Now this is a bit of fun and actually quite useful. The service is called cl1p.net it provides a service that lets you create an instant message board or clipboard with a unique URL for access and number of handy and useful features. I am sure that there are uses for this that would present themselves to people on a daily basis. A great service to put in your bookmarks, you never know when you might need it.
To set up a message board or clipboard all you have to do is visit cl1p.net and follow the instructions which are very simple. You will see a box like this:
Fill in what you want the page URL to be after the /. Click the “Show My cl1p” button and you are done. There is no need to register, but you can if you want to to track your cl1ps. Once your page is generated (you should now be looking at it); there are a few options that you may want to activate.
The page is an Internet accessible clipboard or a message board, you select which on the right pull-down menu. The clipboard is the default. Copy and paste anything either plain text or HTML into the space provided. Or upload a file up to 2MB. Want someone else to be able to see the pasted text or file? Just point them to the URL. This is very useful. Say you were helping someone with some code for their blog or web page. You could get them to post their code on the “board”, edit it and then they could then reload and copy and paste it out to their page. Anyone that has tried to use Instant messaging for this knows exactly why this feature is so good. Plus it is way faster then email.
There are a number of options for how long you want the page open for from one hour to “as long as possible” (however long that is). You can change the title if you wish from the default to one that you prefer. I like the idea of being able to password protect the page as well in the “Security” options. Activating this for a message board enables moderation by the creator of the page and prevents others from modifying comments. Create an account to track your “cl1ps” or there is the option to buy the URL that you have essentially created. Enable HTML or plain text to suit your needs. Message boards are plain text which is a good idea.
At the bottom of the page is the option to upload a file up to 2MB, which might be an interesting way to share a file with a lot of people that you can’t host yourself. Finally you can adjust the number of lines that are viewable, save and print the text. Phew… loads of features for a simple page. But that is what makes it great. Good things are simplistic and easy to use and this fits all the requirements for that.
If you purchased the URL it could be a permanent message board for your blog readers. The good thing about this is that there is no registration required, no login, no email submission. You might get more comments from your readers by having one. If you had no blog then this might be a fun way to leave messages for your friends or have an asynchronous conversation. You could start a great flame war with this one, once the URL disappears your comments go with it and it is anonymous. These ideas are just off the top of my head and I am sure that people can think of much better ones.
The URL or page is accessible to anyone with Internet access, just point your browser to it and you can see the page you or someone else has created. Nice. This is also an advantage if you were working with someone in another time zone. Or you had friends that were in a different country. It is another way of communicating and collaborating.
I think it is a great idea and has loads of potential and an early start to a sound business model. In the future I would expect there to be advertising and such but that won’t take away from a great, interesting, simple and fun idea. The idea of accessibility and ease of use is an achievement. I can definitely see myself using this from time to time for a number of uses and a lot that I am yet to think of.
See the Rooster’s Rail Message Board Here [ http://cl1p.net/roosters_rail ] go nuts and tell me what you think about it.
UPDATE: Killed the Message Board it became a spam mecca. This post is getting on and the spammers followed it. Just glad that HTML was off 🙂 Please check out the service and create your own.
Rooster's Rail 