The link did not say "we're going to waste a couple minutes of your time to trick you into becoming invested and not beable to finish the story unless you give

The link did not say "we're going to waste a couple minutes of your time to trick you into becoming invested and not beable to finish the story unless you give us your email." At least be honest about the situation up front. There was no hint that we would have some portion of the content locked without signing up until i got to the blurred out part. This is somewhat toxic. At least it's not ad driven, too.