Ask HN: Would you be interested in a course/eBook about scraping and automation?
Hi, I’m a pretty experienced scraper/automator and I was thinking about sharing my knowledge. I originally thought about writing a blog, but I'm not sure that would be the best format to transmit everything I know. Maybe I'll do both.
There would first be a quick introduction to the legacy ways of scraping(i.e GET request+parser), why they’re often not enough today and when can they be still used.
Then I’d delve into more advanced techniques, I usually try to find the cheapest/free solutions to the problems I’m solving but I’ll also compare paid options:
-how to make your scrapers/bots as stealthy as possible
-everything you need to know about fingerprinting
-how to bypass datadome, cloudfare, captchas…
-how to scale to millions of requests
-how to make your own free rotating proxies
-how to do automation on mobile apps and desktops
-how to reverse engineer APIs on the web or mobile
-every tips and tricks I know to scrape better
I may add a section on GPT/LLM, either about how to fasten the development of a scrapers or about how to make self healing scrapers.
Is this a topic that would interest a lot of you?
Would some of you be ready to pay a small amount for an ebook/courses on those subjects?
Thanks Yes I would creating a landing page that creates a mailing list to get notified of when the ebook comes out. plus example scripts Then I would would create blog posts around a hook for each chapter in the book with enough teaser info to want to get the ebook and when new articles are coming out.