4 ms·

Well, now I'm confused. Did I not understand this correctly?: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html It says it's

by Joe-Z 7y ago

Well, now I'm confused. Did I not understand this correctly?: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html It says it's okay to help other users to read an article and even to ask for links (under the point "Are paywalls ok?")

0xffff2 7y ago
The wording is inherently vague anyway, but I wasn't really commenting on the HN guidelines so much as legally and ethically. If someone posted a link to some non-free software and I "helped others" to use the software by posting a link to a torrent for the cracked version of the software I think most people would find that to be unacceptable. I'm struggling to figure out how this is any different.
- Joe-Z 7y ago
  I get your point. However, the flipside is how sensical it would be to share a link on a forum like this if most of the users can't see the content of it
  - tzs 7y ago
    If I'm at a party and I find a group of people discussing "Game of Thrones", I don't tell them to stop because I don't have an HBO subscription and so don't know enough to follow the discussion. I go find a different discussion that is about something I do know about. I don't see why it should be any different with discussions on a link sharing site like HN. Unlike with the GoT discussion at the party, I've found that the HN discussion of articles that I do not have easy access to (such as at The Economist or the Wall Street Journal) are usually interesting and informative even without having read the article. All that not reading the article usually means is that more caution is needed when commenting. If there is some topic I'm interested in, but find that I frequently can't enjoy the discussion here on that topic because of frequent posts of articles behind a particular paywall--then that's a pretty good sign that I should actually subscribe to that publication.
    - Joe-Z 7y ago
      I never told anyone to stop discussing anything, I was just pointing out an alternative view to 0xffff2's argument. I'm completely with you that only reading HN-comments can be very interesting too. That said, I'm glad HN-rules support non-paywall links. To use your logic: If you don't support them, don't use them.

by Joe-Z 7y ago

0xffff2 7y ago

The wording is inherently vague anyway, but I wasn't really commenting on the HN guidelines so much as legally and ethically. If someone posted a link to some non-free software and I "helped others" to use the software by posting a link to a torrent for the cracked version of the software I think most people would find that to be unacceptable. I'm struggling to figure out how this is any different.

Joe-Z 7y ago
I get your point. However, the flipside is how sensical it would be to share a link on a forum like this if most of the users can't see the content of it
- tzs 7y ago
  If I'm at a party and I find a group of people discussing "Game of Thrones", I don't tell them to stop because I don't have an HBO subscription and so don't know enough to follow the discussion. I go find a different discussion that is about something I do know about. I don't see why it should be any different with discussions on a link sharing site like HN. Unlike with the GoT discussion at the party, I've found that the HN discussion of articles that I do not have easy access to (such as at The Economist or the Wall Street Journal) are usually interesting and informative even without having read the article. All that not reading the article usually means is that more caution is needed when commenting. If there is some topic I'm interested in, but find that I frequently can't enjoy the discussion here on that topic because of frequent posts of articles behind a particular paywall--then that's a pretty good sign that I should actually subscribe to that publication.
  - Joe-Z 7y ago
    I never told anyone to stop discussing anything, I was just pointing out an alternative view to 0xffff2's argument. I'm completely with you that only reading HN-comments can be very interesting too. That said, I'm glad HN-rules support non-paywall links. To use your logic: If you don't support them, don't use them.