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Folks, there is a good reason this is a subscriber-only content. It takes time and effort (and money!) to keep us up to date. For such a long time. This is the

Folks, there is a good reason this is a subscriber-only content. It takes time and effort (and money!) to keep us up to date. For such a long time. This is the 5'th SubscriberLink over the last week on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=lwn.net%2FSubscriberLink&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Please, folks, subscribe, and let Corbet put the subscriber links here himself. The LWN weekly editions are definitely worth every penny. Edit: I am paying LWN since 2012 and intend to keep paying for as long as there is LWN.

smcl 4y ago
Is "SubscriberLink" a way to share paywalled LWN stuff with non-subscribers? Damn, I had no idea. I just presumed they un-paywalled stuff every now and again (like after N days or so).
- gnastygnorc 4y ago
  I believe all paywalled content becomes free to read two weeks after initial publication
  - smcl 4y ago
    Ah ok. I should still probably sub, I tend to read LWN when it pops up here and never really gave it a moments thought before :O
    - _wolfie_ 4y ago
      In my humble opinion it is definitely worth it. All people over at LWN do tremendous job and should really be supported.
      - steveklabnik 4y ago
        I haven’t even used Linux for a few years now. Still pay for LWN. It’s so worth supporting.
    - sophacles 4y ago
      I can honestly say the resources at LWN have helped my career immensely. The in depth series on topics like namespaces and io_uring directly allowed me to tackle some hard projects - without those articles I would have steered clear of "magic i don't understand" and the relevant projects would have suffered. It's definitely worth subscribing if you have the means (and the low cost of subscriptions suggests a lot of readers here have the means).
      - couchand 4y ago
        I'd agree that often with new features and subsytems recent LWN articles are the best documentation around.
    - wufocaculura 4y ago
      Highly recommend. Just to show support for corbet and his team. He could keep the articles paywalled forever, but is making them free after a week. Becoming a paying member is our way to say thank you for his fair attitude (and keeping ads at minimum level). I work at totaly different field in IT, most articles are just "wow, that's interesting" for me and - I still keep LWN's subscriptionm and it is the only one I have.
  - thejammahimself 4y ago
    Indeed. They even provide a mailing list you can subscribe to which will notify you whenever an article goes free. I think you need to have an account with them firstly though.
  - jwilk 4y ago
    It's (usually?) less than that. https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn > Must I subscribe to read the Weekly Edition? > No, the Weekly Edition becomes freely available to all readers one week after its publication.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- voxadam 4y ago
  > I just presumed they un-paywalled stuff every now and again (like after N days or so). All of LWN's paywalled articles become free for everyone to view after a week. During the week that articles are paywalled any subscriber can share currently paywalled content by creating a SubscriberLink. LWN produces some of the best highly technical Linux and Linux adjacent content on the web.
jbirer 4y ago
Hacker News is not the place to post paywalled content, whether you believe the reasons are valid or not.
- Aissen 4y ago
  Rules are a bit more subtle: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html (see: "Are paywalls ok?")
  - davidatbu 4y ago
    In fact, the only thing the rules call out as not ok with regards to pay walls is complaining about them.
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      ... or posting paywalled links that don't have work-arounds.
- wartijn_ 4y ago
  It is according to the faq[0] --- Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic. More here. --- [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
  - o_1 4y ago
    i really hope substack takes off, the strategy behind pay content is much more responsible than javascript "walls"
- cycomanic 4y ago
  It should be pointed out that Corbet himself has come out in support of subscriber links posted here and at other places. That's why they provided that capability. That said it shouldn't be abused and I suspect if it ends up becoming too much they might remove that ability. I agree with one of the other posters, we should support quality journalism, and lwn definitely is.
Bancakes 4y ago
If LWN disappears tomorrow, I'll get my news elsewhere. Thank you for your concerns.
- sophacles 4y ago
  Where else do you get in depth kernel reporting?
  - Bancakes 4y ago
    Like the other poster said, in the source code.
    - sophacles 4y ago
      That's not reporting.
- penguin_booze 4y ago
  I recommend browsing their index pages, and pause and ponder where else you'd find such high quality, curated, approachable content, in such concentration. You could suggest the kernel's own documentation, but that's more developer-facing.
jabiko 4y ago
> This is the 5'th SubscriberLink over the last week on HN Its the first post to gain any meaningful traction > Please, folks, subscribe, and let Corbet put the subscriber links here himself. The LWN weekly editions are definitely worth every penny. According to corbet its totally fine if every now and then a subscriber link pops up on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1966033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1966033 > As long as the posting of subscriber links in places like this is occasional, I believe it serves as good marketing for LWN - indeed, every now and then, I even do it myself. We just hope that people realize that we run nine feature articles every week, all of which are instantly accessible to LWN subscribers. The LWN FAQ also considers it no problem: https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn#slinks https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn#slinks > Where is it appropriate to post a subscriber link? > Almost anywhere. Private mail, messages to project mailing lists, and blog entries are all appropriate. As long as people do not use subscriber links as a way to defeat our attempts to gain subscribers, we are happy to see them shared. I think posting this on HN does not defeat the purpose of gaining subscribers, but supports them. At least for me it worked. After reading some LWN articles on HN I decided to become a paying subscriber. Telling people they are not allowed to post such links here actually IMHO hurts LWN.
- capitol_ 4y ago
  But they didn't tell them that its not allowed, they just encouraged people to subscribe to this excellent publication.
  - yencabulator 4y ago
    "and let Corbet put the subscriber links here himself"
- jwilk 4y ago
  Another, more recent statement from corbet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31852477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31852477
mccorrinall 4y ago
I only found out about LEB via links shared on HN. I haven’t subscribed yet but will consider it once I landed a job. I don’t think that sharing their most interesting articles is hurting them, more like the opposite.
mhss 4y ago
Thanks for the reminder. I was a subscriber for a few years and then I stopped when I hit a long time crunch with no time to read much news. I just subscribed now that I feel I have some leisure time again for this and HN in general.
yarg 4y ago
If they wanted to keep it subscriber only, they could achieve that by requiring users to be logged in. It's clear that the intention is to allow for sharing (although there is the question of "at what scale?"). Then there's the page itself: > Welcome to LWN.net > The following subscription-only content has been made available to you by an LWN subscriber. Thousands of subscribers depend on LWN for the best news from the Linux and free software communities. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to LWN. Thank you for visiting LWN.net! The people who run the site seem to have less of a problem with sharing its content than you do.

