loading . . . This blog never really had a clear direction. No fixed theme, no niche – that was partly intentional, partly laziness. I just wanted to write about whatever happened to be on my mind. The fact that I also wanted to maintain my _motivation to read_ this way wasn't even planned at first.
The problem: As soon as everyday life interferes, there’s no time for proper articles. And so it happens that I currently take a photo after every book and upload it here. Predictable and easy to manage in terms of time.
Still, I felt like I was missing a way to share things quickly without writing a long _essay_. Until I recently had a thought.
### The Concept: Raindrop.io as a Backend
I've been collecting bookmarks in **Raindrop.io** for years – with varying levels of motivation. Articles, tools, videos, repos – everything ends up there, neatly sorted into _collections_ and labeled with _tags_. I noticed that **Raindrop** offers an indefinitely long note field for each bookmark. That’s actually all you need for a **link blog** : a link and a short comment in _Markdown_ , done.
A very short research session later, I fired up **VS Code** and started playing around. The result is a new site – a wild mix of _link log_ and _link collection_. Target audience unknown, but for now, I like it.
The result – with the temporarily uncreative name **"Open Tabs"** – can be found here.
Currently, everything is obviously still in "**Beta** ". The logo will change, and the name was only the ~~first~~ second-best thing I could come up with. But right now, I’m trying to ignore my inner perfectionist and I'm _for now_ satisfied.
### Control via Tags
Using **Raindrop.io** as a backend and database brings a few hurdles. With any standard blog software, I can precisely control how data is displayed. At first glance, _Raindrop_ doesn't offer this flexibility – **unless I use tags.**
That’s why I implemented **Control Tags** that influence the behavior of an entry:
* **Recommended** : A bookmark with `curated/recommend` ends up in a dedicated recommendation feed – and is directly visible on the homepage or the recommendations page.
* **Pin Tags** : A tag pins an entry to the top of the _collection_ if I set `curated/pinned`.
* **Highlight Tags** : If I set `curated/highlight`, the bookmark is visually highlighted within the _collection_.
* ... and more.
The end user – **YOU** – won't see any of this logic. The _control tags_ are simply hidden in the frontend. I thought it was clever _for now_. Whether it actually is, time will tell.
### RSS Everywhere
I love **RSS** , so there’s plenty of it here. Every _collection_ has its own feed, e.g., my collection for Note Taking Apps. The recommendations have their own feed, and there is a global feed for everything combined. [1]
### The Tech Stack
Technically, the whole thing runs on **Nuxt 4** with **Nuxt UI** , **Tailwind CSS** , and **Pinia**. The _Raindrop API_ is extremely pleasant to use – everything I need is there. The layout is functional, though from a _UI_ and _UX_ perspective, there is certainly plenty of room for improvement.
* * *
### What’s Next?
Content-wise, it will probably revolve around technology, apps, books, hobbies, software, and web development – simply the things I deal with daily. But I reserve the right to sprinkle in other topics whenever something interesting crosses my path. Essentially, it’s a **braindump with link lists**.
And: will I write more in English in the future? Maybe. More reach, a broader audience – the arguments are obvious. But that hasn’t been decided yet. For now, this will continue in German – though with occasional English articles, like this one. https://www.flore.nz/blog/en/open-tabs-linkblog-raindrop-io-api/
