cont4gious

Recently there have been several HN links on the main page to stories behind paywalls. I am a college student, and can neither afford nor have the desire to pay for that content as I can find my news and content for free elsewhere.

This becomes a problem when several highly-ranked stories on the HN are links to sites I assume are behind paywalls, so I simply don't click on stories with from those domains. This is a sad state of affairs.

I realize that because they are charging for access to their stories they can probably create more and better content, but I will never be able to read them because, alas, I cannot access them, and I'm sure that there are a large number of people here in the same situation. Therefore, those stories do us no good because we cannot read them. If at all possible, find another source of the story (when possible) or find a free alternative to the content (also where possible). Perhaps if neither of those things exist, the story must go unshared.

So I ask you, the HN community and the admins here to not allow stories behind paywalls to get to the main page.

usablehealth.com is my startup that I've been working on for the past year or so. We're funded through research grants from Georgia Tech. We've also partnered with restaurants, gyms, and self-insured employers and health systems. Our first official launch is Aug 9, with our second Sept 1.

Our algorithm uses some key metrics about you (age, height, weight, activity level) to give you the optimal meals from your favorite restaurants that will help you achieve your health goals. We also allow you to choose a starting meal, and then swap that meal out for something healthier. These recommendations are something we call "Health-Based Meal Swaps". We are trying to become the Netflix or Amazon of meal recommendations.

I want to give the HN community a preview before we launch. You can do this two ways, by going to http://usablehealth.com and clicking on 'Sign up for free' with the promo code 'hackernews' or you can sign in right away with a generic profile with username 'hacker' password 'news1'. This promo code and test user will be removed at the end of this week.

We would love your feedback about anything on the site. There is a 'Feedback' tab on the right of every page after you sign in, or you can send me an email at andre at usablehealth dot com.

Thanks, and we look forward to your feedback.