Ask HN: Is there a way to filter HN to hide articles behind paywalls?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20031637
by jwr • 7 years ago
3 5 7 years ago

Recently a large percentage of articles linked to by HN is hidden behind paywalls. The experience is that you click, get a preview, and get slammed with a popup asking for a subscription. The number of such articles has been growing recently, to the point where browsing HN becomes unpleasant.

I realize that it is HN policy to allow such postings. I do not agree with it, as I think HN as a link site should be limited to the open web. But if that policy is here to stay, is there a way to automatically filter out articles that are not open-web? A browser plugin? Perhaps HN should introduce a consistent tagging scheme?

I am not against paying for media. I already pay for a subscription to The Economist. But I will not additionally buy subscriptions to the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker and countless others. And while I respect the need for these media to make money, I do think that if they are to profit from free and open link aggregation sites like HN, it should be in a manner that is compatible with the open Web. As an example, make some articles viewable without a subscription.

I think a solution will need to be worked out, because HN is losing out: a link site with a bunch of links that point to nothing is not very interesting. But as an interim solution, perhaps there are ways for individual HN users to filter out paywalled articles from known paywall sites?

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