verge · 2025-08-18 (day) · original ID: src-p-decoder · casey newton
the verge's decoder — 'how the head of obsidian went from superfan to ceo.' seven ftes, profitable five years, no analytics, ai the biggest plugin category, 'all of the llms speak markdown.'
johannes theiner · linkedin · current (approximate) · original ID: src-p-joethei-linkedin · johannes theiner
obsidian since july 2022 — plugin code review.
why people are obsessed with obsidian, the indie darling of note-taking apps · fast company · 2023-09 (month) · original ID: src-i-fastcompany-obsidian · casey newton
the 'indie darling' profile — ~1m users per the company's own estimate, 110k+ discord, ~94.6k subreddit members. paywalled; figures via cited summaries.
obsidian 1.0 · obsidian · 2022-10 (month) · original ID: src-h-1-0 · obsidian
the 1.0 launch page — a milestone, not 'feature complete.'
obsidian is now free for work · obsidian · 2025-02-20 (day) · original ID: src-h-blog-free-for-work · steph ango
the commercial license becomes optional — 'the commercial license terms were confusing and added unnecessary complexity.' reveals over 10,000 organizations use obsidian, with thousands of daily employee-users at amazon and google.
new sync standard plan · obsidian · 2024-03-20 (day) · original ID: src-h-blog-standard-plan · obsidian
the $4/month sync standard tier; sync and publish 'help obsidian remain 100% user-supported.'
obsidian publish now offers more for less · obsidian · 2023-04-18 (day) · original ID: src-h-blog-publish-more-less · obsidian
publish repriced to $96/year or $10/month per site — down from $16/month.
obsidian october 2021 · obsidian · 2021-09-21 (day) · original ID: src-h-blog-oo-2021 · erica xu
the first obsidian october — judges included liam, mgmeyers, argentum, and kepano, community members who later joined or shaped the team.
obsidian publish standard price · obsidian forum · 2021-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-h-forum-publish-price · obsidian forum
users push back on the ~$16/site/month standard; silver: '$8/site/month by end of september and double the price after that.'
show hn: obsidian for mobile · hacker news · 2021-07-12 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-mobile-2021 · erica xu
the mobile launch thread — dominated by ios sync workarounds and license questions.
show hn: obsidian canvas · hacker news · 2022-12-20 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-canvas · erica xu
the highest-scoring obsidian submission in algolia — 1,380 points, 387 comments.
obsidian bases · hacker news · 2025-08-18 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-bases
695 points, 255 comments — 'notion killer' versus 'scope creep.'
less is safer: reducing the risk of supply chain attacks · hacker news · 2025-09-19 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-less-is-safer
obsidian's own supply-chain post; comments press the no-sandbox problem. 522 points.
the future of obsidian plugins · hacker news · 2026-05-12 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-future-plugins
452 points — the directory relaunch and automated per-version reviews.
obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan · hacker news · 2026-05-10 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-phantompulse
366 points, 229 comments — the phantompulse rat story; debate over whether blame lies with obsidian or social engineering.
show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian · hacker news · 2026-05-18 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-files-md
730 points — an open-source clone's launch out-scoring most obsidian announcements; a referendum on the closed core.
ditching obsidian and building my own · hacker news · 2025-05-18 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-ditching
the biggest 'leaving obsidian' thread ever — 471 points, 559 comments.
why i like obsidian · hacker news · 2024-01-17 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-why-i-like
293 points, 368 comments — a love letter that doubled as a meta-discussion of pkm habits.
be careful with obsidian · hacker news · 2025-10-23 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-be-careful
127 points, 150 comments — hn split between 'relatively trustworthy for proprietary software' and sandboxing demands.
100% user-supported · hacker news · 2024-02-11 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-vcware
191 points — the thread includes kepano's 'file over app is more important than open source' comment.
after obsidian and logseq, i give dendron a try · hacker news · 2022-07-27 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-dendron
129 points, 159 comments — the era-typical three-way comparison.
logseq: privacy-first, joyful platform for knowledge management · hacker news · 2022-10-15 (day) · original ID: src-c-hn-logseq-2022
276 points — the open-source rival's big thread, full of obsidian comparisons.
the rise of second-brain apps: notion, obsidian, mem · the cut / new york magazine · 2021-12-22 (day) · original ID: src-c-thecut-second-brain · sophie haigney
the first big mainstream-culture piece to name the category — 'i saw the best minds of my generation being uploaded onto second-brain apps.'
case study: how the second brain meme is going mainstream · forte labs · 2022-02-07 (day) · original ID: src-c-forte-case-study · tiago forte
forte's meta-analysis of the cut piece — the second-brain meme going mainstream.
techmeme summary of the fast company profile · techmeme · 2023-10 (month) · original ID: src-c-techmeme-fastco
the aggregator record — including kepano's 'proudly not a cult' response.
i've turned into a tech hippie · fast company · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-fastco-hippie · jared newman
obsidian as refuge from venture-backed apps — 'a small team that hasn't raised any venture capital.'
obsidian — a new take on notes · wonder tools · 2023-10-05 (day) · original ID: src-c-wondertools · jeremy caplan and jared newman
the newsletter explainer that fed the 'cult' framing.
how to use obsidian for writing and productivity · wired · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-wired-howto · justin pot
'this application has slowly gone from being a weird app i didn't understand to one i can't imagine functioning without.'
best distraction-free writing apps · wired · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-wired-distraction-free · justin pot
recommended with a warning: 'don't let browsing and trying out all those extensions become a distraction itself.'
obsidian review · pcmag · 2025-12-07 (day) · original ID: src-c-pcmag-review · justin pot
4.0/excellent, 'best for power users'; cons — 'difficult to get started with. no collaboration features.'
obsidian review · techradar · 2022-08-04 (day) · original ID: src-c-techradar-review · stefan ionescu
'sophisticated features… a stellar user interface' — and a snapshot of the old pricing grid.
obsidian vs. notion: which is best? · zapier · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-zapier-vs-notion · zapier
'both are for power users, but notion is more user friendly' — the usability-versus-power framing.
after using obsidian bases, i can't see myself going back to notion · makeuseof · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-muo-bases · makeuseof
the bases reception — even this fan piece calls kepano's marketing 'a bit too flowery.'
obsidian's new bases feature is finally replacing notion in my workflow · xda · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-xda-bases · xda
bases replacing notion in a workflow — with caveats about catalyst gating and fewer view types.
obsidian isn't actually open source — here's the markdown editor that is · yahoo tech · 2026-05 (month) · original ID: src-c-yahoo-not-oss · xda via yahoo
'with obsidian's entire stance being that you should own your own data, i just assumed that it was open source — i was wrong.'
i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did · xda · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-xda-notebooklm · xda
leaves for ai-first tooling — 'the lack of an integrated ai' as the dealbreaker.
i stopped using obsidian after finding this self-hosted notes app · xda · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-xda-memos · xda
'i had just built a high-maintenance hobby… i hadn't produced a single original thought.'
notion, obsidian, and apple notes all lost to a plain folder of markdown files · xda · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-xda-plain-folder · mahnoor faisal
'it's beloved by the open-source community despite not being open-source.'
obsidian's sync pricing hike triggers community backlash · remio.ai · 2026-06-23 (day) · original ID: src-c-remio-sync-hike · ethan carter
the june 2026 sync hike — ~35% annual increase, the 1 gb tier eliminated, no grandfathering. caveat: at least one statistic reads ai-embellished; broad strokes corroborated by forum and reddit threads.
why i like obsidian · ddanieltan.com · 2024-01-17 (day) · original ID: src-c-ddanieltan · daniel tan
'the backstage manager of my life' — the love letter that ran 368 comments on hn.