smcl 4y ago

Is "SubscriberLink" a way to share paywalled LWN stuff with non-subscribers? Damn, I had no idea. I just presumed they un-paywalled stuff every now and again (like after N days or so).

gnastygnorc 4y ago
I believe all paywalled content becomes free to read two weeks after initial publication
- smcl 4y ago
  Ah ok. I should still probably sub, I tend to read LWN when it pops up here and never really gave it a moments thought before :O
  - _wolfie_ 4y ago
    In my humble opinion it is definitely worth it. All people over at LWN do tremendous job and should really be supported.
    - steveklabnik 4y ago
      I haven’t even used Linux for a few years now. Still pay for LWN. It’s so worth supporting.
  - sophacles 4y ago
    I can honestly say the resources at LWN have helped my career immensely. The in depth series on topics like namespaces and io_uring directly allowed me to tackle some hard projects - without those articles I would have steered clear of "magic i don't understand" and the relevant projects would have suffered. It's definitely worth subscribing if you have the means (and the low cost of subscriptions suggests a lot of readers here have the means).
    - couchand 4y ago
      I'd agree that often with new features and subsytems recent LWN articles are the best documentation around.
  - wufocaculura 4y ago
    Highly recommend. Just to show support for corbet and his team. He could keep the articles paywalled forever, but is making them free after a week. Becoming a paying member is our way to say thank you for his fair attitude (and keeping ads at minimum level). I work at totaly different field in IT, most articles are just "wow, that's interesting" for me and - I still keep LWN's subscriptionm and it is the only one I have.
- thejammahimself 4y ago
  Indeed. They even provide a mailing list you can subscribe to which will notify you whenever an article goes free. I think you need to have an account with them firstly though.
- jwilk 4y ago
  It's (usually?) less than that. https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn > Must I subscribe to read the Weekly Edition? > No, the Weekly Edition becomes freely available to all readers one week after its publication.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
voxadam 4y ago
> I just presumed they un-paywalled stuff every now and again (like after N days or so). All of LWN's paywalled articles become free for everyone to view after a week. During the week that articles are paywalled any subscriber can share currently paywalled content by creating a SubscriberLink. LWN produces some of the best highly technical Linux and Linux adjacent content on the web.

jbirer 4y ago

Hacker News is not the place to post paywalled content, whether you believe the reasons are valid or not.

