Actually, while there is pinboard.com, which, as the author points out, is not free (which brings to mind: how, really, do you want to pay for your free lunch?), there is a free - and open source - platform [1] that, in my opinion, is far more powerful than was Delicious (I was an early Delicious user).

[1] https://web.hypothes.is/

I'll offer a side observation: when people don't pay for sites like Delicious (and Facebook and ...) the Signal to Noise Ratio falls off dramatically. What, contrary to the author's claim, you might need is not so much a wider audience for "more stuff", but, instead, an audience which has a stake in the value of that "stuff".

I think you meant https://pinboard.in.

If I compare the signal-to-noise ratio of HN (free) and Pinboard (paid), I certainly don't think it's worse for HN.

I didn't know this even existed. Going to sign up, very useful.

Me too enjoy VC-subsidized services while it lasts.

I understand the nostalgia but a website that appease a very broad audience yet cannot come up a viable business plan is doom to fail. Ok there is wikipedia but who else?

Now i use Tumblr as a delicious replacement. It's quite serving its purpose very well right now.