Viewing this incorrectly flags my primary browser into the infinite tarpit but not a different browser. Perhaps a little too aggressive or not discerning enough?
This seems concerning: "The Service should not be used to store sensitive information such as bank account numbers, credit card information, or passwords."
Why would a notes app dictate what content can be stored in it?
It’s disclaiming. They are saying they do not believe their cloud-first tool is the appropriate place for that sort of content.
Simplenote is run responsibly by serious people. They are telling you what is absolutely common sense, in my mind: it’s not normal to store sensitive information on cloud notepad services you do not (and cannot!) pay for.
I suspect the reason is that their continuous-sync process (which is like SubEthaEdit etc.) does not work with notes encrypted at source.
Apple Notes makes more of this but it’s provided by a firm with several orders of magnitude more money and resources behind it.
They are trying to tell you not to do something risky (for you and for them I guess).
Complain about it on some abstract rights-based level all you like if you feel that it's a strange "concerning" issue. They are good people and they are doing this for the goodwill only (really: read the story about how Matt Mullenweg bought the simplenote.com domain for $29,000 and gifted it to them before he even discussed buying them out).
Kudos for building a thing! Forgive the terse feedback, but I figure you wouldn’t post here if you weren’t seeking it. Quick thoughts:
A) Without providing a viable option for mobile (or even via a web UI on mobile), my guess would be that a desktop-client-only solution (like this appears to be?) is going to be a non-starter for a significant number of your potential audience. To me, cross-platform doesn’t just mean cross-desktop-OS - If something says cross-platform my personal expectation is that means desktop/mobile/web.
B) If your top-level value proposition is a focus on privacy and security, people are naturally going to ask further questions about the details. For example:
- What encryption is being used here, and how?
- If data isn’t stored on external servers, how do “your notes sync effortlessly”? What mechanism makes it possible to “access your data from any device, anywhere”?
- How do I get my data OUT of this thing, if I decide it isn’t right for me?
C) If you’re going to go down the “unlike other note-taking platforms” route, it might be valuable to explicitly help people make the comparison in terms of features/approaches/architecture/trade-offs etc. How should one compare this against [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md)? [Simplenote](https://simplenote.com)? [Logseq](https://logseq.com/)? [Zettlr](https://www.zettlr.com/)? [Standard Notes](https://standardnotes.com)? Notion/Google Keep/Evernote/Workflowy/Dynalist etc?
Thanks for sharing your opinion. Firstly, there was an oversight, as stated in a follow-up post we don't offer sync across devices as of now. Secondly, I understand your thoughts on cross-platform availability, and it's totally normal to have a different view on the topic. Thirdly, although I don't like to compare my work with bigger projects, I can say, out of personal preference, that I've tried them all, and I always struggled with organizing my thoughts or having decently formatted notes. On top of that, most of them are closed-source and closed-source apps aren't my cup of tea.
Location: London, UK / Auckland, NZ / Sydney, AU
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies:
Full-stack dev/product designer who is very comfortable with code - HTML/CSS optimisation/perf, JavaScript/TypeScript, product/system/visual/service/UX/interaction design, Figma/Sketch/etc, design systems, React + other frameworks, Ruby/Rails, Node, Python, Go, Rust, Zsh, Git, GitHub (built big parts of it!), Perl, Docker/Heroku etc, Chef/Puppet/Ansible, SQL/Postgres, R, security/cryptography/penetration testing, ML/AI/NLP Stuff™, Analytics/Data Science™, People Management™/coaching.
• Building products for the web for ~20 years — remember frames? spacer gifs? CGI? ActiveX/Flash? I do ^_^
• Product design at GitHub - My claim to fame is that while on the core team as an IC (~2012–2016), I was the 13th highest overall contributor to the github/github codebase by commit count.
• Product design at Intercom - First hire for London office, led major redesign of Messenger, led design of first ML-based chatbot product.
• Coach for Seth Godin’s altMBA
• Various adventures since pandemic/onset of apocalypse.
Seeking full-time roles, ideally focused on ML/AI space (although open to other areas, e.g. climate change, OSS/open data, web3, etc). Excited to help shape/design/build the infrastructure which will soon be at the core of how AI (and other high leverage tech) shapes the world. Especially keen to speak with anyone focused on AI safety/interfaces/governance.
