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Comment by pyre | Hacker News Reader

I think that you're taking the analogy too far. The main point seems to be that the paywall is this 'line in the sand' that keeps moving as soon as the 'enemy' crosses it.

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The maginot line failed because they only built it along the border with their enemy (germany) and didn't continue it along the border with their friend (belgium) - so the enemy simply drove around it.

In newspaper terms it's like having a paywall but allowing the full text of the story to appear via Google's cache.

Also, the maginot line was a system of heavy (i.e. immovable) fortifications and France's only defensive plan. Once germany found a way around it (duh), France could not quickly change strategy (it didn't have a Plan B) or mobilize the resources sunk into the Line (they were concrete). Oops.

> The maginot line failed because they ... didn't continue it along the border with their friend (belgium) - so the enemy simply drove around it.

Wikipedia says this is a myth:

> It is a myth however that the Maginot Line ended at the Belgian border and was easy to circumvent.[2] The fortifications were connected to the Belgian fortification system, of which the strongest point was Fort Eben-Emael.

[2] Mosier, J. The Blitzkrieg Myth: How Hitler and the Allies Misread the Strategic Realities of World War II, HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 2, 38.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line

Still happened though

Still something else happened --not the original argument (that they bypassed it because it wasn't extended to Belgium).

The moral of the story is that, while the Maginot Line would have been a perfect defense in World War I, it was ineffective in World War II. People are always preparing to fight the last war. Very common mistake. A failure of imagination.

item 2000000!

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