ditching obsidian and building my own · amberwilliams.io · 2025-05-05 (day) · original ID: src-c-amber-ditching · amber williams
'i was surprised at this fee because i thought obsidian was open-source… $8 a month… almost $1,000 if i planned to use obsidian for a decade.'
be careful with obsidian · phong.bearblog.dev · 2025-10-23 (day) · original ID: src-c-be-careful · hữu phong
closed-source, no sandbox, plugins 'reviewed only once and not re-audited on updates,' unsigned dmg.
notes against note-taking systems · sashachapin.substack.com · 2022-01-31 (day) · original ID: src-c-chapin-notes · sasha chapin
the canonical anti-pkm essay — 'getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic way to avoid creating things.' doesn't name obsidian; defined the counter-genre anyway.
notes against sasha chapin's notes against note-taking systems · echoes & chimes · 2022-02-13 (day) · original ID: src-c-against-chapin · echoes and chimes
the public rebuttal genre the chapin essay spawned.
a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten · chrisaldrich.wordpress.com · 2023-02-03 (day) · original ID: src-c-aldrich-cargo · chris aldrich
'a cargo cult of zettelkasten aspirants… may eventually give up, sometimes in shame.'
why switching from roam research to obsidian is simple, but not easy · medium · 2021 (year) · original ID: src-c-sauter-roam · martin sauter
the importer rough edges — 'simple, but not easy.'
why i chose obsidian over roam · fork my brain · 2021 (year) · original ID: src-c-nvdh-roam · nicole van der hoeven
notable because the author was a roam 'believer' plan buyer and small investor — defecting publicly.
how to switch from roam research to obsidian · ness labs · 2021 (year) · original ID: src-c-nesslabs-roam · anne-laure le cunff
the influential migration how-to — roam lock-in as the cautionary contrast.
pkm in retrospect · pkm weekly · 2023-01-22 (day) · original ID: src-c-mchale-pkm-retrospect · curtis mchale
'roam is out of the picture… people were always dreaming about a tool that did the work.'
trying logseq · blog.tombert.com · 2025-09 (month) · original ID: src-c-tombert-logseq · tombert
'the one complaint i have with obsidian is that it is not open source… i actually pay for the professional license to support the project.'
why i left logseq for obsidian after 2+ years · 0x5.uk · 2026-05-26 (day) · original ID: src-c-abell-logseq · tim abell
the reverse-migration essay — calls obsidian 'closed-source freeware' and still switches for reliability.
rebooting my note-taking · darcynorman.net · 2026-07-17 (day) · original ID: src-c-darcy-reboot · d'arcy norman
'even that had turned into something of a cargo cult… thousands of notes that i never referred to… i just deleted all of those.'
over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap · buildfirstbrain.com · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-obsidian-trap · buildfirstbrain
'a polished form of procrastination, productivity porn, where optimizing the system substitutes for the hard work.'
how i use obsidian · calv.info · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-calv-info · calvin french-owen
the segment co-founder's widely shared workflow — 'the primary goal of the tool should be eliciting thought… 99% of the time i never re-visit my notes, and that is fine.'
obsidian publish feels like it's still in development and therefore should not cost $198 a year · linkedin · 2022 (year) · original ID: src-c-doto-publish · bob doto
the canonical publish pricing gripe — still cited in 2026 alternatives posts.
i love obsidian but hate publishing from it · unmarkdown · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-unmarkdown-publish · unmarkdown
'obsidian publish costs $8 to $16 per month… only outputs to the web.'
an exceptional example of thoughtful pricing strategy · robinlandy.substack.com · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-landy-pricing · robin landy
the pricing teardown — notes karpathy's 'love letter'; sync as presumed largest revenue source.
obsidian plugin abuse delivers phantompulse rat · the hacker news · 2026-04 (month) · original ID: src-c-thn-phantompulse · the hacker news
the phantompulse rat coverage — a trust-model weaponization, not an obsidian vulnerability.
phantompulse: blockchain c2 rat via obsidian plugin abuse · csa labs · 2026-04-16 (day) · original ID: src-c-csa-phantompulse · cloud security alliance
the research note on blockchain-c2 rat delivery via shell commands and hider plugins.
obsidian disabling community plugins · obsidian forum · 2025-08-27 (day) · original ID: src-c-forum-disable-plugins · obsidian forum
the team remotely deprecated two plugin versions over a bug-report flood — 'does this really justify interacting with a user's personal plugin config?'
my (largely popular) open source thread was hidden · obsidian forum · 2022-07-05 (day) · original ID: src-c-forum-hidden-oss · obsidian forum
the open-sourcing megathread auto-hidden by community flags, then restored by staff.
security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval into community plugins · obsidian forum · 2025-07-05 (day) · original ID: src-c-forum-vibe-plugins · obsidian forum
the ai-generated plugin flood versus gatekeeping — a ~300-pr review backlog cited.
ios & icloud slow to start · obsidian forum · 2023 (year) · original ID: src-c-forum-icloud-slow · obsidian forum
'waiting for icloud to synchronize' blocking launch for 10–30 seconds or more.
ios app extremely slow to load · obsidian forum · 2023 (year) · original ID: src-c-forum-ios-slow · obsidian forum
the ios load-time complaint thread.
obsidian ios performance hit after enabling icloud advanced data protection? · obsidian forum · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-forum-icloud-adp · obsidian forum
icloud advanced data protection taking app load from ~5s to ~45s.
ios and icloud: stuck on loading workspace · obsidian forum · 2024 (year) · original ID: src-c-forum-icloud-stuck · obsidian forum
'loading workspace' hangs requiring workspace-mobile.json surgery.
obsidian sync storage options · obsidian forum · 2026-05-31 (day) · original ID: src-c-forum-sync-storage · obsidian forum
the 50 gb tier's disappearance ahead of the 2026 price hike.
obsidian: the king of learning tools (full guide + setup) · youtube · 2024-04-24 (day) · original ID: src-c-yt-odysseas · odysseas
3.26m views — the single biggest obsidian video.
obsidian for beginners: start here · youtube — linking your thinking · 2020-09-15 (day) · original ID: src-c-yt-lyt-beginners · nick milo
2.41m views — the foundational onboarding video; 'this wasn't a product walkthrough. this was a guided meditation.'
i ditched obsidian for this note app and i'm never going back! · youtube · 2024-10-18 (day) · original ID: src-c-yt-shu-ditched · shu omi
603k views — 'i found myself spending so much time constantly tweaking my setup and installing hundreds of plugins that i didn't work on what i really needed to do.'
why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review · youtube · 2023-09-08 (day) · original ID: src-c-yt-shu-capacities · shu omi
446k views — the video that framed the capacities exodus narrative.
stop procrastinating with note-taking apps like obsidian, roam, logseq · youtube · 2023 (year) · original ID: src-c-yt-matla · sam matla
533k views — the video-form 'productivity porn' critique.
the perfect note-taking app · youtube · 2020-08-23 (day) · original ID: src-c-yt-abdaal-perfect · ali abdaal
797k views — the pre-fandom era taxonomy; abdaal later publicly preferred apple notes.
how i organized my life using only apple notes · youtube · 2025 (year) · original ID: src-c-yt-highley-apple · zach highley
681k views — the apple notes counter-current.
how i use obsidian + claude code to run my life · youtube · 2026-03 (month) · original ID: src-c-yt-isenberg-claude · greg isenberg
455k views — the ai-era vault usage video.
claude just killed the note-taking app. here is proof. · youtube · 2026-04 (month) · original ID: src-c-yt-icor-claude · icor with tom
473k views — the 'ai kills pkm' genre.
dendron development stopped? · github · 2023-02 (month) · original ID: src-c-dendron-eol · dendron
'we were ultimately not able to find product market fit for a venture backed business' — the cautionary tale invoked in every obsidian business-model debate.
karpathy's obsidian endorsement thread · x · 2024-02-24 (day) · original ID: src-c-karpathy-love-letter · andrej karpathy
'the file is the source of truth, not the application' — the february 2024 endorsement of the philosophy over the note-taking.
llm knowledge bases · x · 2026-04-02 (day) · original ID: src-c-karpathy-llm-wiki · andrej karpathy
1.2m+ views — obsidian cast as the ide/frontend for an llm-compiled markdown wiki, web clipper for ingest.
karpathy's llm knowledge base workflow explained · analytics drift · 2026-04 (month) · original ID: src-c-analyticsdrift-karpathy · analytics drift
the secondary write-up carrying the 1.2m+ view count.
obsidian bases: transforming notes into dynamic data · algustionesa.com · 2025-08 (month) · original ID: src-c-algustionesa-bases · algustionesa
the scope-creep and vision-drift framing of the bases launch.

