Your minimalistic app is great! Can you add these 38 features, though?

A few weeks ago I've released an extremely simple note-taking app called Textpod. I just wanted a "one big-ass text file" kind of thing, but with file attachments and link archiving. The whole idea is that it's basically a text file with minor magic sprikled on top.

The reception has been great! Seems like many people were looking for something similar. I also received lots of feedback and feature requests, which is fantastic. But... I found myself trying to justify the idea of the app to some folks, and it felt weird doing so.

One common topic among emails and comments basically came down to "your minimalistic app is great; can you add these 38 features though?" Some features people want make perfect sense: tags, categories, authentication, encryption, multi-user access, rich-text editing, plugins, theming. They make sense for a note-taking app such as OneNote, Evernote, Obsidian, etc. You know, actually complex solutions for an ever-hungry crowd of productivity aficionados. But Textpod is kind of the opposite of those apps. If I were to implement those features, I'll end up building a "worse Obsidian" or something.

If simplicity is the feature, I simply cannot implement most things people desire. By virtue of being non-trivial, those things would actively degrade the core feature of simplicity.

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