For those interested, I've slowed work on the app in favor of refining the app's ontology in markdown form[1], building an ontology playground[2], and building a prototype[3] to show off features that the updated ontology enables. I had some major changes I wanted to make and making it work in the real app was going to be too much effort.
I'll likely be making a Show HN for one/some of these soon^TM (in the next month or two?) but they're currently still a bit early.
If you have a problem that's hard to think through or agree on with someone else, this app can help you make a (cause & effect) diagram to understand it better. Use numbers (scores) to show others how important you think something is (nodes) or how much you think something causes another thing (edges). You can add reasons (supports/critiques) to justify your numbers, and tradeoffs (criteria) to compare options for dealing with the problem. The app can show where you disagree with people or what people think are most important (generated views).
I might need LLM help to figure out how to explain to a 5 year old haha.
this is interesting, does it use IBIS on some level? i discovered IBIS and added it and mermaid diagrams to my app but it was a bit of a lark. i think what i pictured was similar to what you have here (and should be possible though i have not tested the IBIS > mermaid pipeline).
It's not exactly IBIS, but inspired for sure. IBIS I think is better for modeling a live discussion, it's almost an append-only structure (to model back-and-forth), whereas Ameliorate's structure (the core is concepts with cause & effect relations) is intended to have new information integrated without duplication (which can be more annoying to do live because it can involve modification rather than appending).
Ameliorate models questions and arguments, but they're more auxiliary (modeled as being _about_ a cause or effect) than in IBIS, where they're pretty central. Questions in Ameliorate are more "unknowns" than "core questions we are trying to answer".
If you see my root-level comment in this post, I mention refining the Ameliorate ontology (ameliorate-v2) which elevates questions to first-class (to address the issue where it's hard to know where to look in the diagram, without questions to identify motivation). You might also be interested in my ontology playground in that comment if you want to see an IBIS > mermaid pipeline.
Thanks for the feedback, I agree. I hadn't gotten around to adding an Explore page. There haven't actually been many users so it'd be mostly my topics and topics from some small group discussions I've hosted, but would be good to have more for people to see.
Cool to see this posted :) I'm the creator.
For those interested, I've slowed work on the app in favor of refining the app's ontology in markdown form[1], building an ontology playground[2], and building a prototype[3] to show off features that the updated ontology enables. I had some major changes I wanted to make and making it work in the real app was going to be too much effort.
I'll likely be making a Show HN for one/some of these soon^TM (in the next month or two?) but they're currently still a bit early.
[1] https://github.com/keyserj/reasoning-tools/blob/main/amelior...
[2] https://keyserj.github.io/reasoning-tools/ontology-playgroun...
[3] https://github.com/keyserj/reasoning-tools/tree/main/amelior... (not yet deployed)
- stupid question: i really dont understand what your product does
- mind explaining it like how you would do to a 5yr old kid
If you have a problem that's hard to think through or agree on with someone else, this app can help you make a (cause & effect) diagram to understand it better. Use numbers (scores) to show others how important you think something is (nodes) or how much you think something causes another thing (edges). You can add reasons (supports/critiques) to justify your numbers, and tradeoffs (criteria) to compare options for dealing with the problem. The app can show where you disagree with people or what people think are most important (generated views).
I might need LLM help to figure out how to explain to a 5 year old haha.
I can only hope this is a joke to ask for an explanation of a product that breaks down complex problems into clear pieces.
this is interesting, does it use IBIS on some level? i discovered IBIS and added it and mermaid diagrams to my app but it was a bit of a lark. i think what i pictured was similar to what you have here (and should be possible though i have not tested the IBIS > mermaid pipeline).
in any case: cool
It's not exactly IBIS, but inspired for sure. IBIS I think is better for modeling a live discussion, it's almost an append-only structure (to model back-and-forth), whereas Ameliorate's structure (the core is concepts with cause & effect relations) is intended to have new information integrated without duplication (which can be more annoying to do live because it can involve modification rather than appending).
Ameliorate models questions and arguments, but they're more auxiliary (modeled as being _about_ a cause or effect) than in IBIS, where they're pretty central. Questions in Ameliorate are more "unknowns" than "core questions we are trying to answer".
If you see my root-level comment in this post, I mention refining the Ameliorate ontology (ameliorate-v2) which elevates questions to first-class (to address the issue where it's hard to know where to look in the diagram, without questions to identify motivation). You might also be interested in my ontology playground in that comment if you want to see an IBIS > mermaid pipeline.
This might be more interesting if you could read other people's discussions. As it is, it's like visiting an empty forum.
Thanks for the feedback, I agree. I hadn't gotten around to adding an Explore page. There haven't actually been many users so it'd be mostly my topics and topics from some small group discussions I've hosted, but would be good to have more for people to see.
Since you use it yourself, sharing your own topics seems like a good way to start?