Structured research records

show hn: obsidian · coverage · 2020-05-27 (day)

Original location · source-827e3f34f0a68ac4352a

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "erica xu",
  "date": "2020-05-27",
  "gist": "'a knowledge base that works on local markdown files' — local-first, plain text, linking like an ide. the launch pitch and the whole product thesis in one sentence, while roam was still hot.",
  "id": "cov-show-hn",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-show-hn-obsidian"
  ],
  "title": "show hn: obsidian",
  "traction": "~1,087 points, 477 comments — the third-biggest obsidian thread ever.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23324598"
}

the perfect note-taking app · coverage · 2020-08-23 (day)

Original location · source-65de792a0dd0e0727681

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "ali abdaal",
  "date": "2020-08-23",
  "gist": "the perfect note-taking app taxonomy — obsidian named before the fandom formed. abdaal later publicly preferred apple notes, which makes the early endorsement more honest.",
  "id": "cov-abdaal-perfect",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-abdaal-perfect"
  ],
  "title": "the perfect note-taking app",
  "traction": "797k views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=wpcVQeF07G4"
}

obsidian for beginners: start here · coverage · 2020-09-15 (day)

Original location · source-b2c1399569d487973168

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "nick milo",
  "date": "2020-09-15",
  "gist": "'obsidian for beginners: start here' — the video that onboarded a generation of users and founded the linking your thinking media operation.",
  "id": "cov-lyt-beginners",
  "publisher": "youtube — linking your thinking",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-lyt-beginners"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian for beginners: start here",
  "traction": "2.41m views — the single most important onboarding artifact.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=QgbLb6QCK88"
}

why i chose obsidian over roam · coverage · 2021 (year)

Original location · source-b711485b5844eec3b4eb

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "nicole van der hoeven",
  "date": "2021",
  "gist": "a roam 'believer' plan buyer and small investor defects publicly — notable for who was writing, not just what.",
  "id": "cov-nvdh-roam",
  "publisher": "fork my brain",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-nvdh-roam"
  ],
  "title": "why i chose obsidian over roam",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/system/cards/Why+I+chose+Obsidian+over+Roam"
}

how to switch from roam research to obsidian · coverage · 2021 (year)

Original location · source-83ae07111528cbe8ec22 · source-264f20e98f2e378f0512

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "anne-laure le cunff",
  "date": "2021",
  "gist": "the influential migration how-to — roam lock-in as the cautionary contrast that made local markdown feel like freedom.",
  "id": "cov-nesslabs-roam",
  "publisher": "ness labs",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-nesslabs-roam",
    "src-c-sauter-roam"
  ],
  "title": "how to switch from roam research to obsidian",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://nesslabs.com/roam-to-obsidian"
}

show hn: obsidian for mobile · coverage · 2021-07-12 (day)

Original location · source-61006ae167d48e91817a · source-cba346180c08a9e954fb

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "erica xu",
  "date": "2021-07-12",
  "gist": "the mobile launch thread — enthusiasm for the app, sustained grumbling about ios sync workarounds and the license. the first big mobile moment.",
  "id": "cov-hn-mobile",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "breakout",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-mobile-2021",
    "src-i-producthunt-mobile"
  ],
  "title": "show hn: obsidian for mobile",
  "traction": "760 points, 318 comments; #1 product of the day on product hunt.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27807850"
}

the rise of second-brain apps · coverage · 2021-12-22 (day)

Original location · source-34dc2b5f3cf1191e7c66 · source-13a250f49ada57482399

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "sophie haigney",
  "date": "2021-12-22",
  "gist": "'i saw the best minds of my generation being uploaded onto second-brain apps' — the first big mainstream-culture piece to name the category, bemused and generous at once.",
  "id": "cov-thecut",
  "publisher": "the cut / new york magazine",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-thecut-second-brain",
    "src-c-forte-case-study"
  ],
  "title": "the rise of second-brain apps",
  "traction": "tiago forte wrote a case study about the piece itself.",
  "url": "https://www.thecut.com/2021/12/second-brain-apps-notion-obsidian.html"
}

obsidian 1.0 · coverage · 2022-10-13 (day)

