Community plugins

[ThinkSalat]

Hi all,

I'm currently evaluating both omnivore and readwise. Readwise is currently paid, but omnivore will be at some point too. At least for premium features, a nomenclature that could eventually mean anything including syncing across devices, which for most would render a non premium version useless. There are no guarantees. That said, I think read-it-later apps cause a steep mental burden when switching, as all the saved articles will take up space in the mind.

So if I'm considering two paid options, currently readwise has features that omnivore doesn't. Being able to subscribe to Youtube channels for example is a pretty big one, as saving and annotating learning resources from youtube is a fantastic way to learn. There are others ways that omnivore doesn't have features that readwise has. If this was the end of development of both, readwise would be the clear winner.

The obvious pros on Omnivore's side are that it's free* and open source. That said, allowing community plugins could easily swing any feature in omnivore's side. For one thing, it can reach feature parity readwise and then some. Community member has an idea that could really improve the product? It can be done! And plugins can also serve to allow the main product to be streamlined, while simultaneously allowing deep personalization and customization.

There's also a slightly more cynical, business minded reason behind community plugins - as I referred to the mental burden of switching read-it-later apps, thinking of switching from an open platform where anything is possible, to a closed platform, just because one side has a feature you like becomes even less attractive. So what they have youtube integration, I can request that as a community plugin, or as a feature. maybe there's a plugin in the works. Maybe I'll just code it up myself.

Two major PKMS have community plugins that far extend the capabilities of the vanilla offering: Logseq and Obsidian. The community around these products are passionate and provide unquantifiable amounts of value to the product. I think Omnivore would benefit immensely if they opened up to community plugins.