P
Pinboard Blog
blog.pinboard.in · Personal blog · on HN since 2011
Maciej Ceglowski writes about running Pinboard, a bookmarking service, along with hosting, social web, and startup lessons.
What HN saysHN links it for posts like 'Don't Be A Free User' and the Delicious acquisition; commenters check whether the service is still active.
187HN people shared it
136linked it in comments
93stories submitted
9.7Kstory points
2 years agolast shared
2011people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Don't Be A Free User31 people · 1.0K points · first shared 2011 · 170 comments on HN
- 2Pinboard Acquires Delicious21 people · 801 points · first shared 2017 · 227 comments on HN
- 3Pinboard blog shows default Apache page now17 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · 1 comments on HN
- 4Benjamin Button Reviews the New MacBook Pro13 people · 504 points · first shared 2016 · 117 comments on HN
- 5The Social Graph is Neither11 people · 451 points · first shared 2011 · 60 comments on HN
- 6The Five Stages of Hosting7 people · 747 points · first shared 2012 · 179 comments on HN
- 7Pinboard Turns Seven7 people · 308 points · first shared 2016 · 105 comments on HN
- 8Anatomy of a Crushing (2011)7 people · 129 points · first shared 2011 · 17 comments on HN
- 9I Can’t Stop Winning6 people · 786 points · first shared 2019 · 214 comments on HN
- 10The Matasano Crypto Challenges5 people · 469 points · first shared 2013 · 61 comments on HN
- 11Pinboard's New Pricing Policy5 people · 173 points · first shared 2014 · 82 comments on HN
- 12Researching Link Rot5 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 13My Heroic and Lazy Stand Against IFTTT4 people · 1.2K points · first shared 2016 · 208 comments on HN
- 14Pinboard Turns Five4 people · 491 points · first shared 2014 · 116 comments on HN
- 15Eight years of victory4 people · 125 points · first shared 2017 · 33 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
markstos · 2022-06-24
Still a thing. There's an excellent iOS app for Pinboard made a third party developer, called Pins. It was just updated in 2022.
https://get-pins.app/posts/pins-v2022.1/
I don't see a placeholder page at https://blog.pinboard.in/ I see the most recent blog post. It happens to be a couple years old, but Pinboard is good enough as it is. I didn't subscribe for monthly product blog posts.
Cenk · 2022-04-27
He’s in the middle of a year-long Twitter break:
> Alright, I'm going to take a year off the twitters and see what else I can do with the time. Follow
@idlewords
for blog post notifications, http://blog.pinboard.in for actual Pinboard stuff. Great Slate 2022: under no circumstances give any politicians money. See you all in 2023!
https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1476079701978345472
theshrike79 · 2022-01-10
Might be a while before they respond: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1476079701978345472
> Dec 29, 2021: Alright, I'm going to take a year off the twitters and see what else I can do with the time. Follow @idlewords for blog post notifications, http://blog.pinboard.in for actual Pinboard stuff.
All good an nice, but the blog is down too =)
garrettdimon · 2011-09-23
I'm a solo founder and have been working on Sifter (http://sifterapp.com) for going on 4 years now. It's been live for about 3 of those years, and I've been full-time for a little over a year. My salary is about 80% of what I was making working full-time elsewhere, maybe a little lower when you factor in health insurance, but the work is exponentially more fulfilling. I do my best to share my thoughts on the ups and downs on my blog. (http://garrettdimon.com)
I technically have what some people might consider a co-founder, but he's more of an investor/advisor as I've been the only person that's involved day-to-day.
I also created a presentation recently that summarized what the experience has been like and what we've done right or wrong for our situation. (http://bootstrapping.sifterapp.com)
Finally, I'd also recommend Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard as a good source. He discusses a little bit of his experience on the Pinboard blog. (http://blog.pinboard.in/)
exodust · 2022-12-20
I can't get his blog to load, seems to be a certificate expiry. https://blog.pinboard.in/
austinjp · 2022-11-11
I've seen people (on here?) suggest that Maciej is on a long period of leave from Pinboard, and will definitely return to breathe fresh life into the product. But I don't think I've seen an official statement from him to that effect, not on the blog anyway https://blog.pinboard.in/
Do we know if he's okay?
JamesBaxter · 2022-08-18
I really like Pinboard and Maciej but Pinboard feels forgotten.
Even the Pinboard blog URL [0]he linked to in his leaving Twitter tweet[1]is showing the Apache Default page to me.
I know there are a couple of good mobile apps for Pinboard but I’d much prefer just being able to use the site on mobile
[0] http://blog.pinboard.in/
[1] https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1476079701978345472?s=20&t=2rV…
adamors · 2022-08-18
This should work, note the http vs https https://blog.pinboard.in
tptacek · 2022-06-25
You've somehow hit the http:// version of blog.pinboard.in. Chrome won't let me get to that page, but Safari will. The URL is https://blog.pinboard.in.
eknkc · 2022-06-24
Is pinboard still a thing? I've an account but haven't used it for ages. Maciej seems to have left twitter, http://blog.pinboard.in resolves to a placeholder page. Thought it was abandoned at this point.
arciini · 2022-04-11
This seems like a perfectly reasonable way to end a service. The server died, and the effort to bring it back up seems high.
This is a reminder to pay for services you depend on. Per the Pinboard founder's post:
> I love free software and could not have built my site without it. But free web services are not like free software. If your free software project suddenly gets popular, you gain resources: testers, developers and people willing to pitch in. If your free website takes off, you lose resources. Your time is spent firefighting and your money all goes to the nice people at Linode.
> Like a service? Make them charge you or show you ads. If they won't do it, clone them and do it yourself. Soon you'll be the only game in town!
https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
chinathrow · 2022-03-10
His blog is down and he is on a year long Twitter leave.
