4 ms·

So you all have a subscription to theinformation.com? Wow. I can't just buy a subscription for every random "news" site that appears on hacker news.

ravenstine 7y ago
I don't get why news sites don't have a "coin slot" where I can insert a few quarters if I like an article and get a pass to read that day's edition.
- arcturus17 7y ago
  I've encountered exactly that feature multiple times and I've never used it because god knows I'm not creating an account to give a site 0.99 and read an article. Friction. Maybe if someone did it as a layer on top of news sites (like Google/FB login)... Maybe ...
  - petecox 7y ago
    Sounds like a business opportunity for the Brave browser. This article requires x BAT to access. Unlock? Y/N
  - ravenstine 7y ago
    > god knows I'm not creating an account to give a site 0.99 Who says you have to create a new account on every site? A cookie set after the payment processor has completed is all you need.
    - majewsky 7y ago
      That will create a ton of angry customers who had their cookies auto-deleted e.g. because of Incognito. Support costs will outweigh the few pennies earned. Especially with a tech-ninded crowd, relying on the persistence of cookies is completely unworkable because of the large percentage of users with extensions that block or wipe cookies eagerly.
- vincengomes 7y ago
  That will lead to every news headline to be clickbaity to grab your coins
  - ravenstine 7y ago
    As opposed to ads and BAT, which are facilitated whether or not an article turns out to be click bait? "Coins" would be a manual process. If something is clickbaity, then you don't have to insert a coin.
mattlondon 7y ago
No subscription there, but the full article is available without a paywall. Guessing there is some geo-thing or A/B test going on.
- EpicEng 7y ago
  The entire site is paywalled, but they unlock some articles specifically for HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21839936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21839936

ravenstine 7y ago

I don't get why news sites don't have a "coin slot" where I can insert a few quarters if I like an article and get a pass to read that day's edition.

arcturus17 7y ago
I've encountered exactly that feature multiple times and I've never used it because god knows I'm not creating an account to give a site 0.99 and read an article. Friction. Maybe if someone did it as a layer on top of news sites (like Google/FB login)... Maybe ...
- petecox 7y ago
  Sounds like a business opportunity for the Brave browser. This article requires x BAT to access. Unlock? Y/N
- ravenstine 7y ago
  > god knows I'm not creating an account to give a site 0.99 Who says you have to create a new account on every site? A cookie set after the payment processor has completed is all you need.
  - majewsky 7y ago
    That will create a ton of angry customers who had their cookies auto-deleted e.g. because of Incognito. Support costs will outweigh the few pennies earned. Especially with a tech-ninded crowd, relying on the persistence of cookies is completely unworkable because of the large percentage of users with extensions that block or wipe cookies eagerly.
vincengomes 7y ago
That will lead to every news headline to be clickbaity to grab your coins
- ravenstine 7y ago
  As opposed to ads and BAT, which are facilitated whether or not an article turns out to be click bait? "Coins" would be a manual process. If something is clickbaity, then you don't have to insert a coin.

mattlondon 7y ago

No subscription there, but the full article is available without a paywall. Guessing there is some geo-thing or A/B test going on.

EpicEng 7y ago
The entire site is paywalled, but they unlock some articles specifically for HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21839936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21839936