The time has come folks, thank you again for bearing with me - I’ll wrap up my learnings and I move on from this topic. :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time and effort to comment on my vol2 post, everyone who is struggling with the numbering scheme, make sure to check out the recommendations I got there!

https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/14gtwjs/numbering_scheme_in_the_zettelkasten_vol2_aka_yes/

I still don’t understand Scott’s. Sorry. XD But I got to understand Luhmann’s!

The two most useful source for me was

the example from Johannes Schmidt’s paper on the Zettelkasten https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8350/8270 shared by u/thmprover, and
u/chrisaldrich ‘s article about the numbering system https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/27/thoughts-on-zettelkasten-numbering-systems/

Bad news: turns out I misunderstood Luhmann too at first.

Good news: when I thought I understand Luhmann, I conjured up a numbering system in my mind that made perfect sense to me. So I ended up settling on that. :)

​

https://preview.redd.it/zvb5c4h9509b1.png?width=1606&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8be28dc693a0dea6fda655401c985b21efc14621

Decoding Luhmann

Luhmann’s numbering system:

https://preview.redd.it/qmqp46zje09b1.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=520e67b7c969f11e30fa7aa76c081fcfa7061522

(Source: https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8350/8270 )

So his numbering scheme looks like a nested list where numbers and letters alternate down the line:

1

a
b

1
2

c

2

Translated to decimals it would be something like this:

1 . 001

1 . 001 001

1 . 001 002

1 . 001 002 001

1 . 001 002 001 001

1 . 001 002 001 002

1 . 001 002 002

1 . 001 003

1 . 002

​

https://preview.redd.it/w9qyllmc509b1.png?width=1596&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=d4c2ce80e9753efcd5500496d4b768f8a7c2dea9

Decoding myself

What I settled on instead is similar, with these changes:

I’ll allow multiple branching.
I’ll do this with using letters only as hub points,

meaning that there won’t be any actual card ID’s ending with a letter,
all my card ID’s will end with a number and
the letters will signify a bud where a new branch is taking off.

This means that I’ll have longer ID’s than Luhmann, but aesthetically will be similar (alternating numbers and letters).
I’ll also keep Scott’s root number generating method using the outline of academic disciplines, because I understand that and I have nothing against it. :)

​

So my numbering scheme looks like this:

https://preview.redd.it/cah156ame09b1.png?width=1094&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b074827e7e7e0305f90dd2b75ba0a29569192733

And this translated to decimals:

1234 . 001

1234 . 001 001 001

1234 . 001 002 001

1234 . 001 002 001 001 001

1234 . 001 002 001 001 002

1234 . 001 002 001 002 001

1234 . 001 002 002

1234 . 001 002 003

1234 . 002

​

https://preview.redd.it/2lzs9e2e509b1.png?width=1592&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=4fb88bbc87a1901202b76a70ebe747feab305290

I’m pretty content now

I’m pretty content with this now. :)

I spent a week ruminating about it, an evening hatching out the actual solution, a morning of re-numbering my cards and another morning to update the broken links in my index. I feel like this was time well spent. :)

Thanks again everyone who supported my endeavour!
Bookmark: reddit.com/r/antinet/comm...
https://boffosocko.com/2022/10/27/thoughts-on-zettelkasten-numbering-systems/
https://preview.redd.it/2lzs9e2e509b1.png?width=1592&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=4fb88bbc87a1901202b76a70ebe747feab305290
https://preview.redd.it/cah156ame09b1.png?width=1094&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b074827e7e7e0305f90dd2b75ba0a29569192733
https://preview.redd.it/qmqp46zje09b1.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=520e67b7c969f11e30fa7aa76c081fcfa7061522
https://preview.redd.it/w9qyllmc509b1.png?width=1596&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=d4c2ce80e9753efcd5500496d4b768f8a7c2dea9
https://preview.redd.it/zvb5c4h9509b1.png?width=1606&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8be28dc693a0dea6fda655401c985b21efc14621
https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8350/8270
https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/14gtwjs/numbering
https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/14gtwjs/numbering_scheme_in_the_zettelkasten_vol2_aka_yes/