"Alright, I'm going to take a year off the twitters and see what else I can do with the time."
http://blog.pinboard.in/
https://twitter.com/Pinboard/
2YwaZHXV · 2022-01-10
I was able to get to the blog with https://blog.pinboard.in/ instead of http://blog.pinboard.in/
fosco · 2020-07-29
I do not use this or pinboard, but I like this guy.
from: https://blog.pinboard.in/2017/07/eight_years_of_victory/
>As every year, I'd like to thank all Pinboard users, old and new, for their support and their custom. I know there are lots of rival bookmarking services out there.
>I will consume them, one by one, like I consumed the pie.
there is a picture of a beautiful pie. brilliant!
reificator · 2020-07-11
> FInally, i'll point to my favorite post on the subject, Don't be a free user by idlewords: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/*
I used to believe this. Now Google Play Music is dead despite my $20/month.
JustARandomGuy · 2020-07-11
I see quite a few people in this thread blaming the high cost of AWS. I don't understand, why is this a problem with AWS - isn't it a problem with freeloading? Yes, moving hosting may save you some bucks, but fundamentally isn't the problem the large number of freeloaders?
If even 5% of the 6 million users paid $20 a year, Soup would have $6 million a year - more than enough to run a small company on.
FInally, i'll point to my favorite post on the subject, Don't be a free user by idlewords: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
woutr_be · 2019-10-23
That's weird, when I click on "Pinboard blog", it redirects me to https://blog.pinboard.in/blog/, which stops at 2017. Just https://blog.pinboard.in/ does show the 2019 one.
jquery · 2019-08-11
Apple may be spending a lot on research but they've recently become too obsessed with mobile profits over holistic prosumer experience. I don't think I'm the only heavy Apple user considering leaving the reservation if they choose to focus on mobile consumption above everything else. If they don't fix the MPro[1], I've lost one of the major reasons I use Apple products at all, I thought the agreement was I pay Apple a nice fat 30% profit margin and in return they ensure I'm using the hands-down best computing devices on the market.
The Airport Extreme disappearing is another disappointment.
https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/10/benjamin_button_reviews_the_new_macbo… (not replacing my 2013 MPro until they fix all the issues with the current generation that I'm forced to use at work)
DGAP · 2019-04-06
Excellent list - I immediately ctrl+f'd for Schneier's law as it's my favorite crypto axiom.
My only suggestion would be adding: "Crypto is like catnip for programmers."[1]
[1] https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/04/the_matasano_crypto_challenges/
lukifer · 2019-04-02
tjwds · 2018-09-08
I love this and love that it's built in Python, but…
"Do not attempt to compete with Pinboard"[0]
[0] https://blog.pinboard.in/2017/06/pinboard_acquires_delicious/
netsharc · 2018-08-08
Not original commenter, I used to use and like them, but at one point they changed all URLs to use their shortener (I was using it to archive all links I post on FB into an Evernote note). Great, they want to do more analytics and they're making sure all URLs in content they're supposed to be just plumbing will die with them, very customer friendly.
And then there's this: https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/03/my_heroic_and_lazy_stand_against_iftt…
smnscu · 2017-07-10
You're in for a treat if you just learned about Maciej (https://xkcd.com/1053/). I've been an admirer of his writing for a long time.
http://www.idlewords.com/
https://blog.pinboard.in/
gsylvie · 2017-06-01
Here's the blog entry Maciej wrote about the exodus:
https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/03/anatomy_of_a_crushing/
My favourite line comes from the tweet storm (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/12/the-small-exodus-from-delicious-…
> "there are worse things than being DDOS'ed by people trying to give you money"
astrostl · 2016-03-29
I love to support this guy. As great as the product is, his communication is even better.
https://blog.pinboard.in/2014/11/new_pricing_policy/ - "Should I be worried? -> Only in the broadest, existential sense."
eevilspock · 2015-07-24
Yes, it does. We all collectively pay for the economic and social costs of advertising. Advertising makes nothing free for anyone: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8585237
Maciej Ceglowski (idlewords) also calls for an "anti-free-software movement" in Don't Be A Free User: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
There are better ways to screen out unwanted callers.
As Jeff Hammerbacher, fmr. Manager of Facebook Data Team, founder of Cloudera says, "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks."
ColinWright · 2014-06-03
I would strongly recommend the Matasano Crypto Challenge. By doing those you will answer your questions, learn as much math as you need, gain practical insights, and get as far as you choose.
Here is someone's experience of it:
https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/04/the_matasano_crypto_challenges/
It used to be here:
http://matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/
Things have changed:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7821028
htsh · 2013-02-13
Why not hire a devops guy & rack your own hardware? Or get some massive computing units at amazon (just as good but more expensive)?
This reminds me of the excellent 5 stages of hosting story shared on here from a while back:
http://blog.pinboard.in/2012/01/the_five_stages_of_hosting/
shrikant · 2012-07-10
Oh. This is a nice coincidence - I just wrote a paean to Pinboard as a great example of a product done well here [1]. (Okay, it's not really lyrical, just an everyday blog post)
This was just recently when Maciej just gave away the schema to the site! [2] I'm still reeling from the awesomeness of that move..
[1] http://shrik.theswamp.in/2012/07/youre-doing-it-right.html
[2] http://blog.pinboard.in/2012/06/do_it_yourself_bookmarking/
eykanal · 2012-06-13
It's definitely a rational response. Not all rational responses make for successful, profitable companies, though. Ads are often a poor business decision, as they can cheapen both your product and your business's image.
As to your "fuck 'em", if that's your attitude, why bother servicing them at all? Providing ads is simply a way of enabling free users. Stop the ads and the free users, you'll be better off. There's been a lot of links about that, here's one: [1].
And I love those quotes.
[1]: http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/