Original location · source-196c27632b18a90bb08d · source-5117d36a49e976fc1aa2

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2022-10-13",
  "gist": "the 1.0 thread — the community's proof-of-arrival moment, full of users recounting migrations.",
  "id": "cov-hn-1-0",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-obsidian-hn-1.0",
    "src-h-1-0"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian 1.0",
  "traction": "~1,329 points, 565 comments.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33190433"
}

show hn: obsidian canvas · coverage · 2022-12-20 (day)

Original location · source-ae676900a573c6cf69d8

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2022-12-20",
  "gist": "canvas's launch thread — the spatial-canvas feature landed as the most-loved obsidian moment on hn ever.",
  "id": "cov-hn-canvas",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-canvas"
  ],
  "title": "show hn: obsidian canvas",
  "traction": "1,380 points, 387 comments — the highest-scoring obsidian submission identified.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34066824"
}

inside the cult of obsidian, the note-taking app with a rabid fan base · coverage · 2023-10 (month)

Original location · source-4f92770cc7bbe42ae88e · source-2200256e8c871aff19dc · source-a099498d327b06bf903d

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "jared newman",
  "date": "2023-10",
  "gist": "'the cult of obsidian' — the profile that canonized the community reading. kepano responded 'proudly not a cult,' which only fed the framing.",
  "id": "cov-fastco-cult",
  "publisher": "fast company",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-fastcompany-obsidian",
    "src-c-techmeme-fastco",
    "src-c-wondertools"
  ],
  "title": "inside the cult of obsidian, the note-taking app with a rabid fan base",
  "traction": "techmeme carry; wonder tools explainer fed it.",
  "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91015963/inside-the-cult-of-obsidian-the-note-taking-app-with-a-rabid-fan-base"
}

obsidian review · coverage · 2022-08-04 (day)

Original location · source-9a27c13eeaefffa6f901

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "stefan ionescu",
  "date": "2022-08-04",
  "gist": "'sophisticated features… a stellar user interface' — the trade-press review, priced against the old grid.",
  "id": "cov-techradar",
  "publisher": "techradar",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-techradar-review"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian review",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.techradar.com/reviews/obsidian"
}

how to use obsidian for writing and productivity · coverage · 2024 (year)

Original location · source-259c2e8c789d9abdef05 · source-ed8657cd0a064f1cc451

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "justin pot",
  "date": "2024",
  "gist": "'this application has slowly gone from being a weird app i didn't understand to one i can't imagine functioning without.' wired's practical guide doubled as a conversion story.",
  "id": "cov-wired-howto",
  "publisher": "wired",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-wired-howto",
    "src-c-wired-distraction-free"
  ],
  "title": "how to use obsidian for writing and productivity",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-use-obsidian-writing-productivity-markdown/"
}

obsidian review · coverage · 2025-12-07 (day)

Original location · source-ceaa7abd0880fd647b88

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "justin pot",
  "date": "2025-12-07",
  "gist": "4.0/excellent, 'best for power users' — with the cons that define the product: 'difficult to get started with. no collaboration features.'",
  "id": "cov-pcmag",
  "publisher": "pcmag",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-pcmag-review"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian review",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/obsidian"
}

obsidian: the king of learning tools · coverage · 2024-04-24 (day)

Original location · source-a59ee251038058c3d5a4

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "odysseas",
  "date": "2024-04-24",
  "gist": "the single biggest obsidian video — a full guide and setup from the study-tube end of youtube.",
  "id": "cov-odysseas",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-odysseas"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian: the king of learning tools",
  "traction": "3.26m views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=hSTy_BInQs8"
}

why i like obsidian · coverage · 2024-01-17 (day)

Original location · source-0043f335fd42eec2c529 · source-b4b04ff782d0cd4b907d

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "daniel tan",
  "date": "2024-01-17",
  "gist": "'the backstage manager of my life' — the love letter whose 368-comment hn thread doubled as a meta-discussion of pkm habits.",
  "id": "cov-ddanieltan",
  "publisher": "ddanieltan.com",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-ddanieltan",
    "src-c-hn-why-i-like"
  ],
  "title": "why i like obsidian",
  "traction": "293 points, 368 comments on hn.",
  "url": "https://www.ddanieltan.com/posts/obsidian/"
}

how i use obsidian · coverage · 2024 (year)

Original location · source-c4662f30ba97583db731

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "calvin french-owen",
  "date": "2024",
  "gist": "the segment co-founder's workflow — 'the primary goal of the tool should be eliciting thought… 99% of the time i never re-visit my notes, and that is fine.'",
  "id": "cov-calv-info",
  "publisher": "calv.info",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-calv-info"
  ],
  "title": "how i use obsidian",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://calv.info/how-i-use-obsidian"
}

karpathy's obsidian endorsement · coverage · 2024-02-24 (day)

Original location · source-6e12be5faa59459c8bd6 · source-95aa9bbd121efcf598c4

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "andrej karpathy",
  "date": "2024-02-24",
  "gist": "'the file is the source of truth, not the application' — karpathy endorses the philosophy, not the note-taking. the endorsement obsidian quotes forever.",
  "id": "cov-karpathy-love",
  "publisher": "x",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-karpathy-love-letter",
    "src-c-landy-pricing"
  ],
  "title": "karpathy's obsidian endorsement",
  "traction": "the most-repeated single endorsement obsidian has.",
  "url": "https://x.com/karpathy"
}

i've turned into a tech hippie · coverage · 2024 (year)

Original location · source-55bc4433dec0deac1b8a

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "jared newman",
  "date": "2024",
  "gist": "obsidian as refuge from venture-backed apps — 'a small team that hasn't raised any venture capital' pitched as the feature.",
  "id": "cov-fastco-hippie",
  "publisher": "fast company",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-fastco-hippie"
  ],
  "title": "i've turned into a tech hippie",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91156207/how-i-turned-into-a-tech-hippie"
}

obsidian bases · coverage · 2025-08-18 (day)

Original location · source-aeb70493127b76eebade · source-8ee26202ed00d3370cf4

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2025-08-18",
  "gist": "the bases launch thread — 'notion killer' versus 'scope creep' fought to a draw across 255 comments.",
  "id": "cov-hn-bases",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-bases",
    "src-i-obsidian-bases"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian bases",
  "traction": "695 points, 255 comments.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44945532"
}

how the head of obsidian went from superfan to ceo · coverage · 2025-08-18 (day)

Original location · source-60cba21d2ee47258fa55

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "casey newton",
  "date": "2025-08-18",
  "gist": "the superfan-to-ceo decoder interview — the fullest mainstream account of obsidian's philosophy and business.",
  "id": "cov-decoder",
  "publisher": "the verge / decoder",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-p-decoder"
  ],
  "title": "how the head of obsidian went from superfan to ceo",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/760522/"
}

llm knowledge bases · coverage · 2026-04-02 (day)

