5 ms·

I have flagged this because it's paywalled. edit. unflagged, apparently that's against the rules (that I disgree with but will follow)

dang 11y ago
That's not an ok reason to flag something on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 Paywalls are not banned on HN, especially when there are standard workarounds.
- jkldotio 11y ago
  I wasn't aware of that rule and I've been on here for many years, it should perhaps be made more prominent. I also genuinely think it's wrong, people should be able to flag things which are inaccessible for them. To expand on that, what's the point in sharing a link where you have to pay or sign up to get access on a public link sharing site? As you can see from my other reply all I get is a sales pitch from the Economist. If someone shares an article I will read it and maybe upvote it. If someone shares what seems to be an article which isn't, it's actually a sales pitch for the Economist under another headline, then it's worse than blogspam, in my book at least. I run a news aggregator and I know for a fact there are a great many free alternatives to "NYT, New Yorker, Economist, WSJ" for both news and opinion, and that's just for the USA let alone the huge number of non-US sources. I don't particularly see why they should get a free pass when a smaller site would get blasted for having a paywall. I also have university access to academic journals that aren't public. They frequently contain very interesting things but I wouldn't post anything from them here because a large number of people would just get a paywall asking them for $30 to download the pdf. Thankfully more and more academic publications are going open, but a great many remain closed and they wouldn't be appropriate to share. But, if that doesn't persuade you, I will not flag paywalled sites now I've been informed of the rules (rules published in a comment 34 days ago).
  - dang 11y ago
    Oh, we agree about journal articles that aren't readable without paying an exorbitant fee. But the Economist, NYT, WSJ, New Yorker, etc. are accessible with minor inconvenience—not the same thing at all.
  - prawn 11y ago
    And if the content is inaccessible because of censorship within their country?
    - saryant 11y ago
      I think most people know if they're linking to paywalled content. Knowing what the Great Firewall is blocking today is not nearly as simple. I, for one, have no clue if The Economist is blocked in China or not.
- msutherl 11y ago
  Incognito window
brotoss 11y ago
Its not though...
- jkldotio 11y ago
  It is for me: http://i.imgur.com/Zq1gvgw.png http://i.imgur.com/Zq1gvgw.png
  - rory096 11y ago
    But even there you can just sign up with a fake email and see 3 free. It's a minor inconvenience, sure, but not that much of one.

dang 11y ago

That's not an ok reason to flag something on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 Paywalls are not banned on HN, especially when there are standard workarounds.

jkldotio 11y ago
I wasn't aware of that rule and I've been on here for many years, it should perhaps be made more prominent. I also genuinely think it's wrong, people should be able to flag things which are inaccessible for them. To expand on that, what's the point in sharing a link where you have to pay or sign up to get access on a public link sharing site? As you can see from my other reply all I get is a sales pitch from the Economist. If someone shares an article I will read it and maybe upvote it. If someone shares what seems to be an article which isn't, it's actually a sales pitch for the Economist under another headline, then it's worse than blogspam, in my book at least. I run a news aggregator and I know for a fact there are a great many free alternatives to "NYT, New Yorker, Economist, WSJ" for both news and opinion, and that's just for the USA let alone the huge number of non-US sources. I don't particularly see why they should get a free pass when a smaller site would get blasted for having a paywall. I also have university access to academic journals that aren't public. They frequently contain very interesting things but I wouldn't post anything from them here because a large number of people would just get a paywall asking them for $30 to download the pdf. Thankfully more and more academic publications are going open, but a great many remain closed and they wouldn't be appropriate to share. But, if that doesn't persuade you, I will not flag paywalled sites now I've been informed of the rules (rules published in a comment 34 days ago).
- dang 11y ago
  Oh, we agree about journal articles that aren't readable without paying an exorbitant fee. But the Economist, NYT, WSJ, New Yorker, etc. are accessible with minor inconvenience—not the same thing at all.
- prawn 11y ago
  And if the content is inaccessible because of censorship within their country?
  - saryant 11y ago
    I think most people know if they're linking to paywalled content. Knowing what the Great Firewall is blocking today is not nearly as simple. I, for one, have no clue if The Economist is blocked in China or not.
msutherl 11y ago
Incognito window

brotoss 11y ago

Its not though...

jkldotio 11y ago
It is for me: http://i.imgur.com/Zq1gvgw.png http://i.imgur.com/Zq1gvgw.png
- rory096 11y ago
  But even there you can just sign up with a fake email and see 3 free. It's a minor inconvenience, sure, but not that much of one.