
Show HN: I'm writing the Modular JavaScript book series - bevacqua
https://mjavascript.com/
======
markwaldron
Why is it that if I try to unlock a chapter with a tweet it wants access to:

Read Tweets from your timeline.

See who you follow, and follow new people.

Update your profile.

Post Tweets for you.

Seems a little excessive. Edit: Link to screenshot -
[http://imgur.com/a/rAO0d](http://imgur.com/a/rAO0d)

~~~
bevacqua
Author here. Excellent question! That's because Twitter doesn't offer fine-
grained control over what permissions you request.

The website that asks for that stuff is open-source[1], though, so you can
take a look at what it does (just send out a single tweet).

If you still feel uneasy about granting me access to tweet through your
account, that's perfectly understandable, and I have two options that may work
for you:

\- Revoke access right after you authorize the app. The tweet will still be
sent out, and you will still keep your access to the HTML chapters. Since I
don't get access to your DMs, there's no harm nor potential harm done.

\- Just read the book on GitHub[2]. It isn't as pretty as the HTML version,
but it works well enough and alleviates your security concerns.

[1]: [http://github.com/ponyfoo/ponyfoo](http://github.com/ponyfoo/ponyfoo)

[2]: [https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-
es6](https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-es6)

~~~
brudgers
I'm not sure that the benefit of _sending_ out a few Tweets outweighs the ill
will among the book's potential audience _requesting_ Twitter account access
creates. It seems like a distraction based on the 'Twitter thing' dominating
the discussion here in lieu of a conversation about the book's content and
value to the reader.

Personally, I'm more likely to give attention to someone's organic Tweet than
autogenerated marketing because it implies that the book is good at being a
book. I don't really care about books that are good at social media and SEO.

In purely product terms, company's that care more about their brand than my
'brand' don't garner a high level of trust.

Good luck.

~~~
bevacqua
I'm not a company, and besides four comments on HN, there's been over 400
people sharing a single tweet to get access to the HTML version of the book.

Considering that I'm giving five books away entirely for free, asking for a
single tweet isn't that high of a bar, to be honest. I don't mind a few people
being annoyed by it, particularly because I can point those people to GitHub
and be done with it :)

------
joelgrus
I think it looks like a cool series of books.

I also hate that you describe it as "free to read" but then require me to give
you access to my Twitter account in order to read it. I don't know you, and I
don't want to give you access to update my Twitter profile or post Tweets on
my behalf. (Yes, I know, then just pay for the book.)

~~~
aarohmankad
The book is also on Github without any required Twitter auth!

[https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-
es6](https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-es6)

------
6DM
Is there a reason you don't make a book dedicated to just dealing with grunt,
gulp, browserify, babel, web pack, etc. instead of splitting some of each
between ES6 and Universal JavaScript?

~~~
bevacqua
Author here. Good question!

I made a book just like that before[1]. The decision to split the books was a
conscious one. In writing JavaScript Application Design, I found that very
different concepts ended up being tied together for no good reason other than
being on the same book.

The series, instead, clusters all the ES6+ teaching on its first book. This
leaves me open to assuming ES6+ knowledge across the rest of the series, being
able to use ES6+ language features in my prose, etc. At the same time, while
tooling may be relevant to deployments and maybe testing, it's only
tangentially relevant to proper application design, which is the subject
matter of books 2 & 3.

[1]: [https://ponyfoo.com/books/javascript-application-
design](https://ponyfoo.com/books/javascript-application-design)

------
netskrill
I'd really want to check out the series. The twitter paywall is the only
blocker.

~~~
bevacqua
Author here. You can just read the book on GitHub[1], no tweetwall involved.
It isn't as pretty as the HTML version, but it works well enough and
alleviates your security concerns.

[1]: [https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-
es6](https://github.com/mjavascript/practical-es6)

~~~
brwr
At least for me, security isn't the concern. The problem is that I have no
idea what I'm recommending. Have you considered letting users read a bit
before asking for the Tweet?

I've been a PonyFoo reader for a long time. You're obviously a talented guy.
But I still want to get an idea of what you have produced before tweeting
about it.

That said, I'm very much looking forward to "Mastering Modular JavaScript" and
"Deploying Modern JavaScript Apps"! :) I'm sure you know better than most that
the internet is full of unappreciative haters, but keep up the fantastic work.
There are many of us who have benefited from your writing in amazing ways.

------
golemotron
Is the color palette for the site utterly bizarre or is my sense of these
things just off?

~~~
jordanlev
To me it looks different than the standard "grey text on white background with
lots of whitespace and a few basic and/or muted colors" style that you see on
the vast majority of websites these days, and I think it's great!

That's the thing about design -- there is no one right answer, rather it's
about reinforcing the overall vibe or message of a particular site... in this
case I think the color choice conveys a sense of fun and whimsy.

------
clifanatic
Wait, what? O'Reilly books are being crowdfunded now?

