While I recognize the quality of the free or inexpensive social services I can access, I prefer when possible to host services from a server that I control. If you want to develop insights into how technology and specific services work, doing it yourself really gives you a closer look.
Some time ago, I operated a social bookmarking service using open source software called Scuttle. I modified the php code of Scuttle to provide some additional services – allowing users to promote sites they found useful, listing sites by total value to users. Hacking open code is certainly part of the way I learn.
I began to have difficulties with Scuttle and I never figured out if it was because of the code I added or limitations in the original code. There is a problem with MySQL called sql injection. Code included with invited input can cause problems that coder does not intend. This seems to be what happened and while I investigated how to clean up the problem I failed to prevent it completely. It seemed my site was on a list of vulnerable sites somewhere and problems became more frequent. I eventually removed Scuttle from the server.
I am trying it again. This time I am using open source bookmarking software named Shaarli (share links). The software does not use a database backend so this will eliminate the problem I encountered with Scuttle.
My intent is to develop an online source of educational resources. I “seeded” the site using the links I have stored in my Diigo account and plan to add mostly content-specific links as I find them. Take a look at Grabe Bookmarks.
