Obsidian

Obsidian is what I use to edit the megathread and I highly recommend it. It stores files locally so you can edit/view them offline. It also has incredible support for plugins, 4 of which I use extensively and have setup information for below.

• Download Obsidian here

After installing Obsidian, launch it and create a new vault called "MEGATHREAD" in a file location of your choice. Don't add any files to the vault yet. Then set up the plugins below (Git is mandatory, the others are extremely useful).

Note: in order to edit the megathread, you'll need permissions

Plugins

Git (Mandatory)

In order to make sure everyone is operating off of a shared version we use Git for version control. Obsidian has a great plugin for this which makes it incredibly easy to stay in sync with the repo. Whenever you finalize changes to the repo you must commit them and push them. DO NOT push them unless you are ready to have them published to the live version, as someone else will likely pull and then unknowingly publish your changes. To avoid this, make sure that all settings labelled "Auto commit-and-sync" are DISABLED

• If you don't have Git installed on your computer, reference this guide steps 4 and 5
• Go to the Git plugin page, install and enable it
• Follow this guide to fully set up the plugin
  • Note: On step 3 of the instructions, choose to do the option: Move all your files from the new folder (including .git !) into your vault root.
• When you clone the repository you should use this link
  • Note: When you do so, make sure you specify a relative path instead of an absolute path. So instead of C:\Users\blah-blah, just type the name of the new folder you want to create.
• When using this plugin, the most useful command is "commit-and-sync". This command will automatically stage all your changes, commit them, then pull from remote to prevent merge conflicts, and finally push them to the remote repository. In order to use this command, use ctrl/cmd+p and type in "Git: Commit-and-sync"
  • Tip: typing in "sync" will autocomplete to this command, you can also set a hotkey for it in Obsidian's hotkey settings
• Ensure you have the setting "Pull on startup" turned ON

Digital Garden (Optional)

If you want to be able to publish to the site yourself you'll need this plugin, otherwise someone else with the plugin will need to pull your changes from GitHub and then publish. Before publishing, ensure your page settings and theme settings match the website's

• Go to the Digital Garden plugin page, install and enable it
• You need to create an access token to your GitHub Account. This acts as a sort of password so that the plugin can add new notes to your GitHub repository on your behalf. Go to this page while logged in to GitHub. The correct settings should already be applied. (If you don't want to generate this every few months, choose the "No expiration" option.) Click the "Generate token" button, and copy the token you are presented with on the next page.
• Open Obsidian and the settings for "Digital Garden" and fill in your GitHub username, the name of the repo (nfr-megathread), and lastly paste in your token.
• Finally, you'll need to modify your Digital Garden settings to match the website's

  • Open the Digital Garden "Features" settings and ensure everything except "Let all frontmatter through" is enabled

  • Open the Digital Garden "Appearance" settings and ensure they look like the screenshot below.

    

• Now you can publish to the site! In order to do this, type ctrl/cmd+p and "Digital Garden: Publish Multiple Notes" or "Digital Garden: Publish Single Note"
  • Tip: typing in "multiple" or "single" will autocomplete to these commands, you can also set a hotkey for them in Obsidian's hotkey settings
  • Note: if you make a new page, it will not be published unless you add a "dg-publish" property to it. An easy way to do this is to use the command "Digital Garden: Add publish flag". If you type ctrl/cmd+p and "flag" it should autocomplete.

Imgur (Optional)

I have personally run into issues with embedding files and having them successfully upload to the site. If you run into those same issues (I think you likely will) you should install the Obsidian Imgur plugin. It automatically uploads images you paste into the doc to Imgur which works much better. Follow the setup guide on the install page.

If you need to embed other types of files, there are ways to do this through html as well See: FSAE 2024 Rules

Omnisearch

This plugin adds search functionality to search the entire vault, similarly to how the website search function works. It also has additional functionality for creating/opening files. Use this link to install it

Permissions

In order to edit the megathread you'll need to be added as a collaborator on the Git repository where the thread is housed. Contact Anton on slack or by email to be added.

If you want to simply be able to edit the notes, you only need to be a collaborator on the notes repo

If you want to be able to publish to the website you'll need to be a collaborator on the website repo (or alternatively you could submit pull requests for changes you wish to be published)

Usage Notes

If you're going to be editing a portion of the megathread "owned" by another member (owned meaning they are in charge of it's content or it's highly relevant to them) you should contact them prior to pushing your changes.

In an attempt to keep a consistent style, please refer to the Style Guide for general formatting notes. This file is unpublished and only available to editors, open in Obsidian after cloning to view.