Is Pinboard.in (bookmarking site) still supported software?

November 8, 2022 7:11 AM

The Lights are on but is anybody Home? I need a password reset for Pinboard.in and I've been unable to contact Maciej Cegłowski who I understand is the owner/sole administrator?

I renewed my paid subscription for a years worth of service on 25th November last year (2019) and currently have thousands of bookmarks saved since 2018.

An accidental browser cache clear, logged me out and when I tried to log back in I couldn't.

Is Pinboard being supported/developed anymore?

- I contacted the site via the lost password form, but haven't heard anything in almost 4 weeks. [ I've also consisted checked my spam filters for replies]
- The Pinboard blog, was last updated in 2009.
- The twitter account went on hiatus in December 2021
- Maciej's personal twitter hasn't been updated since June 2019
- Maciej's blog idlewords.com was last updated in 26.4.2022 ?
- I posted to the Developers forum a week ago, and haven't heard anything - the admin for that has not published the post
- I even tried contact via IRC: #pinboard at freenode.net - but that server seems dead/abandoned?

I know there is a individual behind the site, so I sincerely hope that Maciej Cegłowski is okay - I'd also like to archive my bookmarks!

Any help or information on current status of the software/services much appreciated.

posted by Faintdreams to Computers & Internet (25 answers total)

FWIW, Maciej is a user here, although he doesn't seem to be any more active here than he is anywhere else.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:18 AM on November 8, 2022

Maciej has been commenting on Hacker News this week, so at least he hasn't vanished completely.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:27 AM on November 8, 2022

Users have been reporting issues about Pinboard on the orange for the past year, along with suggested replacements. It is also where Maciej is still active.
posted by meowzilla at 7:27 AM on November 8, 2022

Dorothea Salo ran into a problem in 2021:

From the next-to-nothing that was actually communicated to Pinboard users, it appears a DDoS attack caused owner/developer Maciej Cegłowski to cut off access to publicly-available tag pages except to logged-in users. I knew nothing about this until my poor intro students told me they couldn’t reach a tag page (specifically this one) necessary for one of their major assignments. When I went to troubleshoot, I saw no announcement explaining the issue, much less any suggested workarounds.

posted by brainwane at 8:25 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

There's a brief comment from back in April that states:

Archiving (mis)behavior depends on what machine your account is assigned to, which is why people have dissimilar experiences.

I went off and did some stuff unrelated to the site, and now it's time to pay (or refund!) the piper. I'm sorry it was so difficult to get my attention for a customer service problem!

posted by zenon at 8:42 AM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

It does rather look like pinboard.in is ending not with a bus*, but a whimper. There was a request that went out to old one-time signup users in 2021 trying to generate more recurring revenue for the site that touches on the state of pinboard:

I would describe my work like single-handedly running a restaurant in an old château. It’s cool and fun, and the ambiance is great, but occasionally the soup is served cold or not at all because I have to chase a bunch of bats out of the kitchen, or replace a collapsed beam, while the diners sit and wait. This is no fun for either me or the diners, who rightfully complain that it ruins their dinner.

I think the last time he mentioned pinboard directly on the orange site was this comment this tongue-in-cheek request:

Would it be possible to consolidate all the "what happened to Pinboard" threads in one place? It would greatly reduce my workload!

My take is that Cegłowski has some personal stuff going on, and given his brash public persona, it's difficult for him to ask for help or wind the site up in a regular manner. Instead, it's sort of dying on the vine.** I wish Cegłowski well, and hope he can figure out a good path for himself and pinboard. I'm thankful for many years of pinboard, but I don't have much hope that it's going to be a long term proposition for storing my bookmarks.

* Cegłowski has, in characteristic fashion, had a long-term ha-ha only serious running joke about pinboard succession planning. Sadly, it doesn't help Faintdreams, given they can't currently reset their password in order to actually make backups.

What does the future hold for Pinboard? Death! The bus that one day comes for us all! The skeletal, icy hand on an unprepared shoulder! Pain, a flash of light, then numbing darkness. So back up your bookmarks.

** Any possible parallels to MeFi are left as an exercise to the reader.
posted by zamboni at 9:04 AM on November 8, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'd recommend you export and migrate.

Well, yes, but I think your (justified) annoyance at Cegłowski has caused you to miss the crux of Faintdreams' problem:

I need a password reset for Pinboard.in … I'd … like to archive my bookmarks!

posted by zamboni at 10:28 AM on November 8, 2022

Huh. It's been working fine for me but I just exported all my links and I guess I'm looking for another option now.
posted by COD at 10:46 AM on November 8, 2022

There's been off and on problems with the site for years, sometimes the API will stop working for hours or days. My impression is it doesn't get a lot of attention. I suggest making a backup if you can, but my last attempt to download an archive in late June never went through. The basic data backup is working though. That's no help for you if you can't log on, sorry.
posted by Nelson at 10:58 AM on November 8, 2022

I didn't see a reference to emailing support, so I suggest that.

I have entries on my to do list for backing up the various parts I have on Pinboard - notes, tweets, archives - and exploring self-hosting similar.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:14 PM on November 8, 2022

Response by poster: I did try emailing support.

- I contacted the site via the lost password form, but haven't heard anything in almost 4 weeks. [ I've also consisted checked my spam filters for replies]

posted by Faintdreams at 12:26 PM on November 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

FYI I just tried the lost password form. It is an automated system, and I received a password reset link in my inbox in less than one minute.

So I suggest that instead of just waiting and waiting, you try filling out the the lost password form again, and if you don't get a reply within 5 minutes try it again and again a few times.