Original location · source-b00b55b5699ecb8cf737 · source-00a34fcb432d3e7a43d7

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "andrej karpathy",
  "date": "2026-04-02",
  "gist": "obsidian cast as the ide/frontend for an llm-compiled markdown wiki — web clipper for ingest, agents for the gardening. the agent-era reframing at maximum reach.",
  "id": "cov-karpathy-wiki",
  "publisher": "x",
  "section": "canon",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-karpathy-llm-wiki",
    "src-c-analyticsdrift-karpathy"
  ],
  "title": "llm knowledge bases",
  "traction": "1.2m+ views per analytics drift.",
  "url": "https://x.com/karpathy/status/2039805659525644595"
}

notes against note-taking systems · coverage · 2022-01-31 (day)

Original location · source-8fc628d4064d883d771c · source-98a3ede937f545e27cdc

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "sasha chapin",
  "date": "2022-01-31",
  "gist": "the canonical anti-pkm essay — 'getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic way to avoid creating things.' never names obsidian; defined the counter-genre anyway.",
  "id": "cov-chapin",
  "publisher": "sashachapin.substack.com",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-chapin-notes",
    "src-c-against-chapin"
  ],
  "title": "notes against note-taking systems",
  "traction": "spawned a public rebuttal genre.",
  "url": "https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/notes-against-note-taking-systems"
}

a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten · coverage · 2023-02-03 (day)

Original location · source-20573b1b572565bca900

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "chris aldrich",
  "date": "2023-02-03",
  "gist": "'a cargo cult of zettelkasten aspirants… may eventually give up, sometimes in shame' — the practioner's warning that the tooling outruns the practice.",
  "id": "cov-aldrich-cargo",
  "publisher": "chrisaldrich.wordpress.com",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-aldrich-cargo"
  ],
  "title": "a note on the cargo cult of zettelkasten",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://chrisaldrich.wordpress.com/2023/02/03/a-note-on-the-cargo-cult-of-zettelkasten/"
}

pkm in retrospect · coverage · 2023-01-22 (day)

Original location · source-a6d5726f07dc5b1cfaf0

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "curtis mchale",
  "date": "2023-01-22",
  "gist": "'roam is out of the picture… people were always dreaming about a tool that did the work' — the pkm weekly postmortem on the whole wave.",
  "id": "cov-mchale-retrospect",
  "publisher": "pkm weekly",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-mchale-pkm-retrospect"
  ],
  "title": "pkm in retrospect",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://curtismchale.ca/2023/01/22/pkm-in-retrospect-pkm-weekly-jan-22-2023-issue-053/"
}

why note-taking apps don't make us smarter · coverage · 2023-08-25 (day)

Original location · source-680efd72cf01e2a141d6

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "david pierce",
  "date": "2023-08-25",
  "gist": "'the original promise of roam — that it would improve my thinking — fizzled completely' and 'obsidian's brutalist design wore on me' — the verge's own pkm exhaustion piece.",
  "id": "cov-verge-not-smarter",
  "publisher": "the verge",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-verge-2023-notetaking"
  ],
  "title": "why note-taking apps don't make us smarter",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/25/23845590/"
}

stop procrastinating with note-taking apps · coverage · 2023 (year)

Original location · source-c53a8b18674cbd093374

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "sam matla",
  "date": "2023",
  "gist": "'stop procrastinating with note-taking apps' — the video-form version of the productivity-porn critique, aimed at the whole category obsidian leads.",
  "id": "cov-matla",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-matla"
  ],
  "title": "stop procrastinating with note-taking apps",
  "traction": "533k views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=baKCC2uTbRc"
}

over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap · coverage · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-ebf6601a496fbe3d0d51

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "buildfirstbrain",
  "date": "2025",
  "gist": "'a polished form of procrastination, productivity porn, where optimizing the system substitutes for the hard work' — the obsidian-named version of the chapin argument.",
  "id": "cov-obsidian-trap",
  "publisher": "buildfirstbrain.com",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-obsidian-trap"
  ],
  "title": "over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://buildfirstbrain.com/journal/over-engineering-the-mind-the-obsidian-trap/"
}

be careful with obsidian · coverage · 2025-10-23 (day)

Original location · source-26e62e9713b275e4f5c4 · source-1b2b7589914f28738396

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "hữu phong",
  "date": "2025-10-23",
  "gist": "the security critique in one post — closed-source, no sandbox, plugins 'reviewed only once and not re-audited on updates,' unsigned dmg. hn split between 'relatively trustworthy' and demands for sandboxing.",
  "id": "cov-be-careful",
  "publisher": "phong.bearblog.dev",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-be-careful",
    "src-c-hn-be-careful"
  ],
  "title": "be careful with obsidian",
  "traction": "127 points, 150 comments on hn.",
  "url": "https://phong.bearblog.dev/be-careful-with-obsidian/"
}

a plain folder of markdown files beat notion, obsidian, and apple notes · coverage · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-bc76830b37d72a31c7f7 · source-a1e86092d9a9a3e4b0b5

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "mahnoor faisal",
  "date": "2025",
  "gist": "'it's beloved by the open-source community despite not being open-source' — the contradiction stated plainly, as a compliment and an accusation at once.",
  "id": "cov-xda-plain-folder",
  "publisher": "xda",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-xda-plain-folder",
    "src-c-yahoo-not-oss"
  ],
  "title": "a plain folder of markdown files beat notion, obsidian, and apple notes",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.xda-developers.com/notion-obsidian-apple-notes-lost-to-plain-folder-of-markdown-files/"
}

obsidian disabling community plugins · coverage · 2025-08-27 (day)

Original location · source-65a7c14f38b0bc08a74b

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "obsidian forum",
  "date": "2025-08-27",
  "gist": "the team remotely deprecated two plugin versions over a bug-report flood — 'does this really justify interacting with a user's personal plugin config?' the local-first promise meets a remote kill switch.",
  "id": "cov-forum-disable-plugins",
  "publisher": "obsidian forum",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-forum-disable-plugins"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian disabling community plugins",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-disabling-community-plugins/104779"
}

security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval · coverage · 2025-07-05 (day)

Original location · source-32a66ed2d9f47474bc65 · source-c242b683c442dcb80099

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "obsidian forum",
  "date": "2025-07-05",
  "gist": "the ai-generated plugin flood hits the human review queue — a ~300-pr backlog and the governance debate that produced the 2026 automated reviews.",
  "id": "cov-vibe-plugins",
  "publisher": "obsidian forum",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-forum-vibe-plugins",
    "src-i-obsidian-future-plugins"
  ],
  "title": "security issue: vibe-coded plugins sent for approval",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://forum.obsidian.md/t/security-issue-vibe-coded-plugins-sent-for-approval-into-community-plugins/102624"
}

obsidian publish feels like it should not cost $198 a year · coverage · 2022 (year)

