

Ask HN: Review my startup, Droplink for OS X - wooby
http://droplink.me/

======
sherb113
Just tried it. I like how fast this is! It's a good alternative to dropbox for
a quick image upload or something. It would be nice if it auto copied just the
url.

I would also like it if the file stayed hosted longer than an hour. Say I want
to email the link to a friend, but the friend doesn't check their email for 3
hours. If they click the link the file will no longer be there. Having the
droplink icon in the top menu bar would be great, instead of having it in the
dock.

~~~
mikeyur
It does auto copy the URL, but you can only paste it into email/IM convos. At
least from what I've seen.

~~~
jcapote
It copies it to the clipboard, you should be able to past anywhere. Pro tip:
you can drag an image right from a web page into the dock app.

~~~
mikeyur
Here's what I got when I went to paste the copied url from an image called
storepromo.png -
[http://img.skitch.com/20090304-tqx32knar1rhd6gcxhwmc98qic.jp...](http://img.skitch.com/20090304-tqx32knar1rhd6gcxhwmc98qic.jpg)

if you hit submit, it tries to go to <name>.<extension> \- it's like
copying/pasting a url from safari into iChat or Adium. It shows a clickable
name, not the full URL.

~~~
wooby
The latest version just pastes URLS. It can be found here:
<http://droplink.me/Droplink.zip>

You can use the registration code from the signup e-mail. Cheers!

For help using or installing, please check here:
[http://blog.droplink.me/post/83016847/installing-and-
using-d...](http://blog.droplink.me/post/83016847/installing-and-using-
droplink)

------
nickb
Pretty awesome! I have an almost daily need for something like this when
sending files to people over chat/irc.

Your link creation needs some work, however. I can't paste the link into a
non-RTF box (this input box for HN, for example). You should reverse-engineer
how Safari creates links when they're copied to clipboard and do the same.

For example, if you right click on any title on any website, and copy a link,
you will notice that when you paste it to an RTF box, you get the same
behavior as what you currently do but when you paste it into Terminal, you get
the URL. When I paste Dropsend "URL" to Terminal, IRC or to Safari's address
bar, I get nothing.

~~~
wooby
This is fixed in the latest version, which can be downloaded here:
<http://droplink.me/Droplink.zip>

Thanks for the feedback, and enjoy the software!

Alan

------
JeremyChase
Is it just me or was there no audio in the video?

I think divia's problem is that there is no documentation in the program
itself. I downloaded it and unzipped it, and ran it. After entering the
registration code I had no clue what to do. The program seems to just "end".

I had seen the video so I figured that I should try dragging a file onto it. I
added it to my launcher and it works as it does in the video, but had I not
seen the video I wouldn't have known to do that.

I suggest that after you accept the registration code you ask if the user
wants it installed in the menu bar. Also I suggest telling the user that they
can drag files to it to upload them. Perhaps embed the video at that point
again.

Hope this helps. Jer

EDIT: I also find mac programs distributed as .zip to be annoying. I strongly
prefer .dmg files. Also, why is my "Downloads" icon now the same as
Droplink's?

~~~
wooby
Hi, thanks for trying it. And yes; I can see how it's not exhibiting the
expected behavior. I started by adding a Growl note to the "no files dropped"
case post-registration. There's also a simple help document here, which I'll
start sending with registration emails:

<http://blog.droplink.me/post/83016847/using-droplink>

Re DMG: Yes - a DMG is something it needs. Workin' on it. Re Downloads: Your
Downloads icon is the same as Droplink's because the Droplink application is
probably the last thing you downloaded. You can move it to your Applications
directory, and then drag it back down to the dock.

Thanks again for testing, you guys are coming up with really good feedback :)

------
epall
There's a Dropbox Droplet
(<http://wiki.getdropbox.com/DropboxAddons/Dropbox%20Droplet>) that does
essentially this. For somebody who doesn't have Dropbox, this tool seems cool,
but I wouldn't go to the effort of adding yet another tool when Dropbox is
close enough.

------
mikeyur
I like it. Tried it out, works quickly. I emailed you about a possible
integration, let me know if you're interested.

------
edb
The important questions here are:

1) What's my file limit?

2) How long are files kept for?

~~~
wooby
100mb max uploads, files last for 24 hours

~~~
edb
In my opinion, it should be something closer to 2 weeks. I send alot of emails
that don't get checked within 24 hours.

~~~
wooby
It's a question of markets, I think, and it's something we haven't really
decided on. 1 hour covers IM, mostly. 8-24 probably covers most e-mail use
(maybe?) What we don't want this to become is something like Rapidshare, and
limiting file lifetimes is our attempt at not letting that happen. The service
is designed primarily to share files with people you know personally, within a
finite time period. But we'll see how it gets used, and maybe change our
policy.

~~~
jd
If you're worried about that you can always expire either when time limit is
exceeded (say, 2 weeks) or download limit (downloaded 5 times?). Or you can
make download times degrade when the file is downloaded more frequently -- the
100th download will go at 10kb/sec instead of 10mb/sec. There are so many
creative solutions that you don't need to put any rules in place now.

Also, I think most of us (myself included) worry about abuse too much. If
people start abusing your service you will have the data to deal with it
effectively -- you'll think of a solution because you'll have to. And if it
turns out people aren't taking advantage of a friendly download policy -- then
the service ends up being more useful for honest users.

~~~
wooby
I really appreciate your insights here, you bring up some really good points.
I went ahead and wired in as much data collection / monitoring as I can so
through the beta I can see how the service is actually used before I get too
concerned with abuse prevention.

------
cake
You should work on the website's design, there is a lack of unicity.

The screencast is too short, you should describe to us what you're doing, why
you're doing it and the result.

------
yan
How does it compare to dockdrop? <http://dockdropx.com/>

Is it just stored on your servers vs. my own?

~~~
jcapote
Pretty much, yea.

------
divia
I downloaded it, but it quits right after it opens. (Macbook running 10.5.6,
if that helps.)

~~~
wooby
Thanks for giving it a look, I'll try and see whats up with it.

~~~
parachute
Same thing quits right after it opens,

10.5.6, imac

~~~
JeremyChase
See my first comment; I believe it is working as designed, but there is no
message to the user.

~~~
wooby
Sorry, yes - after registration, clicking on the icon will do nothing. It only
does stuff if you drag-and-drop a file on the icon.

Please see this blog post for installation/usage help:
<http://blog.droplink.me/post/83016847/using-droplink>

------
jasonlbaptiste
not sure if im missing something here, but you realize that you could have
just dragged and dropped that same file into the chat window, right?

~~~
nickb
In theory, yes, but not in practice. From my experience, Skype's the only app
that works reliably when you try to send files. Adium, much less so... it's a
hit & miss (and more of a miss).

------
nickdynamite
damn, that's fast

