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Comment by axutio | Hacker News Reader

Is there a plugin that filters HN links for websites that commonly throw up a paywall screen? I know Archive.is exists and a slew of other tools, but I'm finding that I rely on these more and more.

I think I'm done browsing websites that gate content this way. While I appreciate that these other services exist to let me still read the content, I think this friction is a personal compromise that I should cut back on and evaluate whether this is content worth paying for or if I am better served just passing it up.

If you're going to install an extension you might as well just install one that removes the paywall.

Such as?

Depends on the browser but the one I use (and which works here) is https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome.

I've found this extension to support more sites: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean

Any options on an iPhone?

Sadly phone browser extensions seem to still be in their infancy so no as far as I know.

Until recently Firefox had almost full support for them on Android. Then they've removed everything and now they're re-adding them.

Probably not.

AdGuard helps with some of them, and generally makes mobile browsing great again.

Removing the paywall seems unfair. If a site has a paywall I'd like to know before I click on the link - that way I can chose if I want to respect their paywall (and potentially pay) or avoid the content completely.

I am assuming the paywalled sites are using analytics to justify the paywalls to their executives and investors.... visits blocked by the paywall counted as a future revenue source, and visits that circumvent the paywall counted as a 'reader'.

I find disabling javascript to give a more pleasant browsing experience these days. Most of the privacy-popups and paywalls don't appear, while websites still continue to work.

> while websites still continue to work

That's blatantly incorrect for a very large number of websites in 2021.

You'd be surprised how many websites continue to work, even if it's a server-side-rendered (SSR)/ html-only version. But you're correct. I should have mentioned: "A majority of the websites I visit", since I haven't got a clue how many websites actually function with/ without javascript. Have you?

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