Show HN: Add Snow to Your Website | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Add Snow to Your Website

eager.io

23 pointsbosdev19 comments

Aren't there a lot of scripts out there to add snow to your website? Most of which don't require registration, don't have silly 'pro' versions and don't seem like an excuse to sell people something for maybe a couple of weeks of the year?

Why would I use this when I can find a free script that doesn't require any sign up and does the exact same thing with more options?

P.S. The snow graphics are blocked by UBlock, if you're using it.

> Aren't there a lot of scripts out there to add snow to your website?

Animated things like this have been around for as long as I can remember using javascript on pages. If the chronology repeats, I expect we'll be seeing wobbly clocks following the cursor and notes about which browser you should use for the page soon.

I've seen snow on a few websites recently, makes me rather nostalgic.

You can get the pro version for free with a tweet. You can also find the source of both plugins here:

https://github.com/EagerApps

Eager itself is a platform to allow non-technical website owners to install the all of the open-source and SaaS tools which technical people already have access to. If you already know how to add JavaScript to your page, Eager is more about convenience, not necessity.

So where's the use case for that? Sites offering tools like forums, guestbooks and counters worked because you couldn't host those things on 90s era free hosting where access to any form of server side programming was impossible.

Javascript snow (and other visual gimmicks like this) are client side; even Geocities would have let you host it yourself. Most hosted services let you add some form of Javascript/HTML code somewhere.

I loved the preview on my site, but why on earth do I have to signup, and install something else called Eager and then install Snow? How many scripts does it take to let flakes fall down? Isn't this easily done through CSS and keyframes?

EDIT: Yes it is, there's a CSS only solution here, no trackers whatsover: http://codepen.io/NickyCDK/pen/AIonk

It's also a fun little project to roll your own in JS. Here's mine: https://jffry.github.io/blizzard.js/demo/

~2kb raw, ~900 bytes minified, ~600 bytes min+gzipped

Sorry for the confusion, virtually everything on Eager is open-source. You can find the code here:

https://github.com/EagerApps/Snow https://github.com/EagerApps/SnowPro

Eager is an app-store for installing things onto your website, if you are interested in it, you can see more apps here:

https://eager.io/apps

> Add Snow to Your Website

Sadly, I immediately translate this to "add trackers to your website", whether it is true or not.

I don't know why you were downvoted, they literally state in their terms of service they will do this:

""" Apps installed with Eager may, for example:

Add cookies to your domain to track visitors. """

Just to clarify, Snow and Snow Pro don't to anything of the kind. You can view the source here:

https://github.com/EagerApps/Snow https://github.com/EagerApps/SnowPro

They don't do anything of the kind right now but the terms and conditions permit you to change that at any moment you wish to.

If you don't want to do this and will not do this then make it plain in your terms and conditions.

The reason that is in the terms and conditions is because Eager exists to allow people to install all sorts of third-party SaaS tools. If you install the Google Analytics app, they are going to track you, that is what we're trying to convey. Every app Eager has built is open-source, and is going to remain that way.

The nice thing about delivering software directly to the client as we do is you can examine the exact code which gets sent, and confirm that it is what you expect.

There is zero reason to do something like this (if you're doing it at all) with a chunk of javascript hosted by a another party.

Eager is to give all of the non-technical website owners access to the JavaScript tools we use every day. If you do know how to install a script manually, there is certainly less of a reason to use it.

If you don't know how to install a script manually you definitely don't have any business to install remotely hosted javascript, especially not from a source that has terms and conditions that all but guarantee abuse of the fact that you installed their scripts.

I'd also advise anybody installing such scripts (even locally) to read them to make sure that they only do what they say they do.

We view Eager as a safer alternative to installing something like a WordPress plugin. Non-technical people certainly use them extensively, yet they introduce very large security holes. We are trying to provide much of the same power, but without the danger of a server exploit.

If you do read the Eager terms of service, you'll see that we explicitly guarantee that we won't sell any tracking information. We don't build every Eager app, but the ones we have built are open source, and don't track or report anything to us.

https://s_news_ycombinator_com.p.eager.works/eagerProxySrc=w...

This doesn't work, it reports:

This may not be the page you're expecting (request failed security checks).

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