Comment by nickledave
4 hours ago
For folks who are wondering:
This post is about Zotero. https://www.zotero.org/
If you are not an academic, you might not know Zotero.
It is such a pleasure to use. Every app should be like this.
I read everything in it, including books I'm going through right now from https://teachyourselfcs.com/
It also does an amazing job of taking snapshots of posts. I use it all the time to grab posts from HackerNews so I can mark them up.
And it automagically syncs everywhere across devices and lets me store way too many files on the web like the ADD packrat I am, without breaking a sweat.
In short, this software just works, and it works well. So when somebody behind Zotero talks about how to develop software, I listen.
And it's a fun post with some history. You should save this post to Zotero, and then read it.
Unrelated, but I love when people describe software with the phrase "just works".
It suggests a certain... simplicity that I chase in all of my developments. The amount of EFFORT to get software from "works but..." is interesting. You can get something that works 99% of the time, but that never quite fits the "just works" level of quality that we love to see.
Really, there's an immediate feeling of joy I get when I interact with software that "just works" knowing how much effort it takes to get something to that point.
What I dislike about Zotero is that it's a pain in the ass to self host. In my department I could spin up a local Zotero server for our PhD students and give them basically unlimited sync, but it's really finnicky
What difficulties are you having? All you need is WebDAV. I use a nextcloud server for mine and my partner's zotero storage, and its entirely trivial to set up.
I have many issues with Zotero (which has been dumbing down at the expense of power users for some time) – but easy private sync is definitely not one of them.
I've been wanting to try it. In what way is it finnicky?
It is not supported natively (you can use a webdav server but it doesn't sync everything) and the third party options don't have the level of stability I'd need
In this day and age, I'd say this is hardly an excuse. Spin up your favorite harness and let the agents sort it out. :)
I could dig into their documentation but I'd rather ask an enthusiast. Is it still possible to get your own data out in a nice and easy format? I was once all-in on a note-taking app that slowly got worse and worse and it was a hassle to escape, so now I always consider it before starting.
If Zotero ever enshittifies or just disappears would I still be able to access my data and transfer it to something else?
User data exports are available as csv, xml, and latex, with original documents available in original input and also pdf.
It's also all open source and local-first. You can also add your own self-hosted WebDAV server for syncing across clients. Also, it's developed by a nonprofit organization.
I have Zotero set up with some plugins that create a .bib file I create notes for in Emacs. I enjoy this setup because it allows me the convenience of saving files quickly using Zotero, but saves all the data it extracts to an open format with an auto export. If Zotero were to disappear tomorrow, I’d still have all my notes in org files and my citations in their bib file.
Don't suppose you have blogged about this? Or have recos for resources on combining Zotero with emacs? this sounds very intriguing!
The guerilla advertising on HN is probably the most transparent lol