Original location · source-1e5aad600d388cdf0ee7 · source-58967d8cf003ac6eeb9d

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "bob doto",
  "date": "2022",
  "gist": "'obsidian publish feels like it's still in development and therefore should not cost $198 a year' — the canonical pricing gripe, still cited in alternatives posts four years later.",
  "id": "cov-doto-publish",
  "publisher": "linkedin",
  "section": "critique",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-doto-publish",
    "src-c-unmarkdown-publish"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian publish feels like it should not cost $198 a year",
  "traction": "obsidian cut publish pricing in april 2023.",
  "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/obsidian-publish-feels-like-its-still-development-therefore-bob-doto"
}

obsidian vs. notion: which is best? · coverage · 2024 (year)

Original location · source-cc5967f8cdf572935e6a

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "zapier",
  "date": "2024",
  "gist": "'both are for power users, but notion is more user friendly' — the usability-versus-power framing that defined the mainstream comparison for years.",
  "id": "cov-zapier-notion",
  "publisher": "zapier",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-zapier-vs-notion"
  ],
  "title": "obsidian vs. notion: which is best?",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://zapier.com/blog/obsidian-vs-notion/"
}

logseq: privacy-first platform for knowledge management · coverage · 2022-10-15 (day)

Original location · source-9e0909b07bef3b1b782a

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2022-10-15",
  "gist": "the open-source rival's big hn thread — 276 points and a comment section that was really about obsidian.",
  "id": "cov-hn-logseq",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-logseq-2022"
  ],
  "title": "logseq: privacy-first platform for knowledge management",
  "traction": "276 points.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33218561"
}

after obsidian and logseq, i give dendron a try · coverage · 2022-07-27 (day)

Original location · source-673ae7e043080b8e5d7d

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2022-07-27",
  "gist": "the era-typical three-way shootout — obsidian, logseq, dendron — before the field thinned.",
  "id": "cov-hn-dendron",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-dendron"
  ],
  "title": "after obsidian and logseq, i give dendron a try",
  "traction": "129 points, 159 comments.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32248543"
}

dendron development stopped? · coverage · 2023-02 (month)

Original location · source-50822b743957c2af674e

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "dendron",
  "date": "2023-02",
  "gist": "'we were ultimately not able to find product market fit for a venture backed business' — the vc-funded competitor's end-of-life note became the cautionary exhibit in every obsidian business-model debate.",
  "id": "cov-dendron-eol",
  "publisher": "github",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-dendron-eol"
  ],
  "title": "dendron development stopped?",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/discussions/3890"
}

trying logseq · coverage · 2025-09 (month)

Original location · source-88bda9d97bc455570610

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "tombert",
  "date": "2025-09",
  "gist": "'the one complaint i have with obsidian is that it is not open source… i actually pay for the professional license to support the project' — the logseq trial that ends back at obsidian.",
  "id": "cov-tombert-logseq",
  "publisher": "blog.tombert.com",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-tombert-logseq"
  ],
  "title": "trying logseq",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://blog.tombert.com/Posts/Technical/2025/09-September/Trying-Logseq"
}

why i left logseq for obsidian after 2+ years · coverage · 2026-05-26 (day)

Original location · source-634afece9d76fe5b1207

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "tim abell",
  "date": "2026-05-26",
  "gist": "the reverse migration — calls obsidian 'closed-source freeware' and still switches from logseq for reliability. the comparison genre's most honest entry.",
  "id": "cov-abell-logseq",
  "publisher": "0x5.uk",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-abell-logseq"
  ],
  "title": "why i left logseq for obsidian after 2+ years",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://0x5.uk/2026/05/26/why-i-left-logseq-for-obsidian/"
}

show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian · coverage · 2026-05-18 (day)

Original location · source-3a4617a436c4ee0290d0

Original structured fields

{
  "author": null,
  "date": "2026-05-18",
  "gist": "an open-source obsidian clone launches at 730 points — out-scoring most obsidian announcements and functioning as a referendum on the closed core.",
  "id": "cov-hn-files-md",
  "publisher": "hacker news",
  "section": "comparisons",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-files-md"
  ],
  "title": "show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian",
  "traction": "730 points — more than bases, the cli, or headless sync.",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48179677"
}

i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did · coverage · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-306510aaa954f1f4ae56

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "xda",
  "date": "2025",
  "gist": "'the lack of an integrated ai' as the dealbreaker — the first big departure framed as an ai story, not a notes story.",
  "id": "cov-xda-notebooklm",
  "publisher": "xda",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-xda-notebooklm"
  ],
  "title": "i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.xda-developers.com/ditched-obsidian-for-notebooklm/"
}

i stopped using obsidian after finding this self-hosted notes app · coverage · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-33dfdfe2cbc69a5d81d5

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "xda",
  "date": "2025",
  "gist": "'i had just built a high-maintenance hobby… i hadn't produced a single original thought' — the departure as confession.",
  "id": "cov-xda-memos",
  "publisher": "xda",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-xda-memos"
  ],
  "title": "i stopped using obsidian after finding this self-hosted notes app",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://www.xda-developers.com/stopped-using-obsidian-after-finding-self-hosted-notes-app/"
}

ditching obsidian and building my own · coverage · 2025-05-05 (day)

Original location · source-c667d1c9650601ccbe0c · source-24959bdbc095aa63c743

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "amber williams",
  "date": "2025-05-05",
  "gist": "'i was surprised at this fee because i thought obsidian was open-source… almost $1,000 if i planned to use obsidian for a decade' — the biggest leaving-obsidian thread ever.",
  "id": "cov-amber-ditching",
  "publisher": "amberwilliams.io",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-amber-ditching",
    "src-c-hn-ditching"
  ],
  "title": "ditching obsidian and building my own",
  "traction": "471 points, 559 comments — the largest departure thread identified.",
  "url": "https://amberwilliams.io/blogs/building-my-own-pkms"
}

i ditched obsidian for this note app and i'm never going back! · coverage · 2024-10-18 (day)

Original location · source-2e38dd885e5d7169e5da

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "shu omi",
  "date": "2024-10-18",
  "gist": "'i found myself spending so much time constantly tweaking my setup and installing hundreds of plugins' — the highest-reach departure video.",
  "id": "cov-shu-ditched",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-shu-ditched"
  ],
  "title": "i ditched obsidian for this note app and i'm never going back!",
  "traction": "603k views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ymo_29vh9mY"
}

why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review · coverage · 2023-09-08 (day)

Original location · source-2859e4c485b6082dd7e4

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "shu omi",
  "date": "2023-09-08",
  "gist": "the video that framed the capacities exodus narrative — obsidian's first credible 'people are leaving' story.",
  "id": "cov-shu-capacities",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-shu-capacities"
  ],
  "title": "why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review",
  "traction": "446k views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=wLCENxoCh6g"
}

claude just killed the note-taking app. here is proof. · coverage · 2026-04 (month)

