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HN Stories Behind Paywalls

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Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#11

Post by corin_ »

byoung2 wrote: post #5
gaustin wrote: post #2

What domains? I read (or click through) to most everything that hits the front page and never hit paywalls, except for academic journals. As annoying as it is to be blocked by a paywall, I don't think that's a valid criteria for censorship. Good content is good content, and often the comments on HN are worth more than the article itself.

NYTimes sometimes has a paywall, other times it doesn't...maybe the articles are free for a limited time. Usually you can get around the paywall by googling the article title and clicking on it in the results...they have to show Google the full page if they want it indexed.

The term "paywall" requires there to be a payment involved, which is not the case with NYTimes.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#12

Post by michael_dorfman »

cont4gious wrote: post #10
gyardley wrote: post #6

If a story becomes highly-ranked, it's almost certainly not behind a paywall, or it wouldn't become highly-ranked in the first place. Maybe you're thinking of the NYT, where you register once for a free account (or just use a password from bugmenot.com)? Perhaps the WSJ, where the full text of everything is available from Google News?

I was thinking of the NYT articles. Even if I don't have to pay to read them, the principle is the same. I shouldn't have to register on a site to read the content. I can understand registering to interact (comment, etc) but not to simply access.

Huh? This makes no sense to me.

Are you arguing that you have a moral right to consume, without limitation, the articles created by the New York Times, without any restrictions whatsoever?

If not, what's you're argument exactly? That the NY Times doesn't have the moral right to require registrations to access their content?

Personally, I love the Times, and I'd be willing to pay for access, if it came to that. I'm happy that they've been able to find a business model that does not require me to pay, and my registering for the site is an insignificant price to pay.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#14

Post by jakarta »

I've rarely seen a pay wall story end up on the front page of HN, with the exception of the occasional WSJ article - where people are quick to show how anyone can access it via Google News.

I see a lot of people complaining when NYT articles show up -- but they are often mistakenly thinking it's a paywall. It's not, it's just a free registration barrier. Even when the NYT goes metered in 2011, free members will still be allowed a certain amount of articles per month (similar to the Financial Times articles).

Moreover though, I'd like to point out that most newspapers are extremely affordable for students - almost every publication offers a generous student discount.

When I was a student I had subscriptions to the WSJ and Foreign Affairs because they were pretty cheap, WSJ was something like $15 for 3.75 months and Foreign Affairs was $20 for an entire year. NYTimes Student (M-F) is only $0.50 an issue. The Economist costs only $24 for 3.75 months... or $1.60 an issue. In almost all cases you end up saving between 70-80% when using the student subscriptions.

Plus you can keep subscribing at the same rates even after graduating -- you might have to fill in some bogus information about what course you are taking but it still works.

So, I don't know. I feel like the cost of student subscriptions isn't a whole lot and in that case maybe it's worth subscribing just to be well informed about the world. Certain pubs like the WSJ, FT, or Foreign Affairs will probably never be totally free and in that case, given the small fee they charge I'd be willing to trade eating pizza one day for ramen.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#15

Post by sfgfdhgfdshdhhd »

jakarta wrote: post #14

I've rarely seen a pay wall story end up on the front page of HN, with the exception of the occasional WSJ article - where people are quick to show how anyone can access it via Google News. I see a lot of people complaining when NYT articles show up -- but they are often mistakenly thinking it's a paywall. It's not, it's just a free registration barrier. Even when the NYT goes metered in 2011, free members will still…

"Free registration required"-walls are right up there beside paywalls on the annoy-o-meter. Anyway, the NYT ones pretty clearly ask for payment, though they seem to be different for everybody.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#16

Post by sfgfdhgfdshdhhd »

gyardley wrote: post #6

If a story becomes highly-ranked, it's almost certainly not behind a paywall, or it wouldn't become highly-ranked in the first place. Maybe you're thinking of the NYT, where you register once for a free account (or just use a password from bugmenot.com)? Perhaps the WSJ, where the full text of everything is available from Google News?

>> Perhaps the WSJ, where the full text of everything is available from Google News?

Why not link to the Google News page instead, then?

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#17

Post by Tichy »

I have the occasional problem with the NY Times, which I can usually remedy by opening the URL with a different browser. The NYT seems to require logins randomly.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#18

Post by Tichy »

corin_ wrote: post #11
byoung2 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYTimes sometimes has a paywall, other times it doesn't...maybe the articles are free for a limited time. Usually you can get around the paywall by googling the article title and clicking on it in the results...they have to show Google the full page if they want it indexed.

The term "paywall" requires there to be a payment involved, which is not the case with NYTimes.

Registering somewhere is not free. Apart from the invested time and wasted memory brain cells for the password there is also the never ending stream of spam that is to be expected from then on.

Also I think physical addresses are sold for several dollars a piece? So signing up somewhere with my address is worth at least that amount.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#19

Post by jakarta »

sfgfdhgfdshdhhd wrote: post #15
jakarta wrote: post #14

I've rarely seen a pay wall story end up on the front page of HN, with the exception of the occasional WSJ article - where people are quick to show how anyone can access it via Google News. I see a lot of people complaining when NYT articles show up -- but they are often mistakenly thinking it's a paywall. It's not, it's just a free registration barrier. Even when the NYT goes metered in 2011, free members will still…

"Free registration required"-walls are right up there beside paywalls on the annoy-o-meter. Anyway, the NYT ones pretty clearly ask for payment, though they seem to be different for everybody.

They don't ask for payment. And the registration walls might be annoying, but you're getting news for free. It's a trade off. There's content in the NYT that you wont find on Google News, and maybe that's not compelling for you but it seems like most people are willing to register for that free access.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#20

Post by rewind »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12
cont4gious wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking of the NYT articles. Even if I don't have to pay to read them, the principle is the same. I shouldn't have to register on a site to read the content. I can understand registering to interact (comment, etc) but not to simply access.

Huh? This makes no sense to me. Are you arguing that you have a moral right to consume, without limitation, the articles created by the New York Times, without any restrictions whatsoever? If not, what's you're argument exactly? That the NY Times doesn't have the moral right to require registrations to access their content? Personally, I love the Times, and I'd be willing to pay for access, if it came to that. I'm ha…

Gotta agree here. OP is complaining that the articles are not free. After the explanation is given that they are free and require registration, that becomes the new problem. If these are issues the OP has, that's fine, but I don't think all of HN should be kept from these stories because OP doesn't want to take 30 seconds one time to register a throw-away account.
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