I think that's fine. If as a content distributor, HN wants to ban all such links then that's completely acceptable. And if as a user, you want to blacklist any

I think that's fine. If as a content distributor, HN wants to ban all such links then that's completely acceptable. And if as a user, you want to blacklist any site that has that kind of experience, that's acceptable too. I'm not against choice or whatever principles people choose to adopt. What I don't understand is the sentiment that somehow every site must provide you the perfect user experience, high quality content, high production value and high quality research, all for nothing more than your time. I'm sorry but your measly few minutes isn't ultimately that valuable. Feel free to bounce from the site, you're not the intended customer. And if a site doesn't provide this magical experience for free then people start calling it "toxic", start calling for the execution of the designers, and a boycott of the product. I mostly see this sentiment on HN - and I bet it's the same group of people that want a decentralized social network... Also to your last point, while this particular site prompts you for an email, they let you finish reading without you giving them your email. It's just a prompt and as a site, it's not even one of the worse offenders of this practice. It's quite tame and the rest of the reading experience is super clean.