Creating Your Own Posts

Write and publish your own posts directly within Obsidian's Timeline View.

Overview

Social Archiver isn't just for archiving content from other platforms - you can also create and publish your own posts directly in Timeline View. These posts live in your vault and can optionally be shared to the web.

Use it as your personal mini-blog or public timeline: Share your thoughts, curated collections, and commentary to social-archive.org/{username}. It's a lightweight way to maintain a public presence without managing a separate blog platform - everything lives in your Obsidian vault first.

Creating a Post

Using Post Composer

The Post Composer is located at the top of Timeline View:

1. Open Timeline View (calendar-clock ribbon icon)
2. Click into the text input area at the top
3. Write your content using the built-in markdown editor (TipTap)
4. Optionally attach images or videos
5. Click the Post button

Your post is immediately saved to your vault and appears in your timeline.

Adding Personal Notes to Archives

Social Archiver provides two ways to add your personal thoughts and commentary to archived content.

Method 1: Add Notes While Archiving (Archive Modal)

When archiving content using the Archive Modal, you can add your thoughts right away:

1. Click the ribbon icon (bookmark-plus) to open Archive Modal
2. Paste the social media URL
3. Scroll to 💭 My Notes (optional) section
4. Write your thoughts, tags, or reminders
5. Click Archive

Your notes are saved with the archived post and displayed in a special "saved" header.

Method 2: Add Notes to Existing Archives

You can also add or edit notes on already-archived posts:

1. Find the archived post in Timeline View
2. Look for the "[Username] saved this post" header at the top of the card
3. Click anywhere on this header
4. An inline editor appears where you can add or edit your notes
5. Click outside or press Escape to save

Quick Access

The "saved this post" header is clickable - you can always come back to add more thoughts or update your notes later.

Two Ways to Archive: Modal vs Composer

Understanding the difference between these two archiving methods helps you choose the right approach:

Archive Modal: Direct Archiving

When to use:

• You want to quickly save a social media post without commentary
• You're archiving content for reference or research
• You want to add brief personal notes

How it works:

1. Click ribbon icon (bookmark-plus) or archive button in Timeline View
2. Paste URL and configure options
3. Optionally add personal notes in "My Notes" section
4. Click Archive

Result:

• Creates a standalone archive document
• Your notes appear in a "saved this post" header
• The post appears directly in your timeline

Post Composer: Embedded Archives

When to use:

• You're writing commentary or analysis about social media content
• You want to create a curated collection with your thoughts
• You're building a thread of related posts with your narrative

How it works:

1. Open Post Composer in Timeline View
2. Write your content (thoughts, analysis, context)
3. Paste social media URL(s) anywhere in your content
4. Click Post
5. An archive suggestion banner appears at the bottom of your post card
6. Click "Archive this post" on the banner

Result:

• Creates your post with link preview cards
• When you click the archive banner, the social media content is fully archived
• The archived content appears as nested cards inside your post
• Your commentary stays at the top, with embedded archives below

Understanding Embedded Archives

When you archive links from the Post Composer, the archived content is embedded within your post as nested cards. This creates a parent-child relationship:

• Your post (parent): Your thoughts and commentary
• Archived posts (children): Full social media content displayed as nested cards

This is different from Archive Modal, which creates standalone archive documents.

Example Workflows

Workflow 1: Quick Archive with Notes (Archive Modal)

1. See interesting post on Twitter
2. Click ribbon icon to open Archive Modal
3. Paste URL: https://twitter.com/user/status/123
4. Add note: "Great insight on distributed systems"
5. Click Archive
→ Result: Standalone archive with your note in "saved" header

Workflow 2: Curated Commentary (Post Composer)

1. Open Post Composer in Timeline View
2. Write: "Three brilliant takes on AI safety I found this week:"
3. Paste URLs:
   - https://twitter.com/user1/status/123
   - https://twitter.com/user2/status/456
   - https://twitter.com/user3/status/789
4. Click Post
5. Click archive banner to archive all linked posts
→ Result: Your commentary post with 3 embedded archived posts as nested cards

Embedding Social Media Links

When you include social media post URLs in your Post Composer content:

Without Archiving

• Link preview cards are automatically generated and attached to your post
• The cards show basic metadata (title, description, image)
• No archiving credits are consumed
• Content may disappear if the original is deleted

With Archiving (Recommended)

1. Post with links: Your post is published with link preview cards
2. Archive banner appears: A banner shows at the bottom of your post card
3. Click to archive: Click the banner to archive all linked social media content
4. Full preservation: The complete posts are archived and embedded as nested cards

Archive Credits

Each embedded archive consumes 1 archive credit. A single post can include up to 5 embedded archives.

Attaching Media

You can attach images and videos to your own posts:

1. Click the attachment icon in Post Composer
2. Select images or videos from your device
3. Files are automatically copied to your media folder
4. Media appears inline in your post

Sharing Your Posts

Your created posts can be shared to the web just like archived posts:

1. Click the share button in the bottom-right of your post card
2. The permalink is copied to your clipboard
3. Your post appears on your public timeline at social-archive.org/{username}

See the Sharing guide for more details on share modes and managing shared content.

File Structure

Posts created through Post Composer are saved to:

Social Archives/Post/{year}/{month}/{date}-{timestamp}.md

Example:

Social Archives/Post/2024/11/2024-11-15-143052.md

Best Practices

When to Use Archive Modal

• Quick saves without commentary
• Reference archiving
• Building a personal library

When to Use Post Composer

• Writing analysis or commentary
• Curating related content
• Creating threads with context
• Building topical collections

Organizing Your Notes

• Use tags in your notes for easy filtering (e.g., #learning, #reference)
• Add context about why you saved the post
• Include related topics or questions
• Date-stamp time-sensitive notes

Tips

Markdown Support

The Post Composer supports full Markdown syntax including:

• Headers (# ## ###)
• Lists (- or 1. 2. 3.)
• Links (text)
• Bold and italic (bold italic)
• Code blocks (```code```)

Quick Capture

Use Archive Modal for quick captures during browsing. Later, you can create a summary post using Post Composer that references those archived posts.

Editing Notes

You can always return to your archived posts and click the "saved this post" header to add or update your notes.

Next Steps

• Learn about Timeline View features
• Share your posts to the web
• Learn about video downloads