5 ms·

Bless you people. I am amazed at how many pay-walled articles are posted on HN. Are most people here really well off enough that they can afford the dozens of s

Bless you people. I am amazed at how many pay-walled articles are posted on HN. Are most people here really well off enough that they can afford the dozens of subscriptions that are often linked to here?

xyst 6y ago
There are some services that allow you to subscribe to a single service for ~$10 per month and you get access to a wide range of national papers like the WSJ.
- gime_tree_fiddy 6y ago
  What is this service you are talking about?
  - gnicholas 6y ago
    Sounds like Apple News. I am not a subscriber but this is what I understand the offering to be with regard to the WSJ. I think it is not comprehensive, but it includes a good deal of WSJ content. I think it can also be purchased even more cheaply as part of Apple's recently announced bundles.
  - xyst 6y ago
    apple news
  - BlueTemplar 6y ago
    My ISP has/used to have one, and it was even given for free for some months. I would have preferred that they didn't, as this can easily turn into a conflict of interest.
- cocoa19 6y ago
  Huh, I don't have an iPhone but the offer sounds very good. I pay much more than $10 for only WSJ subscription. Sounds like I'm getting the shaft.
acd 6y ago
Different countries have different purchase power so subscriptions may be different expensive depending where you live. That said, paying for news is essential for our democracy. Paying for news allows news sites to pay journalist to research and write news stories. If we do not pay for news, news has to be financed through online advertising which is basically selling personal data for profit. Without paying revenue local news sites cannot afford to hire journalist. If there is not local journalist, there will not be controls, checks and writings on what elected officials do. Local news papers feed national news feed with articles and national news. So its essential for our democracy that we are willing to pay for news services which pays journalists.
- dleslie 6y ago
  Part of that concept is the implied outcome that once media is paid for by readers it will no longer engage in undesirable practices for revenue, like advertorials and shock content; but this is somewhat of a myth. Those shady practices were common before the Internet, and they'll be common even if media returns to a subscription service model. What you need is a well-funded, and non-profit public news media. It's not without its faults, but it certainly shines where private news media consistently fails to.
  - BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Hmm, any examples of journalist-owned media engaging in such practices? I can think of at least 6 of them who don't (and don't have ads either).
    - dleslie 6y ago
      I'd give examples of independent journalists, particularly vloggers, who produce shock content of questionable merit, or who regularly publish promoted content; but I think you can identify them yourself.
      - BlueTemplar 6y ago
        Right, I didn't think about individuals... though b/vloggers that aren't already journalists generally don't have the pretension of following journalistic norms ?
mhh__ 6y ago
Simpler explanation: People don't read the article. Why do you think people complain about titles so much even though they really don't matter
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  The worst issue with this is that titles are generally picked by different people than those writing the article, and are sometimes only tangentially related to its content.
  - dnissley 6y ago
    On the other hand: Most articles are pretty fluffy and don't bring much to the table, and so are just an invitation to discuss the topic at hand in the comments at what is usually a far greater depth than the original story.
    - c22 6y ago
      Yeah, I often don't feel the need to click the link after reading the comments, but sometimes I do and I am frequently disappointed to find only a few paragraphs of content or a superficial introduction to the subject.
DyslexicAtheist 6y ago
if you are using firefox then there is a great extension here which gets rid of many paywalls. works like a charm https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome
- phs318u 6y ago
  Another very useful add-on is Unpaywall which searches for free reprints of paywalled scholarly papers. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unpaywall https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unpaywall
godelski 6y ago
Generally I don't get locked out of articles. The combination of uBlock, privacy badger, and auto deleting cookies seems to take care of 99% of cases. The rest are handled by outline.com and archive. But I'll be honest in those cases I'll read the comments first to see if it's worth reading.
every 6y ago
I keep trimread[1] bookmarked. I works on most paywalled sites... [1] https://beta.trimread.com/ https://beta.trimread.com/
Viliam1234 6y ago
It's like the often-proposed micropayments, except without the "micro".

xyst 6y ago

There are some services that allow you to subscribe to a single service for ~$10 per month and you get access to a wide range of national papers like the WSJ.

gime_tree_fiddy 6y ago
What is this service you are talking about?
- gnicholas 6y ago
  Sounds like Apple News. I am not a subscriber but this is what I understand the offering to be with regard to the WSJ. I think it is not comprehensive, but it includes a good deal of WSJ content. I think it can also be purchased even more cheaply as part of Apple's recently announced bundles.
- xyst 6y ago
  apple news
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  My ISP has/used to have one, and it was even given for free for some months. I would have preferred that they didn't, as this can easily turn into a conflict of interest.
cocoa19 6y ago
Huh, I don't have an iPhone but the offer sounds very good. I pay much more than $10 for only WSJ subscription. Sounds like I'm getting the shaft.

acd 6y ago

Different countries have different purchase power so subscriptions may be different expensive depending where you live. That said, paying for news is essential for our democracy. Paying for news allows news sites to pay journalist to research and write news stories. If we do not pay for news, news has to be financed through online advertising which is basically selling personal data for profit. Without paying revenue local news sites cannot afford to hire journalist. If there is not local journalist, there will not be controls, checks and writings on what elected officials do. Local news papers feed national news feed with articles and national news. So its essential for our democracy that we are willing to pay for news services which pays journalists.

dleslie 6y ago
Part of that concept is the implied outcome that once media is paid for by readers it will no longer engage in undesirable practices for revenue, like advertorials and shock content; but this is somewhat of a myth. Those shady practices were common before the Internet, and they'll be common even if media returns to a subscription service model. What you need is a well-funded, and non-profit public news media. It's not without its faults, but it certainly shines where private news media consistently fails to.
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  Hmm, any examples of journalist-owned media engaging in such practices? I can think of at least 6 of them who don't (and don't have ads either).
  - dleslie 6y ago
    I'd give examples of independent journalists, particularly vloggers, who produce shock content of questionable merit, or who regularly publish promoted content; but I think you can identify them yourself.
    - BlueTemplar 6y ago
      Right, I didn't think about individuals... though b/vloggers that aren't already journalists generally don't have the pretension of following journalistic norms ?

mhh__ 6y ago

Simpler explanation: People don't read the article. Why do you think people complain about titles so much even though they really don't matter

BlueTemplar 6y ago
The worst issue with this is that titles are generally picked by different people than those writing the article, and are sometimes only tangentially related to its content.
- dnissley 6y ago
  On the other hand: Most articles are pretty fluffy and don't bring much to the table, and so are just an invitation to discuss the topic at hand in the comments at what is usually a far greater depth than the original story.
  - c22 6y ago
    Yeah, I often don't feel the need to click the link after reading the comments, but sometimes I do and I am frequently disappointed to find only a few paragraphs of content or a superficial introduction to the subject.

DyslexicAtheist 6y ago

if you are using firefox then there is a great extension here which gets rid of many paywalls. works like a charm https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

phs318u 6y ago
Another very useful add-on is Unpaywall which searches for free reprints of paywalled scholarly papers. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unpaywall https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unpaywall

godelski 6y ago

Generally I don't get locked out of articles. The combination of uBlock, privacy badger, and auto deleting cookies seems to take care of 99% of cases. The rest are handled by outline.com and archive. But I'll be honest in those cases I'll read the comments first to see if it's worth reading.

every 6y ago

I keep trimread[1] bookmarked. I works on most paywalled sites... [1] https://beta.trimread.com/ https://beta.trimread.com/

Viliam1234 6y ago

It's like the often-proposed micropayments, except without the "micro".