Preparing Maarfapad v1.0: Your wish list

[Abraham Samma]

Hello all 👋,

Thank you all who have taken time to try out or use Maarfapad, a private hosting service for your wikis. 🙏

I am now looking forward to improving the service in anticipation of v1.0 release. There are a lot of stuff I find interesting but they're currently partially implemented or not at all. Such as:

1. Automatic backup to local folder option (without the need for an extension) when offline or after a failed save to the online service. Currently Maarfapad saves to the browser local cache via a service worker after every save. This option can currently be switched off if you want to use another saving method.
   
2. A social sharing mechanism. A lot of you want this "feature" though I still am not exactly sure what you all want in this regard. Perhaps something along the lines of a "Slideshare" like site for TiddlyWiki. Or may be a WordPress like service (WikiPress 😅)?
3. PS. Almost forgot, I will add more editions of TW that you will be able to create with a single click and add into your Maarfapad account. I could extend this feature to allow you to add any TW project you see online to your account.
   

Feel free to air your opinions. I will consider them all.

Thank you all again. Bookmark Maarfapad's Blog if you want to keep track of project updates.

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Ciao Abraham

A -- Let me post to Twitter from it. I can send you code for the tool. Network posting built in I think would be an attraction.

B -- One thing nothing else is doing is "notifications". Say I gave a student rights to edit a TW, how could they notify me they were done from the TW?

Just thoughts
Josiah

[Abraham Samma]

Interesting suggestions Josiah. Particularly "B". Will be considered.

[Mat]

Hi Abraham

I don't know what your rights are on the server, but it would be fantastic if it allowed for communication between wikis... i.e TWederation... i.e to use Jeds Bob server which is a fully functioning technology now that just needs better UI (something I'm working on) but also other users with servers. If you have a service that both is a Bob server AND lets people create public wikis... well then that will be fantastic. 

...For those who were around in the TiddlySpace days (not to be confused with TiddlySpot) this would allow somewhat similar functionality but so much more and also connections outside of the central server.

If you are not really in control of the server, then it would still be super if the TWs could have TWederBob plugin preinstalled. This enables fetching of tiddlers from Bob servers. 

3. PS. Almost forgot, I will add more editions of TW that you will be able to create with a single click and add into your Maarfapad account. I could extend this feature to allow you to add any TW project you see online to your account.

You mean to effectively make a copy of a full TW, right? or do you mean its possible to add specific tiddlers, say plugins, from other TWs? (Which, incidentally, is exactly what TWederBob is for)

<:-)

[Abraham Samma]

Hello Mat,

I think it would be much easier to just create a useful TWederBob edition (and by "edition" I mean a full file TW flavoured with specific plugins for a specific function e.g. A blog wiki edition for content management and external publishing) that you could just create and use at any time. Makes things easier on my end!

Let me emphasize something here though: while I could implement a lot of stuff in the backend, I'd like to limit that in the name of transparency (and reducing technical debt) and instead encourage these implementations using client logic.

[Mat]

Let me emphasize something here though: while I could implement a lot of stuff in the backend, I'd like to limit that in the name of transparency (and reducing technical debt) and instead encourage these implementations using client logic.

I get your point but just so no misunderstanding; it is not possible to achieve the "connected wikis" by only doing things on the client TW side. Or, are people allowed to install, say, the Bob server on Maarfapad, I.e a nodejs solution beyond the TW?

<:-)

[Guille Rmo]

Hi Abraham. To me one of the most important issues when thinking to host my notes in someone else's server is security and privacy. Do you encrypt data on your servers? It is one of the things I have thought I'd like to contribute, but I think it would require way more knowledge about how tiddlywiki works in the backend and when it loads user tiddlers. I think it should be encrypted in the backend and it should only be decrypted on the client side. Of course this introduces the risk of losing your data if you can't remember your password. But for me that risk is better than trusting my personal notes to someone else.

You could also host public TWs that act as blog websites. So you can edit the TW and then publish a TW with no edit capabilities and a simple template.

Anyway, just to mention a couple of ideas I have had about TW. Congratulations on maarfapad. I think hosting TW is a great business option and I hope you succeed at it. 

  

Regards,

Guillermo.

[Abraham Samma]

I am afraid nodejs solutions won't apply to Maarfapad so you can't install Bob server. However, I'll take this as a personal challenge to come up with something compatible to Bob server. It shouldn't be too hard (as I proceed to prove myself wrong (>_<) ).

[Abraham Samma]

Hi Guille,

Thanks for the encouraging response. Encryption of content in Maarfapad is guaranteed by TW's built-in encryption tool (fyi I've already had atleast one user complain about forgetting their password to their TW. I could only sympathize :-( but atleast got a takeaway of TW's security) and only you can decrypt them. Saved wikis with password act as a second layer of authentication for your account's wikis.

The password for your account is hashed and salted before it is saved to Maarfapad during sign up, so they're useless in someone else's hands. HTTPS is guaranteed too unless you add third party image attachments or links in your wiki.

I am infact considering giving users the ability to make hosted wikis public with a single click, but I it still is a work in progress. We'll see. Thanks for your inputs.

[HansWobbe]

Abraham:

My evaluation of how Maarfapad meets my particular needs is proceeding quite well and is certainly encouraging.  As a result, I can already see that a  "... public with a single click ..." option would make this an attractive hosting option I would use.

Regards,

Hans

On Monday, September 17, 2018 at 3:23:57 AM UTC-4, Abraham Samma wrote:

Hi Guille,

...

[Abraham Samma]

My thoughts exactly. Especially if you could collect basic analytics with it to judge uptake of your work (just thinking out loud).

Thanks for your valuable input!