Aissen 4y ago
Rules are a bit more subtle: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html (see: "Are paywalls ok?")
- davidatbu 4y ago
  In fact, the only thing the rules call out as not ok with regards to pay walls is complaining about them.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    ... or posting paywalled links that don't have work-arounds.
wartijn_ 4y ago
It is according to the faq[0] --- Are paywalls ok? It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic. More here. --- [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
- o_1 4y ago
  i really hope substack takes off, the strategy behind pay content is much more responsible than javascript "walls"
cycomanic 4y ago
It should be pointed out that Corbet himself has come out in support of subscriber links posted here and at other places. That's why they provided that capability. That said it shouldn't be abused and I suspect if it ends up becoming too much they might remove that ability. I agree with one of the other posters, we should support quality journalism, and lwn definitely is.

Bancakes 4y ago

If LWN disappears tomorrow, I'll get my news elsewhere. Thank you for your concerns.

sophacles 4y ago
Where else do you get in depth kernel reporting?
- Bancakes 4y ago
  Like the other poster said, in the source code.
  - sophacles 4y ago
    That's not reporting.
penguin_booze 4y ago
I recommend browsing their index pages, and pause and ponder where else you'd find such high quality, curated, approachable content, in such concentration. You could suggest the kernel's own documentation, but that's more developer-facing.

jabiko 4y ago

> This is the 5'th SubscriberLink over the last week on HN Its the first post to gain any meaningful traction > Please, folks, subscribe, and let Corbet put the subscriber links here himself. The LWN weekly editions are definitely worth every penny. According to corbet its totally fine if every now and then a subscriber link pops up on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1966033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1966033 > As long as the posting of subscriber links in places like this is occasional, I believe it serves as good marketing for LWN - indeed, every now and then, I even do it myself. We just hope that people realize that we run nine feature articles every week, all of which are instantly accessible to LWN subscribers. The LWN FAQ also considers it no problem: https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn#slinks https://lwn.net/op/FAQ.lwn#slinks > Where is it appropriate to post a subscriber link? > Almost anywhere. Private mail, messages to project mailing lists, and blog entries are all appropriate. As long as people do not use subscriber links as a way to defeat our attempts to gain subscribers, we are happy to see them shared. I think posting this on HN does not defeat the purpose of gaining subscribers, but supports them. At least for me it worked. After reading some LWN articles on HN I decided to become a paying subscriber. Telling people they are not allowed to post such links here actually IMHO hurts LWN.

capitol_ 4y ago
But they didn't tell them that its not allowed, they just encouraged people to subscribe to this excellent publication.
- yencabulator 4y ago
  "and let Corbet put the subscriber links here himself"
jwilk 4y ago
Another, more recent statement from corbet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31852477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31852477

mccorrinall 4y ago

I only found out about LEB via links shared on HN. I haven’t subscribed yet but will consider it once I landed a job. I don’t think that sharing their most interesting articles is hurting them, more like the opposite.

mhss 4y ago

Thanks for the reminder. I was a subscriber for a few years and then I stopped when I hit a long time crunch with no time to read much news. I just subscribed now that I feel I have some leisure time again for this and HN in general.

yarg 4y ago

If they wanted to keep it subscriber only, they could achieve that by requiring users to be logged in. It's clear that the intention is to allow for sharing (although there is the question of "at what scale?"). Then there's the page itself: > Welcome to LWN.net > The following subscription-only content has been made available to you by an LWN subscriber. Thousands of subscribers depend on LWN for the best news from the Linux and free software communities. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to LWN. Thank you for visiting LWN.net! The people who run the site seem to have less of a problem with sharing its content than you do.