Comment by cr0sh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cr0sh | Hacker News Reader

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I'm only barely groking what this is for; probably because I don't really take a lot of notes during the day. Maybe I should do this more often.

I like how it is persistent via localstorage - but what if I want to access my notes both on my desktop, and on my phone? Obviously localstorage won't work well for that purpose. But it would be nice if there were a way to be able to have this digital whiteboard be persistent across devices (phone, desktop, tablet, etc).

Also (and this is probably on your list) - can we get a way to draw on the whiteboard? Perhaps also some way to scale and move on the whiteboard (so in effect it becomes an "infinite" whiteboard)?

Lastly - branding: Rather than saying "start whiteboarding" - how about "start thoughtwriting". The name is good; use it as your brand for this product, and keep it all consistent.

It's a bit like a rubber-duck debugger. You open it up, describe your problem, think about things for a while. You might even pretend to interview yourself, say.

The things you write will be messy, and probably not worth keeping. So, this is a space where you can write those things with the expectation that you'll throw away what you wrote, except for the few things that matter.

I don't know how common this form of writing is. Many people describe writing as a process of clarifying ideas, but I think they usually mean writing for an audience, as with a blog.

Real persistence (not just localstorage) is something I might add, perhaps as a paid feature.

The whiteboarding analogy isn't quite right, since the tool isn't for drawing (and no drawing features are currently planned). It's the whiteboarding workflow that I'm intending to copy (mess around, get some good ideas, then erase the board).

Good idea on branding. I think I'll try it out!

I tend to use Google Keep (https://keep.google.com/) for this sort of thing, which is similarly pretty lightweight and doesn't impose much structure on anything, but is also permanently backed up and synced between all platforms, with nice mobile apps, and a simple URL you can just type for the web.

It also has some extra support for lists, which is handy for many of the sorts of things that it gets used for, and can handle images to some extent too.

[The one thing I wish it did was some sort of background version control, so when I accidentally delete something important I can get it back...]

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