- Why do you need your own knowledge base (notes) system?
First, the first point is the concerns about data privacy. Because personal notes contain a lot of content, such as pictures, codes, personal ideas, and even account information. I hope that these contents can be deployed on my own computer or my own data center so that the data will not be easily leaked.
The second point is space concerns. I've used a lot of note-taking tools before, and they all have space limitations. If there is a lot of data, you may ask for a fee. If you deploy your notes on your own server, you can control the space yourself.
Third, my home has a Synology data center. Usually I mainly use it to store work files, and also store some family photos and movies. But Synology's utilization rate is actually not high. So I want to deploy the note service, or personal knowledge base, on Synology to make the data more secure. - Introduction to the personal note-taking tools I've used
First of all, I have used Youdao Cloud Notes. I have used this tool for a long time and has been using it since it was launched. It is very useful and is a relatively traditional note-taking tool that mainly manages information through articles, folders and tags. But after using it for a while, I found that it couldn't meet some of my needs, so I started looking for alternatives.
Once, at the Internet Conference, I saw Evernote. The exhibition was displayed with the tablet version of Evernote, which was written very well, making me feel that this might be the note-taking tool I needed, so I also bought the Evernote Professional Edition. But after less than a year of use, I found that Evernote and Youdaoyun Note were essentially very similar, and I finally gave up.
Later, in an internet video, I discovered Notion. Its data record structure is very different from traditional notes. Traditional notes are mainly classified by articles, folders and tags, while Notion can divide the content into blocks, which can be text, tables, pictures, or even a connection or database, with very high freedom. This new way of recording was very attractive to me, so I started recording development, work and life with Notion, which was very convenient and I liked it very much. But Notion has a problem because it is a foreign software, which uses the English version and the database is also abroad, and sometimes accessing it will be more troublesome and even unable to connect.
Later, I began to look for domestic Notion-like tools and found an APP called Follow Us. Its structure is very similar to Notion, and it is also based on blocks to record articles, which is very convenient. So I migrated Notion's data to Follow Us. During the development process in 2023, it is very convenient for me and my team members to share data in this application. But suddenly one day, Follow Us changed the original 2GB free space to 200MB without explaining it in advance. This puts me in storage issues. Although I can open a professional version upgrade space, I don’t agree with their approach.
In 2024, I started using Feishu. Feishu has a document recording solution, but it is a large office software, and the note-taking function is only part of it. I used Feishu to record notes or knowledge bases, and I felt that it was a bit useless, so I didn’t insist on using it. - Why choose Appflowy+Cloud
After trying the above various notes, I have my own ideas about building my own knowledge base or note-taking system. I wish there was a note-taking tool similar to Notion, but could be deployed on my own server, managed my own data, and had unlimited space and freedom. This is why I created a note-like system. The development goal of Appflowy+Cloud is to replace Notion, which just meets my needs, so I finally chose Appflowy+Cloud.
In the next article, I will introduce the endless pitfall process in the process of building the Appflowy+Cloud note system/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~, please stay tuned, coming soon...