[a1exyz]

Im building a personal notes classifier, a website where I can write down links, bookmarks, ideas, thoughts, blog posts, projects, articles, etc. and it classifies them based on the text. It also knows whether something should be public or private - so that just I can see it. I want to get it to the point where I use it as part of my daily workflow as a way to organize my thoughts. My hope is that by process of needing/using it, I will understand well what is needed to make it better and the feedback cycle will make it a valuable tool quickly, as opposed to me making something that is intended to be used by someone other than me.

[mezod]

hey, I am really interested in learning more. I am working on something very similar. I have already developed some apps in this direction but I am going for a new iteration. I am just curious about your approach. The "it classifies" means the app does it automatically? How do you go about that? do you have something online?

[a1exyz]

Im still learning/building. I will link you when I have something more substantial to show. For the first iteration, I am making it with d3.js - something like this: https://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/3127661b6f13f9316be745e77fdfb08... where each note will be a point. The placement of the notes on screen will be generated by the classifier model. So all bookmarks should be in one cluster, all hobby aspirations in another cluster. I may even use k-means to cluster them.

Then when a classification is incorrect, the user can drag the item to another location so that it is where it should be which will trigger a callback to re-train the classifier model so that it can continually improve.

As far as the classification itself goes, check out this recent HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14733562

Finally, Id love to hear about your iteration, what were you thinking? (feel free to pm me as well)

[mezod]

nice! So, you are going more for the "mind map" approach right? I am a bit confused now. So links, notes, blog posts, and other 'items' you named on your first answer would be nodes here? I see how it would be very easy to find the category you are looking for, but how would that visualization help at the time to find a specific node? When you said "blog posts", "articles", "projects" where you mostly meaning a way to link to them, or to embed them into the app itself? In other words, is this a bookmarking tool or also a publishing/blog tool?

My idea is quite in a different direction. My best solution so far is http://multikanban.com . It really is just a personally customized kanban board. But it lets me navigate through multiple boards, each board is a project/goal/collection of tasks (maybe like your 'categories'?). Inside each board I store several things, notes, bookmarks, etc. And due to it being a kanban it helps me in the progress of getting it done too. Getting it done might mean several things, for example I have a Kanban board for books I want to read, so getting something done there means I just read a book. It serves both the purpose to see what I want to do, and what I've done, ad it helps me prioritise it too. However, it has lots of limitations.

Even though I'm quite happy with that solution, I want to complement it with something more along the lines of blog/publishing. I do have a blog, but I barely write there. I want to find something in between the small notes and the long blog posts. Which serves the purpose of storing thoughts, links, and categorizing it with tags, but without each entry needing to be a post, as we are used to in common blogs. I'm still conceiving it...if that wasn't obvious yet haha

[a1exyz]

Yep, every item would be a node. Similar items like bookmarks would be in 1 cluster while blog posts would be in another.

As far as publishing, its mainly for my own personal use, for me to organize my thoughts, bookmarks, aspirations, etc. Im not sure how to integrate that part (what a visitor might see)

I started on this road because I have a lot of notes in a variety of apps/files on different devices and every three months or so, I write them all down on a big whiteboard to see any common threads/themes, and to try and reorganize/prioritize my life. Its very helpful but every time I do it I have re-erase the whiteboard. This is a more permanent tool to replace that need.

However, finding a specific node might be tricky. Maybe something like a search bar up top with a zoom to node function (like google maps). Or a sort by feature? I haven't thought that out yet.

Ill try out your multikanban site and get some feedback to you. My initial impression is that setting up a kanban board is work - work that could be spent doing other things. To use it in the first place is a time investment. I wonder if it could provide intermediary benefits before the long term benefit of getting your work done more efficiently? So for instance, if you were using it to blog somehow, and a kanban board was created just by happenstance, the user could kill two birds with 1 stone! Anyways, Ill give it a go and let you know what I think.

[specializeded]

Why a website if you don’t mind me asking?

[a1exyz]

as opposed to what? An app? A website is accessible from the largest number of places - my phone, any computer, etc.

Also, 1 intention of this is to streamline my browser use. So that instead of just opening up a new tab and getting distracted with social media/article aggregators, I can organize my time online. I open a new tab to this website and see my todos, things Im interested in, projects Im working on, etc. And thus I have a starting point to go from.

Im also considering adding Kanban board type functionality to it so that I can prioritize my personal tasks/notes/todos and then move them to in progress and done. This needs a lot of screen real estate.