Original location · source-3c226c851ec6e4897e2b · source-02e6d2b832c64ef34bba

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "icor with tom",
  "date": "2026-04",
  "gist": "'claude just killed the note-taking app' — the agent-era departure genre: if the ai does the synthesis, the vault is just storage.",
  "id": "cov-icor-claude",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-icor-claude",
    "src-c-yt-isenberg-claude"
  ],
  "title": "claude just killed the note-taking app. here is proof.",
  "traction": "473k views — against isenberg's 455k-view pro-vault video in the same season.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=geIKyDaXwGg"
}

rebooting my note-taking · coverage · 2026-07-17 (day)

Original location · source-9474e1eed49283d89ecf

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "d'arcy norman",
  "date": "2026-07-17",
  "gist": "'even that had turned into something of a cargo cult… thousands of notes that i never referred to… i just deleted all of those' — the quiet reboot departure.",
  "id": "cov-darcy-reboot",
  "publisher": "darcynorman.net",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "critical",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-darcy-reboot"
  ],
  "title": "rebooting my note-taking",
  "traction": null,
  "url": "https://darcynorman.net/2026/07/17/rebooting-my-note-taking/"
}

how i organized my life using only apple notes · coverage · 2025 (year)

Original location · source-196d38f1ee50b9973b33

Original structured fields

{
  "author": "zach highley",
  "date": "2025",
  "gist": "the apple-notes counter-current — the biggest 'you don't need obsidian' video of the era.",
  "id": "cov-highley-apple",
  "publisher": "youtube",
  "section": "departures",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-yt-highley-apple"
  ],
  "title": "how i organized my life using only apple notes",
  "traction": "681k views.",
  "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=IMJSkU3rVNg"
}

closed source, open files · controversy · 2020– (approximate)

Original location · source-e3fb5a9b7646d9c18065 · source-c5c4ee0ac947c0b6557c · source-3a4617a436c4ee0290d0 · source-a42754d145ac3d765c33 · source-a1e86092d9a9a3e4b0b5

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2020–",
  "detail": "a data-ownership philosophy shipped as a closed-source app. silver's august 2020 forum answer gave the four-point rationale — small team, plugin freedom over sandboxing, and file-format openness as the real lock-in defense — and the argument has never fully closed.",
  "id": "cty-closed-source",
  "reaction": "recurring: a popular open-sourcing megathread was auto-hidden by flags in 2022 and restored by staff; an open-source clone's 2026 launch out-scored every obsidian announcement; kepano's hn line — 'file over app is more important than open source' — is the company's settled answer.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-p-forum-open-source",
    "src-c-forum-hidden-oss",
    "src-c-hn-files-md",
    "src-c-hn-vcware",
    "src-c-yahoo-not-oss"
  ],
  "title": "closed source, open files"
}

plugin power without a sandbox · controversy · 2020– (approximate)

Original location · source-caf547a2cf957511bb56 · source-a84bda4fa5d67fac86b6 · source-32a66ed2d9f47474bc65 · source-c242b683c442dcb80099

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2020–",
  "detail": "community plugins run with full system access and no sandbox — licat called a secure sandbox 'absolutely' impossible without crippling the api. reviewers saw submissions once at entry; updates were not re-audited until the 2026 automated reviews.",
  "id": "cty-plugin-security",
  "reaction": "the trust model held socially for years, then met its stress tests: the phantompulse rat campaign in 2026 and the vibe-coded submission flood that forced automated per-version review.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-p-forum-licat-search",
    "src-c-hn-less-is-safer",
    "src-c-forum-vibe-plugins",
    "src-i-obsidian-future-plugins"
  ],
  "title": "plugin power without a sandbox"
}

the pricing stack · controversy · 2021–2023 (approximate)

Original location · source-1e5aad600d388cdf0ee7 · source-6e3b1f2325ca1e2d24a4 · source-90305153b041d2e79eb2 · source-4c0e1f211584b969853e · source-efd126b7103b2ca2a352

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2021–2023",
  "detail": "the early service pricing read as premium: publish at $16–20/month per site, sync at $8–10/month, a required $50/user/year commercial license. the doto post made the publish gripe canonical.",
  "id": "cty-pricing",
  "reaction": "the company cut rather than defended: publish repriced to $96/year in april 2023, a $4 sync standard tier arrived in 2024, and the commercial license went optional in 2025.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-doto-publish",
    "src-h-forum-publish-price",
    "src-h-blog-publish-more-less",
    "src-h-blog-standard-plan",
    "src-h-blog-free-for-work"
  ],
  "title": "the pricing stack"
}

the sync price hike · controversy · 2026-06 (month)

Original location · source-0bfe55abae3847d53a0f · source-34ff7c691edc6e346175

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-06",
  "detail": "the june 2026 sync repricing — ~35% annual increase, the 1 gb tier eliminated, no grandfathering — produced the loudest backlash of the service era.",
  "id": "cty-sync-hike",
  "reaction": "forum and reddit threads accumulated; the fullest write-up (remio.ai) carries ai-embellished statistics, so the backlash is real but its sharpest numbers are unverified.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-remio-sync-hike",
    "src-c-forum-sync-storage"
  ],
  "title": "the sync price hike"
}

ios and icloud · controversy · 2021– (approximate)

Original location · source-f540ac603a344fb98b14 · source-0b4f739ae95d0d0f1fca · source-3852e0b1e1150092f82a · source-8ae11099c97d5dfbadec

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2021–",
  "detail": "ios friction is the product's oldest wound: icloud-synced vaults hang on 'loading workspace,' and advanced data protection took app load from ~5s to ~45s in user reports.",
  "id": "cty-ios-icloud",
  "reaction": "years of forum threads with workspace-mobile.json surgery as the fix; obsidian's own sync is the sanctioned answer, which reads to critics as the friction monetizing itself.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-forum-ios-slow",
    "src-c-forum-icloud-slow",
    "src-c-forum-icloud-adp",
    "src-c-forum-icloud-stuck"
  ],
  "title": "ios and icloud"
}

bases and the scope question · controversy · 2025-08 (month)

Original location · source-aeb70493127b76eebade · source-e460b2d44701cc797125 · source-d907220d6f9f7efcac4b · source-adfd5fa9615edaee0f4b

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025-08",
  "detail": "bases turned notes into a database — and split the room. 'notion killer' reads alongside 'scope creep': whether a notes app should want to be a database is the vision question of the kepano era.",
  "id": "cty-bases-drift",
  "reaction": "695-point hn thread fought to a draw; even favorable coverage called kepano's framing 'a bit too flowery.' the counter-argument: properties shipped in 2023 and the community's dataview had asked for this for years.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-bases",
    "src-c-algustionesa-bases",
    "src-c-muo-bases",
    "src-c-xda-bases"
  ],
  "title": "bases and the scope question"
}

productivity porn · controversy · 2022– (approximate)

Original location · source-8fc628d4064d883d771c · source-ebf6601a496fbe3d0d51 · source-c53a8b18674cbd093374 · source-c4662f30ba97583db731 · source-20573b1b572565bca900

