3 ms·

Interesting. They had a major refactor of their paywall in August 2019. Maybe that turns people off to posting content that isn’t unique to the NYT. Or maybe pa

Interesting. They had a major refactor of their paywall in August 2019. Maybe that turns people off to posting content that isn’t unique to the NYT. Or maybe paywalled articles are less likely to make the HN front page (?). https://open.nytimes.com/we-re-launched-the-new-york-times-paywall-and-no-one-noticed-5cd1f795f76b https://open.nytimes.com/we-re-launched-the-new-york-times-p...

dredmorbius 3y ago
Drilling in on my data by month, it looks as if July or August, 2019, was the switch-over, with another big hit in Dec 2019 / Jan 2020: 2018-1 ************************************************************************* 2018-2 ************************************************************ 2018-3 ********************************************** 2018-4 ********************************************************************* 2018-5 *********************************************************************** 2018-6 ******************************************************************* 2018-7 **************************************** 2018-8 ******************************************** 2018-9 **************************************************************** 2018-10 ************************************************* 2018-11 ***************************************************** 2018-12 **************************************************************** 2019-1 ************************************************ 2019-2 ************************************************* 2019-3 ************************************************ 2019-4 ******************************************************************* 2019-5 ******************************************************************* 2019-6 ***************************************************************** 2019-7 ****************************** 2019-8 ****************************************** 2019-9 ************************************************ 2019-10 ******************************************** 2019-11 *********************************** 2019-12 ******************************** 2020-1 ************ 2020-2 ************ 2020-3 ***************** 2020-4 ************ 2020-5 ******* 2020-6 ******* 2020-7 ************ 2020-8 ************ 2020-9 ******* 2020-10 ******************* 2020-11 ******** 2020-12 ***************** (July seems to be an annual slump in HN -- NYT submissions for some reason, which confounds analysis somewhat.) (Apologies to mobile readers ;-)
denton-scratch 3y ago
I for one won't upvote a paywalled article.
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  That's one hypothesis I'm considering. It'd be interesting to, say, look at a number of sites which have gone paywall and see how that impact on HN front-page posts. Off the top of my head, some of those would be: - NYTimes - WSJ - Quora - WaPo - LA Times If anyone has a handy list, especially with dates, I'd appreciate it. Here's the top 40 "general news" sites with barplots by year. I know that NYT, WSJ, WaPo, LA Times, telegraph.co.uk, and possibly a few others have paywalls and may have implemented them over this period. Pastebin to spare readers here another monster text post, expires in a month: <https://pastebin.com/raw/nmNXyE8G https://pastebin.com/raw/nmNXyE8G>
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    Paywall dates: - NY Times: ~August 2019 - BBC: none - The Guardian: none - Washington Post: June 2013. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5829206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5829206> HN traffic actually rose. Tightened markedly in 2018: <https://web.archive.org/web/20171213135245/https://reason.com/volokh https://web.archive.org/web/20171213135245/https://reason.co...> - Reuters: April 2021 <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26820053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26820053> - NPR: none - CNN: none - Slate: 2015 (International readers) <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821492> - Vice: none? - LA TImes: Paywalled, 2012. <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-times-paywall_n_1299997 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-times-paywall_n_1299997> - CNet: none - Yahoo: none - SFGate: 2015 <https://old.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/2sj78h/death_spiral_sfgate_now_behind_paywall/ https://old.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/2sj78h/death_spira...> - cbc.ca: none - CNBC: none - guardian.co.uk: none - vox.com: none (though discussed) - salon.com: none? Mixed bag on impacts, though I suspect paywalls going up or tightening has a lot to do with FP story trends.

dredmorbius 3y ago

Drilling in on my data by month, it looks as if July or August, 2019, was the switch-over, with another big hit in Dec 2019 / Jan 2020: 2018-1 ************************************************************************* 2018-2 ************************************************************ 2018-3 ********************************************** 2018-4 ********************************************************************* 2018-5 *********************************************************************** 2018-6 ******************************************************************* 2018-7 **************************************** 2018-8 ******************************************** 2018-9 **************************************************************** 2018-10 ************************************************* 2018-11 ***************************************************** 2018-12 **************************************************************** 2019-1 ************************************************ 2019-2 ************************************************* 2019-3 ************************************************ 2019-4 ******************************************************************* 2019-5 ******************************************************************* 2019-6 ***************************************************************** 2019-7 ****************************** 2019-8 ****************************************** 2019-9 ************************************************ 2019-10 ******************************************** 2019-11 *********************************** 2019-12 ******************************** 2020-1 ************ 2020-2 ************ 2020-3 ***************** 2020-4 ************ 2020-5 ******* 2020-6 ******* 2020-7 ************ 2020-8 ************ 2020-9 ******* 2020-10 ******************* 2020-11 ******** 2020-12 ***************** (July seems to be an annual slump in HN -- NYT submissions for some reason, which confounds analysis somewhat.) (Apologies to mobile readers ;-)

denton-scratch 3y ago

I for one won't upvote a paywalled article.

dredmorbius 3y ago
That's one hypothesis I'm considering. It'd be interesting to, say, look at a number of sites which have gone paywall and see how that impact on HN front-page posts. Off the top of my head, some of those would be: - NYTimes - WSJ - Quora - WaPo - LA Times If anyone has a handy list, especially with dates, I'd appreciate it. Here's the top 40 "general news" sites with barplots by year. I know that NYT, WSJ, WaPo, LA Times, telegraph.co.uk, and possibly a few others have paywalls and may have implemented them over this period. Pastebin to spare readers here another monster text post, expires in a month: <https://pastebin.com/raw/nmNXyE8G https://pastebin.com/raw/nmNXyE8G>
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  Paywall dates: - NY Times: ~August 2019 - BBC: none - The Guardian: none - Washington Post: June 2013. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5829206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5829206> HN traffic actually rose. Tightened markedly in 2018: <https://web.archive.org/web/20171213135245/https://reason.com/volokh https://web.archive.org/web/20171213135245/https://reason.co...> - Reuters: April 2021 <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26820053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26820053> - NPR: none - CNN: none - Slate: 2015 (International readers) <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821492> - Vice: none? - LA TImes: Paywalled, 2012. <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-times-paywall_n_1299997 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-times-paywall_n_1299997> - CNet: none - Yahoo: none - SFGate: 2015 <https://old.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/2sj78h/death_spiral_sfgate_now_behind_paywall/ https://old.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/2sj78h/death_spira...> - cbc.ca: none - CNBC: none - guardian.co.uk: none - vox.com: none (though discussed) - salon.com: none? Mixed bag on impacts, though I suspect paywalls going up or tightening has a lot to do with FP story trends.