

ShowHN: LinkThing - dreadsword
http://www.linkthing.co
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.<p>I just wanted a super simple, very flexible, lightweight link index. I also wanted to play around with Bootstrap and JQuery.<p>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.<p>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 <i>can</i> delete them.
3. There's some real low-hanging fruit missing, like a bookmarklet, that I'll get too shortly as well.<p>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.<p>I wrote a brief into blurb here that will give you some flavor:<p>http://linkthing.co/doc_getting_started.php<p>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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senko
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...](http://dobarkod.hr-test.s3.amazonaws.com/tmp/linkthingco-
bookmarklet.html) (drag to bookmarks bar to save). Ideally, it'd redirect to
the linkthing.co afterwards.

~~~
dreadsword
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

~~~
senko
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).

~~~
dreadsword
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.

------
dreadsword
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.

