7 ms·

Seems like an unusually large percentage of posts on Hacker News are behind paywalls, some soft, some hard, some with a maximum free articles per time-unit. I p

Seems like an unusually large percentage of posts on Hacker News are behind paywalls, some soft, some hard, some with a maximum free articles per time-unit. I peruse most of the top stories daily and can't read a good number of them making me have to just read the comments to get a sense of the article. It is seriously annoying. I wish there was some kind of flair or warning on these posts.

helpPeople 7y ago
I'm with you. Mods currate the front page, so everything I read here seems like an advertisement.
- dang 7y ago
  We curate the front page for interestingness (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Advertisement has nothing to do with it. If there's a class of articles you're seeing here consistently that you don't think gratifies intellectual curiosity, I'd like to know what they are. Usually the trouble is that users don't all share the same curiosity, but it's possible that we need to make a change somehow. We also try to make sure that hard-paywalled articles don't appear on the front page, though that's gotten complicated because those publications work differently for different users.
  - curiouscats 7y ago
    Thanks, keep up the good work. I agree with the other user that mentioned it would be nice to have some indication of hard or soft blocks. I realize that wouldn't be easy, especially to be completely accurate with, but even if it was done for a subset of sites that often appear it would be a nice feature.
pkaye 7y ago
You can block JavaScript on a site basis and read it. There might be some multimedia you sometimes miss but its good if you just want to read the text.
woodandsteel 7y ago
I think HN should have a rule that if someone puts up a link that is behind a paywall, they should give some way to get around it. Like they should make the first comment a set of instructions, like disable JS or an alternative link.
- umanwizard 7y ago
  Or you could just ignore things you aren’t willing to pay for, instead of expecting to be able to steal them.
  - woodandsteel 7y ago
    The problem with that is I would have to subscribe to a hundred different publications, and a new one every few days. If I could buy a subscription that covered all online publications, and for a reasonable price, I would be quite happy. As it is I already have 5 print subscriptions.
- pseingatl 7y ago
  archive.fo You're welcome.

helpPeople 7y ago

I'm with you. Mods currate the front page, so everything I read here seems like an advertisement.

dang 7y ago
We curate the front page for interestingness (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Advertisement has nothing to do with it. If there's a class of articles you're seeing here consistently that you don't think gratifies intellectual curiosity, I'd like to know what they are. Usually the trouble is that users don't all share the same curiosity, but it's possible that we need to make a change somehow. We also try to make sure that hard-paywalled articles don't appear on the front page, though that's gotten complicated because those publications work differently for different users.
- curiouscats 7y ago
  Thanks, keep up the good work. I agree with the other user that mentioned it would be nice to have some indication of hard or soft blocks. I realize that wouldn't be easy, especially to be completely accurate with, but even if it was done for a subset of sites that often appear it would be a nice feature.

pkaye 7y ago

You can block JavaScript on a site basis and read it. There might be some multimedia you sometimes miss but its good if you just want to read the text.

woodandsteel 7y ago

I think HN should have a rule that if someone puts up a link that is behind a paywall, they should give some way to get around it. Like they should make the first comment a set of instructions, like disable JS or an alternative link.

umanwizard 7y ago
Or you could just ignore things you aren’t willing to pay for, instead of expecting to be able to steal them.
- woodandsteel 7y ago
  The problem with that is I would have to subscribe to a hundred different publications, and a new one every few days. If I could buy a subscription that covered all online publications, and for a reasonable price, I would be quite happy. As it is I already have 5 print subscriptions.
pseingatl 7y ago
archive.fo You're welcome.