Email is an unreliable medium and there are literally ten dozen reasons why any particular email has been lost in the void somewhere. But if you haven't received the auto-reply within 5 minutes, you almost certainly never will so it is time to just try it again.

I would try again many times, at least a few dozen, and then on a few different days and weeks, too, before I gave up on this password-reset system as non-working. It is a totally automated system so you are not annoying or bothering anyone by trying it again and again as needed.

The only time you are actually put into problem territory by the lack of personal customer service from Maciej is if #1. You forgot your username OR #2. You don't have access to the email address you originally used when you signed up for the site.

If either of those are the case you might indeed be in trouble - because lacking either of those the automated password reset system won't work and you will indeed need some kind of personal intervention to fix the problem.

Unless that is the case, don't just wait around - retry! Retry! Until it works! The password-reset system does in fact work!

P.S. Thanks to everyone for the heads-up that Pinboard.in is on the rocks. I had no idea, and just imported something like 8 years of bookmarks to raindrop.io.
posted by flug at 12:51 PM on November 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

Speaking as a Delicious refugee who ended up at Pinboard, this made me sad. I remember getting the email from him last year but I didn't know the extent to which it was a problem.

Speaking as the owner of idlewords.net, now I know who owns idlewords.com, so that's interesting that I'm tangentially related to an internet-famous person.

I had previously set up a raindrop account but just imported everything from Pinboard there as well.
posted by tubedogg at 8:18 PM on November 8, 2022

Generally, when facing online forms, fields, etc., that don't show up or don't respond, I've had some successes with turning off Ad block / other extensions, VPN, anything that might interfere in some way. You could also try a different browser, different device, desktop if you've been trying on an app or vice versa.
posted by taz at 3:50 AM on November 9, 2022

Oh, also, you might try deleting cookies from the site.
posted by taz at 3:52 AM on November 9, 2022

And try different email addresses if you have more than one, since it will only work if you use the exact address that you signed up with.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:46 AM on November 9, 2022

BTW, that Dorothea Salo post also includes an evaluation of Raindrop and its flaws/pain points.
posted by brainwane at 11:08 AM on November 9, 2022

Well, foo. I'm one of the fannish folks who ran to Pinboard when Delicious stopped being supported. I still use it pretty regularly, and Raindrop.io doesn't sound great.

We got any other options?
posted by suelac at 5:36 PM on November 9, 2022

We got any other options?

Use Shaarli if you can, and don't worry about losing access to someone else's computers ever again.

Just don't forget to add it to your regular backups of important files, and ocasionally make a manual export to a Netscape-style bookmarks.html.
posted by Bangaioh at 2:19 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was seriously considering moving from Pinboard.in to Raindrop.io and I really want to like it but I have come to understand that

1. Raindrop is a single developer app, just like Pinboard, and
2. Raindrop’s developer is in Russia.

The single developer thing wouldn’t really put me off if it weren’t for my concerns about Pinboard. It does seem like there’s been real ongoing work, integrations and an API, browser extensions and mobile apps, etc., and I’m happy in principle to pay for that.

The Russia angle is a little more complicated. I haven’t determined where the app is hosted, but I still have some misgivings about the level of access I’d be granting it to my browsing behavior and other data if I took advantage of the extensions and apps that make it attractive to me. And I’m also concerned about where my money would be going while Russia is occupying and waging war in Ukraine.

If any of you know of mitigating factors or have other thoughts about this I’d be really interested to read them.
posted by Songdog at 12:50 PM on January 8, 2023

FWIW Maciej recently resurfaced Jan 1 2023, posting a single tweet @pinboard and a new blog post. I guess his planned year long hiatus ended? Proof of life, if not any news about Pinboard. The service has been working pretty reliably for me in the past few months.
posted by Nelson at 2:37 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: OP here Febrary 2023 Update:

I found my password and managed to backup and archive all my links - about two weeks later my paid subscription to the service ended and the details were linked to an expired card, so that didn't renew. My account still exists but I can't add any links.

In December of 2022 someone made a post on Hacker news asking if the service was still working. Most people were unsure but the solo Developer of Pinboard - who also regularly comments on Hacker news - made some comments that did not directly address any concerns about the service, but made some Elon Musk jokes.

I have been using Raindrop - a similar service to Pinboard, (but y'know working) - and I'm really happy with it.

In the future, I plan to never give Maciej Ceglowski (the pinboard Developer) any more money, time, energy, or attention if possible.

At time of writing:

• The Pinboard twitter account is active again and currently posting support from JK Rowling and her TERF-ness
• Maciej posts on Hacker news and regularly trolls users unhappy with Pinboard support
• The Official Pinboard blog was last updated in July 2020
• The Pinboard service itself appears to be up but not maintained and any emails to support remain unanswered.

posted by Faintdreams at 5:15 AM on February 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

I’m eyeing Interlink as an export destination. It’s being developed by the author of my favorite iOS pinboard client, who’s decided to build his own storage solution.

Fast forward to 2023, I’m building a new link organizer to address Pins’ shortcomings (mostly due to API limitation): limited “syncing” capabilities, lack of bulk link management (batch processing), among others. While I’m aware of similar offerings (bookmarking is so last century), I want something mobile-first instead of web-first.

posted by zamboni at 6:24 AM on February 23, 2023

Imagine taking a whole year off the internet only to come back and want to debate if the E in TERF is hate and complain how the Onion isn't funny anymore.

Maybe stay logged off.
posted by zenon at 2:38 PM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

A Shaarli HOWTO.
posted by brainwane at 9:04 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]