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ShowHN: LinkThing

linkthing.co

3 pointsdreadsword5 comments

This is not a startup, and there's no business here. Its a "scratching an itch" weekend project. I'm a link junkie, and like to save big collections of stuff - be it travel info for an upcoming trip, funny gifs, or whatehaveyou. There's no social, and no discovery.

I just wanted a super simple, very flexible, lightweight link index. I also wanted to play around with Bootstrap and JQuery.

Originally, I built LinkThing on the Twitter API. It used twitter Oauth, and did some neat stuff, like index links in your tweets. But - I don't feel like figuring out how to comply with the new API guidelines, so I've backed it all out, and have built a standalone user account system, and there you go.

LinkThing is missing several things: 1. Don't lose your password. The password reset thing referenced in the "join" form doesn't actually exist yet. 2. Links that you add aren't currently editable; but that's almost there. Note: You can delete them. 3. There's some real low-hanging fruit missing, like a bookmarklet, that I'll get too shortly as well.

Anyhow, I posted a note about this in another thread some time ago, and wanted to share an update. As noted, this is a weekend warrior / fun project, so don't hold back - I haven't quit my day job for this. Its been fun to develop, and I've actually ended up being a pretty devoted user of it, at home and at work, and it would be cool if some other people found it useful too.

I wrote a brief into blurb here that will give you some flavor:

http://linkthing.co/doc_getting_started.php

Feedback/comments/complaints are appreciated. Please note: - To join, you just need a username and a password, email address is not required. - You can delete all of your data and erase any record that you ever joined LinkThing via the "Delete Account Data" link that you'll find under your username dropdown once you've signed in.

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Signed up, I like the simplicity of the thing (no discovery/social is a plus for me). Some thoughts:

1. You don't ask for confirmation for "dangerous" things: When deleting a link - I was expecting to be able to fish it out back from some kind of Trash, or perhaps have a temporary "Undo" option). When clearing the account, again it apparently didn't ask me for confirmation (I didn't have any links at the moment, in case you only ask if there's data in it).

2. On a site such as this, I'd love to have an export option, in case I ever want to leave (or you need to shut down). It could be as simple as just producing a plain HTML with the bookmarks.

3. When you click on a link, it opens a new window to go to it. Fair enough. But the click count isn't incremented in the existing page (obviously, a minor nitpick).

4. Bookmarklet for bookmarking pages directly would be nice. Here's a shot at it here: http://dobarkod.hr-test.s3.amazonaws.com/tmp/linkthingco-boo... (drag to bookmarks bar to save). Ideally, it'd redirect to the linkthing.co afterwards.

Hey! Thank-you for trying it out, and for your feedback. 1. I hear you on the confirmation for Dangerous actions point... I've almost seriously screwed myself on the Delete Account Data one. That's definitely on my to-do list. 2. Export - also agreed. What kind of format would be useful? CSV, or an XML schema of some kind? 3. Good catch on the click counter - I'll have to think through that one - perhaps just a cosmetic non-ajax increment. 4. Thank-you very much - That's exactly what I was thinking; I'll steal that code (thank-you!) and implement tonight, and will post back here.

Thanks again for trying it out and sharing your insightful feedback - its appreciated!

R

I think any textual representation of the links would be good - possibly a HTML file with the links themselves might be the easiest option.

Regarding the counter, yeah, I'd just "cheat" and increment it locally, no need to go back to the server for it (after all, you know it was exactly one click).

Also, to add: Thanks for a nice service, well done!

I'll try to use it for a couple of days and see if it sticks (I'm notoriously bad at bookmarking, or rather, revisiting bookmarks).

Hey - just a quick note - As per your suggestion, I've added an export feature under the username drop down that spits out a quote-encapsulated CSV file.

This is not a startup, and there's no business here. Its a "scratching an itch" weekend project. I'm a link junkie, and like to save big collections of stuff - be it travel info for an upcoming trip, funny gifs, or whatehaveyou. There's no social, and no discovery.

I just wanted a super simple, very flexible, lightweight link index. I also wanted to play around with Bootstrap and JQuery.

Originally, I built LinkThing on the Twitter API. It used twitter Oauth, and did some neat stuff, like index links in your tweets. But - I don't feel like figuring out how to comply with the new API guidelines, so I've backed it all out, and have built a standalone user account system, and there you go.

LinkThing is missing several things: 1. Don't lose your password. The password reset thing referenced in the "join" form doesn't actually exist yet. 2. Links that you add aren't currently editable; but that's almost there. Note: You can delete them. 3. There's some real low-hanging fruit missing, like a bookmarklet, that I'll get too shortly as well.

Anyhow, I posted a note about this in another thread some time ago, and wanted to share an update. As noted, this is a weekend warrior / fun project, so don't hold back - I haven't quit my day job for this. Its been fun to develop, and I've actually ended up being a pretty devoted user of it, at home and at work, and it would be cool if some other people found it useful too.

I wrote a brief into blurb here that will give you some flavor:

http://linkthing.co/doc_getting_started.php

Feedback/comments/complaints are appreciated. Please note: - To join, you just need a username and a password, email address is not required. - You can delete all of your data and erase any record that you ever joined LinkThing via the "Delete Account Data" link that you'll find under your username dropdown once you've signed in.

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