Scrapbox is a kind of wiki. Toshiyuki Masui invented and Nota Inc. provided the services. I started using it in 2017, and as of 2019, there are 4000 pages in my public project (*1). I also published the manuscript of this book on Scrapbox (*2).
In the previous sections (5.4.1) Repeating the KJ method and (5.4.2) Trigger to repeat, I introduced social triggers and interval triggers. Scrapbox produces another trigger.
One of the interesting features of Scrapbox is the concept of “links.” We can express links in a simple notation: [title]. The link expresses the connection from the text in a page to another page. However it is not limited for the purpose. Even if the target page does not exist at the moment, you can create a link. This feature is common to traditional wikis.
When you feel a concept is important, you can make it a link. The link may eventually connect pages. Scrapbox runs an ambiguous search for titles of existing page and links when you are writing links. Those titles are concepts which you feel is important in the past. The ambiguous search shows the results ignoring the fluctuations of the notation. As a result, the ambiguous search works as a suggestion of connections to important concepts.
Also, even if there is no page at the link destination, Scrapbox automatically finds the pages in up to two hops away. You can easily find other pages which have the same links. This feature augments the ability to find related articles in the past.
This trigger by connecting the link is useful for me.
- Note: In the KJ method, we gather the pieces which were likely to be related. In Scrapbox, we link pages which were likely to be related. Those prevent you to forget the relation.