Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

HN Stories Behind Paywalls

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 36 posts

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#21

Post by smackfu »

rewind wrote: post #20
michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right, shifting goalposts. The original argument was solely financial.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#23

Post by netaddict »

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…

For avoiding NY Times wall, if you are using Chrome, you can just right click the link and "open in new incognito window".

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#24

Post by dsplittgerber »

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…

It's different when you're outside the US, though. A lot of magazines don't seem to cater to customers outside the US, which seems crazy to me, especially in the age of Kindle et al.

I tend to read a lot and it always bugs me to find out that magazines charge about 200-300% on top just for shipping it to EU countries. Also, there is nearly always no digital alternative - no WSJ on the Kindle in Europe, no Barrons in the EU, no digital student rebate for Foreign Affairs, huge shipping costs for Foreign Policy, Reason Magazine etc.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#25

Post by ugh »

Tichy wrote: post #18
corin_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Since I created an account for nytimes.com in 2007 (I needed access to the complete archive for a project and paid $7.95 for it) I received the amazing amount of two e-mails, one confirming my order and one confirming the cancellation of the subscription after the project was finished.

In the following years I was never again asked to pay for any article I wanted to read and I never again received an e-mail. I really wouldn’t worry about creating an account for nytimes.com.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#26

Post by corin_ »

Tichy wrote: post #18
corin_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Personally I think it's shocking that YCombinator have put up a paywall to HN, this site should be free to read. (I'm using time and brain cells reading it, right?)

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#27

Post by olius »

well actually it exist quite a lot of great articles behind paywalls, and i would site obviously what is published on Harvard Business Review or similar like Rotman publications. A lot of educational and research libraries have still restricted access to their last new papers, reports and researches which usually are very useful to stay up front competitors, or find right up-to-date or future partners.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#28

Post by araneae »

Tichy wrote: post #17

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.

Here's a better solution: install the BugMeNot extension for firefox. It logs you into NYT and other sites by providing the credentials. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/6349

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#29

Post by jakarta »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #24
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…

It's different when you're outside the US, though. A lot of magazines don't seem to cater to customers outside the US, which seems crazy to me, especially in the age of Kindle et al. I tend to read a lot and it always bugs me to find out that magazines charge about 200-300% on top just for shipping it to EU countries. Also, there is nearly always no digital alternative - no WSJ on the Kindle in Europe, no Barrons in…

That's a really good point - the student subscription route does not work internationally. I don't really know if there is any way around that.

One thing I'll note is that often, if you subscribe to WSJ or Foreign Affairs they also throw in a online log in. Presumably, if your billing information is accepted you could have the print subscriptions mailed somewhere random while you use the online login information. But I've never tried it myself.

Re: HN Stories Behind Paywalls

#30

Post by Tichy »

ugh wrote: post #25
Tichy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Since I created an account for nytimes.com in 2007 (I needed access to the complete archive for a project and paid $7.95 for it) I received the amazing amount of two e-mails, one confirming my order and one confirming the cancellation of the subscription after the project was finished. In the following years I was never again asked to pay for any article I wanted to read and I never again received an e-mail. I really…

Still, I don't know in advance if that is true. Also are you sure that you haven't received spam mail from other entities than NYT, who got your address from the NYT?
Post reply on HN