The Problem With Links (aka Discovering Plinky!)
May 18, 2024 — 02:14
For awhile the one piece of my workflow that has eluded me is link organization and archival. This is actually something more important to me than you might think because of the “input” strength being a top 5 StrengthsFinder strength that I lean into a lot. One way to look at this strength is that I love to gather and have on hand information that might prove handy for myself or anyone else, whenever the info is needed. To successfully do that though, I need a good way to organize and catalogue data.
For notes, this happens in Obsidian. For documents, this happens in DevonThink. But links and websites have eluded me for longer than I like. For a long while I used pinboard.in, basically until it started getting a bit unreliable, the price went up and the founder got a bit flippant on hacker news.
I’ve tried a number of things since but haven’t loved any of them. I tried Anybox and Goodlinks. I tried keeping link files in Obsidian (don’t do this). Recently I started trying Bridges which is a really nice app but just didn’t fit my use case (it’s meant for more “catch and release” work with links rather than longer term storage and archival).1
Last week a new contender caught my eye called Plinky. I didn’t pay much attention at first because I don’t love the name or all of the design choices but all of the really positive feedback I was seeing made me download it.2 I’m really glad I did it because it’s the best solution I’ve found for links so far.
I love how easy it is to get links into the app. I love that I can easily categorize in folders and tags and that there isn’t some pre-defined way that you are supposed to make them. I can very quickly add some category tags to a new link but also tag it “to post” reminding myself to post it. Links I’m mostly done with can be hidden by archiving them (but able to be resurrected if needed). Long story short, it easily integrates into the workflows that I want to have rather than forcing me into the workflow it wants me to have.
Another plus is that development seems active and the developer is passionate about it. He made something he wants to use not just sell. That’s rare these days. The roadmap which was quite easy to find in-app is also encouraging. Long story short - I’m excited to see where Plinky goes and at this point I’m quite excited to be a user.