from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why paywalled content is not banned yet?

by niksmac on 8/27/23, 6:21 AM with 15 comments

• by yuppie_scum on 8/27/23, 11:35 AM

  Good journalism is worth paying for. For gods sake do you think that news reporting just happens for free?

  The entitlement people have for free news is one of the major reasons why our political systems have backslid so fast over the past few decades.

  You get what you pay for.

• by tamimio on 8/27/23, 11:33 AM

  It is annoying, really, and saying it’s paywalled is considered off-topic.. how is it off-topic if I can’t even read the topic!

  Posting a paywalled content is similar to posting an application that you need to buy-first try-after, and that in a community that usually refuses to use a SaaS because it requires an email address right off the bat.

• by hilbert42 on 8/27/23, 12:40 PM

  Agreed, paywalls are a nuisance, I'll often click on a story before noticing its source, also the text size is smaller for the source and I don't recognize every paywall.

  There's a compromise solution, HN could put a red dot or similar next to the article show it's behind the paywall.

• by simonblack on 8/28/23, 1:16 AM

  Paywalled content is annoying. But it can be bypassed most of the time by cut'n'pasting the URL into the search fields of either https://archive.is/ or https://12ft.io/

  If neither of those can let you read it, then just ignore that paywalled URL. They don't get the click, and you haven't lost anything.

• by skilled on 8/27/23, 6:24 AM

  Because you can use Archive.is[0] to post a comment with the un-paywalled article, which is always done for stories that hit the front-page. There are many publishers now that paywall their content, and typically you want the original source as the main submission as opposed to someone's relay of it.

  [0]: https://archive.is/

• by defrost on 8/27/23, 6:38 AM

  Hmmm.

  Why stop there though?

  Should HN the discussion group associated with seed fund investor group Y Combinator also ban discussion of paywalled services?

  Isn't the least expected lowest bar for entry here that someone should either be able to work around a paywall or alternatively subscribe and support a content source?

• by reify on 8/27/23, 12:37 PM

  I dont like it either

  For me it looks like an old pals network with a sense of elitism.

  All us mates who can afford it can add paywalled links just for us to read together.

  Oh good one stevie, I really liked the (paywalled) link on hackernews this morning.

  Shame about the blebs (non IT specialists) not being able to read it eh!

  It is not inclusive

• by throwawaysleep on 8/27/23, 7:01 AM

  They often have content worth discussing. Why ban over paywalls? Plenty of us have subscriptions.

• by Quinzel on 8/27/23, 11:32 AM

  Because a paywall is only there as an opportunistic money grab from the people who don’t know how to circumnavigate the paywall.

  Surely if you’re on hacker news you know how to get around a paywall??