Armageddon Note-taking System: ConnectedText

[deskoft]

Hello Armageddon,

I'm posting to share MY OWN method of taking notes about characters, which uses this software that you can literally use to create whichever form of note-taking system you decide: ConnectedText. Just like Wikipedia, ConnectedText serves like a personal wiki (like a wikipedia which only you can create, locally). Basically, it allows you to organize a lot information you have about people. Not only that, it also allows you to simulate the brain in your character, by forgetting certain stuff and remembering certain others. It even helps you to get into the particular mindset of your character! I have blanked out my IC information, but this is how my homepage looks like:



On the blank spot I have information that my character is actively thinking about. The first one is called "Yourcharactername: yourcharactersdesc", which is basically a place where you place your character's IDENTITY. Basically, his biography, thoughts about himself, etcetera.

Then, I have the WORKING MEMORY. It's simply a place where I place the stuff my character is learning ON THE SPOT. If I see a person at the bar, I look at him and immediately copy & paste his whole description there. And then, I cut it out into a shorter statement of WHAT my character's brain would retain (usually the brain takes in the most important details). This is a simple example (I simply made up that character):



Anything beyond the working memory is what I consider long-term memory. Therefore, probably after the role-play, I will either create a page about 'short, blank freelance', which will include everything I know or I will delete the information because I didn't really have enough contact with this person to probably remember him. I usually leave every character or information on the working memory for 1 whole day. If I see him again and some sort of role-play (it even includes him looking at me) happens, I will add a very simple page about this person.

I sadly can't post a lot about my ConnectedText, as it contains a lot of IC information, but as soon as I add someone to the long-term memory (when I create her/him a page just for her/his information), it's usually hard for my character to forget him. I can immediately search the character by keywords and it will immediately pop him up and I can immediately read all the memories and information my character has about this character.

Finally, what I also do with CT is roleplay forgetting stuff. There's an analysis tool that shows you the topics you have modified by date. Obviously, the oldest pages are the ones that you have to start deleting information from, as it means you haven't talked to that person in a while. That way, if you have not talked to my character after 1 year, he will probably not remember your name, nor anything. He will remember very faint details about your clothing, etc. Or, in the best case, he won't remember anything at all. It also makes me remember certain style like 'the usual clothing' of a character, and items like that.

If anyone has any question about the system, feel free to ask! You guys can literally create your own ConnectedText system of notes however you want (it's a personal wikipedia, literally). And tell me what you think of my own method of notes. By the way, while ConnectedText is a paid software, there's also free alternatives, which actually work quite cool. The main free alternative is wikipad, although, definitely, ConnectedText works much better.

http://connectedtext.com/

[Case]

I wonder who was pc

[Tuannon]

If it's not important enough to remember, discard it. #nologsever

[creeper386]

Playing around with WikiPad, this sort of thing at least is way easier to manage stuff. I tend to slowly collect lots of information on characters and it gets disorganized in a single txt document and multiples gets to be a mess. You don't want to see my Armageddon folder.

I think this sort of thing certainly has something to provide.

[CodeMaster]

Cool stuff deskoft... I am really interested in the ways people approach MUDding.

One of the great things about MUDs is how free we are to customize our "view" of the game world: colors, triggers, aliases, fonts, plugins, mapping software, scripts and - in your case - even an interface to your character's brain.  This kind of freedom to tinker doesn't exist in a lot of other video games.

[deskoft]

Thanks! Yes, it's quite cool! I even use it to plan before-hand my future characters. Usually, each weekend, I attempt to write something new about my next character. That way, when I play him, he has a great biography which I probably will enjoy. I am also very interested in knowing what other systems people use. If you use anything similar (or different), feel free to tell me. I really love these kind of implementations.

[CodeMaster]

Thanks! Yes, it's quite cool! I even use it to plan before-hand my future characters. Usually, each weekend, I attempt to write something new about my next character. That way, when I play him, he has a great biography which I probably will enjoy. I am also very interested in knowing what other systems people use. If you use anything similar (or different), feel free to tell me. I really love these kind of implementations.

I wrote my own client, so it's fairly simple (and rickety) but it supports highlights, etc. and I can have triggers which embed pictures in with the text (for atmosphere, like at certain locations).  It has an unusual type of trigger where the text is entered into the prompt, but not necessarily sent to the MUD, which I find handy.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I have a couple aliases for making my character have subtle moodchanges/feels random, so I can type "?feel" and he'll feel something apropos, or his mood will change to something (mostly to help with solo RP).  I've been inspired by your thread to maybe have it prompt me with a little reminder of some biographical information about the character and have him "feel" something about it, maybe weighted by how recently it happened...

[deskoft]

Thanks! Yes, it's quite cool! I even use it to plan before-hand my future characters. Usually, each weekend, I attempt to write something new about my next character. That way, when I play him, he has a great biography which I probably will enjoy. I am also very interested in knowing what other systems people use. If you use anything similar (or different), feel free to tell me. I really love these kind of implementations.

I wrote my own client, so it's fairly simple (and rickety) but it supports highlights, etc. and I can have triggers which embed pictures in with the text (for atmosphere, like at certain locations).  It has an unusual type of trigger where the text is entered into the prompt, but not necessarily sent to the MUD, which I find handy.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I have a couple aliases for making my character have subtle moodchanges/feels random, so I can type "?feel" and he'll feel something apropos, or his mood will change to something (mostly to help with solo RP).  I've been inspired by your thread to maybe have it prompt me with a little reminder of some biographical information about the character and have him "feel" something about it, maybe weighted by how recently it happened...

That sounds simply incredible. Is it public? I'm definitely looking for something like that, where I can prompt images whenever I see a character or location. If not, do you know any type of alternatives to this system? I usually put images in characters and locations to remind me of the atmosphere.

[Jingo]

If it's not important enough to remember, discard it. #nologsever

[CodeMaster]

Unfortunately it's not public deskoft, but I might package it up in the future and figure out a friendly way to get it installed on another machine.

Inline images isn't a new thing, though.  A bit of googling tells me the <image> tag is a part of the mud extension protocol (mxp), so you might be able to tweak your client to do that kind of thing for you.  Put a post in your local mud client's forums and I bet some guru will know the answer.

I was looking at mushclient recently and the scripting language(s) it supports are easily powerful enough to do all the things I'm doing with think/feel mining.

[deskoft]

Unfortunately it's not public deskoft, but I might package it up in the future and figure out a friendly way to get it installed on another machine.

Inline images isn't a new thing, though.  A bit of googling tells me the <image> tag is a part of the mud extension protocol (mxp), so you might be able to tweak your client to do that kind of thing for you.  Put a post in your local mud client's forums and I bet some guru will know the answer.

I was looking at mushclient recently and the scripting language(s) it supports are easily powerful enough to do all the things I'm doing with think/feel mining.

Actually, inspired by your reply, I found CMUD and so far I'm extremely pleased. The scripting possibilities are simply wonderful. Really, it's fascinating. I'm thinking of integrating ConnectedText with CMUD (as it supports files).