Item — HN Reader

Can you do/consider the following:

1. totally encrypted/syncing etc (iOS in the roadmap ;)

2. Infinite nesting (indenting/outdenting)

3. Swipe to indent/de-indent

4. Drag and drop rearranging

5. KeePass type standard that is "portable" in the sense your data is always soverign and extensible or whatevr

6. Purchaseable/One-Time Large payment like $50-100 with abillity to tip or however one wants to supplement if they wish to support dev

7. Customizable font/ui text and display size. This is important, a lot of apps that offer these features in various mixed bags are usually annoyingly ant-sized and non-customizable

I would love to see a Strongbox equivalent of Todo/Tasks. The world needs this. Enough of Todoist's monopoly on outliney/todos

1 comments

Thank you so much for the feedback and suggestions:

> 1. totally encrypted/syncing etc (iOS in the roadmap ;)

We're considering offering an encrypted cloud service, or alternatively, integrating with Dropbox/Google Drive. Details are still being worked out but data sovereignty is very important to me so that will be an important design consideration whichever approach we choose.

> 2. Infinite nesting (indenting/outdenting)

While I understand the utility, this feature might detract from NowDo's core philosophy of simplicity. Our aim is to avoid complexity that might distract from task execution, though I'm always open to re-evaluating features that could enhance user experience without compromising simplicity.

> KeePass type standard that is "portable" in the sense your data is always soverign and extensible or whatevr

We're currently using a universal CSV format for easy import/export of tasks. Does this align with your expectations, or were you thinking of something different?

> Purchaseable/One-Time Large payment like $50-100 with abillity to tip or however one wants to supplement if they wish to support dev

Your suggestion for a one-time fee in the $50-$100 range, with optional tipping, is intriguing. Our initial thought was a lower price point ($10-$15), but we're open to exploring different models. The balance between accessibility and sustainability is key for us.

> Customizable font/ui text and display size. This is important, a lot of apps that offer these features in various mixed bags are usually annoyingly ant-sized and non-customizable

Excessive customization can sometimes detract from usability and design coherence. However, your point about text/display size is well taken, especially for accessibility reasons. We’ll consider this feedback carefully. Could you share if you find the current UI size too big, too small, or are you highlighting a general need for adaptability?

Again, really appreciate your feedback.

Also, no in-house or proprietary cloud-services you charge for. Thats an immediate no-deal. That was my biggest disappointment in having funded Obsidian which in many other ways is an incredible community reclaiming of Roam but the necessity to pay them like $60/year for a black box only they control and leaves you dependant on them broke my damn heart and discouraged the hell out of me.

Download Strongbox and learn from the master. That is such an amazing model from the user side and he seems to be making it work economically so thats all I got for now.

Appreciate the feedback.

What do you like about Strongbox's model? Is it the availability of a lifetime plan?

- that

- philiosophy of pick your own cloud service and it implements the syncing and management or just locally if people prefer

- doesn't lock you in + easy export

- implements MarkDown for notes but thats another good feature to fully implement for task notes, like Sorted3

- thing is, if you have anything non-Lifetime, it means it can be taken away at any point or at least eventually. That is unacceptable for anything (much moreso for content as important as people's notes and passwords etc)

- anything where your servers are involved means it requires a middleman which all of this emphatically does not require. That would be a YOU thing and not an US thing (not that youmre saying that but its super important to emphasize how basically done I am with Devs who pull that crap. I dont care if a Dev sells out or quits or whatever [insert dev situation], if I've done my homework I will likely be unaffected or should be unaffected and I just don't update or allow Apple to screw around with offloading apps

- I am free to top up with tips in the sense I can stochastically throw a little scratch Strongbox Mark's way when I'm able to rarely so I can express my appreciation for it

- He's very reponsive and even has his own subreddit! He hasn't become so big you never hear back from him, really just a mattr of time

- KeePass is an amazing format and he has done a mindblowingly amazing job of implementing all of it without the user habing to get dirty with rando plugin and junk

Sorry for the slow reply, this is very helpful - thank you.

No worries, greatness takes time!

> > 2. Infinite nesting (indenting/outdenting) While I understand the utility, this feature might detract from NowDo's core philosophy of simplicity. Our aim is to avoid complexity that might distract from task execution, though I'm always open to re-evaluating features that could enhance user experience without compromising simplicity.

Can I ask you to clarify something? Do you honestly believe that or is this sort of an oblique suggestion that it would be non-trivial/"unsimple" to implement?

FWIT, I have heard commentary over the years that engineering that kind of UI (where things can be dragged and dropped and moved around arbitrarily) in the way Todoist uses as its competitive advantage is diffcult to do and to get right

This is such a mission-critical thing otherwise you're like every other Todoist non-competes scrambling for Todoists crumbs. Its like literally just that to me with the infinite nesting and i can't remember if they allow swipe indenting but thats the most natural/intuitive in combination with drag and drop which can be used together and interchangably.

The issue with Todoist is they want to retain full control and deny your data portabillity and soverignty. They demand you sync thru their unencrypted (to them) cloud because they demand control or at least access to user content which they seem unwilling or unable to concede they won't leverage should buy-out talks begin.

No deal for them because of that but they still have the best UI (Sorted really is the closest thing and what I use alternatively) but theres no reason you can't swoop in and implement particularly 2 but probably all the things I've mentioned because that will be your path to folks like me showering you with money and actually out of desire for a superior self-funded project that respects and affirms our autonomy and allows for you to distinguish yourself in a non-trivial way.

Thanks

Edit: if you can cross-breed Todoist + Strongbox (KeePass) I will buy whatever you come up with provided the UI is closer to Todoist and the functionality captures both aha

Edit: infinite nesting ≈ subtasks but it can't be arbitraily limited to like 2-3 or whatever levels. If you find it philosophically problematic you could offer the user an advanced settings option that lets them toggle how many levels of abstraction/nesting levels they want to enforce and they can experiment and modify that as they settle in to your app and their own workflow

> do you honestly believe that or is this sort of an oblique suggestion that it would be non-trivial/"unsimple" to implement?

Not oblique, it's a common feature although I agree with you that few get it right.

But the issue isn't difficulty of implementation, it's with NowDo's philosophy, which is obsessive about simplicity. Our goal with it is to create the simplest useful todo app. The lack of features is its most important feature.

> This is such a mission-critical thing otherwise you're like every other Todoist non-competes scrambling for Todoists crumbs. Its like literally just that to me with the infinite nesting and i can't remember if they allow swipe indenting but thats the most natural/intuitive in combination with drag and drop which can be used together and interchangeably.

Todoist users aren't our target market, we're aiming for the people that want something much simpler and more opinionated than Todoist. We think they are an underserved market, but we're only in the very early stages of testing that thesis.

Thank you again for your feedback.

+ Sorted