7 ms·

Recreating Delicious Library in 2025?

64 points by felixding 2y ago

pyinstallwoes 2y ago
Yes, please. I always wanted a peer to peer version of it in a way. :P
- Clent 2y ago
  I created a similar product to Delicious Library years before its launch and peer to peer version of it was the direction I had been planning to take it. This was all long before mobile devices, long before Apple SDK's had any support for syncing such data, etc but the idea was there and wasn't just mine, I had users requesting this as well. But alas the revenue dried up with Delicious Library hitting the scene. It received crazy levels of press about how beautiful it was. I recall feeling at the time like they were paying the press to cover their product but knowing what I know now, I'm quite certain that was the case. The reviews never mentioned any competitors. There were several all at a cheaper prices with more tons more features.
  - incanus77 2y ago
    “Tons more features” is exactly why I would prefer Delicious Library over them.
  - WoodenChair 2y ago
    This sounds like a really good story. Do you have postmortem written up somewhere?
  - pyinstallwoes 2y ago
    What’d you learn to make you more certain that was the cases?
msephton 2y ago
I think it's about time you built it. No better time than now. ps: your RSS feed is advertised as https://dingyu.me/blog/feed.xml https://dingyu.me/blog/feed.xml but is in fact https://dingyu.me/feed.xml https://dingyu.me/feed.xml (I guessed that as I was adding it to my RSS aggregator)
- felixding 2y ago
  Thanks! The RSS feed has been fixed.
rgovostes 2y ago
Delicious Library was the start of a gilded age of Mac shareware focused on style over substance. > In the past year or so, Mac development had shifted from applications providing new functionality that appeared at the dawn of OS X to applications (and ideas) built around flash and sizzle, with plenty of marketing hype to fuel the fire. his had created something of a toxic atmosphere in the Mac development world. A rift between the old school, with its plain but functional apps, and the new school of flashy but frivolous apps, has developed. ... I dubbed this new school “The Delicious Generation”. https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-generation/ https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-gene... Apple adopted a similar interface for Newsstand on iOS and it seemed to be widely reviled during the pushback against skeuomorphism.
- saagarjha 2y ago
  This is amusing to read now because this post bemoans the transition from useful applications to pretty ones. Little did they know the next stop in that line was that the pretty applications became not so pretty without picking up anything new. Mac software today would leave you begging for a Delicious Library…
  - wmf 2y ago
    Or we could admit that UI design didn't start in 2004 and skeuomorphism vs. flat is a false dichotomy.
  - Hamuko 2y ago
    I think the worst part of modern Mac software is that there really isn't any. More often than not new software is just the web application wrapped in Electron.
    - carlosjobim 2y ago
      In my view MacOS has the healthiest native software market of any OS. What software is missing? I have state of the art native text editors, photo editors, music production programs, calendars, e-mail, etc.
xnx 2y ago
Momentarily mistook this for https://del.icio.us/ https://del.icio.us/, but related only by name.
- tetrisgm 2y ago
  Thought the same
- stlhood 2y ago
  It was (mildly) irritating at the time for those of us who were working on del.icio.us.
fmajid 2y ago
No. The last thing we need is yet another subscription priced data silo roach motel that sequesters your data. Any replacement I would consider will have to be open source with an open database.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- bjelkeman-again 2y ago
  This may meet your requirements https://www.librarything.com/app/ https://www.librarything.com/app/
  - fmajid 2y ago
    Thanks for the recommendation! I do use Delicious Library for other things than media like electronics or cameras, however.
paulxuca1 2y ago
https://www.shelf.im/ https://www.shelf.im/ comes to mind
kuon 2y ago
I miss skeuomorphism. With good UX it makes great UI. It's weird considering I have my head inside a terminal most of the time but I was fond of those UI. I wonder if formal studies exist that measure things like "discoverbility" or productivity for normal users.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  It's cyclical; here's an attempt from the 90s: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/phone.htm http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/phone.htm No doubt aggressive skeuomorphism will be back again at some point.t
- felixding 2y ago
  I'd totally pay for a Linux distro that resembles early Mac OS X's desgin.
dazzawazza 2y ago
I made a web delicious-alike many years ago called Beep My Stuff that I happily shut down. No regrets, I hated it. What I discovered was: * amazon (at the time) will aggressively shut you down by cutting off the only "viable" access to "barcode to product" data. * barcode databases cost a lot of money and are full of utter drivel. * people had absolutely VAST DVD/VHS porn collections that they want to share * there is more red tape in the US then you expect. As a UK citizen I was shocked by how sclerotic any action is in the US. * people were and now almost completely have moved to digital "stuff" although I hope that changes.
- felixding 2y ago
  This sounds like a really good story. Is there a postmortem written up somewhere?
samastur 2y ago
I'm actually working on an app to replace my Delicious Library, but at least at first solely focused on books and supporting multiple users and features I missed in the original. If all goes well I expect to have early version ready by middle of this year. While some features will require subscription, features not incurring ongoing costs won't. I like to think of it as an example of social software for introverts :) I am hesitant to talk about details, but I haven't felt so excited about something in a long time.
- kome 2y ago
  can't wait for pinboard.in to buy you
  - samastur 2y ago
    Why would he, he buys bookmarking services and this won't be one :)
    - kome 2y ago
      ahaha fair
  - 0xxx 2y ago
    pinboard.in is kind of legacy awesomeness.
- felixding 2y ago
  That's awesome. I'd like to follow up on your progress. Is there a Twitter account, mailing list, or wishlist I can follow/join?
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
Man, were those GUIs back then good- human, quirky, trying to merge into the memories of the users of the real world. Not the abstract monstrosities towards which all template arts decay too (architecture comes to mind).
nottorp 2y ago
> Sustainable Pricing: A subscription service (I know some people prefer one-time payments, but subscriptions are financially sustainable). Sustainable for who? Not for the customers...
- felixding 2y ago
  For software authors. Otherwise how is it supposed to be sustainable for software users?
Vaslo 2y ago
I feel like most people just use the Arr suite of apps to track these things? https://wiki.servarr.com/ https://wiki.servarr.com/ I guess not an all in one solution but lots of strong features for libraries. Readarr isn’t great if I’m honest.
musicale 2y ago
Aren't there apps where you just take a picture of your shelves and it identifies and catalogs everything there?
musicale 2y ago
> Sustainable Pricing: A subscription service (I know some people prefer one-time payments, but subscriptions are financially sustainable). Managing dozens of subscriptions that drain money out of your wallet every month isn't sustainable for users. % ls Sorry, you need to renew your subscription for 'ls'. Would you like to renew it now? (Yes) _
- felixding 2y ago
  If it’s not sustainable for software makers, it’s not sustainable for users.

