Ask HN: Review my startup, Droplink for OS X | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Review my startup, Droplink for OS X

droplink.me

27 pointswooby34 comments

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

Please update, this was just fixed.

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...

I just made some tweaks, and now, files last for 24 hours.

for images, you cant compete with grabup (pro version uses my server via ftp): http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/12/21/review-grabup-automatic-...

take a screenshot, it's auto-uploaded and the URL is copied to your clipboard automatically. really changed my workflow..

ex screenshot/url: http://paulstamatiou.com/images/30cb04d03a7c2f17b82f29fe1288...

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.

Try again it, it should copy the full URL this time.

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

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?

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 :)

I actually prefer mac programs to be distributed as .zip files. Safari auto unzips it, and I just double click to try it out. If I like it, drag & drop to the /Applications folder.

But even though I prefer .zip, I don't find .dmg files annoying at all.

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.

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

The important questions here are:

1) What's my file limit?

2) How long are files kept for?

100mb max uploads, files last for 24 hours

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

How does it compare to dockdrop? http://dockdropx.com/

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

Pretty much, yea.

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

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

Same thing quits right after it opens,

10.5.6, imac

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

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

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?

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).

There are often issues when sending files between someone using iChat and someone using Adium. Also, I've recently been talking to someone who uses Meebo and I can never receive the files he sends.

damn, that's fast

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