Recent submissions

Comment · 4 years ago
Hi guys :)

A few months ago, I posted on Hacker News about a Chrome extension I developed (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29199004).

Details are on my previous post but the short story is that I developed this extension because when I’ve to do intensive research, I’ve a lot of tabs open. But adding each interesting webpage to my bookmarks or my reading list isn’t a great solution because I don’t remember why I saved a specific webpage and what part of the webpage is interesting to me.

With Stringmark, you can save snippets and the URL of any webpage so that you can exactly know why you saved a specific webpage! The first advantage of Stringmark is that it is extremely easy to use: no useless features, no login required! The second advantage of Stringmark is that I have no server costs, which means that Stringmark will never stop working, the premium version is a one-time payment (+ of course there’s a free version).

So I'm posting again on Hacker News because the extension is now available on Chrome AND on Firefox (there were quite a few requests), some bugs have been fixed, you are now able to export and import lists (csv format) and you can also choose to save a list locally or to synchronize it. Of course, I plan to add other useful features so don’t hesitate to give me your feedback/ideas!

PS: “SHOWHN” at checkout for 50% off for those interested :)

Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago
Hey guys!

I apologize for the lack of precision concerning where the data is saved.

I'll just copy paste one of my comment here:

"In my opinion, it’s a pain to have recurring cost for small extensions/apps like Stringmark. But as @razemio said, it’s (most of the time) necessary when the service uses a backend. As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.

It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!

@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!

In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily

The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.

Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!"

Comment · 5 years ago
Thank you :) No dependency on an external server indeed. I'm only using an external small server to check if a user has a premium or free plan!
Comment · 5 years ago
Oh thanks! What is your prototype?
Comment · 5 years ago
Can you send a link? I think I'm too young to know furl lol :)
Comment · 5 years ago
I'm using Stripe!
Comment · 5 years ago
Wow thank you so much :)
Comment · 5 years ago
You're totally right.

"In my opinion, it’s a pain to have recurring cost for small extensions/apps like Stringmark. But as @razemio said, it’s (most of the time) necessary when the service uses a backend. As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.

It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!

@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!

In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily

The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.

Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!"

Comment · 5 years ago
In my opinion, it’s a pain to have recurring cost for small extensions/apps like Stringmark. But as @razemio said, it’s (most of the time) necessary when the service uses a backend.

As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.

It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!

@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!

In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily

The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.

Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!

Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton