5 ms·

I know news sites making viewing a paid-for experience is relatively new, but it feels kind of wrong to bring closed source information onto HN. Regardless of q

by bArray 10y ago

I know news sites making viewing a paid-for experience is relatively new, but it feels kind of wrong to bring closed source information onto HN. Regardless of quality, it's generally frowned upon. This link could be replaced by the link below without sacrificing quality (it may actually be the original source too): http://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-smartphones-idUSKCN1161BL http://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-smartphones-i...

danso 10y ago
It's not new for the WSJ. They were one of the first major news orgs to impose a paywall, and it's one of the few success stories in the news industry.
- bArray 10y ago
  I know and in a general sense I agree with their decision to do it - it makes sense. I just don't think it's appropriate for HN. If you do pay to bypass a news wall, chances are you will only pay for one. If there's three hypothetical equal competitors, that'll limit the audience by a third.
  - taspeotis 10y ago
    Or just click the "web" link and read the article?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - bArray 10y ago
      All I get is "To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In". That's it. No other options. Maybe I could get around it, but it's a lot more hassle for the average reader than it's worth.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - gfosco 10y ago
        there's a "web" link at the top of this page, it google searches the title, which will get you what you want.
        david-given 10y ago
        To be fair, it's completely unobvious. (I'd have never have found it if someone hadn't pointed it out to me a while back.) Look in the menu of links just under the title, between 'past' and 'comments'.
        bArray 10y ago
        Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have thought it was another more formal way of accessing the link or something. Thanks for also pointing it out for me.
        kuschku 10y ago
        Only in some countries. For example, for me, I have to use a second workaround to actually get the article content.
        ars 10y ago
        That doesn't work for me, or for a lot of other people as well.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
JBiserkov 10y ago
Whenever you encounter a pay wall add a "? " (questionmark space) in front of the the URL (I do this by F6 Home) press enter and click the first result.
- fastball 10y ago
  Neat. So, uh, why does this work?
  - homero 10y ago
    It Googles it
  - JBiserkov 10y ago
    Because newspapers have to show the content to GoogleBot so people can find it; and Google has a policy that they shouldn't show you something different, so the pay wall is missing on this side of the house.
mattmanser 10y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic. Also, the "web" link under the story auto-googles the story title, which circumvents most paywalls.
- bArray 10y ago
  In general, thanks. Not sure how I feel about the default HN policy is not to complain about HN policy. I wasn't even aware that FAQ existed (not looked for it). It explains a number of other questions I've had about it's workings/policy.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - mattmanser 10y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. For future reference ;)
aembleton 10y ago
- Add refcontrol[1] for Firefox, or some alternative for Chrome. - RefControl > Options > Add Site - Enter site as www.wsj.com and Action as https://www.google.com https://www.google.com You can also use this trick for ft.com and probably a few other sites. 1. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/refcontrol/
- bArray 10y ago
  Okay, that's pretty neat! Thanks for that - hopefully it'll be around for a little while. Is it open to allow web crawlers?
- nacs 10y ago
  Thanks for the tip! Works for me on Chrome with "Referer Control" extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hnkcfpcejkafcihlgbojoidoihckciin?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hn...
whamlastxmas 10y ago
HN is really bad about this and I don't know why. My guess is that a small number of people are actually submitting and for whatever reason this circle uses WSJ a lot.

by bArray 10y ago

danso 10y ago

It's not new for the WSJ. They were one of the first major news orgs to impose a paywall, and it's one of the few success stories in the news industry.

bArray 10y ago
I know and in a general sense I agree with their decision to do it - it makes sense. I just don't think it's appropriate for HN. If you do pay to bypass a news wall, chances are you will only pay for one. If there's three hypothetical equal competitors, that'll limit the audience by a third.
- taspeotis 10y ago
  Or just click the "web" link and read the article?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - bArray 10y ago
    All I get is "To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In". That's it. No other options. Maybe I could get around it, but it's a lot more hassle for the average reader than it's worth.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - gfosco 10y ago
      there's a "web" link at the top of this page, it google searches the title, which will get you what you want.
      - david-given 10y ago
        To be fair, it's completely unobvious. (I'd have never have found it if someone hadn't pointed it out to me a while back.) Look in the menu of links just under the title, between 'past' and 'comments'.
        bArray 10y ago
        Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have thought it was another more formal way of accessing the link or something. Thanks for also pointing it out for me.
      - kuschku 10y ago
        Only in some countries. For example, for me, I have to use a second workaround to actually get the article content.
      - ars 10y ago
        That doesn't work for me, or for a lot of other people as well.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

JBiserkov 10y ago

Whenever you encounter a pay wall add a "? " (questionmark space) in front of the the URL (I do this by F6 Home) press enter and click the first result.

fastball 10y ago
Neat. So, uh, why does this work?
- homero 10y ago
  It Googles it
- JBiserkov 10y ago
  Because newspapers have to show the content to GoogleBot so people can find it; and Google has a policy that they shouldn't show you something different, so the pay wall is missing on this side of the house.

mattmanser 10y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic. Also, the "web" link under the story auto-googles the story title, which circumvents most paywalls.

bArray 10y ago
In general, thanks. Not sure how I feel about the default HN policy is not to complain about HN policy. I wasn't even aware that FAQ existed (not looked for it). It explains a number of other questions I've had about it's workings/policy.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- mattmanser 10y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. For future reference ;)

aembleton 10y ago

- Add refcontrol[1] for Firefox, or some alternative for Chrome. - RefControl > Options > Add Site - Enter site as www.wsj.com and Action as https://www.google.com https://www.google.com You can also use this trick for ft.com and probably a few other sites. 1. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/refcontrol/

bArray 10y ago
Okay, that's pretty neat! Thanks for that - hopefully it'll be around for a little while. Is it open to allow web crawlers?
nacs 10y ago
Thanks for the tip! Works for me on Chrome with "Referer Control" extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hnkcfpcejkafcihlgbojoidoihckciin?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hn...

whamlastxmas 10y ago

HN is really bad about this and I don't know why. My guess is that a small number of people are actually submitting and for whatever reason this circle uses WSJ a lot.