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by frou_dh 4627 days ago
In recent years, I have preferred "read it later" services to traditional bookmarks. I delete items once I've read them (rather than building up an archive), and have went from Instapaper to Pocket to Apple's Reading List, each of which was an upgrade in UX.

That leaves traditional bookmarks mainly for select "reference" resources like API documentation.

For whatever reason, I have a strong dislike of "junk drawers", even when they are digital, and like getting rid of things.
1 comments
AshMokhberi 4627 days ago
So do you think that's what's more important it's not that bookmarks are wrong it's that the UX is terrible ? Or is that reading stuff later is actually what you want to do most of the time with bookmarks ?
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frou_dh 4627 days ago
I think I'm just a neurotic "anti-hoarder" and it extends in to the digital realm. A lot of stuff gets deleted instead of archived in Gmail, too.

It's probably not worth taking much notice of this particular mindset.

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AshMokhberi 4627 days ago
I think the opposite you're exactly the person worth paying attention to :)

I think most people like the idea of being "free" from hoarding. because it clutters the mind. I guess the thing with bookmarks is that they need to disappear after either an action or a certain amount of time has passed since they where last used/created.

I'm also wondering how this works visually. I often find if things are just messy then I hate it and feel like I'm cluttered. But if something is kept clean and structured then I'm happy for it to stay as long as it gets out of my way when I don't need it.

I'm wondering if bookmarks are the same. If I don't need you disappear. But when I want to get it back then I want to find it in a clean and organised way.

The problem is I don't want to invest anytime in the process of managing the clutter. I want to manage itself.

What do you think ?

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frou_dh 4627 days ago
Yes, that sounds reasonable.

Another commenter mentions going on a bookmarking spree when investigating a specific topic. Helping classify and process the results of those sprees seems like it would be helpful.

IMO a lot of other uses of traditional bookmarks range from pointless (I can instead easily type/auto-complete my favourite domains) to better served by specialist apps (news aggregator sites + caching read it later apps being a great example).

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