I know you can do that google redirect thing that removes the paywall, but I'm really not that interested in reading the NYT anyways, even without having to jump through hoops.
-- Have a straightforward way to read the article (that's even automated by HN's [web] link).
-- Decide can't be bothered to read the article after all.
-- Pipe up and moan to everyone in the virtual train carriage about the article's website.
ASSESSMENT: Waste of attention! Just another mutation of bikeshedding.
de-index pages that have paywalls
apply penalties to pages that have those annoying 'welcome' screens (forbes.com). The penalty wouln;'t be substantial, but instead would rank the page lower than similar content that does not have annoying welcome screen.
That's not obvious. I had no idea what the "web" link did until you mentioned it.
You could have easily just pointed that out rather than berating me. You're not helping to build the community.
Then don't. By its position at #11, many of us are, and are willing to fund journalism.
Flagging should be used for off-topic content, spam, duplicate submissions, etc. The moderators have repeatedly stated that posting paywalled articles that work with the "web" link is OK.