I have a bookstack instance self-hosted and I quick like the program and workflow. I like having 'books' of information to separate/organize my information. It feels very much like folder heirarchy to me, and while that has its issues, I prefer it. Being able to add tags to pages helps alleviate some of those issues and helps with a broad search for an idea when I don't know where it is stored down the line. Here is a quick view of my bookstack. It's nothing fancy, but a visual to see what I'm talking about.
It’s great software. But I am very fond of software designed to be readable in 100 years. Meaning that the file does not require the program to be read. Text files (.txt, .rtf, .odt) are formats that are designed to be read in the future without MS Word, or Notepad; .doc, .docx, etc without microsoft might not be readable in 100 years without having MS software. That is why I like taking notes with markdown and why I like software like QownNotes, obsidian, and logsec which produce files that are readable without the program. So if they crash and burn, I don’t lose my data. With Bookstack, I cannot view that data without bookstack. And if I wanted to move my documents to a different software, I cannot export everything. I can export page-by-page but that’s only reasonble on a small scale. So, while I like the program, I would like to move to another program for my wiki/personal knowledge base.
For those wondering why I am worried about this: I've run into many walls with software problems in my life:
- software I use being abandoned
- new terms of service I don not agree with blocking me from using the program I like
- price hikes for software I use that are not worth it but I'm vendor locked and so I have to either pay or go the tedious route of moving my data slowly over because there is no export possibilities. 4)I am using a new device and I can't access or view my data because the software doesn't work on the device, hasn't been ported over, or isn't usable on the novel form factor of the device.
My worries with bookstack flow from there. It may be a good program, but what if my needs change, can I move my data easily?
In my search, Tiddlywiki was a standout in this view because it is a quine. It contains all its code to run/display itself (it’s a quine). So in 100 years, you should be able to open a tiddlywiki and it will contain be able to be read. However, I am having a hard time adapting to tiddlywiki’s way of doing things. Far less user friendly than Bookstack in ease of use. Thus I am writing this post to see if anyone else has ideas. Is there a way to make tiddlywiki look/work more like Bookstack in the book→pages (or folder→files) workflow? Or do you know of another piece of software for a knowledge base that meets the ideas above?
Well I hesitate to recommend it for use by others, but what I use is my home-grown zknotes. Markdown notes that you can link together, so any note can be a tag. There's a query syntax that allows searching note titles or content or tags. Notes live in a sqlite database. You can upload binary files like movies or images. Currently working on synchronization between instances, that will enable a phone app that syncs with a home server. If you run a server with it you can make documents public as a blog.
Downsides: the interface is a bit kludgy, and probably won't improve until I'm done with sync and the app. No cli interface for searching or export. No code highlighting yet. Not many users so the multi user capabilities are mostly untested.
I just took a look at the docs on zknotes, which show off how zknotes work. I really love the links at the bottom of each document! Do the links break if you change the title of the other note? I had that happen in QOwnNotes and it was a very annoying realization after I'd renamed a bunch of notes to standardize things.
The links are by numeric id, but displayed by title. You can't change a note's id, but you can change the title all you like.
Future versions will transition to uuids which are unique across multiple instances, so no ID collision if you create a note on your phone and also on your home server.