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I was user 315, back when it was possible to determine your user number via the public url feature. Is there anything this simple now? What I miss is being abl

I was user 315, back when it was possible to determine your user number via the public url feature. Is there anything this simple now? What I miss is being able to right click on an item, click "copy public URL", paste it into the browser, and get an exact copy of that item (with nothing else; no image overlays, no ads, nothing). In the limit case you should be able to use it as a webhosting service for static files, since visiting an html page in a browser serves that file and relative links are preserved. I guess it's a losing value proposition, but it sure would be nice. It's unfortunate the original demo video was lost to time. I remember how astounding it was.

jeffbee 5mo ago
> right click on an item, click "copy public URL", paste it into the browser, and get an exact copy of that item You have described Google Drive.
- sillysaurusx 5mo ago
  Not quite; it's not a direct link to the item. Put <img src="foo.jpg"> into an html file, alongside foo.jpg. In the original Dropbox, if you opened a link to the html file, you'd see a webpage that successfully rendered foo.jpg. So you could use it as a static file host.
  - georgel 5mo ago
    It was such a nice feature too, but very easily and quickly abused.
tyler71 5mo ago
pcloud with the public folder works well. I've uploaded a few html ebooks with relative routing and it has worked fine.
- sillysaurusx 5mo ago
  Where's the public folder? I tried uploading an html file but can't get a direct link to it: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ6NzI5ZoJ0CG3nPXqBFrHeL4gaezYprgxjV https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ6NzI5ZoJ0CG3nPXqBF...
  - tyler71 5mo ago
    https://www.pcloud.com/help/general-help-center/what-is-the-public-folder https://www.pcloud.com/help/general-help-center/what-is-the-...
    - sillysaurusx 5mo ago
      Thanks very much!
al_borland 5mo ago
> It's unfortunate the original demo video was lost to time. I remember how astounding it was. Is this the video you're thinking of? https://web.archive.org/web/20070407145348/http://www.getdropbox.com/u/2/screencast.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070407145348/http://www.getdro...
- sillysaurusx 5mo ago
  Yes. Holy crap, you actually found the original. There was a recording of a presentation Drew gave later on about Dropbox, but it wasn't as good. This is definitely the original. Thanks for the memories!
layer8 5mo ago
> What I miss is being able to right click on an item, click "copy public URL", paste it into the browser, and get an exact copy of that item (with nothing else; no image overlays, no ads, nothing). That still works for me, when replacing dl=0 with dl=1 at the end of the URL (dl = download).
- sillysaurusx 5mo ago
  Unfortunately that downloads the file directly, rather than displaying it in browser, so it's not a very nice way of linking screenshots to someone. The other use case is an html file that contains references to images within the same folder, like <img src="foo.png">. You'd want it to display in the browser, not download the html page as a file.
  - layer8 5mo ago
    Ah, I see. But that usage is exactly why they don’t permit it anymore, it’s been abused too much. People were hosting whole sites on Dropbox, that’s not what it’s for.

jeffbee 5mo ago

> right click on an item, click "copy public URL", paste it into the browser, and get an exact copy of that item You have described Google Drive.

sillysaurusx 5mo ago
Not quite; it's not a direct link to the item. Put <img src="foo.jpg"> into an html file, alongside foo.jpg. In the original Dropbox, if you opened a link to the html file, you'd see a webpage that successfully rendered foo.jpg. So you could use it as a static file host.
- georgel 5mo ago
  It was such a nice feature too, but very easily and quickly abused.

tyler71 5mo ago

pcloud with the public folder works well. I've uploaded a few html ebooks with relative routing and it has worked fine.

sillysaurusx 5mo ago
Where's the public folder? I tried uploading an html file but can't get a direct link to it: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ6NzI5ZoJ0CG3nPXqBFrHeL4gaezYprgxjV https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ6NzI5ZoJ0CG3nPXqBF...
- tyler71 5mo ago
  https://www.pcloud.com/help/general-help-center/what-is-the-public-folder https://www.pcloud.com/help/general-help-center/what-is-the-...
  - sillysaurusx 5mo ago
    Thanks very much!

al_borland 5mo ago

> It's unfortunate the original demo video was lost to time. I remember how astounding it was. Is this the video you're thinking of? https://web.archive.org/web/20070407145348/http://www.getdropbox.com/u/2/screencast.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070407145348/http://www.getdro...

sillysaurusx 5mo ago
Yes. Holy crap, you actually found the original. There was a recording of a presentation Drew gave later on about Dropbox, but it wasn't as good. This is definitely the original. Thanks for the memories!

layer8 5mo ago

> What I miss is being able to right click on an item, click "copy public URL", paste it into the browser, and get an exact copy of that item (with nothing else; no image overlays, no ads, nothing). That still works for me, when replacing dl=0 with dl=1 at the end of the URL (dl = download).

sillysaurusx 5mo ago
Unfortunately that downloads the file directly, rather than displaying it in browser, so it's not a very nice way of linking screenshots to someone. The other use case is an html file that contains references to images within the same folder, like <img src="foo.png">. You'd want it to display in the browser, not download the html page as a file.
- layer8 5mo ago
  Ah, I see. But that usage is exactly why they don’t permit it anymore, it’s been abused too much. People were hosting whole sites on Dropbox, that’s not what it’s for.