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What tool do you use to save articles to read later?
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Asklemmy
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For the most time I just kept tabs open or used the post save feature in Reddit, Mastodon and Lemmy. That way I collected dozens if not hundreds of things that were vaguely interesting but I never got around to looking at them anyomere and when I was looking for something specific I had to check multiple places, each with less than optimal search functions.
Last year I decided to just create a personal wiki. MediaWiki is FOSS, easy to set up (especially with docker), accessible from all my devices and has a huge community because of Wikipedia. I have specific articles for different topics:
Whenever I find an interesting link, I check if I already have an article that it fits into and if not, I create one. That way everything is roughly grouped by topic, I can leave notes and I have a nice search function and even a history that keeps references to stuff I edited or deleted.
Edit: the downside is that saving a link takes a bit longer, especially when I'm on my phone. Because of that I occasionally still save links the way I used to and if I still think they're relevant after a few days, I move them to the wiki.
I also run a personal wiki, but instead of MediaWiki I chose DokuWiki as it's much lighter and uses plaintext instead of databases for storing information. It fits me well and there are plenty of plugins as well.
The personal wiki idea is so insanely nerdy and obsessive and might just be the thing that pushes me to start self-hosting stuff. That's such an amazing idea.
Even more so when you consider that my initial impulse to set it up was to be a better host when my friends visit. Like the stereotype of staff at high end restaurants and hotels taking notes on their guests' preferences. I kept forgetting important stuff like allergies and now with the wiki, I have everyone's favorite drinks and snacks ready, plan dinner that everyone likes, that kind of stuff.
From there it was just a tiny step to use the wiki to keep track of other stuff that would otherwise sit in the back of my brain or in some badly-maintained list until I forget.
Instead of a personal wiki I chose to use a personal git repo for notes, which can be built as a static website if I want. Saving a link takes anywhere from a few seconds (saving it to a markdown file) to a few seconds more (committing that file to the repo and pushing).
The structure and concept of the notes repo is basically the same as your wiki.
I still save webpages I want to read later locally with Wallabag. Websites are in many ways an ephemeral thing, what you want to read later might not be there later.
Do you have a good app to edit that on mobile? I remember that I've looked into that before (more for a jekyll blog than notes but same idea) and I couldn't find anything that I liked...
... which is something I could add to my open questions article!
I used Obsidian for a bit but recently switched to Markor which I quite like.
I do all the git stuff via cli on Termux. To be fair I do most of my notes on a PC so I don't mind if the mobile experience is a bit hacky, with a couple aliases it's easy enough. Alternatively I could edit files directly in on git server website (I run a self hosted git server but ymmv). For the major git servers like Github there are probably apps that make it more comfortable.
The markdown files are appropriately structured so I can run Hugo (config and layout files in a separate repo for tidiness sake) and get a static site build.
I host my own GitLab so using its web IDE is an option. A proper offline solution for mobile would be cool though, especially because situations in which I don't have my laptop with me tend to overlap with situations where I don't have a proper internet connection, especially on local trains.
In terms of the offline solution I just edit Markdown files wherever whenever, and commit to the remote repo when possible or necessary.