HN Explorer

My weekend project - alternative to Pinboard / Delicious

15 points by seele ↗ HN
Hi everyone,

I'd like to share with you my "weekend" project - LStack (http://lstack.com/), simple web application built as a by-product of another project I'm working on (on which I've tried to get HN feedback few weeks ago - see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3194597).

LStack was born of frustration with one specific limitation of other bookmarking apps (like Delicious). I'm doing a lot of research for my projects and I needed to store some attributes about bookmarked articles, companies, webapps, courses and certifications info, etc. My tags, plain text description fields, notes were becoming a mess.

I needed my bookmarks annotated with parameters like "price = 100 USD", "integrated with = facebook", "integrated with = twitter", "filetype = pdf", "filetype = doc", "funding = 1M USD", "prep = gmat", "prep = lstat", "payments = paypal", "payments = credit card", "type = news", "type = company", "type = product", "contact email = support@company.com", "supported language = english", "stage = private beta", etc.

So about month ago I've spent few days to implement LStack which allows me to save not only bookmark but also additional "structured" data connected with it. The webapp is still very raw and not even close to feature-rich predecessors like Pinboard or Delicious, but I've successfully switched to it and extensively use the unique smart tags feature.

What do you think of the application? Do you face similar problem? Do you find the webapp useful? I'm wondering if anybody could be interested in additional, especially "premium" (paid) features. Do you think something like LStack has a chance to become a business, not just hobby side-project?

Best regards, Seele

27 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 51.6 ms ] thread
jph
This is hugely useful Seele. I'd pay money for it. In fact, if you have a PayPal/WePay/Square account I'll send you some money right now if there's a way to import & export data.
seele
Thanks for your opinion - you've just inspired me to work on commercial terms!

Actually there is a way to export data from LStack - use EXPORT button on your account page.

There's no way to import links now. What service do you use?

jph
I use a homegrown bookmark app I wrote in Rails with a REST+JSON API. Can you provide a REST+JSON API so I can send you data? That would be awesome. Thanks!
seele
I'll work something out, stay tuned :)
seele
@jph - Do you have any trouble with activating your account?
jph
When I click on the registration link, it says I'm registered, then says I need to sign in, then says I'm already signed in. Then it asks me if I want to sign out. :)
seele
Please, try to clear your browsers cache - if it won't help, I'll try to investigate it further.
seele
@jph Delicious import is ready - I've also provided a way to input your own URL. You only need to make your data available in Delicious POSTS/ALL XML format and off you go :)

Please, read import remarks carefully - Delicious API has a bug and LStack workaround is quite brutal (change all spaces to commas). Be aware.

jollyjerry
I was a long time delicious user, and I like having my data up in the cloud. I think what I prioritize the most is having a good UX and my links being available everywhere.

minor thing: your signup password fields should be of type password so they don't show up in plain text.

seele
So maybe you'd like to share what do you think of LStack UX?

Regarding password fields - that was conscious choice not to mask them. Do you think it could have negative impact on users acquisition?

jollyjerry
Some notes as I go through the app:

The bookmarklet popup is spot on. Everything I need, nothing I don't.

The home tab shows signup info even when I'm logged in, should hide after I'm logged in.

For passwords, I think it'd be best to hide them because it's the convention, and add a js link to "show password" for users who want to see it.

seele
Thanks for the advices!

How about the service itself? Do you find the smart tags (parameters attached to bookmarked link) useful in your use cases?

jollyjerry
interesting idea, but haven't formed an opinion yet. Tagging's always such a personal preference. I like hierarchical tags (e.g. code:ruby), but that's just me
seele
I think of them as parameters rather than tags, maybe should change the name in descriptions (using "smart tags" can be misleading).
seele
Sign up button for logged in users not displayed from now.
Xion
Huh, I was just looking for something like that: a webapp to squirrel interesting links that might sooner or later prove useful as sources and references for blogging, tweeting, and similar purposes. Big thumbs up!
seele
Thanks for your support! Do you find the webapp useful? Are there any pro / premium features that would make you considering to pay for the service?
Xion
Some kind of support for mobile devices (similar to ReadItLater plugin for Dolphin Browser) would be great. Less so for phones - since it's not a "save for later" utensil - but more for tablets.
seele
I'm putting this onto TODO list. Thanks :)
Xion
Ok, after few days I can say that I find it EXTREMELY useful. The tagging feature is great for having everything neatly organized, and I'm already full of great reference materials for pretty much anything I'd like to write about on blog, Twitter, forums, Stack Overflow, etc. :)

As for more suggestions, a pretty obvious one is a browser plugin. While bookmarklet is nice, a plugin would likely allow to offer more features (like list of recently added links as popup menu, search mechanism, etc.). I guess it's not hard to turn bookmarklet into Chrome plugin, but please don't forget about Firefox users too :)

vorbb
Hmm, not sure if this was intended (and if it was, why), but the title on your sign-up page seems to be off, at least for me. Maybe it's by default regionalized to a different language?

Other then that, looks amazing. If there's easy import/export features, I could see this luring me away from Pinboard, at least temporarily.

seele
I've corrected message - it was mistake in EN messages resource file indeed.

Export of your data is already available. I'm working on import from Pinboard and Delicious, so you'll be welcome to try the service :)

And one question - what would make you interested in paying for the service?

vorbb
Honestly, without trying the service yet (I'll register this evening), I can't say, but if it works as expected... I'd be more then willing to pay for the service, just to help it in staying up.