64 points by felixding 2y ago

pyinstallwoes 2y ago

Yes, please. I always wanted a peer to peer version of it in a way. :P

Clent 2y ago
I created a similar product to Delicious Library years before its launch and peer to peer version of it was the direction I had been planning to take it. This was all long before mobile devices, long before Apple SDK's had any support for syncing such data, etc but the idea was there and wasn't just mine, I had users requesting this as well. But alas the revenue dried up with Delicious Library hitting the scene. It received crazy levels of press about how beautiful it was. I recall feeling at the time like they were paying the press to cover their product but knowing what I know now, I'm quite certain that was the case. The reviews never mentioned any competitors. There were several all at a cheaper prices with more tons more features.
- incanus77 2y ago
  “Tons more features” is exactly why I would prefer Delicious Library over them.
- WoodenChair 2y ago
  This sounds like a really good story. Do you have postmortem written up somewhere?
- pyinstallwoes 2y ago
  What’d you learn to make you more certain that was the cases?

msephton 2y ago

I think it's about time you built it. No better time than now. ps: your RSS feed is advertised as https://dingyu.me/blog/feed.xml https://dingyu.me/blog/feed.xml but is in fact https://dingyu.me/feed.xml https://dingyu.me/feed.xml (I guessed that as I was adding it to my RSS aggregator)

felixding 2y ago
Thanks! The RSS feed has been fixed.

rgovostes 2y ago

Delicious Library was the start of a gilded age of Mac shareware focused on style over substance. > In the past year or so, Mac development had shifted from applications providing new functionality that appeared at the dawn of OS X to applications (and ideas) built around flash and sizzle, with plenty of marketing hype to fuel the fire. his had created something of a toxic atmosphere in the Mac development world. A rift between the old school, with its plain but functional apps, and the new school of flashy but frivolous apps, has developed. ... I dubbed this new school “The Delicious Generation”. https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-generation/ https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2006/11/06/the-delicious-gene... Apple adopted a similar interface for Newsstand on iOS and it seemed to be widely reviled during the pushback against skeuomorphism.

