Just my opinion but it sounds like you're making a lot of additional manual work for yourself with little to no benefit.

I could understand if you were able to maybe monetise the contact information you collect but as you said you delete everything once you validate it seems you are validating just for the sake of validating?

For example how would you deal with someone out of work due to COVID and wanting to use this time to retrain and get into the software engineer field? I can't imagine they would care about (or even know about) having a LinkedIn profile with zero related employment, no contacts to network with, etc.

I know I am being a little 'difficult' with my question and I am not criticising I am just interested on your thought process more than anything.

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Update: Just realised you edited your original reply so my reply doesn't make quite as much sense now :)

I think your direct email option is good. If it were me I would automate the direct email with a little bit of weak validation such as "please explain in one or two sentences your situation" then anyone who emails with a few words are automatically validated and any blank or one word emails are either auto-deleted or put aside for manual validation.

Just an idea though. I figure posting to HN means you wanted a little feedback :)

Best of luck with your book. I don't have a need for it right now (thankfully) but I hope it helps others as it appears you have a put a lot of thought and work into it.

I love the auto-replying-to-the-email suggestion. I didn't think of this: I might do this next time!

My goal with the form was to have people explicitly confirm details (like their role and employment status). Beforehand, I got a few requests for free copies from non-developers, and some people outside tech. This book is not really helpful for them, and I wanted to reduce this kind of support burden, by adding an automated message with the form (you can see it in action).

But finally, let me admit that I was just excited to build (what I thought was) a sensible dynamic form, automate storing the data in DynamoDB, then deleting it when the validation script runs, running the backend on Lambda that I played with for the first time. Trying out new tools: any opportunity is a good opportunity!

That sounds like a good time to me!

Thanks for making this. As someone on the spectrum for whom the job application process is extremely tedious, I will be reading this cover-to-cover.

I've seen first hand that offering something for free for people experiencing hard times is rarely abused so long as you require someone to ask for it.

"Email me if you are unable to afford this book and would like a free copy" for example, will rarely be abused. (And if it is, it isn't a lost sale, because they wouldn't have purchased it anyway.)

I suspect it might actually increase overall conversion rate, because it may trigger many people to consider that they actually can afford the product, and it shows that the merchant has a heart.

I originally had this message up. However, after the first 30 requests - a few which had no information, and seemed like one-time emails - I opted for something I can automate easier.

I now added the email option for people who don't have a LinkedIn account (or don't want to share it), thanks to the original suggestion. I love the Show HN crowd!

I'm hesitant to spend money on something that may be useful but probably won't save me from homelessness (I'm so unemployable that glowing internal referrals don't even get me a 15-minute phone call), but I don't qualify for your complimentary copy and I really, reallly don't want to out myself (because this will destroy even the tiny bit of employability I might have remaining).

So I bought it. Sure hope it's useful.

You might benefit most from speaking to a counselor to work on your self-image.