HN: Please Ban Partial Posts

3 pointsAzsy4y ago6 comments

Its has become a daily occurrence that posts aren't readable beyond the first two paragraphs, mostly due to JS & login requirements. I've been going along with "well its not that interesting", but just now i got two in a row.

I don't really see the use of visiting if this becomes the norm, and I imagine I'm not alone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-04/artificial-intelligence-ain-t-that-smart-look-at-tesla-facebook-healthcare

https://betterprogramming.pub/three-things-go-needs-right-now-more-than-generics-a6225d62f76b

I think HN specifically has a valuable audience, so the admins here can actually make a difference by holding content hosters to some standard.

HN: Please Ban Partial Posts

3 pointsAzsy4y ago6 comments

I don't really see the use of visiting if this becomes the norm, and I imagine I'm not alone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-04/artificial-intelligence-ain-t-that-smart-look-at-tesla-facebook-healthcare

https://betterprogramming.pub/three-things-go-needs-right-now-more-than-generics-a6225d62f76b

I think HN specifically has a valuable audience, so the admins here can actually make a difference by holding content hosters to some standard.

6 comments

6 comments · 6 top-level

MattGaiser4y ago

Open an Incognito tab.

h2odragon4y ago

Limited time paywall, for a site without ads, was one thing... in 1996.

Today's world, the "signup" with or without fee is just a nominal number they can wave for advertisers as metric for "see how much attention we command".

Newspapers and magazines used to call it "paid circulation" and it wasn't a very real number then, either.

"cypherpunks" still works some places.

pwg4y ago

For many of these posts, if you search for the URL on https://archive.is/ you will often find an archive copy is already available. And if so, the archive copy is most often the full article from behind the paywall.

sidibe4y ago

The only thing HN posters hate more than ads is paywalls

verdverm4y ago

See the FAQ "Are paywalls OK?"

Short answer is what you describe actually falls into acceptable content submission on HN

theGeatZhopa4y ago

I also raised that paywall issue in here a few weeks ago.

It produced a quite good feedback from "live with that or pay" to tips and costed me a few points - cancelling and hidden downvoting is en vogue.

There is mostly a way round such paywalls. One very good tip was to ask in the thread about how to read that article.

And yes. You are not alone. I really don't get how news aggregators could even allow such practice. Google news has become unusable because if this - for me 4 out of 10 is paywalled. I hate it.

I don't want to get everything for free. But it never was - and won't never be, as the consumer is the product.

But the practice is so mindless. The more paywalls, the less I'll visit that page. No matter if it's suddenly unwalled - I just minimize the risk for being lured to the article and hitting a paywall again.

Here you still have a possibility to ask a solution, which is good.

I think the usage terms of here are clearly saying, if it's paywalled, the poster must provide a solution in the comments. So. Any site posted with paywall, is misbehaving?

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