6 ms·

Paywalled. > To Read the Full Story > Subscribe > Sign In

by llao 9y ago

shawabawa3 9y ago
This should get around the paywall https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-man-whos-spent-70-000-playing-a-mobile-game-1521107255&ved=0ahUKEwiG9crinP3ZAhUIBMAKHa9CDOsQFggnMAA https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https...
fwdpropaganda 9y ago
Firefox add-on that fakes the referrer when accessing the WSJ and the FT in order to remove the paywall. Five lines of code. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-wsj/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-wsj/
- 1024core 9y ago
  I don't like downloading random extensions, and Mozilla makes it hard to view the source of this extension. What's the trick to avoiding the paywall? Use Facebook as a referer?
  - fwdpropaganda 9y ago
    Correct. If domain is WSJ or FT, set referer="facebook.com". That's it. EDIT: BTW in case you don't know, Firefox add-on extension .xpi is actually just a zip in disguise. Rename it to .zip and open it as normal. You can then investigate the source. But I agree that it would be neat if the addons.mozilla.org allowed to see this directly on their page. Although on the other hand, this loses usefulness for larger addons.
    - spapas82 9y ago
      Can you explain why there's no paywall when the referer is facebook? (I don't use facebook)
      - grzm 9y ago
        Because WSJ (and other sites) filter access based on the referer header. They've made a business decision to allow access to people following links from Facebook, likely in the hopes that the readers will find the article useful and be more inclined to subscribe. They also benefit from the views such links generate.
      - fwdpropaganda 9y ago
        Facebook de-ranks publishers that have paywalls. Since these publishers want Facebook traffic, they don't show paywalls for people that come from Facebook. One way to implement this is by looking at the referer.
    - 1024core 9y ago
      But Mozilla doesn't let me download the files directly. I copied the XPI link and tried to download it with curl, but got an empty file.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dang 9y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html People usually post workarounds. There's one elsewhere in the thread.

Paywalled. > To Read the Full Story > Subscribe > Sign In

by llao 9y ago

Paywalled. > To Read the Full Story > Subscribe > Sign In

This should get around the paywall https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-man-whos-spent-70-000-playing-a-mobile-game-1521107255&ved=0ahUKEwiG9crinP3ZAhUIBMAKHa9CDOsQFggnMAA https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https...

fwdpropaganda 9y ago

Firefox add-on that fakes the referrer when accessing the WSJ and the FT in order to remove the paywall. Five lines of code. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-wsj/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-ft-wsj/

1024core 9y ago
I don't like downloading random extensions, and Mozilla makes it hard to view the source of this extension. What's the trick to avoiding the paywall? Use Facebook as a referer?
- fwdpropaganda 9y ago
  Correct. If domain is WSJ or FT, set referer="facebook.com". That's it. EDIT: BTW in case you don't know, Firefox add-on extension .xpi is actually just a zip in disguise. Rename it to .zip and open it as normal. You can then investigate the source. But I agree that it would be neat if the addons.mozilla.org allowed to see this directly on their page. Although on the other hand, this loses usefulness for larger addons.
  - spapas82 9y ago
    Can you explain why there's no paywall when the referer is facebook? (I don't use facebook)
    - grzm 9y ago
      Because WSJ (and other sites) filter access based on the referer header. They've made a business decision to allow access to people following links from Facebook, likely in the hopes that the readers will find the article useful and be more inclined to subscribe. They also benefit from the views such links generate.
    - fwdpropaganda 9y ago
      Facebook de-ranks publishers that have paywalls. Since these publishers want Facebook traffic, they don't show paywalls for people that come from Facebook. One way to implement this is by looking at the referer.
  - 1024core 9y ago
    But Mozilla doesn't let me download the files directly. I copied the XPI link and tried to download it with curl, but got an empty file.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dang 9y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html People usually post workarounds. There's one elsewhere in the thread.