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2022–",
  "detail": "the productivity-porn critique — the system as procrastination. chapin's essay named the genre, the obsidian trap post named the product, and the departure videos keep finding the same confession: the vault became the hobby.",
  "id": "cty-productivity-porn",
  "reaction": "obsidian's own community absorbed the critique — calv.info's 'i never re-visit my notes, and that is fine' is the genre's best in-house rebuttal.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-chapin-notes",
    "src-c-obsidian-trap",
    "src-c-yt-matla",
    "src-calv-info",
    "src-c-aldrich-cargo"
  ],
  "title": "productivity porn"
}

the plugin review queue · controversy · 2025–2026 (approximate)

Original location · source-32a66ed2d9f47474bc65 · source-c242b683c442dcb80099 · source-bcc8c52084bc07a1b384

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2025–2026",
  "detail": "the plugin queue as a governance problem: one human reviewer, a ~300-pr backlog, a flood of vibe-coded submissions, and a community divided between open gates and curation.",
  "id": "cty-plugin-review",
  "reaction": "the 2026 directory relaunch answered it — automated per-version security review and a developer dashboard, and the 2,300-submission backlog cleared.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-forum-vibe-plugins",
    "src-i-obsidian-future-plugins",
    "src-p-joethei-linkedin"
  ],
  "title": "the plugin review queue"
}

phantompulse · controversy · 2026-04 (month)

Original location · source-a779766fb15e62703197 · source-380c614b263c77522f19 · source-a4acfca238b39b31cb04 · source-a84bda4fa5d67fac86b6

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2026-04",
  "detail": "phantompulse — a remote-access trojan delivered through a social-engineered shared vault: shell commands and a hider plugin, blockchain c2. a weaponization of the trust model, not a code vulnerability.",
  "id": "cty-phantompulse",
  "reaction": "366-point hn thread split between 'this is social engineering, not obsidian's bug' and 'the trust model made this possible.' the company had shipped 'less is safer' supply-chain guidance months earlier.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-thn-phantompulse",
    "src-c-hn-phantompulse",
    "src-c-csa-phantompulse",
    "src-c-hn-less-is-safer"
  ],
  "title": "phantompulse"
}

no real-time collaboration · controversy · 2020– (approximate)

Original location · source-ceaa7abd0880fd647b88 · source-cc5967f8cdf572935e6a · source-778ffdbf557dfeb89356

Original structured fields

{
  "date": "2020–",
  "detail": "no real-time collaboration — the feature every comparison review lists as a con. sync merges files; it does not put two cursors in one note.",
  "id": "cty-collaboration",
  "reaction": "pcmag lists it as the standing con; the local-first answer is that single-writer files are the price of ownership. the open question is whether agents change the math — a machine gardener does not need a second cursor.",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-pcmag-review",
    "src-c-zapier-vs-notion",
    "src-i-obsidian-sync-headless"
  ],
  "title": "no real-time collaboration"
}

the roam refugee wave · sentiment · 2020 (year)

Original location · source-827e3f34f0a68ac4352a · source-b711485b5844eec3b4eb · source-83ae07111528cbe8ec22

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "the show hn hit ~1,087 points while roam still owned the category; the early coverage is migration how-tos written by roam believers and investors defecting publicly.",
  "id": "phs-roam-refugees",
  "name": "the roam refugee wave",
  "range": "2020",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-show-hn-obsidian",
    "src-c-nvdh-roam",
    "src-c-nesslabs-roam"
  ]
}

the community bloom · sentiment · 2021–2022 (approximate)

Original location · source-cba346180c08a9e954fb · source-34dc2b5f3cf1191e7c66 · source-9399572c87fb13e3b873

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "mobile ships #1 on product hunt, the cut names the second-brain category, obsidian october and gems of the year institutionalize the community — the coverage is onboarding and enthusiasm.",
  "id": "phs-community-bloom",
  "name": "the community bloom",
  "range": "2021–2022",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-producthunt-mobile",
    "src-c-thecut-second-brain",
    "src-h-blog-oo-2021"
  ]
}

the canonization · sentiment · 2022–2023 (approximate)

Original location · source-196c27632b18a90bb08d · source-ae676900a573c6cf69d8 · source-4f92770cc7bbe42ae88e · source-ed40c15bcf322b1139bf

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "1.0 and canvas produce the two biggest hn threads (1,329 and 1,380 points); fast company canonizes the 'cult'; kepano's ceo letter and 'file over app' give the coverage its vocabulary.",
  "id": "phs-canonization",
  "name": "the canonization",
  "range": "2022–2023",
  "sentiment": "positive",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-i-obsidian-hn-1.0",
    "src-c-hn-canvas",
    "src-i-fastcompany-obsidian",
    "src-file-over-app"
  ]
}

the skepticism shelf · sentiment · 2023–2024 (approximate)

Original location · source-8fc628d4064d883d771c · source-20573b1b572565bca900 · source-2859e4c485b6082dd7e4 · source-50822b743957c2af674e

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "the counter-genre matures: chapin's anti-pkm essay, the cargo-cult warning, shu omi's capacities video, dendron's end-of-life as the cautionary exhibit. sentiment stays net-positive with a real critical literature underneath.",
  "id": "phs-skepticism",
  "name": "the skepticism shelf",
  "range": "2023–2024",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-chapin-notes",
    "src-c-aldrich-cargo",
    "src-c-yt-shu-capacities",
    "src-c-dendron-eol"
  ]
}

the tension year · sentiment · 2025–early 2026 (approximate)

Original location · source-aeb70493127b76eebade · source-306510aaa954f1f4ae56 · source-26e62e9713b275e4f5c4 · source-24959bdbc095aa63c743

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "bases splits the room, the departure genre goes mass-market (notebooklm, plain folders, apple notes), 'be careful with obsidian' makes the security case, and the biggest leaving thread ever runs 559 comments.",
  "id": "phs-tension",
  "name": "the tension year",
  "range": "2025–early 2026",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-hn-bases",
    "src-c-xda-notebooklm",
    "src-c-be-careful",
    "src-c-hn-ditching"
  ]
}

the agent-era reframe · sentiment · 2026 (year)

Original location · source-b00b55b5699ecb8cf737 · source-2becdd44287812159e9f · source-380c614b263c77522f19 · source-86522a568f31a563befa

Original structured fields

{
  "evidence": "karpathy's 1.2m-view llm-wiki post recasts the vault as agent infrastructure; the cli and headless sync ship into it; phantompulse and the plugin-directory overhaul fight the security story in the same months.",
  "id": "phs-agent-era",
  "name": "the agent-era reframe",
  "range": "2026",
  "sentiment": "mixed",
  "sourceIds": [
    "src-c-karpathy-llm-wiki",
    "src-i-obsidian-cli",
    "src-c-hn-phantompulse",
    "src-c-hn-future-plugins"
  ]
}