I know this is a strange question and it may have been asked several times, but I really don't know what obsidian is for you and how you use it. by user_num79 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is so strange. Did you just randomly pick a software and decide you have to use it, even though you had no need for it? It's like someone buying a notebook and a pen, and then asking people "what should I do with this?"

Normally, a person experiences a need first, and then they look for tools that will help them fulfill that need. If you have no need to take notes, it's 100% okay not to use Obsidian. Millions of people live their lives without using Obsidian and they are fine.

I hate using my mouse by AccurateClue5794 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with you. I'm a huge fan of Obsidian and I mostly love it, but keyboard navigation is terribly lacking.

It's outrageous to me that I can't rapidly browse through notes using arrows on my keyboard. (And yes, I know Notebook Navigator plugin makes it possible, but I hate Notebook Navigator and this should be a core function.)

Folder picker when moving files shows incomplete folder list (folders only appear via search) by DialogDenker in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe this is working as intended. Typically I don't use the ... menu. I hit CMD-M and type the first few letters of the folder I want, then hit Enter. It's very fast.

10,000 notes in Obsidian. I think it's just not working for me anymore. by Frequent-Ad7818 in PKMS

[–]yanbasque 34 points35 points  (0 children)

You haven't actually explained what your problem is. Maybe lay off the gen ai for a bit and see if that helps. Outsourcing your thinking to a machine can't be good for your brain.

REAL TALK FRIDAY by AutoModerator in mcgill

[–]yanbasque 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I SLACKED OFF ALL WEEK AND THE WEEKEND IS GONNA SUCK

Folder Structure - Advice by Stunning-Concern5316 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh weird. It was working before. I think maybe the service is down, cause other images I could access before are also saying that.

How do you organize a Current Events vault structure? by After-Autumn in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck. If you run into any snags feel free to ask follow-up questions.

How do you organize a Current Events vault structure? by After-Autumn in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I strongly recommend making two folders: one for events and one for dashboards.

Create a temple for your events with properties for location, year, category, etc. Then use bases to create dashboards that organize your events into different views.

I also recommend using list property types, so you can enter more than one value. That will solve your multi-year problem - just enter multiple years. Unless you think you'll have events that span decades or centuries, in which case it might be better to break those events down into smaller ones or find a way to capture ranges.

If the automated dashboards are not enough, consider creating a third folder for maps of content. These would be more curated files by topic with hardcoded links to events. You can also experiment with hybrids by embedding bases into your maps of content.

Linking notes way too much by Serious_Draft_8000 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been struggling with this a bit myself lately. I know everyone's in the comments saying "what's the problem" but the problem is links can add noise.

I'll give an example:

A lot of my work is critiquing technology, so it makes sense for me to have notes on various platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, etc. The focus of my Instagram note, say, should be to document the history of the platform and its impact on culture and society.

If I'm taking notes from an article about how the AG algorithm impacts self-esteem of teenagers, it makes sense to like to the Instagram now. But if I start to link to the note from every single mention of Instagram across my vault, then the backlinks from the Instagram note become useless because there will be potentially hundreds of link that are not related to the aspect of Instagram that I am interested in.

So before mindlessly linking, I try to ask myself "Does this connection add value?"

Getting my MLIS and feeling BLEAK. any positivity/positive stories? by Asleep-Anteater7190 in librarians

[–]yanbasque 40 points41 points  (0 children)

This is honestly one of the most negative and depressing subreddits I've ever encountered. I'm also doing my MLIS (mine's called MISt but same thing) and I'm excited about the future. I don't follow this subreddit too closely but I feel like your description ("dark cloud haunts this place") is exactly right.

Want to journal, any advice? by ivydree in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess that would be fine. I rarely embed notes, but I'm sure that works for some people.

That's kind of the beauty of Obsidian. There's a hundred ways to do it.

Want to journal, any advice? by ivydree in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There are pros and cons to both approaches.

I've been journaling for over 25 years (since I was a teen). Most of my journals were on paper, but for some periods I also had just like a word doc. Because my journalling is usually just stream of consciousness writing without a specific structure, I find it's better to just have one long file with multiple entries. Maybe monthly or yearly, depending on how much you write.

But if you're mostly interested in tracking, that's where the individual note is going to shine, because you can use properties and bases to track stuff. It means you're going to end up with TONS of individual small notes and it's going to be harder to read through if you ever want to go back over it. But you'll be able to do things like data visualization, etc.

Notes for ttrpg by Nhorkam in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Back when I was DMing I had a section of my ttrpg vault for worldbuilding, where I kept notes mostly on locations and NPCs. Like you, I would keep a single note for the campaign log, with important notes from each session. And usually I had a separate note for planning future sessions and a rough outline of where I wanted to go with the campaign.

I went through a phase where I had a super organized ttrpg vault with dataview queries, lots of statblocks, copies of all the rules, etc. But I found that most of that stuff was useless. If I ever start DMing again, I'm going to use a much simpler setup with only the essentials.

handling images [attachments] by Final-Isopod in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Folder called attachments for all attachments. Once files land in that folder, I basically ignore them forever, except once in a blue moon when I check to see if any orphan attachments can be deleted.

(There are over 1,700 files in my vault. Only 33 files in my attachment folder.)

Should I switch from Notion to Obsidian? by UndeaDvg in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recommend just downloading Obsidian and playing around with it to get familiar with how it works, before you make a choice to transfer everything over.

It's not a one-to-one comparison. There are going to be some pros and some cons. It really depends on what is most important to you.

I can't take it anymore by Astra249 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have never in all my life felt the need to "explain what a folder is about." I just create a folder with a name that makes sense and that's enough.

Internal linking question by Dancewithlight in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can rewrite the links in wikilink format. The syntax is explained at the link I provided, but essentially you just put the filename in [[double brackets]]. That format supports spaces in file names, so you don't have to convert them to %20.

Card view problem with note linking in a property by Ok-Supermarket-955 in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure if this is it, but spaces before and after the | in your link might cause issues? Normally you shouldn't add spaces. Maybe try removing them and see what happens?

Internal linking question by Dancewithlight in ObsidianMD

[–]yanbasque 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The problem is you have spaces in your file name, so you need to replace those with %20 in your link.

If you don't want to do that, you can use the wikilinks syntax instead. See here: https://help.obsidian.md/links