51–60 of 105 posts
If I'm reading this correctly, the extension sends every URL you use it on to some random service hosted on Cloudflare workers [1]. That doesn't sound good... [1] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgefsilva/beatthatwall/m...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue with paywalls is the bait and switch - you push the whole content for SEO then force users to pay money. Nobody cares if you want to sell the secrets of the universe for $5000/mo. We care about the bait and switch. By setting up this bait and switch, you hurt your own paywall - if the search engine can get a full copy, so can I. Want these extensions to stop working? Stop the bait and switch.
Why is that relevant? They've created their content - if they want to share it with a search engine that's none of your business. The technology does not allow them to do this without sharing it with you as well. But that is ethically irrelevant. (Of course, we also deserve a good search engine allowing us to remove paywalled sites and seo spam from our results.)
It's actually everyone's business because this creates a web that is less usable for everyone. If publishers were willing to commit and make their paid content server-side for customers only, they would have a stronger case against infringers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue with paywalls is the bait and switch - you push the whole content for SEO then force users to pay money. Nobody cares if you want to sell the secrets of the universe for $5000/mo. We care about the bait and switch. By setting up this bait and switch, you hurt your own paywall - if the search engine can get a full copy, so can I. Want these extensions to stop working? Stop the bait and switch.
> By setting up this bait and switch, you hurt your own paywall - if the search engine can get a full copy, so can I. I don’t get this. They do whatever they want with their content. Editors give free book copies to journalists; that doesn’t gives you the right to have one as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue with paywalls is the bait and switch - you push the whole content for SEO then force users to pay money. Nobody cares if you want to sell the secrets of the universe for $5000/mo. We care about the bait and switch. By setting up this bait and switch, you hurt your own paywall - if the search engine can get a full copy, so can I. Want these extensions to stop working? Stop the bait and switch.
> By setting up this bait and switch, you hurt your own paywall - if the search engine can get a full copy, so can I. I don’t get this. They do whatever they want with their content. Editors give free book copies to journalists; that doesn’t gives you the right to have one as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is that relevant? They've created their content - if they want to share it with a search engine that's none of your business. The technology does not allow them to do this without sharing it with you as well. But that is ethically irrelevant. (Of course, we also deserve a good search engine allowing us to remove paywalled sites and seo spam from our results.)
"FREE VACATIONS! (you have to sit through a timeshare presentation and there are catches" We widely regard the above as unethical. Adding content to a search engine literally says "you can come read this content!". That is the purpose of search engines. Even Google penalizes paywall behavior and will downrank them - which forces the paywall people to get more clever. Sorry but don't abuse search engines and users to…
Though I do agree, the bait and switch aspect of finessing seo and such leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Glad google penalizes such behavior
no extension needed.
And if you want to use Google cache (and Google is your main search engine) just add ? in front of URL and with two clicks (dots->cached) you get to the cached version of Google.
again no extension needed.
Stay safe.
Looking at the source, it seems like the page is proxied through a CloudFlare worker black box called “cfworker-beatthatwall.jayass.workers.dev”. It would be easier to trust if all the work was done locally.
Exactly. This type of extension should 100% be blocked from the official store. That said, the userscript is working as intended so far.
EGAD! Has the internet matured enough so that what was old is new again? Dedicated websites that are independent of a centralised controlling body? What a brilliant idea! Those ol' greybeards were on to something
I've had several YouTube ads telling me I should use a "hybrid" approach to self host some of my services, on hardware in my building , to keep cost down. I had to check a calendar to see what year it was!