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Show HN: Engineering Book Club

by miguelbemartin on 5/9/23, 6:02 PM with 85 comments

• by calculated on 5/9/23, 6:27 PM

  You’re kidding right? Charging 50 euro for access to basically a Discord, Slack, etc. channel.

• by zwieback on 5/9/23, 7:14 PM

  Sounds like a terrible idea - people are starting to hate the subscription economy, I know I do.

  I run a fiction book club at work and it is a lot of work, none of which I see this website solving.

  Also, it's unclear whether I still have to buy the book or whether the subscription allows me access to an e-version of whatever is being read.

• by sefrost on 5/9/23, 9:11 PM

  People complaining about the price might be interested to know LeadDev also hosts a monthly book club. They interview the author of the book and you can submit questions via their Slack.

  https://leaddev.com/series/bookmarked

  https://leaddev.com/bookmarked

• by mym1990 on 5/9/23, 6:47 PM

  Really love the design of the website.

  Couple nitpicks: In the FAQs: "How is processed the payment?" should probably be "How is the payment processed?".

  "Registration closes on Friday, April 28th at 12 midnight PT." at the top of the pricing section. What happens now that the registration is past that date?

  All 3 of the FAQs have to deal with pricing. To be honest, I would like to know more about the actual service. How are group scheduled, what platform is used to do the meetings, what if no one joins a group, is there a refund policy, how many members are there, etc...?

  At the end of the day, I have paid 10$ for much sillier things, so not a terrible idea. Good luck!

• by free-nachos on 5/9/23, 11:24 PM

  Feedback - consider removing the 50 euro option from the pricing page because the offer seems to have expired a week and a half ago. I clicked on the 50 button then saw 60 on the pricing page, had to hit back and try to figure out why. It's causing a lot of friction.

• by petercooper on 5/9/23, 9:06 PM

  Good luck! I think it could work, especially if you can "preseed" it with the right people. A bit like any social experience really. I floated a similar idea many years ago and most of my contacts said it sounded boring and wouldn't sign up, but.. I want to be proven wrong by someone! :-D

• by umayah on 5/9/23, 8:26 PM

  every book in the image on the front page isn't an engineering book

• by charlie0 on 5/10/23, 2:05 AM

  Fee seems high, but if it works it works. Allowing free access just lets in all the spammers, the looky loos, and just too many people to form great relationships.

• by iudqnolq on 5/10/23, 2:59 AM

  These books like irritatingly philosophical. What is there to discuss about "The Leader who had no Title"?

• by alex_lav on 5/9/23, 8:36 PM

  Would've absolutely done it if it included actually getting the book.

• by Minor49er on 5/9/23, 10:24 PM

  There's a typo on the front page:

  > The goal is to create a group of professional with similar interests and share the passion of reading engineering books together.

  It should read "group of professionals"

• by Animats on 5/10/23, 7:37 AM

  The books in the picture are all management books.

• by quickthrower2 on 5/10/23, 6:59 AM

  Free MVP:

  1. Go on ASK HN about a book you want to make a club for.

  2. Create a Discord link.

• by carabiner on 5/10/23, 12:13 AM

  No mention of civil, chemical, mechanical engineering.

• by paulrchds on 5/10/23, 5:33 AM

  I was interested but just wouldn't spend that much, would rather try organising something myself.

• by _navierstokes on 5/9/23, 9:18 PM

  When I open this website it tries to connect to Phantom or MetaMask. Why is that?

• by benzofuran on 5/10/23, 2:04 AM

  Is this for software engineers or actual engineers? You may want to specify.

• by AHOHA on 5/10/23, 8:20 AM

  As an engineer, I wouldn’t join such thing even for free. But good luck