
Show HN: Supernotes – a better way to collect your thoughts - fastball
https://supernotes.app/?ref=hn
======
redhale
Congrats on launching!

I'm curious why you decided to focus on native desktop apps before mobile
apps. For me, a note taking system is a non-starter without a solid (Android)
mobile app, as much of the value comes from quickly jotting down
thoughts/ideas as they come to me, which is often when I'm not in front of a
computer.

~~~
fastball
Thanks!

So this is really just a time constraint issue. The desktop apps will
initially just be Electron wrappers around the web app – I'm not a huge fan of
this as it results in fairly bloated desktop apps, but we've had people say
they'd like desktop apps anyway, so we're gonna do that for hopefully the next
release.

Mobile apps is a bit harder, as it requires actually writing a new interface,
either in something cross-platform like React-Native (probably what we will
end up using, as the current web app is in React) or something else. Which is
why for the time being we've tried to make the web app itself as responsive as
possible on mobile.

We also plan to improve the web interface on mobile significantly in the next
release to make it feel more like a native app even though it won't be one
(yet).

But yes, mobile apps are definitely something we want sooner rather than
later! Just need more time in the day ;)

------
jclos
It looks neat, but what differentiates you from say something like Notion [1]
?

[1] [https://www.notion.so/](https://www.notion.so/)

~~~
fastball
Good question! Notion is a great product, big fan myself.

There are a couple main differences, but I think the biggest one is the way
things are shared and from there the kind of workflows we are trying to
accommodate. Everyone has a different way they like to organize their notes –
this can make it hard for people to collaborate because they all want the
final product (a collection of notes) to suit their own workflow. Notion has
done a great job of building a great UX for collaborative working, but when
you collaborate with someone on Notion, you still need to agree to a
"structure" and then collaborate within the framework of that structure.

In contrast, we have built Supernotes to allow for many different ways to
organize your notes. And more importantly, different ways that collaborators
can organize _the same_ notes.

\- You can have structured hierarchies using nesting, not unlike a
conventional folders + files system. Though I think our implementation is more
powerful, as nesting allows you to more easily "expand" on ideas, and a single
card can actually have multiple parents. This is how most existing note-taking
/ knowledge base apps are structured. With multi-parents though, we are fairly
unique.

\- You can have _unstructured_ graphs by using our hyperlinking functionality.
This is how the internet in general is structured, and now what Notion, Roam,
and others are doing.

\- You can have a totally flat structure using only tags.

And of course you can mix-and-match these options as much as you want / need
to. This makes it easier for people (espescially people that aren't on a
"team" – think freelancers, students, etc) to collaborate in their own way,
because while _you_ are organizing things with hyperlinks, _I_ could be using
tags to organize the same cards, but in an entirely different way.

tl;dr – what products like Notion are striving for is "all together sharing".
What we're aiming for with Supernotes is more _granulated, personalized
sharing_.

------
fastball
Hey Hacker News! My co-founder and I have been working on this idea for a few
years now and are finally ready to show it to HN.

Supernotes, at its most simple, is a note-taking app. It's a place to take the
things in your head and dump 'em for storage (and then sharing, if you like).
But the approach we've taken to note-taking is slightly different than what
you'll see with other solutions. Instead of opting for a long-form document
format (and folders to put them in), we decided to go with a card format. So
like documents, but shorter. We also decided to make the cards themselves
_nestable_ , rather than having a folder system. This means that as you flesh
out ideas, you can just add "child" cards to a "parent" card to keep yourself
organized (plus cards can have multiple parents!). Each and every card can be
edited, commented on, colored, titled, icon'd, linked to, and shared.

We did it this way because we think its a better fit for how our brains
actually work. Humans don't think in terms of essays – we think in terms of a
large number of interconnected thoughts.

When it comes time to share your cards, all you need to do is send a 4-word
share code to your friends/family/pet and they can see that card right away.

So to summarize, on Supernotes you can:

\- easily make notecards which have their own tags, comments, colors, icons,
etc.

\- cards can have parents/children, and unlike most other platforms, a child
can have _multiple_ parents (yay graphs!)

\- cards can hyperlink to other cards directly in their bodies (otherwise
known as wiki-style, Zettelkasten, or _the internet_ )

\- cards can be instantly shared via 4-word "share codes"

\- cards can be "published" inside other cards (i.e. published children) so
that anyone who has access to the parent can see the published child

\- once shared, cards have fully-featured permission-system so you can decide
exactly _how_ you want to collaborate with _whom_

\- use dark mode because who doesn't love dark mode

Anyway, I'd love for you to try it out and let us know what you think! Always
open to suggestions.

If that sounds cool, sign up here!
[https://my.supernotes.app/entry?signup=1&ref=hn](https://my.supernotes.app/entry?signup=1&ref=hn)

p.s. Due to the current global pandemic / work from home situation going on,
we've also decided to make Supernotes completely free until July, so even more
reason to try it out.