saagarjha 2y ago
This is amusing to read now because this post bemoans the transition from useful applications to pretty ones. Little did they know the next stop in that line was that the pretty applications became not so pretty without picking up anything new. Mac software today would leave you begging for a Delicious Library…
- wmf 2y ago
  Or we could admit that UI design didn't start in 2004 and skeuomorphism vs. flat is a false dichotomy.
- Hamuko 2y ago
  I think the worst part of modern Mac software is that there really isn't any. More often than not new software is just the web application wrapped in Electron.
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    In my view MacOS has the healthiest native software market of any OS. What software is missing? I have state of the art native text editors, photo editors, music production programs, calendars, e-mail, etc.

xnx 2y ago

Momentarily mistook this for https://del.icio.us/ https://del.icio.us/, but related only by name.

tetrisgm 2y ago
Thought the same
stlhood 2y ago
It was (mildly) irritating at the time for those of us who were working on del.icio.us.

fmajid 2y ago

No. The last thing we need is yet another subscription priced data silo roach motel that sequesters your data. Any replacement I would consider will have to be open source with an open database.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bjelkeman-again 2y ago
This may meet your requirements https://www.librarything.com/app/ https://www.librarything.com/app/
- fmajid 2y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation! I do use Delicious Library for other things than media like electronics or cameras, however.

paulxuca1 2y ago

https://www.shelf.im/ https://www.shelf.im/ comes to mind

kuon 2y ago

I miss skeuomorphism. With good UX it makes great UI. It's weird considering I have my head inside a terminal most of the time but I was fond of those UI. I wonder if formal studies exist that measure things like "discoverbility" or productivity for normal users.

rsynnott 2y ago
It's cyclical; here's an attempt from the 90s: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/phone.htm http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/phone.htm No doubt aggressive skeuomorphism will be back again at some point.t
felixding 2y ago
I'd totally pay for a Linux distro that resembles early Mac OS X's desgin.

dazzawazza 2y ago

I made a web delicious-alike many years ago called Beep My Stuff that I happily shut down. No regrets, I hated it. What I discovered was: * amazon (at the time) will aggressively shut you down by cutting off the only "viable" access to "barcode to product" data. * barcode databases cost a lot of money and are full of utter drivel. * people had absolutely VAST DVD/VHS porn collections that they want to share * there is more red tape in the US then you expect. As a UK citizen I was shocked by how sclerotic any action is in the US. * people were and now almost completely have moved to digital "stuff" although I hope that changes.

felixding 2y ago
This sounds like a really good story. Is there a postmortem written up somewhere?

samastur 2y ago

I'm actually working on an app to replace my Delicious Library, but at least at first solely focused on books and supporting multiple users and features I missed in the original. If all goes well I expect to have early version ready by middle of this year. While some features will require subscription, features not incurring ongoing costs won't. I like to think of it as an example of social software for introverts :) I am hesitant to talk about details, but I haven't felt so excited about something in a long time.

kome 2y ago
can't wait for pinboard.in to buy you
- samastur 2y ago
  Why would he, he buys bookmarking services and this won't be one :)
  - kome 2y ago
    ahaha fair
- 0xxx 2y ago
  pinboard.in is kind of legacy awesomeness.
felixding 2y ago
That's awesome. I'd like to follow up on your progress. Is there a Twitter account, mailing list, or wishlist I can follow/join?

InDubioProRubio 2y ago

Man, were those GUIs back then good- human, quirky, trying to merge into the memories of the users of the real world. Not the abstract monstrosities towards which all template arts decay too (architecture comes to mind).

nottorp 2y ago

> Sustainable Pricing: A subscription service (I know some people prefer one-time payments, but subscriptions are financially sustainable). Sustainable for who? Not for the customers...

felixding 2y ago
For software authors. Otherwise how is it supposed to be sustainable for software users?

Vaslo 2y ago

I feel like most people just use the Arr suite of apps to track these things? https://wiki.servarr.com/ https://wiki.servarr.com/ I guess not an all in one solution but lots of strong features for libraries. Readarr isn’t great if I’m honest.

musicale 2y ago

Aren't there apps where you just take a picture of your shelves and it identifies and catalogs everything there?

musicale 2y ago

> Sustainable Pricing: A subscription service (I know some people prefer one-time payments, but subscriptions are financially sustainable). Managing dozens of subscriptions that drain money out of your wallet every month isn't sustainable for users. % ls Sorry, you need to renew your subscription for 'ls'. Would you like to renew it now? (Yes) _

felixding 2y ago
If it’s not sustainable for software makers, it’s not sustainable for users.