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Ask HN: What happened to Pinboard (June 22)? Should I switch to Raindrop?

10 points by tsg ↗ HN
We've had two threads about Pinboard in the last few months:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31183419

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30628375

My own situation is unchanged: paid archiving accounts aren't archiving, and one of them isn't functioning at all (can't even view the bookmarks for individual tags), and I haven't had a reply to the many emails I've sent Maciej.

Looking around for alternatives, Raindrop.io looks good, but there was this negative experience:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24792652

I also just found this detailed comparison of the two sites which is not hugely encouraging about either (although most of the negatives about either are not relevant to my use case):

https://dsalo.info/pinboard-vs-raindrop-two-bookmark-apps-enter/

I'm inclined to try shifting to Raindrop, but I'm curious as to what other people are doing.

17 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 12.7 ms ] thread
warrenm
I never understood pinboard, or del.icio.us, or any of the other "social bookmark" tools out there

Can someone explain better than wikipedia the draw to them?

riotnrrd
Forget the "social." Pinboard's utility is that it's a website that privately stores all my bookmarks, so I can access them on any computer. You can add tags to help you organize your bookmarks, plaintext notes or descriptions of bookmarks, and so on.

I find it extremely useful for saving the results of internet deep dives, where I might end up with ten tabs open that I want to save to revisit later.

xcubic
What is your workflow to bookmark in "bulk"?
aworks
Former del.icio.us and pinboard user here. I've been using raindrop.io for three months. I like it so far although I no longer use tagging.
tsg
Thanks! I gave up on tagging some time ago, too (decent search is more important for me).
tconfrey
Kind of a different take, check out https://braintool.org . Chromium only RN and no archiving, but you own your own data in plain text (org-mode format). Freemium, source-available and private. Its optimized for fast filing and retrieval with search and keyboard controls.
tsg
Thanks - wish it could be used with more browsers, this looks amazing (I use orgmode all the time, but I also use Safari...). That said, it looks good enough that I'm going to give it a go, thanks again for pointing it out.
runjake
If you're not getting what you're paying for, stop paying -- and then request/demand a refund for the affected time-frame.

Pinboard is a one-man shop and maybe that one-man has some personal life issues of some sort to deal with. Adjust your expectations accordingly, going into the future.

If a service you want to use is a one-man shop, adjust your expectations accordingly.

(Please in no way take this as excuse-making for idlewords, but rather as a rule of thumb.)

PS: Who runs Raindrop.io? It looks like a one-man shop, but I cannot find who that person is.

Edit: Looks like this fellow runs Raindrop:

https://github.com/exentrich

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustem-mussabekov-33172612/

tsg
Thanks - good suggestion - I'll try asking for a refund and see where it gets me...
runjake
It may not get you anywhere in the short term, but it will sit in Maciej's queue.

If more people join the unsubscribe party, it will likely increase his chances of addressing your/their issues.

I'll keep my sub going for now, I don't use archiving and Pinboard works for what I use it for.

I figure he is taking a family emergency or mental health break. It looks like he disappeared back in April.

tsp
I have been using Pinboard for many years and switched to Raindrop ~2 years ago. I am 90% satisfied and would definitely recommend the switch. I made my decision to leave Pinboard when it took three month for the developer to respond to a request that I submitted. It seems that they stopped taking it seriously a long time ago.
gaws
Pinboard is dead. Move on to something else.
Irongirl1
I am a Raindrop user and while I have no major complaints, I'm not really wowed either. I'm thinking of switching to this : braintool.org. Being able to achieve simply, self-hosting (I have 12k bookmarks) and the tagging and note attachment really stands out to me.