No. It is next on the list (so they say). Conor claims that first they are building some function that allows a kind of offline support (I am assuming like Notion’s “offline” - which is not that solid). Then the apps are coming. Still the best method to use is chrome - cross browser support is questionable. but overwhelmingly ok.
For me, While I am 99% of the time connected in some way, I just capture/create in drafts.app for offline support, then upload to Roam. However if I am in the writing mood, you need to be connected to access all the features that assist in content creation.
And apparently the feedback was that $30 per month was not popular, so it may be cheaper. Thanks for adding your feedback guys, all very good points I think. I have continued to use it over the last couple of weeks and I enjoy some the features a lot, but I do have my reservations. Evernote is not perfect but it has never let me down. I have never lost data. I wish they would just refine the product to be robust the way it is before trying to add a heap of features that frankly I will never use. It’s great to see some innovation in this space though, hopefully the other players will continue to innovate too.
Reading and listening to Conor (founder) it seems that his ambitions are quite high and that the product is really not in a place that aligns with his vision. In other words if you are not into a product that aligns with his vision you may want a more traditional product. The features are coming out at a breakneck pace. But I haven’t seen too many bugs, just unfinished elements. But as far as I know they are sticking with the beta for a bit longer to continue to feel out the niche they are filling.
I agree. Roam seems to me to have a very good underlying concept without a fully thought-through development plan/roadmap. While I can see great benefits in putting the “skeleton” out there and using the experience of users to define where the product should go, there are big risks. The two that concern me most are:
The Home Simpson car
Over-influence by a small but voluble group of “nerdy” enthusiasts who see opportunities for tinkering. I just want to take notes. I don’t want to spend my life on Github installing and configuring little Unix packages to make incremental speed or usage improvements.
To reiterate. The software is not really a note-taking. Your points are totally valid. But in my experience with the founder to this point is that it is a niche product and it intends to be. So if other software fills your needs, Roam is going to be doing involved with other things. Notion, Dynalist, The Archive, The Brain and Tinderbox all have great features sets above and beyond note-taking. If those satisfy I wouldn’t go to Roam. I do find many of these features useful for me, and I will continue to play with it. And since it offers plain text (or Json) export I can make a decision when it goes commercial whether I want to stick with it. Thanks for sharing.
Roam looks really interesting to me. I’m currently using Notion for some of this but something that keeps eating at me is software lock-in. Current business models want you to stay with their software so they can stay afloat (a good idea in thought), but so many don’t have the proven track record to stay around for the long term. I get concerned about that with new software that surges in popularity so much.
It’s seriously made me consider using something like emacs org-mode because it’s flexible and has longevity/portability on its side. Granted there’s a learning curve, but it’s probably better in the long run.
Personally, I think the marketing strategy is a little juvenile. Lots of high-fives and fist-bumps in the guise of user-led design. It’s great fun to call yourselves a cult, but may not work so well when there’s real user cash at stake.
I like working with Roam and find it very helpful, but my expectations are not high.
I agree with the concerns over hype, and the attenuated expectations.
OTOH, many prominent, successful companies have been camped on the ‘Note-Taking’ door threshold of what the RoamResearch team is now doing, and have failed to step in/through that door. So, I think Roam has vision, and I’m loving where they’re going with it.
There’s nothing new in Roam’s world – no new technology, just reworking. Graph models for data storage are well explored and documented, Others (Tangle, for example - remarkably similar to Roam) came and went with hoo-haw about creating breathtaking new ways of note taking. Using different data structures, Eduardo Mauro fifteen or more years ago ran circles around what Roam claims to do.
Don’t get me wrong, IMO, Roam is an interesting experiment. Fun to play with.
But I wouldn’t get confused here by what I consider the Frank Lloyd Wright effect: he told everyone he was a genius so everyone believed he was a genius. Unfortunately, Wright was also a charlatan, wrecked his family, wasted his clients money, was a lousy engineer, and built quite a few structures that have required fortunes to maintain. Let’s see where Roam is in 2, 5, 10 years.
Thanks for laying down the knowledge. I am interested to explore. This is Roam’s fifth year. It’s been in private beta for years. I think my comment earlier about it being more than a note-taking tool is a more accurate way to view the product. Graph view, transclusion, back links are nice, but as you state, are available and have been tried. I am at least excited to see where the “textual calculations” will go. There are a variety of query Features, tables, Data attributes, and formulas that I haven’t seen in any note-takers. I can bet on it because it is in many respects plain text.
On another note I can’t wait to try out nvUltra and see what it’s “connections” feature has to offer.
Edit: on another note, heresy towards frank lloyd Wright. Shame. Only half kidding.
Oh I already know. I just wish I could fit that in. Learning curve a bit unavailable at the moment. It is the inspiration behind Roam. Any pointers to get started with it?
Still struggling myself, and have decided on The Archive, Agenda, and Notebooks for various notes. Org mode has been friend zoned for the time being. I still am drawn to it and dabble with it.
I need a single repository and some kind of connectedness without much effort. I had been using DEVONthink. But now DT is just my document repo and Roam for notes (of which I backup nightly while it is still in beta).
