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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

See this previous HN thread for how difficult NYT makes it to cancel:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26174269

This is the kind of dark-pattern/anti-consumer stuff you should expect if you must keep using Wordle-branded Wordle (as opposed to one of their competitors).

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What is the relevance of this at all to the topic we’re discussing?

The relevance is that the NYT has a sordid history of user hostile actions, and this is just the latest in a long line of them. In other words, the relevance is in highlighting that this is kind of conduct is part of a pattern, not an aberration. This is relevant, as it helps situate the action.

Wake up Sheeple!

It's outrage culture. The people who don't like a thing use their dislike as a wildcard, making it relevant to every discussion involving that thing.

I for one am outraged, what are we mad at now? Honestly I don’t mind NYT, I ended up getting a sub to their Games and it’s fun enough and better for my sanity then doom scrolling. Also I cancelled auto renew immediately, easy peasy.

It's likely that Wordle will become part of such a dark pattern in the near future.

As stated in the article: The newspaper intends to increase its subscriber count to 10 million by 2025, and its focus on word games is part of its strategy.

…unless you live in California. In some ways this is a minor issue, but it would be best for everyone, including subscription service providers, if this kind of thing were banned by law.

It was a 2 minute online chat for me. But I disliked how there wasn't just a button to do it, and it put me off using them again.

I use privacy.com (single use/purpose card number generator) for my NYT subscription because of that part.

They don't cancel your subscription when your credit card number stops working. They keep charging you, and send the account balance to a collections agency. So hopefully you signed up with a fake name and fake address.

And if you did use a fake name and address, you're now committing credit card fraud, so have fun with that.

Credit card fraud can be fun.

Do they keep letting you read the paper too? If not... well, I guess they can ask for whatever they want, but if you took it to court I can’t imagine you’d be on the hook for payment, your contract with NYT has clearly ended.

Has this ever actually happened to anyone? I’ve seen it mentioned in several threads and it seems exceedingly implausible...

It's happened to me. My credit card expired, I kept reading the Times without noticing that billing was broken, and I got a letter from a collections agency complaining on their behalf.

Seems like something that's easy to ignore. Collections agencies expect to get back a fraction of the original payments.

You could also buy a gift subscription for yourself, since those last a year.

You don’t need a subscription to play Wordle

At one point, pre 2011 I think, you didn’t need one for the crossword either.

Yet

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