Aside from what the sister comment said, the app being closed source means we can't reliably check what it actually does, how it uses the data and whether it will get us IP bans on the job websites. Paying a subscription for using our own computer's resources and network to scrape the sites is just wrong, I wouldn't complain if it was some web service running in a cloud that just sent notifications though
> Paying a subscription for using our own computer's resources and network
I agree with the rest of your comment, but not sure this part is accurate. People pay for Microsoft Word or Photoshop etc., and then run them entirely on their own computer using their own computer's resources and network.
I should have really worded it better connecting that to the above statements. The problem is that in this particular case a cloud solution would be a better choice for this exact task (unlike for Word or Photoshop). Also the author said they might consider that in another comment
That makes sense in theory, but I'm not sure most people would bother reading the source code.
Regarding your IP banning concerns, since the app only scrapes the links you save it's just like you would manually refresh them in Chrome so don't think this would be an issue (no data to back this up tho, other than my own PC which is running the app continuously and has a ton of links saved for testing).
I made it a desktop app to avoid needing to run expensive cloud resources for scraping (which also includes IP proxies to get around bot detection limits). This would have meant a higher cost for the end user, which I absolutely did not want since it's targeting also unemployed people.
A lot of people have had that complaint and I'm considering building a cloud version with a higher price point, but not a priority right now.
1) they go to your website, you have links to social websites like linkedin.
2) user goes to your linkedin page and there's no single person associated with it.
conclusion: using "internet best practices" it sounds like a scam to me. so in a forum like HN i would expected you could open source it _or_ tell who you are, what data is being sent and collected, etc.
never thought about it that way. I'm a shy person so don't usually like putting my name out there. Also, personally, I've never cared who's behind a product, if I like it, I'll use it.
Your personal traits do not invalidate the arguments given to you. You have to admit that not putting any identify forward AND not making it open-source is making it hard to discern from scam services whose only goal is to farm people's emails and web visiting preferences.
I'd like to use your thing but you must show a bit more goodwill first.