Understandable wish … from the point of view of a user who’s already “in”.
But for a beginner, it wouldn’t help so much.
Why?
– Because a beginner still needs a guidance how to start with everything.
It doesn’t help him to know that this or that feature now has changed in this or that way, if he still isn’t able to do the first steps.
And I must say, it’s not so easy to make a good beginner guide video.
I’ve thought about making one by myself often.
Already the very first steps (installing, basic settings for Vault ans Space, some cleanups in the Graph of the new and nearly “empty” Space) would need half a hour. And only after that could we start to create a first Page and show some basic concepts of the editor.
Problem is also: things change all the time.
You could make a very good video for beginners, that gives him fisrt the big picture and then goes into the details of the editor and how to setup collection, Queries, the Widgets, and so on.
But 1-2 months later, a lot has changed.
I know from my own experience with complicated software where you simply don’t get the point of everything, that it drives you crazy if your own setup even differs slightly from a manual or video!
You try to follow the instructions click by click and suddenly you can no longer follow them, because something is different from your own setup.
The old Anytype videos have driven me crazy and angry till the point of explosion!
Charlotte was surely a very nice person, therfor I’m ashamed to say it so harsh that her videos was nothing else then trash!
It was impossible to follow the instructions. She was talking and all the time clicking here and there, before the user’s eye have even had a chance to find the mouse pointer in the video screen.
I reduced the video speed to a quarter and it was still necessary to hit pause every second and to rewind back multiple times to get it what she did.
It has made me sooo angry!!!
And don’t underestimate this effect:
A new user wants to have some quick successes. Some quick “aha” experiences.
But we old fellow know that quick solutions lead to dead ends. It makes sense to think first about the result, about the structure, about the Types & Properties & Templates.
But to explain that, makes the video loooong.
The new user must through all this.
He needs to start and he need to run in this or that dead end. Because then he knows suddenly from own experience, why Properties and Templates and Tapes make sense.
All that needs time.
We old user have all found our way.
Our structure exists and it works for us. Now it’s relative quick to work with it, everything is already there.
But if someone starts and there is no configured Collection/Query and there is no Type, no Template, not even the Properties are configured … it’s frustrating to start so if you still don’t have an idea what’s possible and what to expect and how your own structure could look.
It’s easy to show a friend how quickly you can put some new data in your already existing setup.
But have you ever tried to explain to a friend how to start with Anytype from zero?
I can tell you, it’s hard to get someone “on board”.
They give already up even before we was able to come to the more interesting part.
In my opinion, Anytype is best for people who really have a problem that they wasn’t able to solve with other software. They must already have suffered A LOT and they must be in desperate need for a solution.
If that’s given, then they are ready for Anytype. Then they have the endurance to bite themself through all the problems that a beginner will have.
In my case, I came from OneNote. I lived with it for 10 years, but it wasn’t enough anymore. I needed a better solution. And I REALLY needed it!
After al lot research I came to Obsidian. I tried to love it and it is a good product, but I couldn’t get warm with it.
So I finally came to Anytype. For unknown reasons, I fell in love with it, although it was horrible 2,5 years ago!
But I have already suffered so much in the time before, that I stayed with it.
There was doubts about my decision. But luckily, there came update after update and each of them was a huge improvement!
When Razor implemented the Kroki and WireViz Embeds (especially for me!), I was so happy about that, that I simply had to stay!
I’ve sometimes written back then, that Anytype is like a girlfriend that I really love, but unfortunately she doesn’t wash her feet nor does she brush he teeth …
Now, 2,5 years later, she has washed feet and brushed teeth.
There are still some (a lot) things to complain though, but it’s complaining on a relative high level.
A new user must through all of this.
And I somehow believe there is no shortcut. Suffering is part of the way.