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Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

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Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#81

Post by tpetry »

courgette wrote: post #39
qup wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a 50-page book. If you actually look at what's presented on the landing page, three of the topics have the entire page shown, so you can see exactly what topics will look like.

I agree, I had a good idea of what you proposed just sliding on my phone. Let me give you an email in exchange of that bag of tricks. Out of curiosity: what’s happening with the email? ( out of honesty: you will get my spam ridden gmail ;) )

I‘ll send you an email when I have written more full-length articles like the ones under „Tips“ in the navigation.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#82

Post by tpetry »

martin-adams wrote: post #75
kevstev wrote: post #72

Honest question- why does one choose to harvest emails for something like this vs just putting ads on the page? I have seen this model used for several ebooks, but it seems like long term its much more viable to just make the content widely available and put adwords on it or something similar.

If you ever want to release an update or launch a new product or book, you can now communicate directly with those who are already interested in your work.

Exactly, I constantly write full-length articles I share with subscribers. If you don‘t want it just unsubscribe, I am not mad at you.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#83

Post by evilduck »

pashabitz wrote: post #23

A person gives you a whole book they wrote for free and you're complaining about asking for an email? WTF

Because I weigh the potential of being marketed to by email as being a negative value greater than the potential positive value of the information provided in exchange. 'Free (with the potential to spam you later)' is a world apart from 'Free, gratis, enjoy'.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#84

Post by FooBarWidget »

evilduck wrote: post #83
pashabitz wrote: post #23

A person gives you a whole book they wrote for free and you're complaining about asking for an email? WTF

Because I weigh the potential of being marketed to by email as being a negative value greater than the potential positive value of the information provided in exchange. 'Free (with the potential to spam you later)' is a world apart from 'Free, gratis, enjoy'.

The author loses much more than you. You can always unsubscribe, or — if you don't trust unsubscribe — filter away his emails. From the beginning you were always in full control. Giving your email grants the author no power over you whatsoever.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#85

Post by scrubs »

pashabitz wrote: post #23

A person gives you a whole book they wrote for free and you're complaining about asking for an email? WTF

Agree. The guy provides engineering know how and we're pigeon dropping all over it for bureaucratic dorkish nonsense? You gotta have an attention span that separates noise from value

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#86

Post by ylg »

tpetry wrote: post #42
tr33house wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can someone share the pdf here for folks who don't wanna share their email?

To be honest. Just subscribe and the next time I wrote a free article and share it with you unsubscribe. I don‘t spam you. Ans I don‘t mind when you only want to grab the ebook.

The problem is not unknown value. It’s unknown cost. Until I know everything you will ever do to me with my email I don’t know the true cost. What I can guess—given the thousands of precedents I’ve encountered over the years—is that the total cost will be time taken from my short life to fend of yet more marketing and yet more marketers. For comparison, if you ask me for currency, I know the total cost of ownership. Usually, for me, a few units of currency are a rounding error compared to the value I place on time.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#87

Post by marktangotango »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #84
evilduck wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I weigh the potential of being marketed to by email as being a negative value greater than the potential positive value of the information provided in exchange. 'Free (with the potential to spam you later)' is a world apart from 'Free, gratis, enjoy'.

The author loses much more than you. You can always unsubscribe, or — if you don't trust unsubscribe — filter away his emails. From the beginning you were always in full control. Giving your email grants the author no power over you whatsoever.

You are being down voted because this is a shallow view. The expression of interest tied to an identity has value. For proof see Google, Meta, Amazon, and Facebook earnings.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#88

Post by remram »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #24
tr33house wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can someone share the pdf here for folks who don't wanna share their email?

I wouldn't. Author is offering their work at a given price. That price is email. It may be worth it to you or not. Requesting a pirated copy of it without paying the price is not something I encourage,given so many of us here are well to do knowledge workers whose live being depends on people paying for our work. (Not to mention, it's same or less work for you to create a temp email account, vs somebody else doing th…

You say that, yet every paywalled news article posted on HN quickly gets a web.archive.org or archive.is link as a top comment. What is the fundamental difference with this?

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#89

Post by qup »

tpetry wrote: post #56
joe_guy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not a series of blog posts? To me, the reader, what value does sharing my email or it being in The incredibly less flexible "ebook" format have?

I am already writing every tip as a blog post. But those blog posts take a full day to write as they are much more detailled compared to the short summary in the ebook. My time is limited like yours, and the short ebook is the best way to spread the knowledge: You get the information now, and I'll notify you when those full articles are written.

Hey man, thanks for the book.

Don't forget you don't owe these guys what they're asking for. You've done the work to share your knowledge, they can do the work to gather it.

Re: Show HN: I wrote a free eBook about many lesser-known/secret database tricks

#90

Post by qup »

411111111111111 wrote: post #27
qup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting take, given that the landing page demonstrates its value with some example pages, and the index of topics. I can skim the chapter titles and get a pretty good idea of exactly what value there is. I'm not sure what's holding you up.

I think that's true, but I'm also one of the people that's going to bounce from that. While several chapters have mildly interesting titles, what I've come used to from these kinds of offers are mostly just rehashed blog articles from other sources. I remember one extra special case about an Elixir "book" that pretty much just copy-pasted the official getting started guide. Generally speaking, these kind of hurdles d…

But you can see the actual content. 6% of the book is on display on the landing page. I think you should just judge the quality of that instead of inventing ways to make assumptions based on other factors.
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